First, Westinghouse's financial crisis had generated a large potential tax write-off, which it could set against profits in future years.

ECONOMIST: Westinghouse RIP

Write it down: this may have been the day that the cable set-top box business came down with a terminal disease.

FORBES: Did Microsoft Just Kill The Cable Set-Top Box Business?

Banks and brokerages are set to begin reporting third-quarter earnings this month and next, and analysts expect another brutal round of write-downs and loss-reserve building.

FORBES: The Big Banks

Weighed down first by huge write-downs in its trading book and now by mounting loan losses, the bank is set to announce a fifth consecutive quarter of losses on January 22nd.

ECONOMIST: Citigroup and Morgan Stanley

In 1841, Herman Melville set out to sea from the city on the whaling ship Acushnet, returning after an 18-month voyage to eventually write Moby Dick, the tale of Captain Ahab's obsessive search for the great white whale.

BBC: The haunted land of New England