Rediscovered Songs

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If you linger on a Facebook post, Facebook thinks that you want a constant stream of similar posts. So I now get posts about Snoopy, table tennis, Linda Ronstadt, Debbie Harry, Emmylou Harris, and miscellaneous lists of old pop songs.

Incidentally, by "song", I mean a specific recording of a song.

The old songs are interesting because they bring back memories from the 1960s and 1970s. And occasionally I find forgotten songs or songs that I have forgotten how good or bad they are. And it's interesting how some years have great songs and some seem to have nothing of value.

One thing that I have learned is that my memory of a song is colored by other songs of the same time frame. If it was all bad, I might remember the least bad song as good. And if there were many great songs at the time I might not realize how good some are.

Here are some songs that I have rediscovered or reevaluated - not exhaustive, just a short list of songs that are now among my favorites. Being on this list generally means that I don't listen to anything else by the singers/bands - not that the singers/bands are bad but they don't inspire me.

I remembered that one of the songs had spent weeks at no. 1 on the US Billboard pop chart. So I thought it would be interesting to check out all of them.

The Sound of Silence - Simon and Garfunkel. Hit no. 1 in 1966. I have loved it since the first time that I heard it. I suspect that everyone loves this song.

Pretty Flamingo - Manfred Mann, 1966. Peaked at no. 29 - that might explain why I didn't remember it. It's better than the songs from Manfred Mann that I do remember. You will find it played by Bruce Springsteen, Rod Stewart, Elvis Costello, and more.

River Deep, Mountain High - a great song, nicely sung by Tina Turner, with a horrible Phil Spector Wall of Sound production. Maybe my diminished hearing makes the Wall of Sound worse. I have found a couple of much better, live, performances and it appears that one of them is on an Amazon MP3. But when I ask it to play a sample, I get a different song so no way to verify what I will get. Reached no. 88 in 1966. Now generally considered a classic.

Standing in the Shadows of Love - The Four Tops. Hit no. 6 in 1967. I never cared for their other songs. This one is great.

Little Bit o' Soul - The Music Explosion. I remembered this song, but not how good it is. 1967 hit no. 2. YouTube has a lot of interesting music. One video is the original recording of this song by The Little Darlings, British I think. Nice. You can also hear it by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, The Ramones, Bruce Springsteen, and a few more bands that I had never heard of.

To Sir With Love - Lulu. 5 weeks at no. 1 in 1967. I hadn't thought of this as a great song, but I do now. Maybe it's the way she sings it.

Itchycoo Park - Small Faces. Reached no. 16 in 1968. I remembered this well. Never thought much of it when it was sort of popular.

Mrs. Robinson - Simon and Garfunkel. Not forgotten, but for me, it got better with age. Hit no. 1 in 1968.

Piece of my Heart - Big Brother and the Holding Company, with Janis Joplin. Not forgotten, always liked. Peaked at no. 12 in 1968.

That's the Way I've Always Heard it Should Be - Carly Simon. Peaked at no. 10 in 1971. Beautiful.

The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face - Roberta Flack. Written in 1957 by Ewan MacColl. Roberta Flack's version was first released on the album First Take in 1969 and as a single in 1972, after being used in the movie Play Misty for Me. No. 1 for six weeks. This is a wonderful song and a wonderful performance.

Someday Never Comes - Creedence Clearwater Revival. Reached no. 25 in 1972. CCR broke up later that year.

Once in a Lifetime - Talking Heads. Fascinating. 1981, did not reach the top 100. Considered a classic now.

Authority Song - John Mellencamp. Energy. Reached no. 15 in 1984.

Notice the years of the songs? Just because that's when I was listening to the radio? No - I think pop songs were way better then than they are now.

Scattered Reflections on My Dances

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If you are not a contra dancer, this post will be boring and meaningless. If you are a contra dancer, that might still be the case.

My dances are at www.dance.ravitz.us .

1987-03 - I started dancing contra in 1987 and calling in 1995. I wanted every dance that I called to have a partner swing. And along the way I added other rules, so it became apparent that I needed to write some new dances. Becky Hill called a dance in Cincinnati and had her first book of dances for sale. It was well organized, readable, and had an interesting set of rules that Becky followed. That was my entry in writing dances.

1995-07 - Starburst - a nice flowy dance. Interesting enough to not need a neighbor swing?

