Doesn't suck

1. The Cubs suck

You can find these crappy Cub billboards all over the greater Chicagoland area:

Can you believe this stupidity?
Derek Jeter selling Cub tickets.
Not our actual team... not our heritage... not our prospects at winning this year... but a guy from another team who will be here for 3 days out of a 6 month season.

I can't remember the last positive story/thing I've heard about the new Cubs owners.
It's been 2 years now.

2. The Hawks suck

I can't believe the Blackhawk, one year after winning the Stanley Cup, might not even make the playoffs. As we speak, the Hawk are tied for the 8th and final playoff spot with Minnesota, Dallas, and Nashville.

I am guessing that this may impact the sales of faux Hawks tattoo sleeves at Dick's Sporting Goods. I'm serious. They sell a fake tattoo sleeve for Blackhawk fans:

Dicks - Fan Ink Chicago Blackhawks Tattoo Sleeve

3. The future sucks

He he.

QOTD

Beavis: "The future sucks. Change it."
Butthead: "I'm way cool Beavis, but I cannot change the future."
- Beavis & Butthead quotes

OK. OK. Just kidding. The future doesn't suck.
Here's a non-sucky one from The Onion:

QOTD2

"Meditate on the unique and breathtaking splendor of the natural world.
Do this for as long as it takes them to fix your cable box."
- Onion calendar horoscope

he he... yow, bill

After Birthday Bowling

1. Post-Bowling
Well, the morning after... birthday bowling was an absolute blast!

Place: Lisle Lanes (used to be Lisle Bowl)
Review: 4 bill-stars (out of 5)... all kitschy goodness
Website: www.lislelanes.com/index.cfm

Lisle Bowl is an old school bowling alley. It's not some Brunswick Zone mega-complex. It's like 36 lanes and a 20x20 room with Galaga and a pinball machine in it. They had both beers: lite and regular.

But there's a real positive vibe at the place. It's genuine. We had a great, great time.

2. Feb 27

These days on wikipedia are fun: Feb 27 at Wikipedia

I was born the same exact day as actor Adam Baldwin of My Bodyguard (excellent) and Serenity (even better).

Well, that's a (wonderful) wrap. I still need to have a piece of my tira misu cake, but you get the idea.
Humbly submitted, this birthday "inside joke" QOTD:

Birthday QOTD

[scene: liar's dice, the mean streets of Chicago, 7 or8 dice left on the board]
Bill: "1 six"
Ty: "2 sixes"
Holly: "3 sixes"
Bill: "Liar"
[not a six on the board... not Bill, not Ty, not Holly... liars all... he he!]

She's a Feb 27 birthday girl too.
happy birthday... yow, bill

Before Birthday Bowling

A quick post before some birthday bowling at Lisle Bowl.

I heart this qotd.

QOTD

"By this time next year, we will either be on our way to becoming one of the great technology brands that define our generation, or a cool idea by people who were out executed and out innovated by others that were smarter and harder working,"

- Groupon CEO, WSJ article

49 tomorrow... yow, bill

LIFO, FIFO, GIGO

 "Stained glass"

1. Acronyms
We can use www.acronymfinder.com to translate some nerd-speak:

• LIFO - "last in, first out"
• FIFO - first in, first out
• GIGO - "garbage in, garbage out"

Well, education is borrowing the term LIFO to describe how layoffs happen in public education: younger teachers (last in/hired) are fired before older teachers (first out/fired). So, that's "Last In (hired), First Out (fired).

Michelle Rhee points out the folly of this.

CNN - End 'last in, first out' teacher layoffs

Can you imagine running a company, and during a recession or some kind of adversity, you were required to layoff all your newer, younger employees, regardless of their performance or talents, and you were required to keep all your older employees, again regardless...

QOTD

"The bottom line is layoffs should be based on teacher performance and effectiveness, not seniority"
- Michelle Rhee

That's my duh QOTD.
yow, bill

Awash in oil, etc.

1. Kareem

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is 2nd only to Michael Jordan in points scored in an NBA career.

Q: What was his career shooting percentage?

A: 56%

Dang, 56% from the field for 20 years.

Why hasn't any other center, ever, learned the sky hook?

Dang (again), if I was 7 feet tall... I'd do 1,000 sky hooks a day until I shot 56% from the field.

Kareem's line for his career: 25 point, 11 board, 2 1/2 block per game.

And this website, like all the other sports "reference" sites, is awesome:

www.basketball-reference.com/players/a/abdulka01.html

2. Awash

This is a good Cramer rant... why don't we tap our own massive oil and nat gas reserves?

CNBC video - Cramer's awash in oil

Why don't we tap our own massive oil and nat gas reserves?
Duh. I don't know. I mean, America has:

1. Massive domestic oil reserves that are new and not being tapped
2. Even bigger nat gas reserves
3. Nuke technology that would kick ass

And we spend our time on turning food into energy (ethanol), building windmills, and telling people what light bulbs to buy.

