The Viener.com Blog

Deep Frying a Turkey for Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  This year we will be deep frying our thanksgiving turkey at Sara's Dad's house in Rhode Island.  My good friend, John Bliss found these videos which should help us with our task and make sure we don't burn anything.  Wish us luck!

Part 1: Part 2: Part 3:

George & Sue Viener's Private Art Collection Auction Nov 12th & 13th 2011

George Viener talks to Kutztown University Graduate Art Ed Class

Saved 52% on Textbooks! Here's how to do it!

We are getting ready to send our oldest child off to boarding school, he will be attending The Mercersburg Academy in the fall.  Once we selected the classes he will be taking, we got the list of text books that will be required and a link to the online ordering system.

I know people save a lot of money shopping around online for text books, and my goal was to look at a few sites, order his books, and make sure I got him either new books or used books in very good condition.  I probably could have saved even more if I went for books in less than very good condition.  There were also electronic book options and book rental options, but I decided to skip those routes.

So here is what I did, step by step that allowed me to save 52% off what I would have paid through the standard link from the school.

Step 1:  Identify all the required books and their ISBN numbers.  Every book has a unique ISBN number that allows you to find the exact version of the required book.  The last think you want to do is order the wrong books.

Step 2: Open up the 3 following links, they will open in windows or tabs so you can check prices in each. (these were the stores I found to have the best deals.  Interestingly, none of them had the best price on all the books, and the prices and availability varried widely:

• Amazon
• Textbooksrus
• eCampus

Step 3: Enter the ISBN number for each book in the search bar on each site and compare prices.  When you find the best deal, add that book to the shopping cart on that site and repeat this step for each textbook.

Step 4: Check out on each site and wait for your books to be delivered! 

Step 5: Calculate your savings and post a comment here letting me know how much you saved!

Nixon's Wage and Price Freeze Policies

Sara's Uncle, William N. Walker, former Deputy Director of The White House Office of consumer Affairs, has written an inciteful article about his experiences with Nixon's Wage and Price Freeze policies Forty years ago, and looks at how we should look at these historic mistakes that launched the U.S. economy into a decade of unprecedented turbulence, punctuated by episodes of hyperinflation, shortages, high interest rates and stagnation.

Walker reminds us of how Nixon wanted to use government policy to fix the economy. He failed and looking back over forty years, we can survey the wreckage. 

Walker warns us that Obama and the Democratic Party are now advocating using similar government policies to fix things they don’t like: unemployment, healthcare, financial institutions, to name a few.

The message from forty years ago is this: be very cautious. Government policy can cause serious harm with all the best of intentions. Just look at what happened to Nixon’s wage and price control program.

• Visit his new Blog - Forty Years After Nixon's Price Freeze
• Read his Full Article looking back 40 Years after Nixon's Price Controls Policies
• Read his Commentary About Nixon's Prize Freeze and Controls Programs