1996-12 - Maliza's Magical Mystery Motion - this was written for Maliza's birthday. Her mother suggested Petronella turns and a Beatles related name. She must have suggested Magical Mystery Tour or I think I would have aimed in a different direction. It turned out well - easy but unusual, a very popular dance.

1997-02 - Whitewater - my first dance that progresses with your neighbor, then with your shadow, then unprogresses with your second neighbor to find your partner. Many more followed.

1997-02 - Whitewater has a pictorial story. The waves lapping at the shore - long lines, roll away, long lines, roll away. Then into the current - circle, swing the next. And more swirls - circle, allemande. To a beautiful landing - balance and swing.

1997-05 - named for Lexington, KY's dance weekend, Dance Trance.

1997-06 - Flying Flamingos - from a dance weekend, wedding celebration at Buffalo Gap, WV, with (plastic) pink flamingos everywhere.

1997-07 - Sealed With a Keith - Keith Cornett asked me for a lost and found contra dance. I arrived at River Falls, SC very early one time and sat by the creek thinking about this. I had done a number of these dances and wanted something different. How about lost and found and lost and found? It took just a few minutes to complete. And another few minutes to think of a fun name (if you are too young to get the reference, check out the song Sealed with a Kiss).

1997-11 - Pigtown Petronella - after Maliza's MMM, I realized that two Petronella and turn to face the next is more magical. An almost identical dance, but chain on the left diagonal and turn an extra 1/2 after both Petronella turns.

1998-01 - Roadkill - for Sherri Hadley's band Grits and Roadkill Possum Gravy. Roadkill has multiple individual progressions, similar to Whitewater, but it does it with two symmetric sequences. Simple figure sequence, complex progression. (Later - Starcrossed, Megadance, Where Will I be.)

1998-01 - Snake in the Hey - one of my favorites. With ladies allemande to a wavy line in the middle. A good example of a dance that is interesting enough to not need a neighbor swing.

1998-09 - Dancing Spell - from Mr. Tambourine Man, Bob Dylan (via Melanie Safka cover).

1998-12 - Rat Race and The Enchanted Forrest - two of several dances that I wrote with synchronous allemandes in the middle. (Forrest is spelled correctly, a wonderful dancer from Asheville and The Enchanted Forrest was her business). The name "eggbeater" for the allemande figure sequence is from Bill Olson. The suggestion that this sequence takes a lot of space is wrong. With accurate timing, it takes no extra space. My original dance was called Pinwheels, my preferred name for the allemande sequence.

1999-01 - Four on the Floor - with synchronous Rory O'More balance and slides in the middle. If you slide the wrong way - crash. Four on the floor is another double meaning - in my youth, the performance car transmission was a four speed manual with stick shift mounted on the floor instead of the steering column. I owned just one such car, a 1979 VW Scirocco. Four speeds gave way to five speeds for better highway cruising after that. And steering column shifters disappeared. So there was never a "five on the floor", which doesn't have the right ring. Of course the other meaning is the contra dance minor set.

1999-04 - Whirl of Fortune - my favorite pun title. This is my first usage of a bounce back hey. Using the flourish of bouncing back twice (for either role) in a hey seems pointless as a called figure - the dancers can do it whether called or not. My usage here is ladies bounce back in the first half, gents bounce back in the second half - a very nice sequence.

1999-05 - Woven Waves - a dance with two new figures that works beautifully. I was in Louisville and danced one of the dances where ladies go into the middle, then back out while gents go into the middle. And I wondered - why do the ladies have to back out. Now how to I get out of the interlinked waves. It was pretty easy, turn the modified star - I called it a gypsy star because your are facing your partner. It seemed too simple. But I couldn't find a better way. And then I realized I was being stupid. My new choreography rule - a dance should be as simple as possible while encompassing the goals that I have set.

1999-05 - Woven Waves - I wanted to be able to call a lot of my dances in one evening, so I didn't want to keep using my favorite progression - circle left 3/4, pass through, do-si-do. So I used ladies chain, star left. Then I decided that each dance that I write should be as good as possible, so I switched it. But I have to be more careful when choosing dances.

