Kalika Posts

Sopranos
Admit it, how many of you Soprano fans thought your TV had broken last night when the series unceremoniously ended with the screen going black. Yeah, yeah, I get it. It was a metaphor for what Tony’s world is like; at any moment anyone, anywhere is a potential threat. I felt gypped though. Watching the Sopranos was never about pondering the meaning of life, it was about pure, fun entertainment and with that said, I wanted an entertaining ending. Anyway, on to sports.

Horse Racing
It only took 102 years, but this weekend at the Belmont, a Filly named Rags to Riches won the last leg of the Triple Crown. The Belmont is a mile and a half race which makes it the longest track that any of these horses will ever run. There really wasn’t that much excitement heading into the race because there was no Triple Crown contender (a horse that wins the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and the Belmont). But, low and behold, this unassuming Filly trained by Todd Pletcher took everyone by surprise and made history. What makes this race even more of a fairytale was that Pletcher had previously never fared well in Triple Crown races, even though he is one of the top trainers in the sport.

NBA Finals
The San Antonio Spurs are up 2-0 over the Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA Finals. Even though the Cavs looked pretty horrible over the weekend, the next game (Tues night) will be on their home court, so things might start to look more interesting. Look for a more inspired performance by LeBron James.

Baseball
The legendary Roger Clemens came out of retirement and pitched for the Yankees Saturday night. 44 year old Clemens’ debut was solid but just as importantly a great motivation for the team which seems to be breathing some new life.

The ’80s seem almost archaic in the instant-orgasm Internet age, where everyone has a Netflix account to watch Bulgarian independent DVDs and iPods with enough horse-power to feed a Nepalese family of four for four years. But back in those black and white and fluorescent days when VHS rental shops and frozen yogurt were all the rage, I was obsessed with the Back to the Future series, obsessed to the point where every time I headed to Movies N’ More, they were the only films my grammar-school self wanted to rent. Twenty-plus years later, that’s how I felt about Dungen’s last record, 2004’s brilliant Ta Det Lungt. It was the sort of record I always wanted to listen to, renovating ’60s acid rock for the millennium, a refreshing anachronism at a time when “indie” was torn asunder by the burning question of whether it was better to emulate Wire or Joy Division. With critics wracking their brains for synonyms for “angular,” 24-year-old Swede Gustav Estjes walked in the door. He was the spitting image of Robert Plant, weaned on a steady diet of Pink Floyd and Madvillain, a multi-instrumentalist capable of playing every instrument on wax, from fairytale flute solos to boom-bap drums, from hammer of Thor electric guitar riffs to gentle Laurel Canyon tambourines. Or to put it in more cinematic terms, Estjes was his own Michael J. Fox, capable of playing Marty McFly, Marty McFly Jr., and Marlene McFly, all at the same time. Three years later, Estjes, has returned with another masterpiece, Tio Bitar, Swedish for “Ten Pieces.” Still singing in Swedish, Estjes’s lyrics are unintelligible to everyone but your average Peter, Bjorn, and Jens. But just as you don’t want to analyze Doc Brown’s unsavory readiness to deal with Libyan terrorists for a few rods of plutonium, you don’t want to listen to Dungen for the lyrics. You listen to be transported to a place distinctly out of your time. Like Marty McFly forced to grapple with the disturbing prospect of sitting in a parking car with his soused and horny teenaged mother, Estjes’s throwback sound seems distinctly out of stride with his own era, befitting of a man who was recently described by his touring bandmate Reine Fiske as “having no plans to tour,” as he’s currently “in the woods, writing and recording some more.”But Can They Play “Power of Love?”
On the Subliminal Sounds webpage, Estjes readily admits that his entire leitmotif descends from a memory of being eight years old and hearing his mother’s copy of Are You Experienced? for the first time. Using Hendrix as a launching band, Estjes, aided by Swede postman by day/guitar god by night Fiske, spits back an impossibly melodic synthesis of the ’60s and early ’70s, seamlessly blending orange sunshine-laced Hendrix solos, snaking Revolver sitars, Atom Heart Mother-esque symphony, with some weird willowy flutes a la Aqualung. Dungen makes music that feels recently submerged from a dusty analog reel discovered in a rural Swedish basement, glowing with a red-eyed and drugged haze, spray-blasted with brightness. It isn’t the sort of artistic statement that promises to change anyone’s life, but it’s no less a great work of escapist art, the sort of essential record I’d pick for any hypothetical list of desert island necessities. It’s an album that you can loop endlessly, letting you sink into a brighter world, one far removed from the Biff Tannens of everyday existence. With summer drawing near, it’s the perfect thing to play loudly, with a pair of good strong headphones. Let it split your skull and take you to a different time. DeLorean not included.

