CategoriesArchivesJanuary 2012 |
Meg’s made up muffinsMy brother Ben wrote that he’d made my buttermilk pancakes! It made me so happy. I’m not sure why. I guess because I kind of figured that I was putting these recipes out there, but that nobody was actually making them. I sort of thought that perhaps people would even scroll past the recipes to the next blog down. Well, my brother made my pancake recipe, so now I have free rein! It made me feel so cozy to think of Ben and Joline with baby Claire in her tummy and my little nephew Sam eating yummy pancakes. I got such a flash of Sam, with that faint flush that young children have, his tiny feet swinging slightly as he chewed. Not only that, but if Ben used the pancakes recipe, then who knows? Maybe other people are playing around with my recipes as well! So, I’m giving you a brand-new one. I made up this new recipe on Sunday. I woke up with a craving in my mouth and no recipe that matched, so I went into the kitchen and started fooling around and…EUREKA! Meg’s Made-Up Muffins Ingredients: butter, white sugar, light brown sugar, eggs, bananas, buttermilk, vanilla, flour, wheat bran, baking soda, salt, nutmeg, cinnamon, apples Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Either grease two sets of muffin tins,( or use cupcake liners ) Mix in large bowl Blend well. Measure into second bowl Stir well - Peel, cut out the core and dice two small/medium apples (If you only have large, than just do one) Mix the flour mixture into the egg/buttermilk/butter/sugar bowl. When blended, add the diced apples. Spoon muffin batter into muffin tins and bake until the tops spring back when you press your finger on them. (Around 25-35 minutes, depending on your oven.) Serve piping hot. They taste good with a slice of butter or without. They are also good once they cool down to munch on as a snack. Posted by Meg Tilly on Tuesday, February 05, 2008 in Recipes upon reflection…I am having serious misgivings about the eye-wear that I ordered so gleefully. Serious misgivings. What the hell was I thinking? I’m already embarrassed and I haven’t even worn them yet! When I think about them, which is not often, they get more glittery and extravagant by the second. Now, when my mind flashes on to them, they have morphed into something entirely different and grotesque. They have LARGE rhinestones instead of a tiny, barely there, sprinkle. They have ENORMOUS swooping exaggerated cat-eyes, like those eye-glasses those women wore back in the fifties, with their bleach-blond, bubble hairdos and shear hot pink or spicy red scarves draped over the top to keep the wind from blowing it. Except it’s me wearing those ridiculous glasses and my graying hair is contorted into one of those hairdos, and I am wearing too tight clothes, teetering on faux leopard print high heels and have a large martini glass tipping out of one hand. But the glasses are bought. The progressive lenses are being ground. I have paid a gynourmous deposit. Oh dear… Posted by Meg Tilly on Sunday, February 03, 2008 in Chewing the Fat new glassesAround two weeks ago I lost my distance glasses. When the sun is out, I’m fine because I have prescription sunglasses, and when it’s cloudy but daylight, I’m also okay because I have my medium range glasses and I can see fine just as long as I’m not trying to find my way somewhere new. See, the thing is, with misplacing my glasses is that I knew they were hiding somewhere around the house. And felt that the very minute I went and wasted all that money and time on purchasing a new pair, my old pair would come dancing out of their hiding place laughing at me. So, I put it off. Big mistake. Not so bad, last week because Don was the lunch cook so he was the one to do the morning and evening drop-off and pick-up from Will’s school. But this week, was my week to drive and even though I’ve been turning the house inside out, I still hadn’t found my glasses. NOW if I had been thinking clearly and been a normal person, I would have just said, “Honey, I really can’t see well enough to drive at night with my mid-range glasses, could you take over the evening driving until I find my regular glasses?