1999-05 - Woven Waves - One of the Cincinnati dancers has a party every spring, with dancing. So I brought this dance for its first try. Joseph Pimentel was up right before me and called his new dance, Ramsay Chase, which included a ladies go into the middle, ladies back out and men go in. Sigh. I decided that Woven Waves was different enough and called it. As I watched one of the wonderful Cincinnati dancers dance the gypsy star, I knew the dance would be a success. The caller community has renamed gypsy star to "facing star" - blech.

1999-12 - Breakup Breakdown, Martha's Breakup Breakdown - Breakup Breakdown refers to the dance, so you end up with your neighbor. In Martha's Breakup Breakdown the Breakup breaks down, so you end up with your partner.

2000-04 - Dance Kentucky Unhinged - for Darlene Underwood, using her initials.

2000-10 - Through the Looking Glass - I wrote this at Darlene Underwood's request for a dance to call at the Looking Glass dance weekend (Lansing, MI). When I wrote a simplified version, I chose the Blondie (the band) title Heart of Glass. More Blondie titles - Dreaming, One Way or Another, Atomic, Call Me (my favorite easy dance).

2001-06 - Reflections - the goal was a dance with 64 count instructions that alternated between improper and reverse improper. That is, no special instructions at count 65 to cause the switch. I finally found a way to do it. But it requires the dancers to remember if they are a 1 or a 2, almost ensuring a breakdown.

2002-01 - Mary Keith's Harmonium - at the February 2002 Knoxville dance weekend I had a new and untested dance, using the progression from Amy's Harmonium. Keith Cornett was the main caller and called it so I named it Mary Keith's Harmonium.

2002-09 - Whim's Gym - I wish I had named it Whim's Gem. Sigh.

2003-05 - Reel to Reel - from Dreaming (Blondie), and tape recorders before cassettes. Also Reel to Unreal and Reel to Surreal.

2003-05 - Reel to Reel - Ron Buchanan sent me a few new dances, probably 1996, maybe 1997. One had a rotate the waves sequence. If you look in The Caller's Box, Harvest Moon, it refers you to American Dance Circle for a write-up. But the write-up makes no sense. I don't have the note that Ron sent so I can't be specific, but I thought the timing was poor. Best to allemande 1 in the middle with a 1/2 orbit in 6 counts (see Amy's Harmonium). This also relieves crowding in the middle. I eventually decided to write a dance to my specs, which I am very happy with. There are now a number of similar dances, mostly with allemande 1+1/2 in the middle with a 1/2 orbit in 8 counts - not good.

2008-02 - Passion Breakdown - Paschen breakdown occurs when the voltage across two conductors separated by air is high enough to ionize the N2 and O2 molecules, making the air conductive - lightning. That's why the dancers walk straight across the set after the mad robin. Of course this is passion breakdown, not Paschen breakdown. Or maybe it's the same thing.

2008-07 - Wildflowers, Chicory, Trillium, Galax - all use allemande 1, butterfly whirl 1+1/2, hey, balance and swing. Much relaxed compared to dances that allemande 1+1/2. I took the progression in the whirl from Charlie Harvey's Amy Asked for a gypsy, easier here with extra time. Chicory was Martha Edward's band after Stringdancer.

2009-08 - Around the Sound - after calling at the Chehalis dance weekend on the Puget Sound.

2009-08 - Autumn Air - a nice double meaning for Air.

2010-06 - Living in Zen - for Liz.

2010-12 - Where Will I Be - from the song by Daniel Lanois, on Emmylou Harris's album Wrecking Ball, my favorite album.

2011-09 - March of the Coffee Zombies, to go with Tom Cunningham's great tune. Another story dance. Wake up, get out of bed - long lines, roll away. To the coffee machine - the zombie march. The coffee machine - wavy lines, balance and slide. Awake - swing. Normality returns - allemande, swing.

2011-11 - Mad Max - Janet's first dog.

2012-01 - Songbird - Janet sent me Rough Ride by Tom Hinds. It used mad robin, half poussette, progress, mad robin, half poussette. She suggested that I put the sequence in a different setting. I changed the timing and later changed it to mad robin, half poussette, progress, half poussette, mad robin. A couple of weeks later, we attended an Emmylou Harris concert, and I named my new dance Songbird.

2012-03 - Fiddler's Frolic - for Fred and Pam Stoll, two great fiddlers, upon leaving Cincinnati. Fred and later Pam played with Brittany Bay. Pam played with Stringdancer. Both wonderful contra dance bands.

2012-03 - Star's End - from Isaac Asimov's Foundation novels, ends the two stars similarly but differently.

