The Prof's Financial Advice
What To Do When Your CD's Mature

Being a part-time banker myself, I am often answering the question, "what do I do when my CD (or CD's) mature? What do I do with the money?"

I hate to deviate from the common theme of the page, but the issue is stuck in my mind right now. I have had to answer this same question, perhaps forty different times today.
Many people reinvest their CD money into other CD's, especially because short-term rates recently have been rising. Although CD's, even very short-term ones, can be appropriate as part of your overall portfolio, I don’t believe it’s a good strategy to own too many CD's without also owning some longer-term bonds.

Most people own bonds and CDs for the income they provide. You could be putting your long-term goals at risk by owning too many short-term investments. But if CD rates drop and your CD matures, you may have to invest your money at a lower rate, which will reduce your amount of income.

Investment Alternatives

Before automatically reinvesting in CDs, consider some alternatives to help provide income:

Equities that Pay Dividends – Stock investments that historically have paid and increased, dividends can help provide rising income over time. Ask your investment representative about stocks that are believed to offer good value today. Dividends can be increased, decreased or totally eliminated at any point without notice.

Ladder Bond Maturities – Even though short and long-term interest rates are close together right now, it may not stay that way. Many people own short and long-term bonds but neglect the middle of their ladder. I believe that many intermediate-term bonds offer attractive rates with less volatility than those on the
longer end of the ladder (& I like solidity and dependability). By buying bonds with different maturities, you will have money coming due at different times and can be exposed to a variety of interest rates.

Plan Ahead
Most people never ask the investment question until they have to. If you have money coming due in the near future, plan now to make the choices that make sense to you.

I would say that the best Christian History magazine I may have ever picked up would be HERE.
This is actually an archival page, & there is a chance it could move on me...hopefully not. But they cover some really great issues & people.

Allegorically Speaking
Or Not

Perhaps the single most common question about The Chronicles of Narnia asks whether Lewis wrote the series as an allegory. Even if your Biblical knowledge is limited to a few Sunday school classes in third grade, most people would agree, you probably notice that Aslan has many similarities to Jesus Christ. If Lewis added that symbolism on purpose, does that mean that everything in Narnia represents something in the Bible?

C.S. Lewis makes clear that he did not write the Narnian Chronicles as a Biblical "allegory." But you may be asking: How can this be true given the obvious symbolism used throughout the series?

In order to understand Lewis's side of the story, you need to understand the difference between allegory and something he called supposal.

The Gory Details Of Allegory

An allegory is a literary device in which an Author uses the form of a person, place, or animal to represent an abstract idea. For example, an eagle can represent the abstract concept of "freedom," or a Witch can represent "evil."

Much of History's Literature is allegorical, for instance, Dante Alighieri's The Divine Comedy, represents humanity as the protagonist journeys through Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise. John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress, revolves around concepts like Faith, hope, and mercy, as they become real-life characters in his saga of a man (named Christian) fleeing the wrath to come. So too, Lewis's first book written after his Christian conversion was The Pilgrim's Regress, a Bunyanesque allegory that describes his road to the Christian faith.

In The Allegory of Love, Lewis writes that when you use allegory, "you can start with [facts]...and can then invent...visible things to express them." He adds, "What is good or happy has always been high like the heavens and bright like the sun. Evil and misery were deep and dark from the first."

A broader definition applies when an Author represents real people or places in a fictional context. George Orwell's Animal Farm is a well-known example of this allegorical type. As a way of addressing the issues surrounding the Russian Revolution, Marx, Lenin, Stalin, and other real Historical figures are represented as pigs on a farm.

The Chronicles of Narnia is not in this genre. Lewis did not write the series as an allegory, i.e., using his fantasy setting to represent abstract concepts or real people. In terms of literary style, the series bears no parallels to allegorical works like The Divine Comedy, Animal Farm, or even Lewis's own The Pilgrim's Regress.

