As the economy begins its slow recovery, yet another reminder came this week that falls under the category of "things we cannot control." This time, it's Mother Nature — who seemingly sent relentless rains that may impact none other than an American Thanksgiving Tradition: Pumpkin Pie.

Nestlé — which heralds the largest national brand for canned pumpkin products and has captured 80 to 90 percent of the market — said heavy rains made it nearly impossible to pick its pumpkins during this year's harvest.

Your reporter has learned that the company plants a special strain of pumpkin at a farm in Morton, Ill., which provides nearly all its supply. Nestlé estimates that if patriotic pie bakers clear cross the country turned all the pumpkins it grows on this very farm into pies, the total would be a whopping 90 million. That's a lotta dough — in more ways than one!

Your pie-loving reporter momentarily traded in her culinary cap for her investor's hat so that she might pose this question in regards to the possible pumpkin pie panic: What would your fellow SC cohorts do?

Chances are, if an actual or perceived pumpkin shortage drove up the price per can, they'd hunker down for the long term — when sunnier days would spur not only a robust harvest, but more reasonable prices — all the while enjoying a slimmer waistline. And, she bets, in the meantime, these very same investors would create an SC Forum for Nestlé, so that they might share their insights on this company's pre- and post-pumpkin-panic value.

Do you count yourself among those investors? Then what are you waiting for? On to this week's headlines . . .

"LOTS TO LIKE" ABOUT STOCKCENTRAL



Traub Encourages Forum Fodder

Speaking of the SC Forums, SC member, software developer and longtime, long-term investor education advocate Ellis Traub declares the forums to be among the site's top features.

"I think the forums corresponding to each individual company are very valuable," Ellis says. "Ninety percent of the time, someone will have already done the research I might need to do on a specific company and will have shared the information with the rest. And, it's especially good to see what others have deduced from the data.

"Each has been created for its specific purpose; and each serves its purpose well," he adds. "I'd like to see a little more activity on them, though."

In addition to the forums, Ellis is a self-proclaimed StockCentral fan. "There's lots to like about StockCentral," he says. "My personal delight is the fact that it delivers to me, through the Stock Screener, a real-time Complete Roster of Quality Companies, which is a huge benefit when I'm interested in searching for new candidates for investment.

"I also like the other tools that are available — such as Take Stock — and am eagerly waiting for the advanced version to be completed so we may enjoy the easy portfolio management process that the desktop version includes," he says. "All of the access to data and the focus on just those items of interest to our kind of investors make StockCentral the number one place to go for most of the first-line research."

Tech Support to the Rescue!



Remedying Error "75" IS AS EASY AS 1, 2, 3 . . .

Some Stock Analyst users have been reportedly been experiencing error "75" when attempting to use the software. ICLUB techie Sean Purlang to the rescue!

"The error 75 is pretty easy to correct for most of our programs," Sean notes. "Before taking the steps to correct this, we do suggest that you go to the Options menu and make a backup of your database. With that done, close Stock Analyst and take the following steps to adjust it for correct operation in Windows Vista:

• With the program closed, click the WINDOWS button in the lower left corner of your screen; this will show the Start menu, and a list of programs.

• If the program does not appear in the initial list on the Start menu, type its name in the START SEARCH box until you find the program.

• Right-click the program icon, then click PROPERTIES.

• On the properties window, click the COMPATIBILITY tab. If you do not see a compatibility tab, make sure that you have selected the program, and not a file or folder with the same name.

• On this tab, click RUN THIS PROGRAM IN COMPATIBILITY MODE. Make sure the selection under this shows Windows XP (Service Pack2).

• Also on this tab, click RUN THIS PROGRAM AS ADMINISTRATOR. Click APPLY, then OK.

• If this is successful, Windows will add a small multi-colored shield to the program icon. If you have the User Account Control (also called UAC) active, Windows will now ask you to Cancel or Allow the program when you open it. Click ALLOW to let the program run as normal.

"We have found that this set of steps can be very useful in getting our software to work correctly with Windows Vista," Sean says. "If you are running into trouble with registering the program, connecting to the Internet or saving information, please take these steps, and try the program again."

FOR COMMUNITY, EDUCATION AND INSIGHTS . . .



SC Members Give Thanks

Your most diligent reporter crisscrossed the country this past week in order to glean these — SC's greatest contributions to the investing world — from among the most grateful SC members:

I'm thankful for all my investing friends, especially those on the InvestEd team, who so generously share their knowledge and thoughts. I'm also thankful for my friends in our investment community who disagree with my methods (grin) and are still willing to keep an open, collegial dialogue going. — Saul Seinberg

I'm thankful for enjoying a healthy retirement, and for the SC community who makes it easier to share and knock around investing ideas. — Danny Matthews

I'm thankful for investor education leadership, innovation, and a customer-centric mission. SC fills untapped niches with investor education online tutorials, investment club guidelines, and electronic data at a reasonable price. It's a pleasure to attend the TK6 User Group with Doug Gerlach and discover features many of us dreamed about for years. Additional education Webinars show the "how to" of stock analysis and relentlessly answer questions. Thank you, StockCentral. — Judith Russ Leon

TODAY'S ENTIRELY RELEVANT QUOTATION




"There are a lot of beautiful pumpkins out there that we just can't rescue."


—

Nestlé Spokeswoman Roz O'Hearn