Friday, March 27, 1998

A Night at the Movies
by C. Metaxas ([email protected])

Monday was Academy Awards night. I heard the sky-falling news as I was driving back from work: "the Dow fell today a whopping (I-am-about-to-have-kittens-exasperation tone) 89 points." Panic ensues, everybody gets a "sinking" feeling and heads for the grocery store to get all the bread, water and bathroom tissue they can hold to cope with the dire disaster. After all, it's Academy Awards night.

The next day, as usually happens, the Dow went up. Again, going back from work I heard the radio announcer say: "And, oh, by the way, the Dow went up today by about 90 points (in yipee-we-won-let’s-go-out-and-celebrate tone).

So what might the average Foolish Joe and Jane think about the earth-shattering news?

(a) "What shall we have for dinner tonight?" (Who cares if the Dow went up or down by a whopping 90 or 190 points ?)

(b) "They should give an award to the announcer for Best Leading Performance."

Because it is a leading performance. It makes the un-Foolish think: "Is the sky falling? Should I call my broker and sell, sell, sell, before we sink ?" (No Titanic pun intended.)

Since being Foolish is As Good As It Gets, I think I will go to the movies tonight.

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