Is the answer as stupid and dumb as lobbying $$$? I mean, shoot, we send $500B a year out of this country importing oil... largely to jerkoffs, like Libya and the rest of the Middle East. So this stuff is a complete no-brainer.

QOTD

"We're awash with oil in this country"
- Jim Cramer

I'm a fucking broken record. Dear repub candidate for president, whoever the heck you are: lower spending, do nat gas and nukes, and freedom to choose... your doctor, your school, your light bulbs, flying without being molested, etc. It's a gol dang no-brainer.

3. Iron River

Book: "Iron River" by T. Jefferson Parker
Review: 3 bill-stars (out of 5)... just OK.

This book is just OK. It's pretty action-packed and all, but the writing style is just average. The weirdest thing is how boring and nondescript the hero is. He's certainly no Mitch Rapp!

QOTD

"The Mexicans have a saying - it's not what a woman is worth, it's what she costs."
- Iron River

Amen to that, brother.
just kidding... yow, bill

President Obama's TSA

"Head"

1. Half a mil
This article combines education and the media... why one paper (the NY Post) reports on the tragic state of NY public education, and another (the NY Times) doesn't:

WSJ - Scandal sheet sticks up for students

QOTD

"New York spends the most money per pupil of any state ($17,173 annually). Teacher pay and benefits also rank among the highest in the nation, with teachers able to retire in their 50s. For all this, the state's education department acknowledges that fewer than 23% of the city's high-school students will graduate ready for college. Nearly four out of 10 will never see a high-school diploma."
- WSJ stats (link)

Let's pretend, shall we. If we have a classroom of 30 2nd grade students in NY, then that's $17K * 30 students = $500K. That's half a mil spent on one classroom of students! I can't get my tiny head around that one.

2. President Obama's TSA

This is an incredibly moving and courageous account of a state pol from Alaska refusing an aggressive pat-down from President Obama's TSA:

TSA Bars AK State Rep. Sharon Cissna from flying

I apologize for my obvious partisan hackery, but when TSA started this shit under President Obama's watch, it forever became President Obama's TSA to me. If you or I were president, this would not be happening.

QOTD

"The very last thing an assault victim or molested person can deal with is yet more trauma and the groping of strangers, the hands of government ‘safety’ policy. For these people, as well as myself, I refused to submit."
- Sharon Cissna, Alaska state pol

peace.... yow, bill

Shell of a God

"bee nap"

1. Page, Edge, White
I only caught like 15 minutes of this... so my review is incomplete, or is it?

Movie: "It Might Get Loud"
Review: Incomplete
IMDB: www.imdb.com/title/tt1229360


This is a 2008 documentary with Jimmy Page, The Edge and Jack White talking about playing guitar and rocking out and such. I was surfing earlier this week and bumped into it. The parts I saw were great.

• Jack White is completely raw and manic with energy. 
• Maybe it's the silly hat. Or maybe it's that U2 is more poppy. I was truly surprised at how brilliant The Edge is in playing and talking about his approach. I expected him to lag, but he did not.
• And hey, with 65 hard years under his belt,  Jimmy Page is a shell. He's a shell, but he is still God.

QOTD

"...we were in the studio in Dublin and we did the backing tracks. And he said "You know, lets do some over-dubs with a different guitar". I said "What do you mean? We only have one guitar". This is the only guitar we own in the band."
- The Edge, on making the first U2 album

It was all pretty cool. They're all prattling on about this story and that story. Then Jimmy Page picks up his guitar and rips into the Whole Lotta Love riff... the look on the faces of the other two guys was worth the price of admission. It was just complete awe.

And how about that... here's that exact scene on youtube:

youtube - Jimmy Page playing 20 secs of Whole Lotta Love

And shit, I really can't think of too many things that would grab my immediate attention more than Jimmy Page, whatever age/state, picking up his guitar and letting loose.

(inappropriate) QOTD2

"They look like 12 yearolds seeing porn for the first time. Haha"
- youtube comment by some mope (he he), on The Edge and Jack White watching Jimmy Page in that video

I don't remember the dang channel it was on or anything, but if you get a chance to see it... you might be onto a 5-star deal with this one. And if I get a chance, then maybe I'll finish this review.

2. Important?

Is this an important story?

Moody's lowers Japan's debt outlook

On two levels:

1. Is Japan taking the pipe... going down? The Mad Hedge Fund guy say yes (link).
2. Is this the direction we are headed without major spending reform? The Mad Hedge Fund guy didn't say diddly about that.

you need coolin... yow, bill

Beer, pizza and the Mets

Here's 7 minutes of guv Chris Christie on cutting spending in New Jersey. This is an absolutely riveting video...not because I agree with what he's saying (I do), but because he's a pol being honest and direct.



www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOTvhfOk6vc

That whole 7 minutes is worthy, but here's the famous QOTD from Christie.