“ Or I would have gone out and bought myself a new pair. But I didn’t. I was too embarrassed to ask for help. A kick back to my childhood. Don’t ask for help, ever. It is a sign of weakness and will make you a target. Always cope. No matter what. And I didn’t want to waste the money. And you know what, for the first couple of days, I got lucky. The nights were pretty clear when I had to go and I could see okay, it was Wednesday night that sucked. It was very dark, with a huge amount driving sleet/snow falling, and to make matters worse, it had started to warm up a little bit, so there was a slight misty cloud cover rising from the road. I was scared. I realized how stupid I was driving with my mid-range glasses. I wanted to pull over and call Don, but my stupid car is STILL in the god-damned shop! So he would have no way to get to me, and Will was waiting at school and I had the only car. So I just drove slowly and carefully, my underarms sweating in my coat. The weather had let up a bit on the way home and I was fine. However, the minute the stores opened on Thursday, I marched myself down to the eyeglasses shop and chose out a new pair of glasses. Don played hooky with his writing and came shopping too. I guess it was such a novelty. Meg wants to go shopping? This I have to see! I tried on a bunch of eyeglasses. Most of them looked ridiculous. And you want to know what’s weird. I’ve always leaned towards a very conservative style of eye-wear. Practical. Not today! I started out trying on the sort of plain, old-faithfuls, but they didn’t look good. The dark frame colors were too strong against my face. At first I couldn’t figure out why everything looked so bad, and then I realized that I’ve change a lot in the last few months. That whole hospital/caring for/not-able-to-save-my-friend thing doubled my grey hair count. Seriously, I’m not joking. And so with my hair color so much whiter around my face, I needed a lighter colored pair of glasses. But most of the lighter glasses didn’t look right with my coloring. BUT THEN…I saw this pair of light blue and black glasses with zig-zags of blue color on the sides and…get this…a sprinkling of RHINESTONES where the sides wrapped around to the front! Nothing I’d ever try on or wear ever in my life! And yet I did. And they made me happy. Especially when I turned around and said to Don, “What about these?“ and saw the shock and horror on his face! I could almost hear him praying, “Oh god, please no!“ Which for some odd reason, made me feel even more daring and dangerous. “I like ‘em!“ I said. He laughed nervously, not knowing if I was joking or not. And I was half joking. Nobody would EVER take me seriously wearing those glasses. Especially not AUTHOR seriously. Rhinestones and blue zig-zags? “Yes, well, you know, she was an actress. You know how tacky and flashy those types are.“ But as loudly as I was hearing those disapproving voices, I was also hearing this defiant voice inside who said, “F__k it. Who cares what other people think. You are approaching fifty my dear. You have earned the right to wear anything you damned well please.“ And I plopped these crazy blue glasses into the “consider” pile. The pile got smaller and smaller until there were just two pair left. A sensible pair…and the blue rhinestone extravaganza. Don was trying to be supportive, but I could tell he was well and truly confused as to who this new Meg was. And I knew I should get the sensible pair. The plain and boring, I-am-an-intellectual pair of glasses, but there was something about the other that sang it’s siren song to me, and it was impossible to put them aside. “I’ll get them both,“ I heard my mouth saying. And I really intended to, until I heard how much it was going to cost! GADZOOKS! When did a pair of glasses get to be so much money? Just the idea of spending that much in one fell swoop made me feel sweaty all over. “Okay, I’ll only get one.“ Guess which pair I bought? The pair that will not alienate half the world and will go with my entire wardrobe? Or the ones that go with nothing and make me feel like it’s going to be fun to roar into my fifties? Yup. You guessed it. At least it’s not a mini-skirt, platform shoes and a red convertible. I’ll save that to surprise Don with next week! Posted by Meg Tilly on Friday, February 01, 2008 in Chewing the Fat a quickieHi, So that’s about it. I shall sprint upstairs and try to make myself presentable to the outside world, and then off to a restaurant to nibble on tasty tidbits. I’d better wear something with a loose waistline so I won’t have to undo anything under the table cloth. Oh. That sounded odd. I’d better clear it up. Undo anything because I intend to eat hearty. I just heard Don leave the laundry room. He’s around 2 minutes away from being all ready to go! I’m off. Posted by Meg Tilly on Thursday, January 31, 2008 in Chewing the Fat Okay, now my day is perfect! Sigh…I just received this email from Mellisa at Tundra. Hello, The Ontario library Association Canadian Materials Committee will be presenting their annual Best Bets list of the top 10 Children’s Fiction, top 10 Picture books, top 10 Young Adult Fiction and top 10 Children’s Non Fiction at the OLA Superconference this week in Toronto. Four titles published by Tundra were chosen and I just thought you would like to know that your book is one of the chosen top 10! Top 10 Young Adult fiction: How it Happened in Peach Hill by Marthe Jocelyn
Top 10 children’s Fiction: Eye of the Crow by Shane Peacock Porcupine by Meg Tilly
