Today's Number: 20%

        Consumers who say they plan to buy patriotic gifts for Christmas, according to the American Express Retail Index.

Today's Mover

        Lisa Elmendorf has joined Freedman, Gibson & White as traffic coordinator. She had worked at Northlich as media strategist and at Liebel & Co. for 13 years as media director. She will be responsible for managing and delegating the creative workload and assisting with production.

        Timing isn't everything. It just seems that way, says Chin-Ning Chu, author of Working Woman's Art of War: Winning Without Confrontation. And success really isn't about luck either, she says. “We can improve timing through detailed planning, incorporating intuition, using common sense and doing the hard work of gathering data and executing a plan,” she says. “By incorporating tao (the nature of harmonious change) into our day-to-day lives, we will naturally improve our timing.”

       Putting money in tax-favored or tax-deferred investments — such as savings bonds, municipal bonds or variable annuities — that are in tax-advantaged retirement accounts is redundant and wasteful. You will get a better a rate of return for fewer fees buying no-load mutual funds, while still seeing tax benefits because of the nature of the account.

        Boots And Bumbershoots: The SoLo Marx Co. of Loveland got its start in 1923 manufacturing lightweight rubber boots that slipped over shoes. Called “totes” to emphasize their portability, the boots gave SoLo Marx its greatest sales and ultimately its name. Brad Phillips bought the company in 1961 and began diversifying by offering umbrellas. The company added other weather-related products and slippers. In 1994, Bain Capital bought a majority interest in Totes (which the company spells with a lowercase “t,” but many publications capitalize it).

        Fitting (In) Like a Glove: Acquired in 1997 by Totes Inc., the ARIS Isotoner company dates from 1910, when brothers Arthur, Robert and Irwin Stanton pooled their energies (and their initials) to form ARIS. The enterprise specialized in fashion gloves for women. As women increasingly took those fashion gloves off, the company switched to functional ones, introducing their trademark stretchy “Isotoner” product around 1970.

        Gone Global: With about 1,000 employees, Totes Isotoner is based in West Chester and has offices in New York, Toronto, London, Paris and Hong Kong.

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