QOTD

"Listen. You guys want to pass that income tax increase, you can.
That's fine.
I'm gonna veto it.
And if you want to close down the government because of that.
That's fine.
But I want to tell you something...
I'm not moving any cot into this office to sleep in here.
You close down the government, I'm getting into those black SUVs with the troopers; I'm going to the governor's residence; I'm gonna go upstairs; I'm gonna open a beer; I'm gonna order a pizza, and I'm gonna watch the Mets."
- Chris Christie, on the NJ legislature threatening to shut down the state government

Not as funny, but even better?

QOTD2

"So, we stood up. We stood for our principles.
We submitted a budget that cut real spending 9%... year over year.
Not projected growth. Real spending. 9%.
Every department of state government was cut... and we balanced the budget... without any new or increased taxes on the people of the state of New Jersey."
- Chris Christie

There are two obvious comparisons to Christie:

• President Obama - loves to save money from projected growth... like "freezing spending" is going to save us a zillion dollars here or there. No it isn't. And more than a trillion dollars in the hole, President Obama is still talking about $50B bullet trains.
• Whats-his-name, the gov of Wisconsin - dude, relax. The people get it. You won't read it in the newspaper or see it on the news, but people get it. If you chased the dems out of the state, go get a beer, order a pizza and turn on the Brewers game.

Christie: "I know that if presented with a challenge, directly, without any sugar-coating, that the people of New Jersey would step up to the plate and answer the call."

This shit would work at the Presidential level. I really think so. I know Christie refuses to run. Palin is making reality shows. So, who's left? And no retreads like Romney or Huckleberry. I don't know. But it's sitting right out there for you.

As any good Cub fan, I dislike the Mutts.
But, Chris Christie is my fave Mets fan.
just a bad century... yow, bill

Sizing things up

The big thaw is underway, and Castle deer waist-high in snow are becoming a distant memory.

"Castle Deer 2"

1. Puny

Here's a fun and funny  article by Ken Jennings, one of the Jeopardy champs who lost to Watson.

My Puny Human Brain

QOTD

"Watson has lots in common with a top-ranked human Jeopardy! player: It's very smart, very fast, speaks in an uneven monotone, and has never known the touch of a woman."

- Ken Jennings (link)

I gave myself a pat on the butt this morning. The two applications that Watson instinctively makes me think of are 1) smarter google searches and 2) the Turing Test. Uber-nerd Ray Kurzweil says the same dang thing:

When Computers best humans on Jeopardy

2. Huge?

There's just a cascade of debt-related stories.

This video of Wisconsin "public servants" pitching a fit isn't really incredible. Incredible video of 10,000 public employees protesting in Wisconsin. You hear a lot of stories about teachers not showing up for work in Wisconsin. That seems like a pretty easy problem to solve.

Florida says it's silly to spend money on high-speed rail. Imagine that. Florida Governor to decline high-speed rail funds

President Obama's debt commission (gingerly) calls him (and the repubs) out on spending. Congress, President need to step up. It seems that President Obama would rather sit in a hot tub with lepers than even mention his own debt commission.

And Illinois diddles along, as the governor proposes that we increase spending $1.7B. Big borrowing plan roils Illinois. I also read that our governor (shit) wants to raise taxes again.


So, does any of this mean anything?
Is any of this huge? Or is it all puny?

President Obama and Gov Quinn vote puny. President Obama's budget projects trillion dollar deficits out as far as the eye can see. Quinn continues to increase spending in IL.

The governors of Wisconsin and Florida (and others) says it's pretty huge. Ditto for the debt commission.

Bah. What do I know. Maybe shit doesn't matter. Still. I'm rooting for guys with an ounce of courage to say that government spending is a big problem, and the balls to do something about it.
Obama, Quinn. Courage, balls. Nope.
peace out... yow, bill

What is leg?

"Juice box"

1. Watson update

Here's are two fun Watson updates:

1. Day 1:  Supercomputer debuts with some weird answers
2. Day 2: Computer crushes the competition on Jeopardy

QOTD

"Watson had at least two funny flubs. After Ken Jennings gave an incorrect response to a clue, the computer buzzed in and said the exact same thing.  The program also answered "What is leg?" to a clue about an unusual Olympic athlete."
- Watson playing Jeopardy

Forget the leg gaffe. I heart repeating the incorrect answer. Oops. And I heart this pic:

Now, mind you, Watson isn't crushing some mope like me. Or you. Watson is crushing the best two dang Jeopardy guys of all-time. I haven't seen any of the matches. I'll have to catch it on youtube later or something.

Watson reminds me so much of Deep Blue playing chess. Nobody gave Deep Blue a snowball's chance of beating Kasparov. Then when it happened, everyone was like, "well, it's just a fast search of a decision tree." OK.

So, now that Watson is doing well competing with the very best at Jeopardy, we get that it's just a big, dumb search engine: "While the show stressed that Watson is 'not hooked up to the internet,' it was hard for a non-computer-scientist regular "Jeopardy!" fan not to notice that Watson's brain seems to resemble a search engine." OK again.