Top 10 Picture Books: Ten Old Men and a Mouse by Cary Fagan
All the best,
Publicist - Tundra Books -
Thank you The Ontario Library Association Canadian Materials Committee!!! Not that they read my blog. But thank you anyway. This is one glorious snowy day indeed. And for anyone out there who is having a lousy day, just read back to my blogs last week and you’ll know that in a couple of days, you’ll feel a lot better as well. I LOVE the OLACMC! Posted by Meg Tilly on Tuesday, January 29, 2008 in snow!We woke up this morning, still dark outside, and I knew even before I went to peek through the blinds that it had snowed last night, because the room was filled with that sleepy, muffled quiet that comes when the world is blanketed in snow. It’s odd, here I am, a woman of forty-seven years, and still I get that hushed magic feeling when I wake up to snow. Like I should be pulling on several layers of clothes, hat and mittens, grab my tobaggon and race outside and find a good hill, so I can go soaring like the wind. There’s something about tobogganing, the running start, hurtling yourself through the air, that slight thump as your body lands on the rapidly moving sled and then the melding together, until you and the tobaggon are one, soaring past snow clad bushes, faster than the wind. Ice particles and the crisp winter air, tearing up your eyes. Hm…I think when Don comes back with the car (yes…mine is STILL in the shop! It’s only been 5 weeks. And what is this big fancy procedure that is supposed to be done? CHANGE MY BATTERY! Grrrr…) Anyway, not worth my time to even dwell on their ineptitude, it’s been one thing after another. I don’t plan on using their place of business ever again. Anyway, back to happy thoughts. When Don comes back with the car, I think I shall head over to the hardware store and get a sled. Then I shall try to cajole the two remaining members of my family to come join in the fun. I wonder if I shall succeed? I just glanced out the window. The snow has stopped falling. I hope it doesn’t melt before I can implement my big plan! I hope this snow holds on for a bit. I hope that by the time I come home with our sled that “new snow is falling.“ (That’s a quote from Ezra Jack Keats children’s book The Snowy Day. I remember being snuggled up in my mother’s lap, listening to her read that book to me. And then, me, reading it to my children, just the way my mother read it to me. Her words, my words, Ezra Jack Keats, filling the room with the magic and wonder of snow.) Posted by Meg Tilly on Tuesday, January 29, 2008 in circling, gathering, getting ready…I dipped my toe in today. Pulled up the YA manuscript, started glancing over some of the feedback I’d gotten from the Book Jackets, Bibliophiles and Ravenous Readers book clubs. I have a pretty clear idea of what I need to do. I had fun today, immersing myself back in 1974. I am so grateful to these teens and parents from Christianne’s Lyceum of Literature and Art for all their help and insight. It’s really nice to be excited about going in. I’m going to do a little more circling tonight, looking up some more stuff, most of which will never be used. Then tomorrow I will print up the manuscript, start marking it up with my pen, find the gaps that I need to fill or insert sections into. And then in a few weeks or months, I’ll start the process of trying to weave it all together and see what happens. I’ve gotten some feedback from the couple of people that I run my manuscripts by and they say I’m wrong to give up on The Big Muckle. They are so ferocious about it. Sending impassioned emails, phone calls, inspirational stories of writers rejections and triumphs. It’s very sweet, I feel quite loved, but to be honest, it’s a little confusing as well. I’m nervous to let anybody else read it in case I embarrass myself further, and yet, unless I get a couple more responses to it, how will I know for certain if it is a piece of cr__ or not? Posted by Meg Tilly on Monday, January 28, 2008 in Chewing the Fat helloI’m feeling more like myself again. Ready to move on. I’m taking one more day to read and sit around looking at my bellybutton. Come tomorrow, I shall stick my big toe back into the writing. We’ll see. I was catching up on my some of the financial things I like to read this morning. It’s interesting to me how the tone of things has changed. Even the analysts that are usually quite optimistic and even keel, are banging the recession, bear market drum. Apparently, what we’ve experienced so far, many of these experts are saying, is only the tip of the iceberg. They expect things to get much, much worse. Scary. So, what can we do? Cut back on spending. Pay off as much of your debt as you possibly can each pay check, starting with the highest interest rate first. If possible consolidate all of your debt into