Rating: A

Originally Published in Stylus Magazine

Download:
MP3: Dungen-”Gor Det Nu”
MP3: Dungen-”C Visar Vagen”

Fans of the Singapore band, Lunarin, might want to drop by the library@esplanade on Saturday 16 June 2007, to catch them playing an acoustic set.

[Click to see larger image for details]

As part of their gig, there’s also a loan promotion from 5th June to 7th July 2007. Five autographed The Chrysalis CDs to be won! Details are in the poster.

Lunarin was one of the Singapore bands featured in the On The Record exhibition. First time I heard of the band was from this blog interview at High Browse Online.

Eh, the band is “made up of 3 working professionals (2 lawyers & a chemical engineer)” — “don’t play, play” OK! Also, their lead singer used the “B” word (and the library posted it!) so that got my attention

But I didn’t know what sort of music they played, until I viewed the video documentary. The intro to one of their songs, “Dry” (the electric version; not the acoustic one), was used by way of featuring the band.

You ever experienced the feeling when you just feel MOVED when you hear a piece of music? And you don’t necessarily know why, and you don’t really care why either?

It happened to me.

So I tried to look for their CD. Went to a few retails outlets but they didn’t carry it. Finally I went to their website, got the email address and asked them how I could get a copy. Their bassist and lead singer, Linda, replied that I could get a copy at the Esplanade Shop.

Which I did.

And I’m glad I bought their album. Loved every track. New Age meets Heavy Metal.

Clearly, they don’t play the type of music that all would enjoy. They acknowledged as much in the video documentary. You can listen to some of their songs at their myspace page.
The official band website
http://www.lunarin.com

Additional material & downloads
http://www.myspace.com/lunarin

Sister Site for all Unofficial news and ramblings
http://www.myspace.com/demeter999
I credit their song, “Dry”, for inspiring me to compose my We Stand Unbroken (although my composition sounds nothing like theirs).

Their show stars at 7pm. Admission is free.

More details at their lead singer’s blog here, and also the Gibson blog. Apparently, Gibson is lending two guitars to the band.

From their mailing list, I learned that their gig at the library@esplanade “could possibly be their last show for the year”.

Heh, it’ll be my first Lunarin show.

Web

ramblinglibrarian.blogspot.com

myrightbrain.wordpress.com

roughnotes.wordpress.com

They don’t have a snakes-on-a-plane logo parody, I’m sorry to say: The BWCS consulting firm will host its second conference on installing Wi-Fi and Internet access in trains. Train systems worldwide are piloting and rolling out service, the most advanced stages of which are in the UK and Sweden at the moment; California is a coming flashpoint, too. Putting Wi-Fi on a train isn’t just about giving commuters or long-route travelers access to email and YouTube. Rather, it’s about offering in-transit entertainment through media servers on trains; sending train telemetry back to control centers; remote video surveillance; and voice communication while en route. Passenger access is a bonus, of course.

The conference runs June 6 and 7, 2007, in London. Leading specialized firms and train operators will be presenting and sponsoring the event. (I would normally suggest attendees visit the London Transport Museum as well, but it’s closed until this fall!)

digg | reddit
1400+ digs? Over 100 comments? Read the post and the click here for my follow-up response. Who doesn’t want to have more money? Most everyone it seems! Just look at their spending and borrowing habits. Clearly these people want to be poor. They think poor. They act poor. They’re comfortable being poor. They’ve made the decision to value their lifestyle over and above their financial and personal well being. And who can blame them? Saving and growing money is hard.

That’s right. I just told you that adding to your personal fortune is HARD! That’s the truth. Too many people are out there giving others positive reinforcement and pats on the back for making bad financial decisions. I’m not going to do that here. I want to tell you the truth.

Obviously the following 7 tips are not universal, but most people will be able to leverage at least a few of them in their day to day life. If you do follow them, I can promise you that you will cut the amount of money flowing out of your personal empire and be able to build a better and more secure life. These tips are hard, but they are also simple.

1. Cut the Starbucks.

Starbucks started in 1971 and, within just a couple of decades, grew to become an international phenomenon. That’s great! Good for them. Bad for you.