And why wouldn't they hook Watson up directly to the internet anyway. Oh yeah, forgot...

QOTD2

"The Skynet Funding Bill is passed. The system goes on-line August 4th, 1997. Human decisions are removed from strategic defense. Skynet begins to learn at a geometric rate. It becomes self-aware at 2:14 a.m. Eastern time, August 29th. In a panic, they try to pull the plug."
- Arnold in T2

2. Google stats

The poor, old Bill-brain can't handle stats like these:

QOTD3

"[Google poobah] Schmidt said 35 hours of video were now being uploaded to YouTube every minute, with more than 2 billion views per day -- increasingly from mobile devices."
- Yahoo story: Google tried hard to woo Nokia

2 billion youtube videos per day.
We only have 6-7 billion flipping people on the planet, right?

3. Rooting against the Spur

The San Antonio Spur are 46-9. This nice chart show that they are almost on a 70-win pace:

Can the Spurs get to 70 wins?

Of course, the Bull record is 72 wins, but still. I'm rooting against the Spur.
Another BIG difference between San Antonio and the Bull... the Bull were presumed to win the title that year, and they did. I don't think that most people even make the Spur the favorite to win it all this year.

The Spur come to Chicago tomorrow night. Go Bull!
I'm also rooting for the Spur cheerleaders though.
ha... yow, bill

Jungle Love

1. Swimsuit me

Well, the SI swimsuit edition is out. Funny, the free version online is better than what you get paying for a magazine:

sportsillustrated.cnn.com/swimsuit/

I must admit, SI swimsuits have lost some of their luster as most (all?) of the girls are younger than my daughter. Or have I lost my luster? He he.

The SI swimsuit thing is weird, of course. They try and show as much as possible without showing, as Monthy Python would say, the naughty bits.

Top 3 SI Swimsuit coverings of naughty bits:

1. An oar
2. Rocks and seashells
3. Paint

Anyway, the williamt top three faves are easy:

1. The redhead, Cintia (right)
2. The blonde, Brooklyn
3. Brunette, Leryn

Freckles. Sigh.

QOTD

You live in a world of illusion
Where everything is peaches and cream
- Steve Miller, "Jungle Love" (youtube video)

I'm not sure why Steve Miller can barely play his own tunes. Oh yeah, he's a hundred years old. My bad. OK, perhaps you'll prefer a different version: Morris Day and The Time "Jungle Love" video.

QOTD2

"You have the reflexes of a 60 year-old boxer."
-Ty, karate smack

I don't remember where Ty stole that one, but it's effective.

BTW, Ty recommendation, hot off the griddle... some cartoon called "The Regular Show" on Nickelodeon or some crappy channel for pre-teens. I immediately panned it.

1. Ty's 11, so...
2. It was created in the last 15 years, so it triggered my old man gag reflex.
3. It features a talking gumball machine. That triggered an even stronger gag reflex because I immediately flashed to that Teen Aqua Hunger whatever show with the talking french fries, which was gawd awful.

Anyway, "The Regular Show" is worthy. It's not dry as dirt. It's not smarmy or super-negative. It's just really weird, and occasionally funny for its 11 and 48 year-old audience.

QOTD3

"Are you emasculating your boyfriend?
Make him take our quiz"
- Onion Weekender magazine

peace out... yow, bill

Old time hockey

"Shining through"

QOTD

"Prayers go up
Blessings come down"

- church sign of the day, actually

1. Fight!
Fun site: www.hockeyfights.com.

A little old time hockey between the Pit Penguin and NY Islander:

• Feb 2 - Tough to beat a goalie fight. He he. The Pit goalie gets knocked out in 1 punch by the NY goalie: www.hockeyfights.com/fights/101801. Well shit, you find out a couple days later that the Pit goalie's face is broken after that one punch.
• Feb 11 - The teams play 10 days later and all-out mayhem breaks out: Yahoo video. 

I do miss some old time hockey. Recent fisticuffs aside, today's hockey game is really tame compared to the past. The NHL wants scoring, scoring, and more scoring. So be it.

And my Blackhawks are tame compared to the recent past, like last year. We can't go from winning the Stanley Cup to not even making the playoffs. Can we? Can we!
peace... yow, bill

Below average. Below average. Well below average.

1. How NOT to spend 131 Million Dollars

I'm a little too emotional to do a tidy blurb on the Cub seasons past (2010) and future (2011)... so Yahoo did it for me:

QOTD

"Take a below average pitching staff, supported by a below average offense, backed by a well below average defense, prop it up with the game’s fourth-highest payroll, and what the House of Ricketts received in return was another lost baseball season on the North Side."- Yahoo on the Cub, link

The Cub were 75-87 last year spending all that dough. They'll likely do worse this year. The Cub are shooting for 4th place this year behind the Cardinal, the Red, the Brewer. The ignominy isn't the 4th place deal; it's how much worse the Cub are than the 3 teams above them. The Cub are substantially worse than St. Louis, Cincy and Milwaukee in hitting, pitching, fielding, team speed, and any other metric you can conjure. And the Cub achieve all this with a much higher payroll than any other team in their division.

