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    The Best Time to do Everything: Expert Advice on How to Live Cooler, Smarter, Faster, Better
    The Best Time to do Everything: Expert Advice on How to Live Cooler, Smarter, Faster, Better
    The Best Time to do Everything: Expert Advice on How to Live Cooler, Smarter, Faster, Better
    Ebook155 pages2 hours

    The Best Time to do Everything: Expert Advice on How to Live Cooler, Smarter, Faster, Better

    By Michael Kaplan

    4.5/5

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    About this ebook

    The Best Time to Do Everything is really just that-a guide to the best time to do everything in life. From buying shoes to cleaning a murder scene, each entry is built around the well-informed advice of an expert in that particular field: Donald Trump on the best time to haggle, Johnny Ramone on the best time to learn to play guitar, Bill Maher on the best time for a political conversation, the Car Talk guys on the best time to repair your car. Not all of the advice comes from celebrities, but all of it does come from people who know their stuff. Incredibly useful (best time to buy life insurance, best time to look for a job, best time to purge and organize), entertaining (best time to start a high-fashion modeling career, best time to approach a celebrity, best time to cheat on your diet), and outrageous (best time to get punched in the face, best time for a coup, best time to have sex with 209 strangers), The Best Time to Do Everything is educational, practical, and wholly addictive. Michael Kaplan is a journalist based in Brooklyn, NY, and his writing has appeared in Wired, Details, Spin, Playboy, and SmartMoney. He is the author of the nonfiction book Buried Mistakes and the gambling columnist for Cigar Aficionado.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBloomsbury USA
    Release dateDec 1, 2008
    ISBN9781596918238
    The Best Time to do Everything: Expert Advice on How to Live Cooler, Smarter, Faster, Better
    Author

    Michael Kaplan

    Michael Kaplan is an award-winning writer and documentary filmmaker who resides in Edinburgh, Scotland, and co-author with Ellen Kaplan of Chances Are... and Bozo Sapiens.

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    • 3/5
      Michael Kaplan interviews various subject matter experts to find out about the right timing for many of life's events. He goes over everything from the best time to get pregnant to the best time to overthrow a country. Some of the entries are not very practicable, but over all the book gets the point across. A quick read.

    Book preview

    The Best Time to do Everything - Michael Kaplan

    THE BEST TIME

    TO DO EVERYTHING

    THE BEST TIME

    TO DO EVERYTHING:

    EXPERT ADVICE ON HOW TO LIVE COOLER,

    SMARTER, FASTER, BETTER

    MICHAEL KAPLAN

    BLOOMSBURY

    Copyright © 2005 by Michael Kaplan

    All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced

    in any manner whatsoever without written permission from

    the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in

    critical articles or reviews. For information address Bloomsbury

    Publishing, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.

    Published by Bloomsbury Publishing, New York and London

    Distributed to the trade by Holtzbrinck Publishers

    All papers used by Bloomsbury Publishing are natural, recyclable

    products made from wood grown in well-managed forests.

    The manufacturing processes conform to the environmental

    regulations of the country of origin.

    Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

    Kaplan, Michael, 1959-

    The best time to do everything : expert advice on how to live

    cooler, smarter, faster, better / Michael Kaplan.—1st U.S. ed.

    p. cm.

    1. Conduct of life. 2. Life skills. I. Title.

    BJ1595.K296 2004

    646.7—dc22

    2004014827

    eISBN: 978-1-59691-823-8

    Portions of this book have appeared in various forms in

    Reader's Digest, American Way, Cigar Aficionado, and Book.

    Certain material in this book appearing was originally published in SmartMoney

    magazine. © SmartMoney 2001, 2002, 2003. All rights reserved by

    SmartMoney, a joint publishing venture of Dow Jones & Company,

    Inc. and Hearst Communications, Inc. Used with permission.

