Jane, I purchased a cable at Best Buy to connect my iPod to my stereo receiver. It sounds like you need the same thing. Go to the department that sells iPods and other MP3s and look for a rack of cable accessories. I think that mine is made by Belden. Or ask a salesperson for help. This cable will have a mini-plug on one end (plugs into the earphone jack on your MP3 player), and then splits into to two cables, each with an "RCA" plug on the ends. These match the inputs on your Sony system, make sure that you have two Audio In jacks, a Right and a Left. If you don't, you may need another type of cable, or an adaptor to go with the cable. It would be helpful if you could see your Sony unit in the same store that sells the cables, but not necessary. Radio Shack is probably another source for such cables. They tell you to turn down the volume on the player so that you won't blow out the speakers when you turn it on. Once you get it set up and working, you can see how to best set the volume. Hope this helps, Steve

Yellowhair, Sorry, I'm unfamiliar with the U.S. situation. Gina in FL refers to tax-free municipal bonds, from time to time. Usually corporate bonds pay a little better than governent ones - and there are some corporations, e.g. major banks that aren't going to go broke. Here in Canada we used to have only half a dozen or so major banks, but in recent years other banks have come into being, but they don't have a nation-wide branch system like the others. Up here, ING Bank offers higher rates of return than most of the traditional banks with a large local presence. ING, a Dutch-based outfit, is a substantial bank - but they ask you to send a cheque on your local bank, and when they return the money, send a cheque - which you cash at your local bank. I'm pretty sure that they are active in the U.S. - if you may be interested, ask Google for ING bank, see what happens. If you might need the money unexpectedly, you can put it into a money market account, that pays better than a savings account. In order to get higher interest, usually you must tie up the money for a definite period. Which means that it's not available in case of emergency. In case of emergency, you can almost certainly use it as collateral for a loan at the same institution, most likely, for a rate of interest only slightly higher than they're paying you on the instrument. If I had a loan to buy a car and could pay it off when I chose, I'd probably pay it off, as in our tax situation few can make the interest on a car loan deductible. Then borrow some money to invest - but not into such as guaranteed certificates, as they'd pay me at a lower rate than I had to pay for the loan. In Canada, we have advantageous tax rates on dividends that Canadian corporations pay on their stock and on the gain in value when one sells the stock for more than one paid. I've formulated a scenario where I figure that someone could earn a substantial income and, if the projections worked out, pay almost no income tax. Haven't tried it in the real world, though. Doubt whether I'd have the nerve, even if I had assets enough to allow me to make that large a loan - for it entails borrowing several hundred thousand to invest. Interest on money borrowed to invest is deductible in the current year. One must answer to the tax people for dividends earned in the year they're earned - but capital gain that's developed in a stock over the years doesn't attract tax liability until it's sold (or the owner dies, when it is assumed to have been sold on the day before the death). Sorry that I can't be of more help, Yellowhair. ole joyful

Nicole, if you leave the money in for ten years, you would not be paying a penalty at all. The term is ten years. If you left it in you would have pretax income of about $45,000 on an initial investment of $100,000. That is a pretax income number. You only have to pay the penalty if you withdraw before the 120 month term. The APY, net of the penalty would be 0.250%, not 0.030% The risk you are taking is that deposit rates are currently about as low as they can get and will likely increase before the end of the term. Let's say this happens in two years, that means you will have invested your money for two years in an instrument with an APY of essentially 0.250%. I think it's a pretty safe bet that rates will rise, so if it were my money, I'd park it in a money market account (same bank has one for 1.10%) until I thought that deposit rates were stable and then I would buy a long term CD. Putting the money in a liquid account will allow you to maximize your earnings on the cash both now and later. But, YMMV.

Mail early for Christmas, all. If I didn't get hurt too badly - probably I could still post here. I do try to pull such stunts when I'm not inconveniencing people. If things are busy, I usually just meekly conform. It's rather hard though - being something of a non-conformist. Tell me that we've always done it that way, and I'm as liable as not to say, "Give me three reasons why we should". I hope that you're all enjoying this beautiful season. ole joyful P.S. Some of you older characters may remember a comic strip years ago that featured a(t least one) dog with quite a pronounced crook in his tail - had got it caught in the screen door. Non-conformist clergy have a tendency to get their tails caught in screen doors, on occasion. Actually in England quite a number of years ago, non-Anglican (i.e. Episcopalian), non-Roman Catholic Christians (i.e. Protestants) were frequently called "non-conformists". Still are, I think. What do they say - "Where everyone thinks alike - no one thinks very much"? oj