one large one that charges lower rates. It is also very important to have an emergency fund of at least 6 months. If all the gloom and doom that the financial experts are predicting comes true there is going to be downsizing and cut backs. If you are one of the unfortunate ones and you lose your job, you want to make sure that you have a cushion that will sustain your family until you find other work. If you are having financial troubles now and have missed a few mortgage payments, call the financial institution where you got the loan now! Sooner is WAY better than later. I know it’s is scary, but you need to know that they would much rather work out an adjusted payment schedule with you than foreclose on your house. I know it’s tempting when the shit is hitting the fan to want to crawl into bed and pull the covers over your head, but it is very important that you don’t. Oh, and one more thing. If you have stocks and/or bonds AND you are carrying a large credit card or mortgage…don’t be crazy. Sell the stocks and bonds and pay off the debt. I know this is a hard thing for people to get their head around. We are so indoctrinated into thinking we need to have stocks and bonds to feel like a success. BUT you have to think about it financially. How much interests are you earning on your bonds? Maybe 4%. But that’s 4% gross income, taxed at your highest rate. For me here in Canada if I earn $100, I have to pay $47.30 to the government in taxes, that only leaves me with $52.70 in my pocket to pay for things like credit card debt and mortgage payments. Now take a look at your stocks. What is their dividend yield? What is their price earnings? Even calculating the possible growth, which many of the leading financial brains around the world are saying, are not in the cards as they see them. Are you earning more on your investments after you pay taxes than the interest payments you are paying? What are interest rates are you paying on your credit cards? 18%? 21%? So you see, in the big picture, you might not be earning money on your bonds and/or stocks, but taking your debt into account, having these “investments” might actually be losing you money. Do the math. What percentage of interest are you paying on your credit card debt, your car loan, your mortgage? Can you earn more than that with your investments? You see what I mean? Posted by Meg Tilly on Sunday, January 27, 2008 in Chewing the Fat I make up for my grumpiness yesterday by giving Don the gift of laughterLast night Will was out with his friend so it ended up being just me and Don for dinner. Don made chicken breast with thyme and pancetta and leaks, with a nice crisp salad on the side. It was tasty, but we had tons left over. He had made three chicken breasts and they were rather large so I had a half, Don had a whole. “Our grocery bills are going to be way less when Will leaves home,“ Don said. At first I was taken aback, because I try as much as I can, to pretend that my youngest will never leave home. Which is ridiculous. Of course you want to have raised children who feel confident enough in themselves to be able to envision building a life for themselves out in the world. However, it will really mark a huge change in my life. I’ve spent my whole life taking care of people. Who am I going to be once I am not? Will I still be me? ‘Chin up. Look on the bright side,‘ I told myself. I turned to Don. “You’re right about that,“ I said brightly. “We’re going to save a ton of money. Senior citizens eat way less food.“ And I’m thinking about how the restaurants have special menus of the back for seniors which have smaller portions and smaller prices. I used to always eat a whole breast and now I can only manage a half. And I’m feeling all happy, that those great savings on food bills are going to be mine, when Don erupts in a fit of laughter. “What? What? Why are you laughing?“ I say, because I know I must have made a funny joke, but I’m not sure what it is. “Senior citizens?“ Don snorts. “Senior citizens. Meg, you’re only forty-seven and me, I’m coming on forty.“ He’s laughing big time. He’s having to prop his head in his arms on the table because he’s laughing too hard to keep it upright. “Senior citizens? We have a long ways to go before we’re senior citizens!“ And I laugh too, like I was joking on purpose, but really, it’s only around twenty years away. My children are now 23, 21, &17 and it passed in a blink of an eye. I’m going through menopause. I have bones and joints that complain in the morning. Don doesn’t realize it, but being a senior citizen is right around the corner. Posted by Meg Tilly on Saturday, January 26, 2008 in Chewing the Fat How do other people do it?See, this is the problem with taking a break. I start to feel a little grumpy, a little undone, a bit incomplete when I’m not writing. It’s like this morning, I thought, “I’m not writing right now, because I don’t have to. I’m going to take a nice drive across town to pick up our stacks of mail this morning. And then I’m going to have a nice walk with this lovely woman who I’d met recently. How lucky is that? It’s good not to be writing. I stayed up last night reading a book. Ah…how lovely.