Cuttone and Co. Inc.

As traders dutifully file into offices manned by skeleton crews for an abbreviated trading session, their thoughts are probably not on the market. Christmas is here and they will be thinking of family and friends while counting the moments until the early bell sends them home to celebrate. The lucky ones are already home and sleeping late.

One of the reasons that Christmas resonates with so many is that the date closely coincides with the winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, where since ancient times, pagan cultures have marked the shortest days of the year with festivals

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65 years ago today, a massive last-ditch German counterattack was raging in Belgium’s Ardennes forest. German forces, taking advantage of poor weather that restricted Allied air operations, had succeeded in surrounding a contingent of American forces dug in at a critical road junction in the small town of Bastogne. The defenders, cut off and isolated, had fought fiercely for two days and the lack of air support had put them in a desperate position. Mindful of this, on the morning of December 22, 1944, the commander of the German forces offered his American counterpart, Brigadier General

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It’s been very hard, But it’s getting easier now, hard times are over, over for a while

---John Lennon

 They will be keeping vigil today in Central Park’s Strawberry Fields, for it was on this date in 1980 that John Lennon was gunned down by a deranged fan on the street outside Lennon’s Dakota apartment. Many folks remember exactly where they were when they heard that terrible news, and when its mentioned on today’s news, most will ask themselves: “Can it possibly have been 29 years?”

 So long ago. Was it in a dream, was it just a dream?

 Investors can be forgiven for

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           A number of years ago there was a silver-haired and mustachioed television chef named Justin Wilson who gained some measure of fame explaining the mysteries of Cajun cuisine, building his own personal brand by periodically uttering catch phrases that charmed the audience (I’m betting that Emeril was a regular viewer).  Wearing a regular costume consisting of a blue short sleeve shirt, red suspenders and old-fashioned red bow tie, Mr. Wilson delivered his presentations in heavily French-Cajun accented English, opening many episodes with the greeting “How Y’all Are?” and he

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