It's D-Day, Eat some Salami

This is an investment alert.  Gold is through the roof.  Silver is climbing again.  The next investment target is hard salami.  This recommendation and assessment is based on a visit to Hymie’s Deli in Merion, PA where half-dozen salamis hang from the ceiling over the deli counter.  They are in various states of becoming wrinkled and hard.  They start out smooth and as they hang, for several weeks, they begin to wrinkle producing a hard, tasty product. According to Hymie’s owner Louis Barson the salamis wrinkle as they hang due to moisture sweating off.  The salamis have lots of salt and that keeps them very edible.  “It’s the way beef was dried in the old days,” notes Barson. His salamis come from National Deli and are identified as hanging salamis.  After they wrinkle, dry and harden they are sold for $16.99 a pound. You can keep your gold and silver.  I’m going to hang a couple of these babies in my kitchen to cope with any financial wrinkles the markets throw my way.

Calendar dates trigger memories. I write this post as we observe June 6^th, the day commemorated as D-Day.  It was on June 6, 1944, that the invasion of Europe took place during World War II as Allied forces stormed the beaches of Normandy, France.  When I was in high school D-Day came far more frequently coinciding with the periodic issuing of report cards which had to be reviewed and signed by a parent. 

My father worked nights in the Post Office and would have his dinner when he got home around 1 A.M.  I would leave my report card on the kitchen table next to his plate for his “review and signature” which I would find in the morning accompanied by a note expressing his disappointment in my D’s and directing me to improve.   I went on to garner C’s and a few B’s but will never forget my D days.

Thoughts of Salamis as well as World War Two’s D-Day are intertwined by the fact that in Katz’s Deli on Manhattan’s Lower East Side there hangs a round, cardboard sign dating back to World War Two urging you to “Send a Salami to your Boy in the Army.”