In order for them to plant their nearly 6000 stores they had to addict you to a $5 a day cup of overpriced caffeine. Some may call it evil, others might call it good marketing, but the reality is that it kills your ability to save and invest money. How much damage does it do?

Lets suppose that you were able to save the $5 you spend a day on Starbucks or some equivalent product and invest it in a savings account with a conservative return of 4%. Lets say you just do this for the first six months of the year and then go back to your normal habit after that. How much money would you have in your account at the end of the year?

Over $950! That’s right. In just a year, with 6 months of sacrifice, you’d have close to $1000 and have earned about $30 in interest. Neat, huh? Think of what giving it up all together could do!

2. Follow the 5% rule.

I’m going to assume you have some personal debt (most people, do you know). Maybe some student loans, couple of credit cards, mortgage, 2nd mortgage, 3rd mortgage, car loan, yacht loan…you get the idea. The 5% rule says you should put into savings 5% of the funds you use to pay your recurring loan payments. How’s that? Well lets say you pay $700 a month on loans (including money going to principle), following the 5% rule you would need to put $35 into savings. Why? Because not having money in savings is why you took out loans in the first place! Don’t want that to happen again, do we?

Notice that, over 10 years, that $35 a month could turn into over $5000 in savings.

3. Don’t be fooled by “deals.”

A while back I nearly signed up for a preferred membership with Barns and Noble. It offered me 10% off all my book buys and only cost $25 a year. Only costs $25 a year! What am I, an idiot? I’d have to buy $250 worth of books to even cover the cost. If I really plan on buying that many books in a year I should darn will prepare ahead of time and buy them online, getting free shipping and up to 35% of the cover price at places like Buy.com and Amazon.com.

Remember the golden rule that companies follow when they offer you a deal: do unto your customers that which makes you more money. Don’t buy memberships. Don’t buy stuff simply because its “on sale.” Don’t buy anything off of TV. And, more importantly, don’t buy anything unnecessary at the time its being sold to you. If you need it now you’ll need it in two weeks. If you don’t need it in two weeks (or don’t remember to go back and buy it) you’ve just saved yourself some money.

4. Use Credit Cards as a form of Payment, not Credit.

Last year I got a DiscoverCard and used it throughout the year on every-month purchases such as gas, food, and various types of entertainment. I faithfully paid the full amount each time I got a bill, and do you know what happened? By Christmas I’d earned enough of a dividend (1% on all purchases, 5% on certain types of purchases) to pay for nearly all the presents I purchased.

You don’t have to go with Discover. Chase offers a rewards Visa and Citi offers a rewards Mastercard.

Remember, the worst thing you can possibly do for yourself is to dip your hand in super heated melted plastic. Especially if it’s pink. Ugh! The second worst thing you can do is carry a balance on your credit cards!

5. Open a high yield online savings account.

My bank pays me just less than 1% interest on my savings account. Nice of them huh? This is up considerably from a few years ago when finding money in parking lots brought in a lot more income than savings accounts. Now days there are a number of competitive online savings accounts (still FDIC insured) that offer rates as high as 4.25%. If you don’t have one of these accounts you should get one. ING offers a good one at 4.75% (for a limited time, 3.8% normally). Emigrant Direct as one that pays 4.25%. And HSBC has one paying 4.25% with $25 sign up bonus (use promo code: start) and an ATM card. All are free and simple to use with your existing checking account.

Update: You can view even more details about these savings accounts in my post here.

6. Save before you pay your bills.

I don’t care how much money you save, just start saving. Make saving the first thing you do after pay day. The more money “out of your hands,” the better. If you don’t have an extra $20 to spend on movie night, so much the better! Try going for a walk or watching the sunset instead. Hollywood won’t be the worse for wear and you’ll be in better financial shape for it. Do whatever you can to not tempt yourself to spend money when you don’t need to. And “need to” is defined as pre-ordained in the budget.

7. Choose a less consumer-centric lifestyle.

You know you’ve done it. You know you’ve laughed at a friend when they got all caught up in the latest reality TV show, clothing style, music artist, or “Warcrack” video game. But did you stop to think that you get played by the same big money cycle of consumerism everyday? Why not stop? Then you can laugh at all your friends as they mindlessly return to Walmart again and again. Ho! Ho!

Ok, so laughing may be kind of cruel. How about leading them? Listen when I tell you that the George Foreman Grill, the subscription to Esquire, the flat screen TV, the Herbal Essences Shampoo, the entire collection of McDonald’s Beanie Babies, and the latest and greatest in trash bag technology is never going to make you happy or attractive. Look at the people you know who have them. Are they happy? Or do they just want more stuff?