“ Well, the route I chose to drive must have had every construction site, every car accident, every stalled vehicle there was in the whole entire city. It took me 2 and 1/2 hours to get to the mailbox and back! I barely had time to dash inside, complain grouchily to Don. Like somehow all this bad traffic was his responsibility by proxy. And if he’d come with me rather than writing like a proper writer in his room, maybe none of these traffic snafus would have happened. Or even if they had, maybe it would have been more fun with him in the car. We could have talked, I could have tried to teach him the harmonies to Angels We Have Heard On High. And yes, I know it’s a Christmas carol, but it takes Don a really long time to get a harmony in his head and keep it there. I started a couple weeks ago when we were trapped in bad traffic and I figure if I keep this up, maybe we can sing it around the house next Christmas. (I’m sure this news will thrill the kids…) But he didn’t. He stayed home and was virtuous. Pecking away at the keyboard. Anyway, here’s what my problem is with being stuck in traffic in a car, by myself, for such an extended period of time. My car is in the shop, so there aren’t all the little treats in this car that I use to bribe myself to stay calm, and cozy in bad traffic. There aren’t the CD’s that my daughter or one of my friends have mixed for me. The radio in Don’s car is set to hockey news, and ever since one of my best friends got in a coma and died from a bad traffic accident 5 years ago, I’ve become a more anxious driver than I used to be. Every car on the road is a potential death trap. I find I grip the steering wheel way to hard. So I try to distract myself with thoughts. But a lot of my thoughts are skittering around with questions, and what next? And oh-why-did-I-invite-_____ to go for a walk? What if she thinks she wants to go for a walk with me, but once she does, she’ll wish she never had? What if she agreed to a walk because she thinks I might be interesting, when I’m actually not. What if my dog misbehaves? What if her dog hates my dog? Why am I so shy? It’s so hard when I don’t have the shelter of my children. That whole, you have kids, I have kids, lets get them together to play. Or when I was at regular work and then I’d meet people that way. Now, it’s hard. I feel so awkward. What does one say, “Hey, I like you, lets be friends.“ I don’t know how to do this. I have my old friends, but they live all over the world. I want someone who I can see, talk with, laugh until our bellies are sore. I want a woman friend who lives close by, where I don’t have to be all confident and together. Someone who can tell me her sorrow and joys and I can tell mine. I was so stressed out by the time I battled my way through the tons of traffic and arrived at home. Only to get back in the car again and leave, 20 minutes later, so I could get Molly calm on her leash before _____ arrived. So she wouldn’t think that Molly was the most crazy out-of-control dog she’d ever met. (Granted, Molly is a little bit…um…exuberant, but one has to take into account her challenging past.) But I got all nervous, because if she thought I had a wacko dog, then she’d think I was wacko too and for sure she wouldn’t want to be my friend. Anyway, the walk was lovely. The dogs were happy. We talked books and editors and agents and stuff. And we are the same age, so that’s something else in common. So, we’ll see. Maybe in five years from now, I’ll be blogging about my great friend _____ and we can all have a good laugh about how nervous and stressed I got. Or maybe we won’t become friends. We’ll just stay nodding, friendly bump-into-each-other-every-five-months-or-so kind of acquaintances. I don’t know. Whatever happens is fine. I don’t know why I felt so small about it. I’m glad we moved to Vancouver for Will’s school, but I have to admit. It’s lonely sometimes. I miss the comfort and coziness of my old friends back on the Island. Don is all well and lovely and I am so blessed to have him in my life. But all you women out there, you know what I mean. It’s a different kind of contentment, female companionship. Posted by Meg Tilly on Friday, January 25, 2008 in Chewing the Fat Buttermilk pancakesI’ve decided to post my buttermilk pancakes recipe. I got the original recipe from a cookbook, but as with everything I make, I have fine-tuned and changed it a bit according to what my taste buds like. When pancake loving people come to my house, they always