2013-04 - Into the DMZ - the DMZ is the Dugan Murphy Zone, not the more common usage.

2013-05 - Cross contra formation - some of these have been danced, but not really caught on. I called a cross contra dance workshop at Dance Trance 2017 - Cross Robin, Cross Hey, Across Nottingham B, Fatal Attraction. Four very unusual dances and I had not previously called any of them. It went well.

2013-05 - Cross contra formation - I wondered why cross contra formation had not been tried before and came to this conclusion - for contra and other dances with major set formations, the major sets are not composed of individual dancers, they are composed of couples. If you build a major set of couples (two people side by side), you will never get to cross contra, because it separates partners. It is one of those rules that you don't realize exist until you break them.

2014-01 - Dance and Dream - a phrase from My Father by Judy Collins (I know it by Melanie Safka's cover).

2014-03 - Bill Pope and Judy Goldsmith wrote a dance that has become very popular - Cows Are Watching. The novel feature is a zigzag to a gents allemande in the middle to a neighbor swing. There are three other similar possibilities - the ladies do the allemande, and the gents or the ladies allemande to a partner swing - Cows are Watching Variation, Turtles Too, and And Alligators. 

Incidentally, if I capitalize "Variation" in a title, I consider it part of the title and I attach my name to the dance. If it is a simple variation, I don't capitalize it and keep the original author.

2015-08 - Adrift - no special thoughts except that this is one of my favorite dances.

2016-12 - Reddie to Roll - Reddie was a sweet old dog, deaf and arthritic, that Janet rescued from being put to sleep. He had two main hobbies, running, when his arthritis was not too bad, and attempting, unsuccessfully, to kill small white dogs.

2018-12 - Valley of Fire, Toward the San Rafael Swell, At the Swell - for Janet's move to Utah.

2021-04 - Atomic, Wavelet, Darlene's Roll - near the end of the COVID mess, I decided that singlets had more use than just Zoom dances. If you want to dance as a group, but minimize spreading an airborne disease, how about minimizing close neighbor interaction. You could eliminate neighbor swings or you could eliminate neighbors. I offered variations on a number of dances to change neighbor swings to allemandes and I wrote three singlets. The singlets are not adaptations of regular contras. They introduce new features. None of this caught on. But they still could be useful for dances with a small number of participants.

2024-08 - Jaded - for Jade's birthday, the lady who won't smile. Just kidding. She lights up the room with her smile.

2024-08 - Jaded - my first usage of a bounce across in a hey. Also Seven Stars and Entwined.

2024-10 - Seven Stars - Devan's seven children, who played major roles in restarting contra dancing in Lexington, KY after the COVID shutdown.

2026-08 - Batter, Bitter - I wanted to write a simple dance with 1/2 hey, ladies chain across, 1/2 hey. Done. Bob Isaacs pointed out that my dance was just Gene Hubert's Butter with the chain moved. Butter has been around for as long as I have been calling, one source dates it at 1990. Hard to believe that no one suggested a variation with 1/2 hey, chain, 1/2 hey instead of chain, hey. I looked to see if this had already been written. Not that I could find. I considered calling it Better, but I didn't want the name to imply that it was better than Butter. So Batter. And inverting the partner and neighbor roles - Bitter.

2026-08 - That bring things to the present. I hope more stories far into the future.

Investing - Which Accounts to Use?

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Taxable account, traditional IRA, 401(k)/403(b), Roth IRA – where do you put investment money? Plus HSA. Get it wrong and you can pay a lot of additional income tax, higher Medicare premiums, or miss out on an employer match. Understand this puzzle now, before it’s too late.

I’ve talked about pieces of this in past posts. This is an attempt to cover all of the issues together.

I’ll talk about five types of accounts:

• Taxable account – an ordinary brokerage account with no special tax rules.
• Traditional IRA (TIRA) - an individual retirement account with pre-tax or nondeductible contributions and tax-deferred growth. A rollover IRA is just a traditional IRA created by rolling over funds from a 401(k).
• 401(k) - an employer run pre-tax retirement account (401(k), 403(b), and similar plans).
• Roth - an after-tax account, including Roth IRA, Roth 401(k), Roth 403(b), etc.
• HSA - a health savings account

Taxable Account

You fund this with after-tax money. There are no annual contribution limits or withdrawal restrictions.