Indeed, crappy Cub contracts continue to be a perpetual anchor on the team:

• Soriano - 4 years, $72M
• Zambrano - 3 years, $55M
• Aramis - 1 year, $16M
• Fukudome - 1 year $13M

No Ron Santo this year.
And Ryno is out... didn't the Phillie sign him to a minor league gig? (um, yes... their triple-A team, link)
We basically have a rookie manager... a rookie manager at any level.
The first 2 years of Ricketts family ownership are a complete bust.
The only certainty is the we metaphysically know that our outfield will be the slowest, weakest, worst-hitting, worst-fielding, and highest-paid outfield in the major leagues in 2011... AGAIN!

Cmon, Bill. Glass half full, buddy!
Well, I know I'll enjoy going to Wrigley a couple-a times in 2011.
I'm pretty sure that Hendry will be fired after this season. Right? RIGHT!
And... wait for it... as a Cub fan, I know... here it some... there's always next year.
cub win cub win cub win... yow, bill

PS - Bah. F the Cub. The glass is half full because of Ty's little league and fantasy baseball. Huzzah!

Dave Lizewski and Mindy Macready

1. Nice chart

US exports to China are growing, um, rapidly:

COTD: US Exports to China Are Just Growing Ridiculously

It looks like we're still $250B a year in the hole to China, but at least the trend has evened out a little (gov link).


These Chart of the Day boys are new to me.
Easy, lemon squeezy top 10 blog for me.

2. The Negative
I'm down with a sore throat the last couple days. It's like... like, it's radioactive out there or something. Not my throat... shit, the tube, movies, etc:

1. With this Egypt deal and my throat throbbing, I logged a little talking head time... flipping between Fox, CNN, and CNBC. Jeez, that's just the bottom of the barrel. On the night I watched, there really wasn't much to report, so it just pretend time. "So, is this situation dangerous to the US?" "Oh, very dangerous." "Really. Could it turn into a crisis?" "Oh my, big big crisis." Fade to the soap commercial.
2. Commercials for YAHASM: Yet Another Horrible Adam Sandler Movie.
3. And this last one burned the retinas right out of my skull... they're doing a remake of Dudley Moore's "Arthur"... starring Russell Brand (link). Jeez. What a nonsensical kick in the crotch. And how did Jim Carrey manage to get passed up to star in this disaster. Is he busy remaking more Dr. Seuss?

Blech.

3. The Positive

Phew, enough of that.
A little positivity... the Detroit Piston are retiring Dennis Rodman's jersey #10 (Yahoo story).
They say that it'll go down on April 1 in Detroit before their game against the Bull.
Excellent.

Rodman won 5 rings, won rebounding titles and all-NBA defensive honors, etc. Here's Rodman's page at basketball-reference, if you like:

www.basketball-reference.com/players/r/rodmade01.html

Of course, Rodman is a nut-burger, but he was the best at what he did: rebound the ball, play some defense, and bug the hell out of the opposition. Rodman wasn't some 7 foot behemoth. He was 6'7", 225 pounds, but he had incredible energy and basketball smarts.

Old school Bull fans know this for sure: no Rodman... no second three-peat.

Bull win.
yow, bill

True Grit, part 2 of 3

"daylily"

1. True Grit, the book

QOTD

"Goodbye, Reuben, a love for decency does not abide in you."
- Rooster Cogburn's ex-wife

Book: "True Grit" by Charles Portis
Review: 4 bill-stars (out of 5)... excellent!

"True Grit" was a great read. It's very Huck Finn-ish... Americana, great dialogue, characters that are larger than life, etc. I kept visualizing The Duke as Rooster Cogburn, not the Big Lebowski. Sue me.

The book is also very much a guy's book. I heart this description of Rooster's living conditions. "Men will live like billy goats if they are let alone."

QOTD2

"Goodbye, Nola, I hope that little nail-selling bastard will make you happy this time."
- Rooster's retort

I saw 1) the new movie, 2) read the book, and now all that's left is 3) to re-watch the original movie.

2. To resign or not to resign
I've never seen Hosey Mubarak and Jerry Sloan in the same place at the same time.

he he... yow, bill

Stroke me, stroke me... STROKE!

QOTD

"Ninety seven nine.
The Loop.
Where every song is a classic."
- Blaring radio tag line... followed by Billy Squire's "The Stroke"

1. Dop

Zillow says that nearly 40% of homeowners in the Chicagoland area have negative equity in their home.

