When I was a kid my parents limited my Halloween candy to my ten favorite pieces I brought home – and then my theory is they would secretly eat the rest. Every year when I got home I’d dump my bag of candy onto the kitchen table and then act all depressed when I could only have ten. “Act” being the keyword because like any other kid with strict parents I wasn’t going to let them win that game. Un-uh. No way. What I would do is, I would wear two pairs of underwear to go Trick or Treating in, and after every few houses I would shove candy in between the two pairs until I got to maximum capacity. My biggest fear, other than getting caught by my parents, was my neighbor’s crazy dog Rocket getting a whiff of this candy and making a beeline to my crotch. My Top 5 favorite candies, you ask? Coming in at # 5: Milky Way. # 4 Kit-Kat (Here’s a good Kit-Kat joke by my favorite comedian Mitch Hedberg) # 3 Swedish Fish. # 2: Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. And # 1: Sugar Daddy’s which is a caramel/burnt sugar lollypop – although I’m saddened by how the meaning of this name has changed over the years. I can’t imagine having an extra bag and then emailing the employees at my company to see if anyone was looking for a Sugar Daddy. Fun fact: up until the 1930s it was called Papa Sucker. Here are some more fun facts about Halloween candy to start the blog.
Halloween Quote of the Day: “Halloween was confusing. All my life my parents said, ‘Never take candy from strangers.’ And then they dressed me up and said, ‘Go beg for it.’ I didn’t know what to do! I’d knock on people’s doors and go, ‘Trick or treat… No, thank you.’” – Rita Rudner
Today in Economic History: After several unsuccessful business attempts, it was on this date in 1858 that Roland Macy founded his own department store in his name. Today Roland’s is the biggest department store by volume (*just kidding, he named it Macy’s). An interesting fact to talk about at Thanksgiving this year: Macy’s was issued the first liquor license in NYC when Prohibition ended. Other fun Macy’s facts here.
Wuss’up This Week: Not a whole lot of economic data being released that would rattle interest rates. Today we’ve got the Advance Trade in Goods Deficit Report (*no idea what that means, I just put it in there to look smart), tomorrow the Jobless Claims Report, and on Friday reports on Consumer Spending and Consumer Sentiment are released. Normally these reports would factor in on the 2020 interest-rate roller coaster but it seems now rates are geared to do something big when the circus comes to town. (*Circus = the election). At this point, I have no idea if that ‘something big’ will be rates going down or going up. Speaking of rates…
… they went up last week a little bit every day. Although they are still at historic lows, Mortgage Fans – so don’t panic. Today you’ll find 30yr fixed rates for conforming loans (*that’s any loan at $510k or less) anywhere from 2.625% – 3.375%, and Jumbo rates (*over $510k) in the high-2s/low-3s. As usual, rates will vary based on if it’s a purchase or refinance, type of home, equity in the home, your credit score, and if you wonder what it would be like to be in a bubble at a Flaming Lips concert.
Don’t Forget to Remember: Any purchase or refinance loan that closes with me I will waive $575 in closing costs (*and more for essential workers – that includes the barber who lied to me and said I wasn’t losing my hair). Grab a cup of instant karma and pass my info along to any friends, family, coworkers, or women looking for beauty tips from the past that can use this gift.
Halloween Quote of the Day 2: “Halloween is my favorite holiday where you can trespass on a stranger’s property and make a non-negotiable demand.” – @rolldiggity
Timeout for Trivia: Congrats to those of you last week who guessed Julia Louise-Dreyfus. Want to be entered into a drawing to win a Turkey Shaped Butter Sculpture? Simply email me the answer to this week’s Who Am I? question. Good luck: “It’s my birthday today. For personal reasons I get sad celebrating my life, to which you might ironically say to me, “Oh, poor kid – cry me a river.” We can celebrate my career though – I’m pretty good at acting – I’ve won a Grammy, two Golden Globes, and most recently when the Academy awarded me an Oscar I thought to myself, “They’re joking, right?” One of my Golden Globe awards I won was for my film that grossed $186-million (that’s a lot of cash!) and whose title could be advice you give a tightrope walker. You still don’t know who I am? Let me just tell you I was born in San Juan, not Arizona.”