say they are the best pancakes they have ever tasted. Maybe yes, maybe no, but I’m going to post the recipe just in case our friends are telling the truth about the tastiness quotient. This recipe makes around 8 four inch pancakes. It’s enough for the three of us in the morning, but that’s because we have to eat at 7:15 a.m. so Will can get to school on time, and so our stomachs aren’t very hungry. It’s best if you play with it and see what works for your family. If you have large appetites or are more than three people, just double every measurement by two. Meg’s Buttermilk Pancakes ingredients: unbleached flour, sugar, salt, baking soda, baking powder, butter, buttermilk, maple syrup (If you like a side of bacon with your pancakes, start cooking the bacon on medium-low, and then start the recipe. That way the timing will work out and the pancakes and bacon will be done at the same time.) Put a large pan on the stove on medium-low heat. (I don’t use a non-stick pan for pancakes. I use a regular one. I find that the non-stick makes the pancakes sweat slightly, whereas the regular one allows the edges to get that slight crisp.) Measure into a mixing bowl. Mix the above ingredients with a fork. If you are using a two cup measuring cup, you can mix the next section right in the cup. (If you are using a one cup measuring cup, then mix the following ingredients in another mixing bowl.) - 1 and 1/4 cups of buttermilk Blend. Place 1/4 cup of butter in the hot frying pan. Keep a close eye on it. Swirl the butter around so the whole bottom of the pan is greased. As soon as the butter is melted, pour it into the buttermilk and egg mixture, stirring constantly. Turn the frying pan up to just a little bit higher than medium heat, (but not to medium-high!) Then pour the wet mixture into the flour mixture. Do not over blend! Just a few strokes of the fork until all the flour mixture is mixed in. Slip your fingers under the faucet, then dash a couple of drops of water on the frying pan. If the drops of water skiddle around then the pan is hot enough, and you can spoon out the pancake batter into the hot pan. (The pan shouldn’t be smoking. If it is turn the heat down a bit, and remove the pan for just a few seconds to cool it down.) When there are a least two bubbles that have formed in the cooking pancakes and popped without the uncooked batter filling in the holes then the pancakes are ready to flip with a spatula. Do not flip before this or you will have raw and gooey middles. (The second side of the pancakes don’t take nearly as long as the first side. They brown quite quickly and are ready to go.) Important! Do not fiddle with the pancakes while they are cooking just leave them to cook. I see people using their spatula to press down on them all the time and that is not a good idea. It makes the pancakes heavy. Also important While you are waiting, I know it is tempting, but do not stir the sitting batter in the bowl. When you spoon it out into the frying pan, do not re-stir the batter either. It takes the fluff out of the pancakes. When the pancakes are cooked serve them up, piping hot with a slab of fresh butter and real Canadian maple syrup. That’s what we had this morning, and it was good. Posted by Meg Tilly on Thursday, January 24, 2008 in Recipes not all “ah..ha” moments are necessarily funToday, I realized that The Big Muckle, which was fun to write, was not the direction in which my talents lie. It’s too fluffy and light and just surface skims. It was a relief not to have to dive deep, find the core of things, but it is no good. I have decided to toss the (I was going to say “book” but caught myself) manuscript. Reel for a few days, with the disappointment and slight feeling of foolishness that I wasted all that time. And when I have recuperated then I’ll get started on something else. K.C. Dyer (a YA novelist, Seeds of Time, Ms. Zephyr’s Notebook) Wrote today and asked if I would do the Surrey International Writers Conference again next fall, so that will be fun. Some days though, I wonder if I should be a writer. I wonder if I have anything worth saying. What am I going to write next? Is it going to suck too? Why am I writing? Spending all these hours sitting in front of a computer screen. And even when I’m not in front of a computer screen, the writing is still following me around like…I was going to say a mildewed sweater, but I think that is how I’m feeling right now. Sometimes the smell of the stories that follow me around are the aroma of fresh baked gingersnap cookies floating out of a neighbour’s window. I guess that still how I feel. Like all the good stuff is flowing out of everybody else’s fingers and I am hungry and standing out in the parking lot trying to fill up on illusion. Nothing concrete. I don’t think I’m a very good writer. I don’t know if I will ever be.