In fact, Lewis explicitly warns readers against trying to make a one-for-one match between Narnia and the real world. In a letter to a class in Maryland, he writes, "You are mistaken when you think everything in the books 'represents' something in this world. Things do that in The Pilgrim's Progress but I'm not writing in that way."

Supposedly, There Is A Supposal

Although Lewis makes it clear that The Chronicles of Narnia is not an allegory, he does not deny that symbolism was written into the series. But to understand his approach, you need to recognize that Lewis differentiates allegory from something he calls supposal. In a letter to a girl named Sophia Storr, he explains the difference:

"I don't say, 'Let us represent Christ as Aslan.' I say, 'Supposing there was a world like Narnia, and supposing, like ours, it needed redemption, let us imagine what sort of Incarnation and Passion and Resurrection Christ would have there.'"

Allegory and supposal are not identical devices because they deal with what is real and what is unreal quite differently. In an allegory, the ideas, concepts, and even people being expressed are true, but the characters are make-believe. They always behave in a way reflective of the underlying concepts they are representing.

A supposal is much different; the fictional character becomes "real" within the imaginary world, taking on a life of its own and adapting to the make-believe world as necessary. If, for example, you accept the supposal of Aslan as true, then Lewis says, "He would really have been a physical object in that world as He was in Palestine, and His death on the Stone Table would have been a physical event no less than his death on Calvary."

Aslan is not an allegory of Jesus Christ. Instead, He's a supposal. Lewis emphasizes this point in one of his letters:

"[Aslan] is an invention giving an imaginary answer to the question 'What might Christ become like if there really were a world like Narnia and He chose to be incarnate and die and rise again in that world as He actually has done in ours?' This is not allegory at all."

Much of The Chronicles of Narnia is built on the concept of supposal. For example:

Suppose Christ came into the world of Narnia as Aslan. What would He be like?
Suppose Aslan created Narnia out of nothing and centuries later brought it to a conclusion. How would these stories play out ?
Suppose evil were introduced into Narnia. What would that be like?
Suppose a person or talking animal could freely obey or disobey Aslan. What would life in Narnia be like?

If we understand this vital difference between allegory and supposal, it should make us value the Imagination a bit more...as both Lewis and McDonald spoke of: "purifying the Imagination."
This is a process the Puritans understood, and most of us have forgotten. It involves the beauty of a supposal, with the truths of an allegory.
Don't understand? Maybe it's time to purify the Imagination.
Don't know how? Start with Lewis.

Do we read, or read those who have read?
Source & Secondary

I sometimes get stuck on the issue of Works, & Works of Works...i.e., Do we read the primary work, or do we read what someone else said about it?
In some cases, my thoughts are mixed: for instance, the Scriptures.
There can be no substitute for reading the real Thing. However, if we overlook the writings of our Fathers concerning the Scriptures, & ignore the creeds & catechisms which they drew from these Scriptures, we are full of vain ignorance, thinking that we have nothing to learn from the generations before us.
There was a reason each Council sat down & discussed an issue, or resolved a Heresy. If we would give heed to these men & their lives, we would do well.

However...

We do not say this to negate the importance of the original Author. In fact, while material may be read to suppliment the original piece, as I said before, they should not (usually) supercede the original.
In his essay, “On the Reading of Old Books” in God in the Dock, C. S. Lewis explains a phenomenon of material exchange, still prevalent today:

"I have found as a tutor in English Literature that if the average student wants to find out something about Platonism, the very last thing he thinks of doing is to take a translation of Plato off the library shelf and read the Symposium. He would rather read some dreary modern book ten times as long, about “isms” and influences and only once in twelve pages telling him what Plato actually said. The error is rather an amiable one, for it springs from humility. The student is half afraid to meet one of the great philosophers face to face. He feels himself inadequate and thinks he will not understand him. But if he only knew, the great man, just because of his greatness, is much more intelligible than his modern commentator. The simplest student will be able to understand, if not all, yet a very great deal of what Plato said; but hardly anyone can understand some modern books of Platonism. It has always therefore been one of my main endeavours as a teacher to persuade the young that first-hand knowledge is not only more worth acquiring than second-hand knowledge, but it is usually much easier and more delightful to acquire."