38% of local single-family homes underwater

And, "More than 40 percent of homes sold in the Chicago area in December sold at a loss."
Forget dop. How about barf.
I mean this is Chicago... the Great Midwest! We're not Vegas or some dump (sorry, Florida) littered vacation homes.
dop... yow, bill

Don't go to college

"Archetypal crappy art shot"

1. James Altucher
I heart James Altucher.
His blog is great: www.jamesaltucher.com
Altucher is kind of Freakonomics-ish... a good nerd.

He has a (wacky) notion that kids these days shouldn't just automatically go to college:

Yahoo video - James Altucher's 8 Alternatives to College

BTW, his 8 alternatives are: start a business, work for a charity, travel the world, create art, master a Sport, master a game, write a book, and make people laugh.

I think Altucher has a point about college. But his frame of reference is that of a person who is incredibly smart and talented. If you're not a top 1%-er or top 10%-er, your college-free future might not be quite so bright. It would be great, however, to see both high school and college introduce kids to the idea of being an entrepreneur.

QOTD

"Not any more. Not with college costs up as much as they are... people can't afford to be safe any more. The safe thing, actually, is just to be thrown out there into the swimming pool and learn how to swim."
- James Altucher, answer to the question, "isn't college the safe thing to do... even if you're not learning anything?" (ha!)

Good nerd.

2. Optimism rising
Speaking of Altucher, he has been a stock market bull for quite a while here.
More good news!

Small Business Optimism Hits a Three Year High

Huzzah to that!
3 years ago... that Winter 2007 period is pretty important, stock market-wise. The S&P 500 all-time high was 1560-something in October 2007.

Speaking of optimism...

QOTD2

"In Business, the odds are a little different. You don’t have to break the Mendoza line (hitting .200). In fact, it doesn't matter how many times you strike out. In business, to be a success, you only have to be right once.

One single solitary time and you are set for life. That’s the beauty of the business world."
- Mark Cuban, blog post

optimist... yow, bill

Journalism schmournalism

1. PPJ AP
A straight steal from the "Crossing Wall Street" blog... who snarfed it from the author:

QOTD

"To neurophysiologists, who research cognitive functions, the emotionally driven appear to suffer from cognitive deficits that mimic certain types of brain injuries. Not just partisan political junkies, but ardent sports fans, the devout, even hobbyists. Anyone with an intense emotional interest in a subject loses the ability to observe it objectively: You selectively perceive events. You ignore data and facts that disagree with your main philosophy. Even your memory works to fool you, as you selectively retain what you believe in, and subtly mask any memories that might conflict.

Studies have shown that we are actually biased in our visual perception – literally, how we see the world – because of our belief systems.

This cognitive bias is not an occasional problem – it is a systematic source of errors. It’s not you, it’s just how you are built. And it is the reason most people are terrible investors."

- Barry Ritholtz, CWS source

Ritholtz applies cognitive bias to investing. You can see it more plainly in journalism. Two examples that flew by me this morning:

1. AOL buys the HuffPo. The AP is on it, baby: AOL buying HuffPo for $315M. The only little tidbit that the boys in the AP neglect is that the HuffPo is a left-leaning or liberal-based or whatever you want to call it, organization. None of the stories I encountered about this buyout were either a) critical of it at all (I mean AOL is a pariah, right?) or b) mentioned the political affiliation of HuffPo.
2. I heart Google. It's like TV. All this great stuff (google, gmail, blogger, etc) for free; all they charge you is to watch some silly ads. I don't know who decides what is google news and what isn't, but Media Matters is not a reliable news source. Cmon guys.

It isn't too difficult to avoid cognitive bias... just don't get so emotional and all worked up.
Dammit!
He he.

2. Ethanol

Here's a blurb by one of my faves the Mad Hedge Fund guy. This guy is great because his blurbs are usually short, focused on  one point, and usually have some tasty stats adjoining them:

The Great Ethanol Boondoggle

And, he's an Obama guy, so there.
And she (to the right) is an Obama girl, so there again.
No cognitive bias here.

3. Nuts

Hey, nuts to all that... absurd, surreal, video game two-handed slam last night by D-Rose:

sports.yahoo.com/video/player/nba/24113097#nba/24113097

QOTD

“I just told him he hits like my grandma”
-E Najera, on getting elbowed by (loser) Kevin Garnett

yow, bill

Ronnie and me

"Traveling Punkins"

Ronald Reagan's 100th birthday today.

Three "personal" Reagan blasts for you:

1. My first Reagan experience was in 1980 when I did not vote for him. He he. At 18 years old, I was a freshly minted voter and remember distinctly that I wasn't about to waste my vote on an old (re. crazy) man. Go John Anderson. Woot! Not.
2. In the mid-1980's the media narrative was that America had 3 million homeless people and that President Reagan was throwing them out in the streets. Even pre-internet, it didn't take too much digging to figure out that was crap and a complete media fabrication. This anti-example really got me more interested in politics than I had been before.
3. Reagan lowered taxes and also simplified them. This prompted wealthy investors to pour out of complex tax shelters and into the stock market, and for the truly rich... wait for it... venture capital. Activity in Silicon Valley jumped as companies like Cisco and Sun Micro and a zillion others were able get investment capital. One of these companies, in 1987, was a little guy called Synopsys... my personal favorite.

