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Thomas Sowell

Some young would-be writers may lament their misfortune in living out in the boondocks, instead of being at the heart of the publishing industry in New York. When I first started writing, in my teens, I lived in New York City and worked in downtown Manhattan. That is how I got my rejection slips back so fast. If I had lived out in Podunk, I could have dreamed on, in a fool’s Paradise, from Monday morning until Thursday or Friday evening, before the brutal truth caught up with me.

From time to time, I get a letter from some aspiring young writer, asking about how to write or how to get published. My usual response is that the only way I know to become a good writer is to be a bad writer and keep on improving. However, even after you reach the point where you are writing well—and that can take many years—the battle is not over. There are still publishers to contend with. Then there are editors and, worst of all, copy-editors.

Finally, the last hurdle are the book reviewers, only some of whom actually review the book. These people are all part of the gauntlet that the writer has to run, in order to reach the person for whom his writing was intended from the outset—the reader. All too often, you never know if your book has reached the reader in any sense other than the fact that it was bought. It could be gathering dust on a table or a shelf. In some cases, however, heartfelt letters come in, telling you that your book has reached readers in the sense in which you wanted it to reach them. That makes all the struggle seem worthwhile.

Read more by Thomas Sowell.

By Lorraine Brown Jones
Illustrated by Cosette Riggs
Published by Inspired Originals
Available at Create Space for $9.99 and Amazon.com for $13.33.
(Price at Amazon may come down.)
Web Site

In the The Night Before Christmas, nothing was stirring, not even a mouse. In the nineteen page child’s book, Peedie’s Christmas, Peedie—a mouse—is stirring and believes that he has ruined Christmas.

I am not a connoisseur of the child’s book as I have just finished puberty. And my kids are a little older. I do have a little expert next door whom has promised to read it and let me know her opinion. I’ll let you know the results.

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UPDATE: My little reader tells me that she liked the book. She was probably more fascinated with the illustrations since she is not at the reading stage. Her Dad, however, said it was very well done and a cute story.

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The illustrations are nice and the poem is smooth. The illustrator—also author of Peach Springs and The Clade Letters: The Beginning—explained that the poem was from her mother. Cosette decided to put the story to print with her own illustrations. You can see a sample of the illustrations at the Amazon link above. I am told that she did the illustrations in oil on typing paper and scanned them in. It seems to have worked well.

Priced under ten dollars, it is small enough to make a great stocking stuffer for this holiday season and might help inspire a little reader.

Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson (13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist and travel writer. His best-known books include Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

A literary celebrity during his lifetime, Stevenson now ranks among the 30 most translated authors in the world, just below Charles Dickens. He has been greatly admired by many authors, including Jorge Luis Borges, Ernest Hemingway, Rudyard Kipling, Marcel Schwob, Vladimir Nabokov, J. M. Barrie, and G. K. Chesterton, who said of him that he “seemed to pick the right word up on the point of his pen, like a man playing spillikins.”—Wikipedia

Robert Louis Stevenson Biography

Just like a leaky faucet, after a while you get accustomed to the constant drip, drip, drip and forget it’s there. Even before the release of Windows 7 we were all aware that work was underway for Windows 8. There were rumblings and leaks of a possible 128 bit Windows 8 and certainly a 128 bit Windows 9 even when Windows 7 64 bit had barely hit the streets.

To be sure no one forgets, another leak has popped out, again suggesting, that Windows 8 will be released in 2 years. That would match the original leak of last year and serve to get Windows back in the news. You can read the cnet article here.

TechTalk

This is an examination of the Interstate Commerce Clause of the Constitution by a non-lawyer. Just how far does this Constitutional Power of Congress extend? What of other Constitutional authorities that the Congress has delegated or ignored?

The Congress has, for example, turned over control of the wealth of the nation to a cabal of private bankers collectively known as the Federal Reserve. Since 1913 this group has caused the Great Depression and has been directly linked to our current economic turmoil.

Does Congress have the right to order you to purchase health insurance? The Ninth Amendment to the Constitution should destroy that myth.

This is an attempt by a non-lawyer to make sense of it all, but I have dug down into some of the Supreme Court cases and evaluated them next to the Constitution.

You can now get 10% off the price of any of my publications at Lulu.com by entering TURKEY in the coupon code area at checkout. Sale ends November 30!