Good point.
Let us not forget what others might say about what we deem important. But let us also remember who said it first.

The Prof isn't just good at bleeding red ink on your Saxon Grammar paper; he is also great at getting you the deals you need.
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10% off $60 code PER414
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You can sign up and then cancel soon after. Or, you don't have to (since they have good coffee). You can easily manage your account online, including canceling if you like.

Who says your Professor is your enemy?

What The Prof Is Reading Now
How The Scots Invented The Modern World


Who formed the first literate Society?
Who invented our modern ideas of democracy & free market capitalism?
...The Scots.
I have only just picked this book up, but already, Historian Arthur Herman has shown that in the eighteenth & nineteenth centuries, Scotland made crucial contributions to literature, science, philosophy, education, commerce, theology, medicine, & politics.
Fantastic read, even if I do disagree with some of his bits on Calvinism...he presents it in lights which are often harsh and mean (which...perhaps it may sometimes be, to a limited extent), without ever properly examining the beauty and depth of the Reformed Faith which was so prevelant in Scotland at the height of Presbyterianism; although he does discuss the positive political ramifications of John Knox's influence.
It is interesting to note two things regarding Knox and his influence.
The first is the effect he had on the political state of things. His influence on the people created what may be considered one of the strongest democratic situations in the modern world. This was mostly due to his encouragement that the people ought rather to obey God than man. This engendered the idea that the King's power lay, not in his own right, but was vested in him by God. Each man was responsible for his own conscience, and not answerable to a priest, but to God on an individual basis.
This idea ultimately ran over into the political and economic realms, where individual voice and vote began being heard. Knox had, inadvertently, created a democratic system through his religious efforts.
The second thing to note concerning Knox's influence is the state of the Kirk (Church). The Kirk (or respective local Kirks) in Scotland had always been always tightly-knit, especially on the local level, because many remote areas were so cut off from the outside world. This meant de-centralization in religious and political circles, and emphasis on the local level. It was almost as if an entire Kingdom existed within one small area, so that the Scots had nowhere else to go for their needs than their own towns. The Kirk truly was a predecessor to the local governmental infrastructure of post-colonial America. Perhaps this is why many Scotch immigrants found it easy to transition from the Auld Countrie to the New World.
Overall: an excellent read, providing entertainment along with a superb amount of Historical information, giving proper honour and credence to the greatest Nation in the Worlde...
Scotland.

"When Britain first at Heaven's Command
Arose from out the azure main,
This was the charter of the land,
And guardian angels sung the strain:
Rule Britannia, Britannia rulese the waves!
Britons never shall be slaves."

- James Thompson

From Mocha to Martinique
Some History on Coffee, taken from Henry Wessells

The German botanist and physician Leonhart Rauwolf of Augsburg traveled to Jerusalem (1573-1576), and upon his return published Aigentliche beschreibung der Raiß ... inn die Morgenländer in Lauingen in 1582. Rauwolf's account of his journeys represents the earliest printed reference to coffee in Europe.

Venetian traders in Istanbul were also aware of the beverage, and the Italian physician and botanist Prosper Alpinus took note of coffee on his voyage to Egypt in 1580, and published discussions of coffee in De Medicina Aegyptorum Libri quatuor (1591) and De Plantis Aegypti Liber (1592). The latter volume, on the flora of Egypt, includes the first published illustration of the coffee plant.

The first mention in English (as chaoua) appears in an edition of Linschooten's Travels translated from the Dutch and published in London in 1598. A more recognizable form of the word can be found in Sherley's Travels (1601), in a passage describing "a certain liquor which they call coffe." The spelling was still in flux, for in 1603 the English adventurer Captain John Smith (founder of Virginia) refers to "coffa" in his volume of travels.