Ask yourself one question right now, do you want an IPOD with 5000 of your favorite (legal!) music tracks or would you rather be able to pay for treatment to help a loved one suffering from severe back pain? Well I can tell you this much, you’re not going to get closer to either goal with that pack of Bubblicious gum in your hand. So put it back on the shelf, pay for the stuff you need, and run! Run for your life. Run for your health. Run for your happiness. And run for your fortune!

Market Notes

“We are starting off the week in North America with the knowledge that global central banks have pumped into capital markets more new money than at any time since the crisis of Sept 11, 2001. I believe in the law of cause and effect.”
Do you recognize those words? I wrote them at the beginning of last Monday’s report. A week later, the same words apply. A week ago, however, it took three and a half days for the primed well to start pumping up stock prices. And, now that traders are confident once again, they have been fast to hit the BUY button.

Let’s see how the day unfolds.

International Economics Review

US Economic Calendar

Econoday Weekly International Report

This is a very good weekly report from Econoday.

Traders can learn a few things from this paragraph:
The Federal Reserve took emergency steps to mitigate the damage to the U.S. economy from the global credit market crisis. The Bank cut its discount rate by 0.5 percent to 5.75 percent, while keeping the main federal funds rate at 5.25 percent. The discount rate is the rate the Federal Reserve charges when lending reserves to banks directly. This is in contrast to the fed funds rate, which is what banks charge other banks when lending spare reserves. The move, which surprised the markets, should improve liquidity and limit the blow to financial institutions from the deterioration in assets exposed to the meltdown in the U.S. subprime mortgage sector.

I accept the view of this writer, but I believe the liquidity crisis occurred mostly because the collateral value of hyper-leveraged hedge funds, which was largely in T-Bills, reached a tipping point when yields rose to 4.80 pct. Margin calls would have been issued when the T-Bill collateral fell, causing these Funds and their bankers to scramble for cash. Furthermore, I don’t feel HB&B wanted to disclose that story to the public out of fear there would be a run on redemptions. So, the story that came out was a nebulous one where banks and Funds were having a difficult time valuing the assets in the syndicated loans they had purchased. Like any con, there has to be an element of truth, and that story may be 100 pct accurate but still avoid the real story behind the liquidity crisis that popped up in a couple short weeks.

International Equity Markets Review

The indexes across Asia-Pacific equity markets were all down sharply again today.

Asia-Pacific

Here is the latest session data for the Asia-Pacific stock exchanges.

Central banker liquidity injections. Solid green. Major gains.

Here is the latest chart for the Japanese Nikkei 225 index.

The Nikkei Dow rallied +3.0 pct to 15732 today. The index has a long way to go to recover, but the good news is that there is not that much volume of the past week to eat through.

The Yen strength has really hurt the Japanese exporters, including the auto manufacturers. As I wrote last Thursday, I would be bottom-fishing the top quality auto makers, if, as, and when the Yen weakens, which it has now with the Bank Of Japan liquidity injection, and a return (for now) of the Carry Trade.

Here is the latest chart for the Singapore index .

Today, Singapore was up a large +6.12 pct to 3322 today.

Indonesia, which sold down -6.44 pct one day and a further -5.94 pct the next last week, rallied today +6.97 pct to 2041.6.

Here is the latest chart for the Shanghai Composite index .

The Shanghai Composite gained a whopping +5.33 pct today.

Here is the latest chart for the Hong Kong Heng Seng index .

The Hong Kong market has rallied +5.93 pct to close at 21595.

Here is the latest chart for the India BSE 30 index .

Today, the Bombay Stock Exchange BSE 30 Sensex index gained +2.02 pct to 14427.

Here is the latest chart for the Australian All Ordinaries index .

The All Ordinaries index of Australia rallied +4.52 pct today to close at 5926.

Europe>

Here is the latest session data for the bourses of Europe.

Solid green arrows at 6:43am ET. The rally is more contained than the one that swept across Asia-Pacific markets today, but is strong nevertheless.

Here is the latest chart for the UK FTSE 100 index.

At 6:44am ET, the FTSE was up +0.74 pct to 6108.

US Dollar Review

Here is the chart of the recent trading.

The trade-weighted USD has fallen to 81.343, which is a reaction to Fed liquidity injections and lowering the Discount Window by -50 basis points to 5.75 pct.

