Greatest Rock & Roll band of all time

I can't begin to express how excited I am about the rumored Police reunion tour (http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/25752.html), and this time the rumor might pan out. This Sunday, the Police will open the Grammy Awards Ceremony. I'm going to record the show just so I can watch the Police perform because there is no other reason to watch the Grammy's, not even with such headliners as Justin Timberlake and Beyonce.

I mentioned the upcoming performance in class today, and one of my students didn't even know who The Police were.

How could you not know who they are? They're one of the greatest bands of all time. Here's my list of the top five Rock & Roll bands (based mostly on my perception of their popularity, musical acumen, influence, and longevity):

• Aerosmith
• The Doors
• Led Zeppelin
• The Police
• The Rolling Stones

Conspicuous by their absence from the list are The Beatles, who I don't consider Rock & Roll in the same sense as these bands. Without question, The Beatles changed the face of popular music, but for my purposes here don't fit the bill.

Dollars and sense...

Because we live below the poverty line, (see http://aspe.hhs.gov/poverty/07poverty.shtml) our four- member family is getting a huge tax refund this year, and we're looking for the best place to invest the money where it will still be liquid and available. The credit union where we do our regular banking gives only 1.49% to savings accounts with balances over $1999. We want to make a little more money on our "3-month's income emergency fund" without too much risk.

So I googled "savings interest rate" and got lots of offers around or slightly above 5%. The problem for me is that none of these banks are in my city. Are they real? The realities of identity theft are becoming more and more clear to me, and I don't want to be floating my SSN (or my refund) out to a "bank" that may be a clever ploy. How do I know the difference?

It's frustrating and just a little scary. My paypal account is currently earning 5.02%. Perhaps I should put my tax refund into paypal as long as I don't go on some crazy eBay spree.