    First U.S. Edition 2005

    1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

    Typeset by Palimpsest Book Production Limited,

    Polmont, Stirlingshire, Scotland

    Printed in the United States of America

    by Quebecor World Fairfield

    For Melodie, Lola, and Chloe

    CONTENTS

    Introduction

    The Best Time To Do Everything

    Acknowledgments

    A note on the author

    A note on the type

    INTRODUCTION

    In February of 2000, my wife and I sold our Manhattan apartment. New York real estate being what it is, we made a healthy profit. Four months later, in June, we took that money and put it toward a lovely brownstone in Brooklyn. We paid a decent price, and I felt pretty good about both deals.

    Then I happened to speak with a real estate broker who challenged the logic of my timing. Housing prices are lowest in winter, he stated. And they're highest in summer. That means, relatively speaking, I sold low and bought high.

    It's a matter of supply and demand, the realtor explained. More people are looking to buy houses in the spring and summer. That's when prices rise. Then, because fewer people want to move during cold-weather months, prices drop in the winter. Simple.

    Oh. It got me to thinking about how much I could have saved by timing things a little differently. Then I began considering all the other things that could be timed more effectively: buying shoes, making restaurant reservations, finding a job, playing basketball, getting married, saving for retirement. How great would it be to know the best time to do everything? Especially if you could go to impeccable sources for the information: Donald Trump on the best time to haggle, punk-rock star Johnny Ramone on the best time to learn guitar, mob lawyer Bruce Cutler on the best time to plead the Fifth, Bill Maher on the best time to talk politics, David Blaine on the best time to do magic.

    So I set out to find all the answers, conducting nearly two hundred interviews with some of the best minds on every subject from gaming to romance to cooking to travel to—yes—real estate. Follow the advice within these pages and you'll be able to make your life cooler, smarter, faster, better, and much more efficient. Plus, if someone happens to ask you when might be the best time to run into a burning building, how you can get your hands on the freshest fish, or when to snag a hotel-room upgrade, you'll have the answers.

    THE BEST TIME

    TO DO EVERYTHING

    Best Time to Buy a New Car

    Auto prices are always somewhat negotiable, but at the end of every month, salesmen become downright flexible. It's when they focus more on volume and less on commissions from individual car sales. We have monthly quotas that we try to hit, says Fred Altman, one of America's most successful Dodge salesmen (he works out of Christopher's Dodge World in Golden, Colorado, which consistently ranks among the country's top dealerships). Everything in the car business is on a monthly schedule. Sell enough cars in a given month and you get a higher commission percentage the next month, as well as a better work schedule. As the thirtieth and thirty-first approach, I am definitely more aggressive in closing sales.

    Best Time to Launch a High-Fashion Modeling Career

    You see those pale-skinned beauties flaunting string-bean physiques, strutting down catwalks, and figure you can do it, too. Hopefully, this decision is being reached before you're old enough to drive. For a woman, the best time to start exploring a modeling career is when she is a junior in high school, says Michael Flutie, who co-owns Flutie Entertainment and once managed the likes of Cindy Crawford, Elle McPherson, and James King.

    It's a year prior to graduation, and she'll have time to explore the possibilities. Before becoming a full-time model, though, a girl wants to be finished with high school. After graduation, she should plan on spending the twelve months one would ordinarily devote to freshman year of college in trying out the business. If a girl waits till after she's done with college, she's too old. And if she tries doing it at fourteen, the industry will love her, but mistakes get made when a young teenager is standing in front of the camera and exuding sex for a fifty-year-old male photographer. Young girls get drawn in and don't have what it takes, emotionally, to deal with the industry.

    Men who want to enter modeling have it easier, at least in terms of the timing: For men, it should be right after college or else during sophomore or junior year. Women need to look like girls, but male models should look like men.

    Best Time for a First Kiss

    Em and Lo (aka Emma Taylor and Lorelei Sharkey), tag-team sex columnists and authors of The Big Bang, suggest ditching the cliched end-of-first-date lip lock and thinking outside the box: middle of the second date. After the first date, they opine, you might not even know whether or not the other person really likes you, and you have a chance of getting the cheek instead of the lips—a depressing denouement. But by the second date, he or she is obviously interested, and by not waiting until the end of that date, you break the ice and get any lingering tension out of the way. But what if your date seems immediately and totally into you? Does that make your first night out together suitable for a smooch? Uh-uh. There is something cool about delayed gratification, which can be very sexy.

