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A banker at Franklin National Bank in Rockville Centre, New York, Boyle developed the Franklin Charge Account Plan. This was the first bank-issued credit card, the forerunner of the BankAmericard and the MasterCharge card (which later became the Visa and MasterCard). It did the Diners Club card, introduced in 1950, one better: the Diner's Club was a charge card, which required full payment each month. Boyle's credit card introduced revolving credit, which allowed monthly payments (with interest), revolutionizing consumer credit. By October 1951, the Franklin Charge Card was accepted by 750 merchants. The Franklin slogan "Just Charge It" became a national catchphrase. Boyle died April 30 in New York. He was 88. From This is True for 7 May 2000 Suggestions for further reading:
 By: Dave Ramsey List Price: $24.99 Amazon Price: $16.49 Editorial Review: The success stories speak for themselves in this book from money maestro Dave Ramsey. Instead of promising the normal dose of quick fixes, Ramsey offers a bold, no-nonsense approach to money matters, providing not only the how-to but also a grounded and uplifting hope for getting out of debt and achieving total financial health. Ramsey debunks the many myths of money (exposing the dangers of cash advance, rent-to-own, debt consolidation) and attacks the illusions and downright deceptions of the American dream, which encourages nothing but overspending and massive amounts of debt. "Don't even consider keeping up with the Joneses," Ramsey declares in his typically candid style. "They're broke!" The Total Money Makeover isn't theory. It works every single time. It works because it is simple. It works because it gets to the heart of the money problems: you.  By: Jeffrey Eugenides List Price: $15.00 Amazon Price: $10.50 Editorial Review: "I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day in January of 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of 1974." And so begins Middlesex, the mesmerizing saga of a near-mythic Greek American family and the "roller-coaster ride of a single gene through time." The odd but utterly believable story of Cal Stephanides, and how this 41-year-old hermaphrodite was raised as Calliope, is at the tender heart of this long-awaited second novel from Jeffrey Eugenides, whose elegant and haunting 1993 debut, The Virgin Suicides, remains one of the finest first novels of recent memory. Eugenides weaves together a kaleidoscopic narrative spanning 80 years of a stained family history, from a fateful incestuous union in a small town in early 1920s Asia Minor to Prohibition-era Detroit; from the early days of Ford Motors to the heated 1967 race riots; from the tony suburbs of Grosse Pointe and a confusing, aching adolescent love story to modern-day Berlin. Eugenides's command of the narrative is astonishing. He balances Cal/Callie's shifting voices convincingly, spinning this strange and often unsettling story with intelligence, insight, and generous amounts of humor: Emotions, in my experience aren't covered by single words. I don't believe in "sadness," "joy," or "regret." … I'd like to have at my disposal complicated hybrid emotions, Germanic traincar constructions like, say, "the happiness that attends disaster." Or: "the disappointment of sleeping with one's fantasy." ... I'd like to have a word for "the sadness inspired by failing restaurants" as well as for "the excitement of getting a room with a minibar." I've never had the right words to describe my life, and now that I've entered my story, I need them more than ever. When you get to the end of this splendorous book, when you suddenly realize that after hundreds of pages you have only a few more left to turn over, you'll experience a quick pang of regret knowing that your time with Cal is coming to a close, and you may even resist finishing it--putting it aside for an hour or two, or maybe overnight--just so that this wondrous, magical novel might never end. --Brad Thomas Parsons"I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day of January 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of l974. . . My birth certificate lists my name as Calliope Helen Stephanides. My most recent driver’s license...records my first name simply as Cal."  