Posted by Meg Tilly on Wednesday, January 23, 2008 in Heath LedgerHeath Ledger is dead. The beautiful, young, talented actor from Brokeback Mountain and other films. My heart is pounding. I feel so sad. He was one of the special ones that went to the soul and heart of the character. Rare. I didn’t know him. Only his work. What a loss. Posted by Meg Tilly on Tuesday, January 22, 2008 in Chewing the Fat The markets over nightImagine my surprise when I wake up in the early morning hours, unable to sleep, so after an hour or so, I get up and come down stairs, to see that the U.S. Fed had an emergency phone conference last night and decided to cut the overnight loaning rate by .75%. This is a enormous cut, (that granted, many people were hoping for, almost expecting.) But to do it almost a week before expected. Obviously it is an attempt to calm the markets. And boy do they need calming! While we slept the Hong Kong Hang Seng dropped 8.7%. The Shanghai dropped 7.2%. The Japan’s Nikkei tumbled 5.7%. The Indian market closed down 5%. All of this on top of Monday’s losses. The Fed was smart to cut the interest rates early. The question is, will it do the trick? And if it doesn’t…well, I don’t even want to go there because if it doesn’t help…that’s a pretty scary scenario. It seems clear that the Dow will plummet at the open, as there are already a ton of future orders that have been placed yesterday and today (overseas) The question is, will it firm up like the Indian market did yesterday after dropping 10% at the open, to close only 5% down for the day. (I can’t believe I just said only 5% down for the day.) Well, the U.S. markets open in 30 minutes. It promises to be a very interesting day. Posted by Meg Tilly on Tuesday, January 22, 2008 in Chewing the Fat the markets todayOkay, my faithful readers. I am going to go on one of my financial jags, so if that’s not for you, don’t bother reading any further. For the rest of you… Holy Smokes! The stock markets around the world got whacked today, which does not bode well for the US market tomorrow. These are a few of the headlines that greeted me today. “Stocks in Europe put in their largest one day decline since Sept. 11, 2001.“ “US recession fears sparks deep selling throughout Asia.“ Bank of China $8 billion write off.“ And then there is a real intriguing headline “How a French Bankers Comments Derailed Global Stock Markets.“ The real interesting thing about this article is it is the only one I can’t read! Every time (and believe me, I’ve been trying all day) to read it, I get booted off, not just the article but the Internet as well. There have been several articles with a similar theme in the title, but anything that has to do with this subject boots me off. I can’t get more than a sentence in before this happens. And it is only with this subject matter. Everything else is fine. Almost makes me think that it’s on purpose. Someone is doing damage control, saw that whatever this guy said had a huge effect on the global markets and so they made it impossible for us poor folks in North America to access it. Oh, I just looked up and saw that it is 1p.m. I’ll be right back. I want to see what the Toronto Stock Exchange closed at. I’m back. The final closing numbers aren’t up on my screen yet, but right now it says -597.05. Which is a drop of -4.69%. Huge. Add that to the -6.6% drop of last week and it is not a pretty picture. What is really interesting me, is that generally when the stock markets are lower, the “safe haven” investments (i.e. gold) usually rises in price. But that hasn’t been happening in the last few days. Gold has been whacked as well. Now, one could argue that gold has been having a meteoric rise and in order to be strong, needs to rest for a while. Back up and fill, consolidate the ridiculously exuberant upsurge before it continues it’s rise. But, maybe not. Banks around the world have been hit big time. They have suffered huge losses due to the sub-prime and credit challenges. Now, it is my understanding that the Canadian banks are a very different creature than the US banks. That they are more tightly regulated. That there is some exposure to the sub-prime mess, but not to the extent of some of the US banks. Not only that, but we don’t have the multitude of banks that the US has. There are five major banks and one mini-major bank. That’s it. None of these banks have ever even come close to going under, not even during the Great Depression in 1929-1934. Not only that, but don’t you think that even if there was a huge disaster, that it would be unthinkable that the Canadian Government wouldn’t bail them out. There is only five of them. How could a country run without banks. I think the Government would have to. So, here’s my question. Has anybody noticed what these Canadian banks are selling for? Price/earnings in the 11’s. Dividend yields of 4.26-5.42% The only exception in Toronto Dominion which has a P/E of 11.33 and a yield of 3.68%. (I heard from a pretty reliable source, that the TD has repeatedly stated that they have absolutely no exposure to the sub-prime market. But you’d want to verify that for yourself) Now if you add in the fact that we pay a much lower tax for dividend income, I don’t know. It’s something to think about. Do I think this is the end of the stock market slide? No. Do I have a crystal ball that says that we should buy bank stocks? No. Am I watching the Canadian bank stocks and saying, hmm? Yes. Do I think the bank stocks might slide a lot further? It’s very possible, almost to the point of probable. I think they will slide a lot more, which is why dollar cost averaging could be a smart strategy. Do I have any kind of financial degree what-so-ever? Absolutely not! I’m just telling you what’s on my mind. See how much fun I have when I’m not working on a manuscript. That’s all for today. Posted by Meg Tilly on Monday, January 21, 2008 in Chewing the Fat |
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