Dividend divide

Only two years ago utilities that paid dividends as steadily as a Treasury bond were derided as old-fashioned mom and pop investments and were swallowed by Enrons offering growth. However last year the tide began to turn. Suddenly the financial media paid attention again to phenomena like the Dogs of the Dow: the plodding companies that kept making money and sending it to their shareholders in the form of dividends as opposed to companies that kept making promises while giving out huge option