Turkeys and Threes

Here are three things about Turkeys you should know.

There are three towns named Turkey in the US:

• Turkey, Texas
• Turkey Creek, Louisiana
• Turkey, North Carolina

There are only three English words that rhyme with Turkey:

• Jerky
• Murky
• Perky

 There are three colorful names for official breeds of Turkey:

• Black Spanish
• Bourbon Red
• Blue Slate

 Turkeys have traits humans need to adopt:

• They have no ears, but hear very well
• Old males are preferable to young toms
• Old hens are tougher birds

 From “Going Like Sixty” blogpost

The Third Wave

Alvin Toffler talks about waves in his book The Third Wave, published in 1980, that describes the transition in developed countries from industrial societies, which he calls the "Second Wave," to information age "Third Wave" societies.  Toffler is a social scientist, futurist, author and lecturer.  He has been called the third most influential voice in business after Bill Gates and Peter Drucker.      

Toffler describes three types of societies based on the concept of waves.  Each wave pushes older societies and cultures aside.  The First Wave is the settled agricultural society that replaced nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyles.  The Second Wave began in western Europe with the Industrial Revolution and spread quickly across much of the world.  A Second Wave society includes the nuclear family, a factory-type education system and the corporation.  “Throughout Second Wave civilization, therefore, three key concepts—the war with nature, the importance of evolution, and the progress principle—provided the ammunition used by the agents of industrialism as they explained and justified it to the world.”

“In short one could move systematically through the entire code book of Second Wave civilization—from standardization to synchronization right on down to centralization, maximization, specialization, and concentration—and show, item by item, how the old ground rules that governed our daily lives and our social decision-making are in the process of being revolutionized as Third Wave civilization sweeps in.”   

From Threes, Chapter One, "The Wonder of Threes"

The Big Three Car Rental Companies in the US

Think you have lots of choices when it comes to selecting a rental car? Think again.

There are actually only three major rental-car companies in America: Avis, Hertz and Enterprise.   Those big three control 94 percent of the market.  No wonder rental-car prices are pretty much the same from company to company.  Are you now trying to name all the ones you've seen advertised?  Most of them are part of the same companies: Avis owns Budget and Zipcar.  Hertz owns Dollar and Thrifty, and Enterprise owns Alamo and National. 

Warren Buffett's Top Three Mistakes to Avoid

USA TODAY asked Warren Buffett to put on his personal finance hat and tick off the three biggest mistakes amateur investors make.  Here are Buffett's Top Three Mistakes to Avoid. 

1. Trying to time the market.  "People that think they can predict the short-term movement of the stock market—or listen to other people who talk about (timing the market)—they are making a big mistake," says Buffett.

2. Trying to mimic high-frequency traders.  Buying stock in a good business and hanging on for the long term, he says, is a better strategy than flipping stocks like a short-order cook flips pancakes.  "If they are trading actively, they are making a big mistake," he says.

3. Paying too much in fees and expenses.  There's no reason to pay an expensive management fee to invest in a mutual fund when super-low-cost index funds that mimic large indexes like the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index are available, he says.  "If they are incurring large expenses in connection with their investing," says Buffett, "they are making a big mistake."


Buffett is famous for buying stocks when they are cheap, buying solid businesses that make a lot of money today and will make a lot of money tomorrow, and hanging on to his investments for a long time to maximize profit.