Of course, quotes were Reagan's specialty. This is the end of his "Government is the problem" quote.

QOTD

"We've been tempted to believe that society has become too complex to be managed by self-rule, that government by an elite group is superior to government for, by, and of the people. Well, if no one among us is capable of government himself, then who among us has the capacity to govern someone else?"

- Ronald Reagan, first inaugural address in 1981

Um. An "elite group" that considers itself "superior". Sound familiar. Here, 30 years later.

Reagan Quiz:

Based on Reagan's speeches and what we know about the man, what would Ronald Reagan be doing if he were alive today?

1. Writing his memoirs,
2. Advising the President,
3. Desperately clawing at the inside of his coffin

He he. Sorry. Straight steal from David Letterman.

Reagan stands alone because of his optimism and his belief in America and the human condition.
Huzzah to that!
double huzzah... yow, bill

State budget roulette

1. This must all end

QOTD

"If every instinct you have is wrong, then the opposite would have to be right."
- Seinfeld, the George Costanza theory, wikipedia, and even better, youtube

How about a little state budget roulette:

• Of course, I'll start with my own Illinois, which is the worst of the worst. New (sort of) Gov Quinn raised taxes by 70% without cutting any state spending. Most delicious... even after raising taxes that much, they still didn't cover the budget gap.
• I hear from my reliable CA sources that retread gov Moonbeam is trying to cut the state budget, but that it will be voted on directly by the people in a referendum.
• Texas is cutting spending. Of course.
• New Jersey and Indiana keep advertising on the radio here that businesses should move to their, lower-taxes states. It's kind of snarky, but what the heck.

And then there's NY. I don't know the whole deal, but new Gov Cuomo actually looks like he may do something to address spending in the state.

Cuomo finds secret budget flaw

The secret budget flaw is the same everywhere, from state to state and at the federal level. It's two things actually:

1. Fed and state employee pensions and health-care benefits are crushingly expensive. Public servants (cough) need to move to a defined-contribution plan (ala 401K) like the rest of the planet and have reasonable health care benefits and hiring/firing procedures. In other words, they need to put their big boy pants on.
2. Budgets are dialed in to grow a certain percentage each year by some formula. The notion of actually cutting spending in many of these budgets is completely lost.

QOTD2

"This all must end."

- NY Gov Cuomo on the state's budget mess/process

Good luck Gov Cuomo.

Wanna move to Illinois?

2. SCREAMING COACH!!!
Book: "How Lucky You Can Be" by Buster Olney
Review: 3 bill-stars (out of 5)... OK.

This book is about the basketball coach at a small college. The coach gets in a car wreck and also contracts cancer. It's the (pretty interesting) story of his life and his recovery.

The strongest part of the book is that Olney (yes, Buster Olney from ESPN) describes all facets, good and bad and really bad, of the coach, Don Meyer. Meyer is a screamer. He screams at and belittles his players ala Bobby Knight. Worse, for my money, Meyer neglects his family over the decades of his career. Worst of all, he becomes all gooey and attentive to his loved ones when he's injured... then he gets better... and then goes back to the same guy.

The weakest part of the book is probably the writing style, which is as ornate as a cardboard box. It was a good, quick read though.

Just an aside... I never played sports in high school or college. Why is it required that the coach scream all the time? It just seems an odd requirement.

Don Meyer made a choice of career over family. It's cool, and he's certainly not a bad guy for doing so. But it's not a choice to which I pay a lot of respect. For guys, that choice is WAY TOO easy... be the killer worker bee. Society rewards this choice directly with dough and chicks and popularity and all. But, in a wonderful invisible balance, the loss in family time and closeness hangs as a counterweight. Don Meyer could have been a almost as great a basketball coach and spent a little time with his family.

QOTD3

"Nice guy? I don't give a shit.
Good father? Fuck you -- go home and play with your kids!!
You wanna work here?
Close!!"
-Alec Baldwin, the all-time best rant from "Glengarry Glen Ross"

What a great 5-star movie Glengarry is.
A. B. C.
always be closing... yow, bill

Public servant

"Blizzard deer"

1. Public servant
Sanity intact, I have diligently managed to avoid both Super Bowl and Egypt news coverage. In a strange convergence of boring stories, this Egyptian protester signals an early touchdown in the Super Bowl.

But the picture I really want and can't find... the cover of today's WSJ had an Egyptian protester with a bucket on his head. OK.

CNN's own, Cristiana Amenamenpour (or whatever), was on the radio this morning. Breathlessly, she reported on her interview with embattled Egyptian leader Mubarak. I don't remember a word she said because over the 30 seconds or so that she was on, she got louder and was panting more and more... by the end, I was waiting for her to climax into a full-out scream in satisfaction.