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* Disclaimer: Enter coupon code ‘ TURKEY ‘ during checkout and save 10% off the purchase price. Discount cannot be used to pay for, nor shall be applied to, applicable taxes or shipping and handling charges. Maximum amount that September be applied to discount is $10.00 per account. Promotional codes cannot be applied to any previous orders. No exchanges or substitutions allowed. Only one valid promotional code September be used per order. Offer expires November 30, 2010 at 11:59 PM EDT. Lulu.com reserves the right to change or revoke this offer at any time. Void where prohibited.

©2000 by Glen C. Davis

PLEASE NOTE: This is an opinion piece. You are free to agree or disagree with it. It is only here to give you an idea of how to value your radio.

For those of you that watch programs setting antique prices and want to trust PBS with the value of your radio, this article is not for you. I will also emphatically state that I am not an expert. Working with Grand Canyon Tube Radio, though, I have had to do a lot of research. I’m still doing much more. The thing I have found about any collectible, however, is that it’s value depends on what people will pay for it. No more, no less. If you are talking about something that has been passed down from generation to generation in your family, the sentimental nature of it cannot be valued.

What is the value of my radio?

I don’t know. There are many factors to consider. If you are considering buying a radio to resale for ten times more, my recommendation would be to consider buying coins or baseball cards. You might buy a radio for ten dollars, get it working and find someone to buy it for a thousand. Or you might find someone who will give you ten dollars.

Let’s say you purchase the Western Auto “Air Patrol” model pictured in Figure 1. You restore it, get it working great and decide to put it on the open market. You can see that it’s original selling price was $64.95. You decide the value of your restoration is worth ten times that much, so you set the price at $649.50. Well, let’s round it up to $650. You might come across someone who wants it to set in their foyer as a conversation piece who might offer $200. Then again, you might find someone who just can’t live without every model of the “Air Patrol,” and you have the one model he hasn’t been able to find. You might get $700 out of him.

The bottom line is the value is in the eye of the beholder. I, for example, like short wave. I want a console with broadcast (AM) and short wave and I want the little “police” label on it like the old RCA 94BT1. If you’ve got what I want, I have to pay your price. Except, of course, I can’t afford $650.

Another consideration is as a family heir loom. Let’s say your father who passed it to you kept it in the attic where the mice could get to it. You want to pass it to your children, but look at the condition. The wires are eaten through, two of the tubes are broken, the finish is peeling off and so on. You have to consider what you want your children to have. If you’re into electronics, you can dive in and try to fix it yourself. Or you can get a qualified service technician.

Prices you find on web sites generally include the cost of acquiring the radio, parts and labor to get it restored, and a mark-up. Remember, web sites are generally businesses. They do not necessarily reflect the “value” of the radio.

What is a qualified service technician?

That is a good and relatively tough question to answer. There are no certificates or bronze plaques from companies saying that this technician or that can fix this particular brand of radio. They used to certify them and they do today for their modern equipment.

One step is to look to your local antique dealer. They may work with someone who repairs old radios. Of course, there’s the Internet. You can check http://www.grandcanyontuberadio.com, for a start.

You might know someone who restored their old radio. Try them. They might do it out of love of the radio for the cost of parts. Of course, they might charge you an hourly rate, as well. If you find the former, try him!

What should I have done to it?

If you listen to those shows where they tell you that re-finishing a radio decreases its value, then don’t have it done. The deterioration will continue until the legs start falling off of the console and you can see if someone will buy it from you. If you do decide to get it re-finished, it will most assuredly last longer, be a beautiful addition to your decor and be a great conversation piece.

What about replacing old capacitors and resistors with new? Will that decrease the value? Well, you might consider that very few people will walk into your house and say, “Well, that’s a nice radio. Let’s just pull it out and look in the back. Uh-oh!” Most people will come in and comment on how nice it looks or how good it sounds. Some old capacitors are even dangerous. Some contain PCBs which can cause health problems. Certain tubes are no longer available, but have solid state equivalents. While most technicians will not replace components unless absolutely necessary, on some instances, the “contamination” cannot be avoided.

If you turn it on and hear the rich, mellow sound of the tubes (which does sound much better than solid state today), then sit back, grab a book and enjoy.

EXTERNAL LINKS:

1. Radio Value Guide
2. Some good articles by antiqueradio.org