As I noted last Thursday morning, with the $USD on the rise, “A rally in stocks, however, would probably see another round of Carry Trade activity, and a weakness in the USD.”

The chart shows proof of concept.

Oil Review

Interactive Chart of Weekly Crude Oil:

Here is the e-miNY Sept-07 Crude Oil chart.

It is presently (about 6:45am) at 71.025.

The movement of Hurricane Dean through to the west, avoiding the US energy infrastructure of the Gulf region, is helping push prices down.

Gold & Precious Metals Review

Here is the Recent Spot Gold chart.

Spot gold is presently (about 6:51am) at 658.10, and recovering.

As I said late last week, “This is an excellent opportunity to buy. The futures market has not been as weak as the spot (cash) market, which has been depressed as financial institutions are being squeezed for liquidity. So, I perceive they are selling spot and buying forward.”

Soon to rally.

Here is the Recent Spot Silver chart.

Spot silver is very weak today (6:54am ET), presently at 11.93, recovering nicely and leading the way for a PM rally.

You can remember this quote from last week’s report:
“Take a second look at what will be the last time in this cycle that traders see such low spot silver prices, I believe.

The extreme $USD strength in recent days is throwing much confusion into these precious metals markets.

But, note that gold and silver futures have not caved in. Let the $USD strength play out, and then watch the rally in silver.”

I don’t mince words.

Wrap-up

I wrote the following words last Thursday Wednesday morning report in the wrap-up: ”Have a good trading day. If you are bullish, the pull-back yesterday and almost certainly today is a huge bonus.

If I am right and there is a rally soon this month, I do believe things will bounce for a month or two, largely on new liquidity from the G-20 central banks and also from short-covering. Besides, if you are cautious and/or negative, any rally is a time of opportunity to sell into strength.

“Buy into weakness; sell into strength” is a successful traders mantra.

That huge weakness was the time to BUY.

I added later (6:16pm ADDENDUM), “Today in the open chat forum, I listed many (41) over-sold stocks that would probably gain an average +10 pct in a subsequent rally, but I cannot make light of the fact there has been much technical damage done in the past month, and overnight in foreign markets.”

That was a terrific opportunity to buy those stocks Thursday afternoon and Friday. There has been a +10 pct gain in less than a week in many of those stocks, and there will be in others.

Trader Wizards can do that. hahaha

Keep your eye on prices and stick to time series analysis of those prices (RSI and MACD). This is a rally, but the Bear market process will unfold now over the next year or two. Rallies in Bear markets are called corrections, for some reason. Whatever you choose to call them, they are shorter in the elapsed time for each cycle than is the case for the average cycle in Bull markets. And, Bear markets are defined by a series of lower highs and lower lows. So this rally has limited legs, as I see it.

As you can see, I do this report from memory. I try to spend as little time on it as possible. No offense taken, Quentusrex. I’ll correct any mistake, and you know that, so why would you think I might take offense?

SirsiDynix Institute Announces Second Quarter Webinar Schedule for 2007

Topics include Second Life, podcasting and workforce transformation in the library industry

HUNTSVILLE, Ala., March 26, 2007 – The SirsiDynix Institute, a forum for professional development in the library community, announced today its webinar schedule for the second quarter of 2007. All webinars offered by the SirsiDynix Institute are free.

The first event for the second quarter will be April 3, and will feature Michael Sauers, technology innovation librarian with the Nebraska Library Commission. Sauers will discuss the Info Island Project on Second Life, introducing attendees to both the world of Second Life and to the Second Life Library 2.0 project and the services it offers. An online, 3D virtual world, Second Life, has more than 1.5 million residents, all potentially needing the services that a library can provide. Sauers will discuss taking the library to the user through Second Life.

Sauers has served as the Internet trainer for the Bibliographical Center for Research, as a public library trustee and as a bookstore manager for a library friends group. He is the author of eight books on technology for librarians and has written dozens of articles for various journals and magazines.

On May 1, Donna Scheeder, director of Law Library Services for the Law Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., will address the topic, “Succession Planning and Workforce Transformation: Keys to Future Success,

At a prior job, we experimented with different ways of speeding up the storing and retrieving of objects (Market securities). We used SQL Server to store data, and we would create the objects from SQL calls. We experimented to see if we could do it faster.

Daily Link Love is a program run by Alex, author of “Blog About Money Online” who gives away free links (almost) every day to bloggers who write about topics that relate to:
making money onlinetraffic generationad networkspaid to programsSEOblogging tipstechnology That is, subjects that relate to those on Blog About Money Online.

