Etc...

AND I'M NOT INVESTING, EITHER

When the century-old New Zealand Stock Exchange decided to go trendy last month and change its name to NZX Ltd., few people probably cared enough to raise an objection. One who did, though, was Steve Crow. In fact, he wrote a letter expressing his unhappiness. Why? Because his company's name is NZX. He admitted it's unlikely there will be confusion between the two because his field of endeavor is films and magazines with a - well - sensual theme. But he said in his letter: "I don't want to hear about it in five years if [we] do something you don't like. We were here first." The stock market folks aren't worried. "We operate in a very different business category," a spokeswoman said.

Northern states fare better than those in the South in conditions related to childhood well-being, according to the annual Kids Count report. A project of the Annie E. Casey Foundation in Baltimore, which works with disadvantaged children, the report assessed government data from 1990-2000 in 10 categories, such as infant, child, and teen death rates; poverty; dropout rates; and number of single-parent families. The top and bottom five states in the Kids Count ranking:

Best states

1. Minnesota
2. New Hampshire
3. Utah
4. New Jersey
5. Iowa

Worst states

46. New Mexico
47. Arkansas
48. Alabama
49. Louisiana
50. Mississippi - Associated Press