If you hold investments that generate only long-term capital gains and qualified dividends, those amounts are taxed at long-term capital gains rates when realized (when you sell or when the fund distributes gains). If you use stock ETFs, most of the equity income will be qualified dividends (taxed at long-term capital gains rates) once you’ve held the ETF long enough to meet the holding-period.

But if you use bond mutual funds or ETFs, the dividends are generally taxed as ordinary income (interest). And if you use stock mutual funds, especially those with active management, you’re likely to get capital gains distributions every year. Heavy redemptions by other shareholders, common in a down market, can force the fund to sell holdings and generate taxable gains for remaining shareholders.

Dividends are taxable in the year they are paid, even if you automatically reinvest them. When you later sell shares to raise cash, you owe tax only on the capital gain, not on the entire withdrawal. If you are making withdrawals from a taxable account, turn automatic dividend reinvestment OFF to prevent unnecessary taxable events.

Use index funds in a taxable account. This reduces yearly capital gains taxes by reducing turnover. It also reduces your chance of needing to sell a fund due to poor performance, and therefore the capital gains on any growth of the fund.

These taxes are not penalties, they are just taxes paid earlier. Each taxed dividend or distribution increases your cost basis, so you’re not taxed again on that same amount when you sell. In a taxable account, you only owe tax on gains because the account was funded by after-tax money. Brokerages will let you choose which shares to sell so that you can choose higher cost basis shares with less gain, but this takes some effort.

Traditional IRA (TIRA)

Traditional IRA contributions must be from earned income. They may be tax-deductible depending on your income and whether you are covered by a workplace retirement plan.

Withdrawals from a traditional IRA are taxed as ordinary income, regardless of whether the underlying investments produced interest, dividends, or capital gains inside the IRA. So you can reduce your taxable income in the year of deductible contributions, but you pay tax when you withdraw the money. Your tax rate may be higher or lower in retirement, depending on your situation.

Traditional IRA (and 401(k)) withdrawals count as income for Medicare purposes and can push you into higher IRMAA brackets, increasing your premiums.

Withdrawals before age 59 1/2 are generally subject to a 10% early-withdrawal penalty on top of income tax.

Required minimum distributions (RMDs) from traditional IRAs and 401(k)s generally start at age 73 (depends on your birth year). The initial RMD percentage is roughly 4% and rises with age.

Given all this, it is not clear that a TIRA is better than a taxable account. It depends on your situation and unknown future situation.

401(k)

A pre-tax 401(k) is taxed similarly to a TIRA. Contributions reduce your current taxable income and withdrawals are taxed as ordinary income. But it has some advantages over a TIRA.

Your employer may offer contribution matches in a 401(k). The match will more than make up for the tax disadvantages of a 401(k).

Many 401(k) plans offer a fund called a stable value fund. This gives bond-like returns but ensures that the yield does not fall below a specified minimum. These were designed to help reduce risk in retirement. They are typically available only within employer plans.

The yearly contribution limit for a 401(k) is about three times as high as the TIRA limit.

Roth

A Roth IRA is truly tax-advantaged. Contributions are after-tax and must be from earned income.

You can also fund a Roth via a Roth conversion, moving money from a TIRA (or from a pre-tax 401(k) to a Roth 401(k)) and paying ordinary income tax on the converted amount.

After age 59 1/2 (and after the account has been open for five years), qualified Roth IRA withdrawals are tax-free and do not count toward IRMAA. Roth IRAs also have no required minimum distributions during your lifetime.

Assuming a growing stock market, it’s usually best to do a TIRA to Roth conversion early in the year to catch a full year of tax-free growth.

Put your high growth investments in your Roth to take advantage of tax-free growth.

Direct Roth IRA contributions are limited by your modified adjusted gross income (MAGI). But TIRA conversions to Roth are not.

Your employer may offer matches to Roth 401(k) contributions. The match is usually pre-tax to a separate pre-tax 401(k). Or it may be after-tax to your Roth 401(k), depending on the plan.

BEST TO CONSULT A TAX EXPERT AT THIS POINT

If all of your TIRAs are near 100% pre-tax, and you make a deductible contribution, you can convert some or all to a Roth and pay income taxes at that point.

If all of your TIRAs are near 100% after-tax, and you make a nondeductible contribution, you can convert some or all to a Roth, paying taxes only on any earnings in the TIRA.