Some other rules:

You must update your blog at least once every 2 daysThe blog must contain over 20 posts.
(I have just got over the 100 mark on this one with about 500 in the pipeline!)

If you are interested in sharing the love then take a look at the post that will give you more details (and hang around a while to read some of the other posts if you are interested in tips on how to make money online and what things to avoid in the process.):

Daily Link Love - I’m Giving Away Free Links Every Day!

Link-Love sueblimely alexa

Another New York City moment.

At approximately 3:30 a.m. this morning, our front door buzzer goes off. Stumbling out of bed, I see two police officers. “Excuse me, is this the residence of Kitty, uhhhh, Leh, Loh, Looh?”

“Kitty lives here… Yes,” I cautiously replied. I didn’t want to be the guy to fink on my wife, you know?

“Your car has been broken into and we have apprended the man who did it. Just to verify, you did not ask him to enter your car and remove your property, yes?” It’s three a.m., my head is spinning from a cold I’m fighting and faced with all the double-negatives, I utter some sort of reply that seems to make everything ok. “Would you like to press charges?”

I suppose that is the single scariest moment of the night. How do you press charges against someone over attempted theft of two decorative pillows, a set of jumper cables, a kite and a hackey sack? “I suppose so.”

“Why don’t you come out, I’ll show you the car and we’ll get the paperwork started.”

Changing into jeans and putting on a jacket, I tell Kitty about the situation and I tell her I’ll be back in a few. I arrive at our car, parked just down the street and there are six officers standing around. “Yeah, he cut his finger on a fuckin’ file cabinet.” “Lost the finger at the first fuckin’ knuckle?” “Yeah, it got some sort of fuckin’ infection…” “Oh, hey Sarge, this the guy from Colorado?”

They stand around looking at the car and I hear bits and pieces of the story. A transit cop happened to be on the platform for the elevated train directly above our street and he saw the man as he broke the window. He ran down from the platform and caught another officer at the entrance to the station and the two policemen bumped into the guy as he was walking away with the items. The arrest was easy after that.

Sarge asked me if I would come down to the station. They’d photograph everything and I could just take it home immediately rather than make another trip down later. The driver looked like Arnold Voosloo and the music was the best of the eighties. I hop in the back of the cruiser and three red lights and seven minutes later I was at the back entrance of the Police depot at Hoyt-Schermerhorn Station. Sarge brings me around to the front desk where almost magically, the same cops are standing around. “Yeah, he cut his first fuckin’…” “Oh, hey, Sarge.” “This is Gurnsey, who made the collar.”

“Oh, yeah, Tranist makes the bust of the century…” says Sarge.

“You know, it’s Grand Larceny if he steals shit out of a car,” says Gurnsey.

“Woh, hold on a second, Gunga-din, you hoping to get some bars out of this? He stole two goddamned pillows. What next, attempted murder?” yells Salvatore, the Desk Sargeant.

“Well, there is dried blood on the screwdriver.”

“Oh. So did he cut himself?”

“No.”

“Shit. Better send that to the lab.”

The conversation goes on and soon a copy of the New York Penal Code is brought out and references are being made. I didn’t realize that the drafters of the Code dropped the F-bomb into it as much as they did.

“Hey, did you get to question him further?” asks Gurnsey.

“Nah,” Salvatore says, “As soon as he got to the cell, he fell asleep. The guy has been arrested like, a hundred times.” He then intones,”The Guilty always sleep.”

As I’m identifiying items from the car, there is a sunglasses case from Ann Klein. Confused as to whose it is, I need to call Kitty. I’m led back to a room where Salvatore is enjoying a cigarette. He sees me and his eyes get big. Apparently, I’ve found the last room in the city where a person can grab a smoke. Wait a second, how can a man that big disappear? “Hey kiddo, do you have a glasses case from Ann Klein?”

“Yeah, I think so,” she groggily replies and hangs up.

Wait a second. When did she buy Ann Klein sunglasses? I think two crimes were committed here tonight…

Signing paperwork and packing up took no time at all and soon Voosloo was driving me back to the apartment. The Sarge snapped some pictures of the broken window and I’m supposed to expect a call from the District Attorney today.

All in all, we count ourselves lucky. As Sarge said, “It’s rare that we are in the right place at the right time like this. Usually we just take reports and it is gratifying to actually prevent something every once in awhile.”