By: Ernest J. Gaines List Price: $12.95 Amazon Price: $10.36 Editorial Review: Oprah Book ClubŪ Selection, September 1997: In a small Cajun community in 1940s Louisiana, a young black man is about to go to the electric chair for murder. A white shopkeeper had died during a robbery gone bad; though the young man on trial had not been armed and had not pulled the trigger, in that time and place, there could be no doubt of the verdict or the penalty. "I was not there, yet I was there. No, I did not go to the trial, I did not hear the verdict, because I knew all the time what it would be..." So begins Grant Wiggins, the narrator of Ernest J. Gaines's powerful exploration of race, injustice, and resistance, A Lesson Before Dying. If young Jefferson, the accused, is confined by the law to an iron-barred cell, Grant Wiggins is no less a prisoner of social convention. University educated, Grant has returned to the tiny plantation town of his youth, where the only job available to him is teaching in the small plantation church school. More than 75 years after the close of the Civil War, antebellum attitudes still prevail: African Americans go to the kitchen door when visiting whites and the two races are rigidly separated by custom and by law. Grant, trapped in a career he doesn't enjoy, eaten up by resentment at his station in life, and angered by the injustice he sees all around him, dreams of taking his girlfriend Vivian and leaving Louisiana forever. But when Jefferson is convicted and sentenced to die, his grandmother, Miss Emma, begs Grant for one last favor: to teach her grandson to die like a man. As Grant struggles to impart a sense of pride to Jefferson before he must face his death, he learns an important lesson as well: heroism is not always expressed through action--sometimes the simple act of resisting the inevitable is enough. Populated by strong, unforgettable characters, Ernest J. Gaines's A Lesson Before Dying offers a lesson for a lifetime.From the author of A Gathering of Old Men and The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman comes a deep and compassionate novel. A young man who returns to 1940s Cajun country to teach visits a black youth on death row for a crime he didn't commit. Together they come to understand the heroism of resisting.In this novel, a young man who returns to 1940s Cajun country to teach visits a black youth on death row for a crime he didn't commit. Together they come to understand the heroism of resisting.  By: Robert T. KiyosakiSharon L. Lechter List Price: $10.99 Amazon Price: $8.79 Editorial Review: The real trick to building personal wealth is learning how to transform 'bad debt' into 'good debt.' This quick-hitting book explains how-without having to cut up credit cards. This is the eighth book in the phenomenally successful Rich Dad series. This book was originally published as an e-book and now joins the Rich Dad series in trade paperback format.Who wants to be a millionaire? #1 bestselling authors Robert Kiyosaki and Sharon Lechter know that the answer is: everyone. In their bestselling books Rich Dad, Poor Dad, Cashflow Quadrant, and Rich Dad's Guide to Investing, they outlined what anyone can do to become rich. Now, in their first eBook, Kiyosaki and Lechter distill the wisdom of their Rich Dad books into a motivational guide to making money.As a young man, Kiyosaki had two mentors: his father, a highly educated professional who could not manage his money, and his friend's father, a man with less formal education but serious business acumen. Kiyosaki shows how the lessons he learned from his "rich dad"--some unconventional and unexpected--are the foundations of success. With Rich Dad's Guide to Becoming Rich . . . Without Cutting up Your Credit Cards, Kiyosaki and Lechter explain why simply being cheap is not the answer to financial problems--it only makes you a cheap person. Instead, they show how building assets is the key to a prosperous future.  By: Scott Bilker List Price: $19.95 Amazon Price: $17.96 Editorial Review: Learning how to talk your way out of credit card debt is the quickest, easiest, and most efficient way to start saving money! It's true! You can call your credit card banks to negotiate a better interest rate and have fees waived! However, it may not be as easy as picking up the phone and asking. That's because bank representatives are trained to deter you from pursuing the deals you deserve. Overcoming their tactics can be difficult when you don't know what to expect. Scott Bilker, author of Talk Your Way Out of Credit Card Debt, and creator of DebtSmart.com, has spent 10+ years making banks compete for his business. Now, he's sharing his personal phone calls to banks that saved more than $43,000 for himself, his family, and friends! These 52 phone calls, out of the hundreds he has made, demonstrate exactly what worked, what didn't, and why. In each call transcript, for anonymity, banks have been renamed as dog breeds and their reps as bugs.:) In this book you will discover proven negotiation strategies, and build your confidence, while learning how to: (1) get annual fees waived; (2) lower your current interest rates; (3) shop for the best credit card deals; (4) get late-payment, overlimit, and cash-advance fees waived; (5) compare loan options and calculate savings; (6) dispute charges and get all your refunds; (7) negotiate account settlements; and much more! |
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