Random Thoughts: $100 Hot Dog? Seriously?

Yes P.T. Barnum’s statement about a Sucker born every minute continues into the 21st century with a restaurateur willing to charge you $100 for a Hot Dog. Dougie Luv is willing to charge you $100 for a Dougie Dog which is infused with $2000 cognac, lobster and Kobe beef and deep fried in truffle oil, but can I get poutine with that? Yes, this is possibly the oddest dietary/financial choice you could have made this week, call ahead because it takes 10 hours to prepare, too. I’d sell you a hot dog for a bargain price of $10!

For my Chinese readers, Happy Year of the Water Dragon!

The interesting story of the week for me aside from ludicrously expensive hot dogs, is the cat that got loose in the cockpit of an Air Canada causing the plane to be delayed while the crew attempted to extricate the feline. Now that is what I call security!

In other news Newt Gingrich is promising a base on the moon by 2020 and his GOP opponents agree this would be a great plan, if Newt was sent their (by himself).

All hail the New York Football Giants and their birth in the Super Bowl, can they repeat history? I have no idea, any prognostication I might do will assuredly cost you money, so don’t ask me, but I will be wearing my Phil Simms shirt on Super Bowl Sunday (can’t find my Y.A. Tittle shirt). Here is your Giants Trivia to astound your friends, “What two Super Bowl winning coaches, coached the Giants offense and defense in 1956?”, answer at the bottom of this article.

Weekly Recap

No $100 Hot Dog posts this week but still some interesting subjects across the board:

• Fun and Sunday thoughts wondered just how hard it could be to become a cruise ship captain
• The economy continues to sputter along but inflation slowed a little to end 2012 but is this a slow down or a simple lull?
• I ask this question a lot these days can I retire? The answer is unequivocally, NOT NOW! but maybe later.
• More tales from behind the untaxed money wall should bring fear into your financial heart.
• Does Canada need a Buffett rule? I am not sold on the concept, given I have lived on both sides of this argument. A flat tax is always an interesting idea, but hard to implement.
• Random Thoughts: Loose Money Continues on in Canada is a recap of last weeks best.

And thanks to those who added me on Twitter I am now over 980 folks who follow me, carumba. Check out my facebook page as well.

Links for the Week

After Suze Orman’s scathing Twitter attack on we financial bloggers, this week was a little more sedate in terms of controversy:

• Tom at Canadian Finance Blog asks are group deal vouchers all theyr’re cracked up to be? In Ottawa we have vendors who aren’t honoring the deals for various reasons (mostly they can’t afford to honour an oversold set of coupons).
• Mr. Money Mustachewonders if it is time to gaming the system with rewards credit cards, which is a risky game and you better read all the rules involved.
• Larry MacDonald contends that most Boomers have the wrong financial advisor and given most are about to retire, they had better find a good one soon.
• Michael James wonders if Rob Carrick got it right when he suggested locking in a natural gas price as usual MJM does the math for you.
• Yes I am Cheap goes back to basics with get out of debt in 2012: how much do you owe? and then figure out how to pay it back
• Echo of Boomer and Echo discusses using TFSAs in retirement one of those things your financial advisor should have a plan on how to use too!
• Sustainable PF gives us a review of online textbook rental – eCampus.com an interesting idea, that might save some folks some money.
• Miranda at Planting Money Seeds, asks what do you do when your family is on vacation — and you are not, which is rhetorical for me, since I don’t go on vacation (but my kids do).
• Preet had Tusk Trader guest post and ask the interesting question is it time to buy RIM? My experiences with Nortel and that debacle means I will never believe a High Tech company when it says it can return to profitability.

Carnivals this Week

I was included in the Canadian Carnival of Finance #72 with my piece Quicken 2012 review

Other Bookkeeping

Giants Trivia Answer

That was pretty easy really, Vince Lombardi and Tom Landry (I hadn’t realized that until I read Giants: What I Learned About Life from Vince Lombardi and Tom Landry)