And if you can roll the pre-tax part of a mixed TIRA into a 401(k) (depends on your specific plan), then you are left with a near 100% after-tax TIRA.

The Roth usage decision is often described as a guess on pay taxes now or pay later. This will be a guess on government tax law and your tax bracket. But it leaves out a more important issue - in a Roth, asset growth can be withdrawn tax-free. In a TIRA or 401(k) when asset growth is withdrawn it is taxed as ordinary income.

HSA

This is funded with pre-tax money (does not have to be earned income). You must have an HSA eligible high-deductible health plan (HDHP) and not be on Medicare. The fund growth is untaxed. And any payments for healthcare (including Medicare and COBRA premiums but not other insurance premiums) from the account are untaxed. If you need the funds for other purposes and are over 65, you can withdraw and pay income rate tax on it. Under 65 add a 20% penalty. There is a yearly contribution limit and you cannot contribute if you are on Medicare, but you can continue to use the funds . Start contributing early.

This is tax free medical payments (not tax-deferred). Do not miss out.

My Takeaways

Use index ETFs in a taxable account to minimize unwanted distributions and need to sell due to poor management. Do not use a DRIP (automatic reinvestment) if you need the dividends for income - withdraw whatever you need before reinvesting to prevent an unneeded tax event.

TIRAs and 401(k) are good places for assets with income rate tax on distributions (CDs, bonds, money market) because there is tax deferral but no income vs capital gains tax rate issues.

Roths are a good place for assets that are expected to return better than inflation (stocks) because the growth is tax free.

Favor Roth's over TIRA and 401(k)s to minimize IRMAA Medicare payments.

Favor Roth's over TIRA and 401(k)s to avoid higher taxes due to wealth
accumulation.

Contribute to your Roth 401(k) or 401(k) at least to maximize employer match.

Look ahead starting at age 59 1/2, and earlier is better, make a plan for converting rolling 401(k)s to TIRAs and Roth 401(k)s to Roth IRA, and converting TIRA to Roth. The plan may be "do nothing", but if you wait too long, it will likely cost you in taxes.

Taxable accounts may be preferred over TIRA and 401(k) because long-term gains and qualified dividends are taxed at the capital gains rate instead of the ordinary income rate. But after retirement a TIRA is still convertible to Roth, while contributions to a Roth from a taxable account are not allowed without equivalent earned income.

Taxable accounts may be preferred over any tax advantaged account because the money is available for use at any time of life, penalty free.

Max out your HSA for best tax-free medical.

Investing - Investment Areas of ETFs

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The number and investment areas of ETFs have exploded in the last few years. This is an overview of the ETF areas in common use. When choosing, also consider fees and liquidity (smaller funds can be harder to trade).

Stocks (mostly capital gains rate income taxes)

    Stock Category

• total market
• value
• growth
• dividend - high dividends (for stocks), some funds screen for quality, provides income and growth
• dividend growth - growing dividends (which imply quality), provides growing income and growth
• dividend with covered calls - dividends and covered call premiums, but growth is capped

    Management Strategies

• pure index - tracks a rules based index, low turnover
• market-cap weighting - most common, largest companies dominate the return
• equal weighting - reduces large cap dominance, more rebalancing
• active management, momentum - favors stocks with good recent performance
• active management, covered call - adds income, caps growth
• active management, low volatility - tries to reduce downside, likely reduces growth, advantage if you withdraw capital for income
• active management, leveraging to increase returns - tries to amplify returns, high risk

    Market-Cap (size of the corporations, stock price times number of shares)

• large cap
• mid cap
• small cap
• total market - all sizes, if market-cap weighted then large caps dominate

    Operating Space

• total market
• technology
• healthcare
• financials
• energy
• utilities
• REIT (real estate invesment trust) - high income, tax issues
• artificial intelligence
• computer memory and storage
• computer connectivity optics
• small scale nuclear power
• semiconductors

    Geography/Currency

• US
• international, currency hedged - reduces currency risk
• international, currency unhedged - adds currency risk/reward
• global, currency hedged - reduces currency risk
• global, currency unhedged - adds currency risk/reward

Bonds (mostly income rate income taxes)

    Duration (affects volatility risk)

• ultra-short - low interest rate sensitivity, close to money market
• short
• intermediate
• long - interest rate sensitive, benefits from falling yields, falls when yield rises