Mubarak would fit in over here in the states. He's got the "public servant" mantra down!

QOTD

"After 62 years in public service, I have had enough. I want to go"
- Egypt leader Mubarak, source

Speaking of public servants.

QOTD2

"The president's friend and adviser Valerie Jarrett sometimes pointed out that not only had he never managed an operation, he'd never really had a nine-to-five job in his life."
- John Heilemann, WSJ blurb

yow, bill

Blech

Well, this is an ugly post... the feds debt and housing sucks. Blech.

1. Debt

Well, if you think that our debt problem MUST be resolved immediately, you'd be wrong. We can "pull a Japan" and run the string all the way out to 2x or 3x GDP or more... until the house of cards collapses.

Japan's bill is now due

I sure hope we don't do that. I think Americans are smarter than that.

2. Housing
And holy cats, about 11% of all houses in the US are vacant:

Nearly 11% of US houses empty

Now, I don't know where this number stands historically, but you've got to figure that's pretty abby-normal. On a less blech-y note, that CNBC real estate reporter is very attractive.

3. Obamacare
Some judge, somewhere, ruled this week that Obamacare is unconstitutional. I find this whole deal uninteresting, as it all seems masturbatory until the issue reaches the Supreme Court. But this is a great QOTD. It's a quote within a quote, from this-Senator Obama.

QOTD

“I note that in 2008, then-Senator Obama supported a health care reform proposal that did not include an individual mandate because he was at that time strongly opposed to the idea, stating that, ‘If a mandate was the solution, we can try that to solve homelessness by mandating everybody to buy a house,’”

- Judge who ruled Obamacare to be unconstitutional

Thanks to my friends over at The Morning News for that catch.

4. The Bishop's Wife

Movie: "The Bishop's Wife"
Review: 3 bill-stars (out of 5)... good.

My cousin Barb recommended I check out "The Bishop's Wife". It was good and, oddly, sort of like "It's a Wonderful Life" for women. Get this:

• The key character is (oddly again) the Bishop's wife, Loretta Young (down there). 
• The angel in Bishop is Cary Grant. He's handsome but sexually non-threatening. He wants to go ice skating, not make snow sex angels or anything.
• Cary Grant is here on earth to whip Loretta Young's husband (the Bishop) in shape. The Bishop (wimpy David Niven) is not paying enough attention to his wife and so the angel showers her with attention in an effort to make him jealous, and thus change.

I trust that you've already figured out what a guy movie "It's a Wonderful Life" is. Harried business man. Working hard at the office, sacrificing time with his family. Plot twist. Everyone realizes how great he is. The end. Every guy wants to be George Bailey, right?

Anyway, it was a good movie... nice, light holiday fun.
peace... yow, bill

Merichka's

It's a beautiful winter wonderland.
No plows. No snow blowers. No shovelers. Well, except for me.

My hundred-plus feet of driveway is a little daunting to me and my little yellow shovel, but I'm all good. I got my coffee and some brews and some spaghetti to make and Holly's leftover chili and the Internet and... I could use a poor boy right now though.

1. Merichka's
Fun video on Merichka's in Crest Hill:

CLTV - Merichka's report

Merichka's is a 5 yelp-star experience.
The poor boy sandwich at Merichka's is completely unique. Mmmm.

With crazy, yummy, unhealthy food, Merichka's is a dinosaur that will probably die off in the coming years. I remember going to Merichka's 20 years ago when they had smoking and non-smoking sections... and there was a long wait to get into the smoking section. Sigh.

QOTD

"You know what I love about it. The next day, your skin still smells like garlic."
- Merichka's patron

I love that too, buddy.

yow, bill

PS - Here I am warming up to do some major shoveling. LOL. Never buy your underwear online. Stop underwear spam. He he.

Let it snow... Al

QOTD

"In fact, scientists have been warning for at least two decades that global warming could make snowstorms more severe."
-Al Gore, on this week's blizzard, www.mediamatters.org/blog/201102010016

Few things:

1. You couldn't make this shit up. Oh wait, I guess he just did.
2. Al previously attributed the strength of Hurricane Katrina to global warming.
3. We've been really lucky. It hasn't gotten warmer since Big Al's crusade. If it had gotten warmer (for whatever reason), that would have been exploited to the max.

I intentionally used a Media Matters link up there in the QOTD. I don't know what the rightie analog to Media Matters is, but that blog post is intensely negative. I'm guessing that it's characteristic. The few times I've read anything of that ilk, it's been the same. Everyone on the other side is "moron" or "zombie", "nutjobs", etc. It's an echo chamber.

Sites like Media Matters and Daily Kos and HuffPo seem to get a lot of media play, but I don't know how actually popular they are. It's may be similar to MSNBC, which has a minuscule viewership, but still gets a lot of air play and even pops up on my Google news as a news source.
let it snow... yow, bill