    Best Time to Teach Your Dog a Trick

    Remember the movie Gladiator? It contains a stunning scene in which the character played by Russell Crowe gets pawed and clawed by an angry tiger. Not surprisingly, that wasn't Crowe under the big cat. More surprisingly, the attack was done without special effects. Randy Miller, Hollywood's reigning master of the wild animal-attack scene, got mauled for real, and Crowe's face was digitally implanted later on. While Miller, a trainer of ferocious beasts, lives in a Northern California compound with his lions and tigers and bears, he also has a handful of dogs, which are among the most disciplined you'll ever meet.

    He says that the best time to teach your dog a trick is soon after the canine's first birthday. The dog's young and active, but maturing quickly, and his brain is developing, says Miller. "On the other hand, he's not so young that he can't understand what you want him to do. To sit and stay are the first things you need to teach a dog, as those are both required for him to behave in a reasonable manner when he's around people or other animals. Next you train him to come to you when you call. Get those down, and then after that, he can learn to do the fun stuff: play dead, or shake hands, or roll over."

    © Purebred Cheat Sheet ©

    Before you train your dog, you'll need to select the right one. Here are five popular breeds of dog and what you can expect from them, according to details provided by the American Kennel Club.

    Akita: This breed originated in Japan and was first brought to the United States by Helen Keller. These are large, muscular dogs, said to be good with kids but standoffish with strangers. They require a fenced yard (in other words, don't keep an Akita confined in your apartment).

    Bichon frise: Not surprisingly, this handbag-size pooch is a favorite with the ladies who lunch set.

    This dog requires lots of pampering, enjoys sitting in its owner's lap, and has a coat that needs to be frequently brushed. On the positive side, the bichon has a generally upbeat disposition.

    Boxer: This breed is appropriately named, as boxers strike with a front paw when fighting. These well-built dogs can do guard work, but they have mild enough temperaments to provide companionship as well.

    Fox terrier: Strong and compact, they were originally bred for hunting foxes and badgers. These dogs are surprisingly powerful—especially in light of their petite size—and can be gratingly high-strung.

    Siberian husky: This is a terrific dog if you need to win a four-hundred-mile sled race (in 1910, John Iron Man Johnson brought acclaim to the breed after acing such an event, traveling through the wilds of Alaska with a pack of huskies pulling him). The American Kennel Club warns that huskies shed nonstop and must be kept under control at all times. But before you turn your back on this native of Siberia, consider that the AKC also describes the Siberian husky as a friendly and gentle dog [that] makes a wonderful companion. Mush!

    Best Time to Buy Shoes

    In the afternoon. You want to wait until you've been walking around for a while and your feet have swelled a bit, says Dr. Bruce R. Saferin, a Toledo, Ohio-based podiatrist who serves on the board of the American Podiatric Medical Association. Buy shoes on your way to work in the morning, and by the afternoon, you'll wonder why they're hurting your feet. In case the shoes you buy in the afternoon feel a little loose in the morning, don't worry. Your feet will spread out once you start walking around.

    Best Time to Place a Sports Bet

    If you're looking to play the underdog, wait till game time; if you want to play a favorite, then you probably should jump on it as early as you can, says Keith Glantz, former professional sports bettor and current line maker for the Associated Press.

    The reason for this is that most amateur bettors wager on favorites, and they tend to place their bets close to game time. Because bookies are getting lots of wagers on favorites during those pregame minutes, they move the point spread to attract action to the underdogs. Their goal here is to achieve something close to a balance of bets on both sides (bookies make money by charging a 10 percent betting commission, or vigorish). Generally speaking, adds Glantz, there is more value in the underdog than there is in the favorite. That's why smart gamblers just sit there, watch the point spread move in the 'dog's favor, and wait till it makes a nice jump before betting. What if you place one bet and it moves further in your favor? By all means, bet again. And again.

    Best Time to Haggle

    Whether he's buying a Manhattan skyscraper or a pair of Manolo Blahniks for his beloved, Donald Trump likes to haggle. And he advises that the best time to do it is when you are willing to walk away from the deal—with no remorse. "You can negotiate any price

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