   Strategies

• pure index - tracks bond index, low turnover
• active management, total return - tries to increase return by trading principal
• active management, high income - aims for high, regular payout

    Issuer/Currency

• government/treasury - low risk if you believe that the government will never default
• corporate - higher yield, riskier than government
• municipal - lower pre-tax yield, tax advantages
• international government/treasury hedged - reduces currency risk
• international government/treasury not hedged - adds currency risk/reward
• global government/treasury hedged - reduces currency risk
• global government/treasury not hedged - adds currency risk/reward

    Credit Risk

• investment-grade - lower yield, lower default risk of default
• high-yield - higher yield, higher risk of default

Thaxted

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I occasionally hear pieces of classical music that I think would make great dance tunes. I haven't succeeded in adapting any of them, most often due to phrasing issues. Contra tunes need 2/2 or 4/4 timing and 16 beat phrases. Trying to make a 24 beat, for example, phrase fit just doesn't work - it ruins the melody. And there is also tempo - it must sound right at 110-120 bpm. Waltz needs 3/4 timing, an even number of bars, and needs to work around 125 bpm.

Yesterday, I was scrolling through my Facebook feed and came across a video about someone rescuing a dog and her puppies. It was set to one of my favorite melodies. From Gustav Holst's The Planets, Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity. This entire piece is wonderful, but what usually comes to mind is a melody from the middle.

One of many performances on YouTube - Jupiter .

I found that Holst had repurposed this melody to fit Cecil Spring Rice’s poem "I Vow to Thee, My Country", and entitled it Thaxted, a town in England where he lived for several years. This is what was used in the video.

Thaxted has been used for many songs/hymns. Perplexity AI lists eight.

I found ABC sheet music for Thaxted - not in great shape. I transposed to E minor, fixed the timing to 3/4, and added chords. ABA, 8 bar phrases. I played it at my usual waltz tempo, 125 bpm - perfect. It's a hymn, but should be good as a waltz. Perplexity AI says to emphasize the boom-chuck-chuck rhythm - sounds good.

(2026-08-12) I moved the second A part up one octave. I think that this make the tune feel more complete.

MIDI recording

Something useful from Facebook. Wow! And a beautiful new waltz (I hope).

The ABC -

X: 1
T: Thaxted
R: waltz
C: Gustav Holst
M: 3/4
Q: 1/4=125
K: Em
B,D||"Em" E2 EG F>D|"G"GA G2 F2|"Em"EF E2 D2|"Bm"B,4 B,D||"Em"E2 EG F>D|"G"GA B2 B2|BA G2 A2|"Em"G4 ||
dB||"Am"A2 A2 GB|"D"A2 D2 dB|"Am"A2 A2 Bd|"Em"e4 ef||"C"g2 f2 e2|"G"d2 g2 B2|"Am"AG A2 B2|"D"d4 ||
Bd||"Em" e2 eg f>d|"G"ga g2 f2|"Em"ef e2 d2|"Bm"B4 Bd||"Em"e2 eg f>d|"G"ga b2 b2|ba g2 a2|"Em"g4 ||

Blog Post 101

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This is blog post 101, almost 10 years after post 1. I started with a post about smart phones, suggesting that many of the "features" were less than useful. Some these features failed in the marketplace - curved screens, squeeze control. Most of my complaints were ignored.

Glossy screens - nine years after my complaint, Samsung introduced a non glare screen, only on their top of the line, huge phone. I haven't checked it out. Thankfully, matte screen covers are much improved with a fine texture that doesn't ruin the screen resolution.

OLED screens have largely replaced backlit LCD screens, but this hasn't produced optimal always on displays (AODs). With Samsung, the AOD app widgets have limited brightness that make them very hard to read in some situations. Apple thinks that AODs belong only on their Pro models - I don't know what they can display. Motorola thinks there is no reason to have an AOD. Google has an AOD with next alarm but not time zone.

None of the main screen clocks have time zone. Software designers - THE DISPLAYED TIME IS NOT COMPLETE UNLESS IT INCLUDES THE TIME ZONE THAT IT IS REPORTING IN.

Screen bezels have been minimized. I cannot use any current phone effectively without a phone cover. The cover supplies a raised "bezel" than prevents me from constantly touching the bottom of the screen and the resulting unwanted action. It also makes the phone significantly bigger - not good.