The Venetians were in fact the first Europeans to import coffee, in 1615. The Dutch first shipped it directly from Mocha in Arabia the following year, although regular importations were still some decades away. Articles for preparing coffee were among the household effects carried by the Pilgrims on the voyage of the Mayflower in 1620, but not until 1670 was coffee sold in Boston.

Early mentions of coffee are to be found in the works of Francis Bacon, in Historia Vitae et Mortis (1623) and Sylva Sylvarum (1627), as well as in Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy (1632). The first botanical description of coffee in English was published by Parkinson in Theatrum Botanicum (1640).

The use of coffee spread rapidly throughout Europe after mid-century. Venice was the site of the first coffee house, opened in 1645, and one was opened in London in 1652. In Lyons in 1671, Philippe Sylvestre Dufour published De l'Usage du Café, du Thé et du Chocolat. Dialogue entre un médecin, un Indien, et un Bourgeois, the first substantial work on coffee in French. The first coffee house in Paris opened the following year.

One of the most important and widely read works on coffee, although somewhat later, is Jean de la Roque's Voyage de L'Arabie heureuse ... (1716), which recounted the history of French expeditions in the Red Sea from 1708 to 1710 and a second mission to the port of Mocha and the court of the King of Yemen during the years 1711 to 1713. La Roque described the coffee tree (with engraved plates), and provided a critical discussion of the history of the introduction of coffee into France in the latter part of this work, entitled Un Mémoire Concernant l'Arbre & le Fruit du Café. The Paris edition was followed by one published in Amsterdam the same year, with newly engraved plates. Gründliche und sichere Nachricht vom Cafée und Cafée-Baum, a German translation of the portion of the work concerning coffee, was published in Leipzig in 1717. An Italian translation of the entire work appeared in Venice in 1721, and English editions in 1726, 1732, and 1742. A notable Italian work dealing with the origins, cultivation, roasting, and preparation of the coffee, Ambrosia Arabica overa della Salutare Bevanda Cafe, by Angelo Rambaldi, was published in Bologna in 1691.

The Dutch were the first to experiment with growing coffee outside Arabia. Early plantations in Ceylon from the 1650s were followed by efforts to establish coffee in Java in 1699. A coffee seedling from Java was successfully transported to Amsterdam in 1706, and a plant grown from a seed of that tree was presented to Louis XIV of France in 1714. It was in this period, 1715 to 1725, that coffee was first grown in Surinam in South America, on the Caribbean island of Martinique, as well as on the island of Réunion in the Indian Ocean. Coffee was introduced to Brazil from the settlement at Cayenne in French Guiana in 1727.
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Need A Light?

The pipe is not merely a wooden or clay tool which some men use to while away their time...it is a tool which corresponds to the soul. & not merely the soul, but the rational area of it.

This explains - consequently - why we tend to think of wise and ancient figures smoking long-stemmed pipes, stroking antiquated beards: the Oxford don, surrounded by massive volumes of dusty books, puffing away contentedly as he theorizes on the meaning of life or the hyperconductivity of some natural element: or even the prestigious Sherlock Holmes, who, in Doyle's original stories, actually smoked various sorts of tobacco, yet is nearly always portrayed with a pipe.

And yet, as I think on the value and emphasis of the pipe, I realise that perhaps one of the reasons pipes are so nostalgic is that, unlike cigars and cigarettes: a pipe endures.

Similarly, the questions of the philosopher far outlast the passing concerns of physical desires (cigarettes) on the one hand and human ambitions (cigars) on the other.

Further, while the cigar is entirely masculine, the pipe has both masculine and feminine elements (the stem and the bowl). This - in contrast to other forms of smoking - corresponds to the philosopher's activity, which is - if it may be put thus - both masculine and feminine: masculine in its pursuit of Lady Truth, feminine (I say this with abashment) in its reception of anything that she discloses.

& Finally, the effect that the pipe has on others is analogous to the effect of philosophizing: the smooth & simultaneously exhilerating fragrance of a pipe, like good philosophy, is a blessing to all who partake.