Samsung has a "game booster" that puts an icon in the lower left corner of the screen. Accidentally touch it and you get a menu. Maybe useful for action games - I don't know. But worse than useless for word games. The game booster app cannot be removed. But you can kill its function - see Samsung Galaxy S25 in my blog.

Phones keep getting bigger. You might think that a next generation small phone would be smaller or the same as the current generation. NO. Small phones keep getting bigger.

I still have never used a voice assistant or any AI feature on a phone.

Fingerprint readers have moved to the front of the phone, under the display. These have improved a lot since the Samsung S22, but still not nearly as good as the fingerprint readers on the back as on the Pixel 4A.

Google has decided that it's okay to display Android navigation buttons on top of application information. This maximizes the app size while still giving access to the navigation buttons. They think that the buttons and the underlying app don't interfere with each other. WRONG. Shrink the app - the navigation buttons don't take that much space.

Screen brightness has gotten so severe on my Samsung phone that I have to turn the brightness down to absolute bottom. Which leaves no room for optimization - just "PLEASE DON'T BURN OUT MY EYES" mode.

I don't care about the headphone jack any more. I use first generation Apple Airpods. They fit me perfectly and connect quickly.

Android split screen and insets - still useless and annoying.

Emojis are out of control. I occasionally use thumbs up, heart, smile, frown. That's all. When selecting one, I am presented with hundreds of them to choose from. Wouldn't it be easier to use a word enclosed in brackets - for example, [smile] would cause the reader to picture a smile emoji.

Minimum volume is still too loud at times. And volume steps are often too large. There has been absolutely no improvement in this in ten years. Resources MUST be directed toward new icons and emojis [satire].

And gestures have become pests. I accidentally touch the screen and something changes. I don't know what I did and I don't know what happened, other than I've lost what I was looking at.

And - WHY TO YOU KEEP CHANGING THINGS THAT WORK? How does that help the user? How about changing things that don't work?

Investing - International

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The US is in bad shape fiscally. 39,000,000,000,000 dollars in debt, an estimated 100,000,000,000,000 in unfunded liabilities. For a population of 350 million, that's $111,000 and $285,000 per person. And only one third of the population pays any federal income taxes, so 333,000 and 855,000 per taxpayer. And if the debt magically dropped to zero, our government has no mechanism to avoid returning to the same situation in short order.

It is often argued that US corporations do a lot of business internationally, so there is no need to invest in foreign businesses. But that does not address the problem of a weak US Dollar (USD).

So I decided I should be investing 20% (to start) of my assets in foreign businesses. I found that many foreign corporations allow US investment through American Depositary Receipts (ADRs). An ADR certificate represents shares of a foreign corporation and trades on a US exchange (NYSE, Nasdaq, etc.) or over the counter. Most ADRs on US exchanges are sponsored by the corporation, but others are unsponsored. ADRs remove much of the complexity of owning foreign stocks directly. Dividends from ADRs are generally qualified, after a holding period, so you pay the capital gains income tax rate. It is easy and effective to invest in foreign corporations.

ADRs are traded in USD. But the price tracks the home country price via arbitrage (institutional buys and sells). You get dividends in USD at the current exchange rate. So ADRs and their dividends reflect the value in the home country currency, making them useful as a USD hedge.

For US taxpayers, in taxable accounts, many ADRs report withheld foreign taxes on dividends. You pay capital gains taxes on trades and dividend taxes as with US stocks, but you get the foreign tax credit. In a Roth IRA the foreign tax credit cannot be used, but there are no taxes on the dividends (or capital gains). In a traditional IRA, the foreign tax credit cannot be used, and you pay income tax rate on the dividends (and capital gains) on withdrawal. I prefer using a Roth for my international assets, but many investors prefer a taxable account.

There are ETFs that include ADRs that are similar to US ETFs. SCHY is an international version of SCHD. VYMI and VIGI, international versions of VYM and VIG. All with just slightly higher fees.

Since I want stable, profitable foreign corporations, I use mostly SCHY. It has been suggested that dividend growth ETFs are likely more stable than high dividend ETFs because they exclude corporations that pay high dividends to attract investors. But dividend growth ETFs don't pay high dividends, so I consider a lot of those corporations to be growth oriented. SCHY is a good compromise because it filters on quality and dividends.