Blog Entries

The Sky Is Crying

admin@s.com — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0100

On this date twenty years ago, Stevie Ray Vaughan performed his last gig, concluding it as part of an all-star jam featuring Eric Clapton, Buddy Guy, Robert Cray and Stevie's brother Jimmie in East Troy, Wisconsin. After the concert, a tired Stevie Ray took the last remaining seat aboard a helicopter bound for Chicago, but minutes after its 12:50 a.m. takeoff, the helicopter crashed, killing all five indivi [...]

Down The Shore Everything's All Right?

admin@s.com — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 00:00:00 +0100

The "reality" show megahit "Jersey Shore" returns to the airwaves Thursday evening and the media hype machine is in full swing. As part of the promotional buildup, the cast of the show rang the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange this morning and they drew the biggest trading floor crowd since Abbie Hoffman rained dollar bills down from the visitor's gallery in 1 [...]

Will Government Axe Kill The Recovery?

admin@s.com — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Today marks the 150th birthday of Lizzie Borden, the Massachusetts spinster who was accused of brutally murdering her father and stepmother with a hatchet on August 4, 1892. Lizzie's fame soared during the nationally publicized courtroom drama, the O.J. Simpson trial of its day. Despite incriminating circumstances and inconsistent testimony from the accused, the prosecutors were hampered by their f [...]

Goo Goo For Gaga

admin@s.com — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 00:00:00 +0100

After a quarter in which investors appeared to be having a bad romance with stocks, the market has been reeling off hits at a pace that would make even Lady Gaga envious. Now threatening to conclude its seventh consecutive winning session, the market appears to be shrugging off investor's fears of a double-dip recession, instead focusing on the growing number of indications that economic ac [...]

You're Gonna Need A Bigger Boat

admin@s.com — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 00:00:00 +0100

This week marks the 35th anniversary of the release of "Jaws", the smash hit film that dramatically altered America's movie and beach going habits. Recognized as the original summer blockbuster, "Jaws" was the first film that opened in wide release and its stunning success ended the traditional staged-release practices that had previously predominated. After "Jaws&q [...]

The Big "W"

admin@s.com — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 00:00:00 +0100

In Stanley Kramer's hit ensemble comedy "It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World", a troupe of early 1960s mid-level comedy stars are sent racing across the Mojave Desert after learning of buried treasure from a dying roadside accident victim. That victim, played by Jimmy Durante, told the assembled group that a fortune lay buried beneath a "big W" on a San Diego beach just before he literal [...]

PIIGS In A Poke

admin@s.com — Wed, 19 May 2010 00:00:00 +0100

At the beginning of "National Lampoon's European Vacation" the Griswold family appeared on a game show called "Pig in a Poke" standing cheek by jowl in matching pink pig costumes as Chevy Chase, portraying the clueless family head Clark Griswold, brashly decided to risk the family's winnings by playing for the grand prize. Unexpectedly pitted against the show's all-time [...]

A Modest Proposal To Solve The Greek Debt Crisis

admin@s.com — Fri, 07 May 2010 00:00:00 +0100

The Greek debt crisis appears to be coming to a head and I am happy to report that I may have hit upon a solution to the problem by recalling the events that took place in Greece on this date 178 years ago. Let's install [...]

A Modest Proposal To Solve The Greek Debt Crisis

admin@s.com — Fri, 07 May 2010 00:00:00 +0100

It's Not All That Bad

admin@s.com — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Like millions of Americans, I woke up pretty grumpy this morning, remembering that it was April 15th and that not only would I be paying my taxes today, but that I would also be inundated by unavoidable media coverage employing the most hackneyed of clichés. Still irritable as I drove to the post office, I found myself trying to come up with ways in which I might lower next year's bi [...]

I Put A Spell On You

admin@s.com — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 00:00:00 +0100

After what was quite literally a "witch hunt", the Saudi Arabian Committee for Virtue and Prevention of Vice arrested a man named Ali Sabat, the popular host of a Lebanese television show called "Scheherazade" during a religious pilgrimage in 2008 and sentenced him to death for making predictions and offering advice on television. Officially convicted of sorcery, the unfortunate victim was scheduled to be b [...]

They Say It's Spring

admin@s.com — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0100

When I was young I lived in a world of dreams

Of moods and myths and illusionary schemes

Though now I'm much more grown up

I fear that I must own up

To the fact that I'm in doubt of

What the modern cynics shout of

"They Say It's Spring" as sung by Blossom Dearie

(Words and Music by Marty Clark and Bob Haymes)

As I walked past my garden on the way to work this mornin [...]

Headlines and Olympic Glory

admin@s.com — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Added to the list of headlines I never expected to see, is one that ran in Great Britain's The Mirror last Friday morning:

"Curling Fans Prepare for More Sleepless Nights From Vancouver 2010"

On a sub-conscious level, at least, I suppose I was aware that there were fans of this curious "sport" (essentially, shuffleboard on ice), but it would be no understatement to say that I was shocked to learn [...]

Mythology Weighs Upon The Market

admin@s.com — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Worries about the sustainability of the recovery and uncertainty over healthcare and financial regulatory reform efforts have contributed to a sense of unease that has caused investors to flee risk instruments in recent weeks and the market has weakened, with the major indexes off about 8 percent from their most recent highs. After a brief pause last [...]

So It Goes

admin@s.com — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Marie Prevost was a silent film star of the 1920s, appearing in over 120 films during a 21 year career, yet she is known today primarily for being the subject of a Nick Lowe pop song (the misspelled "Marie Provost"). Working with talented directors such as Cecil B. DeMille, Frank Capra and Mervyn LeRoy among others, Marie was at the height of popularity in 1926 when tragedy suddenly befell her. With h [...]

Is She Buying the Stairway To Heaven?

admin@s.com — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Today marks the forty-first anniversary of the release of Led Zeppelin’s eponymously titled debut album. The odd moniker was allegedly adopted after a remark that Keith Moon reportedly made to the band members (“Well, that went over like a lead balloon”) after a poorly received early gig. Despite that inauspicious beginning, during a [...]

Christmas Musings 2009

admin@s.com — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0100

As traders dutifully file into offices manned by skeleton crews for an abbreviated trading session, their thoughts are probably not on the market. Christmas is here and they will be thinking of family and friends while counting the moments until the early bell sends them home to celebrate. The lucky ones are already home and sleeping late.

The Siege May Be Lifting

admin@s.com — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0100

65 years ago today, a massive last-ditch German counterattack was raging in Belgium’s Ardennes forest. German forces, taking advantage of poor weather that restricted Allied air operations, had succeeded in surrounding a contingent of American forces dug in at a critical road junction in the small town of Bastogne. The defenders, cut off and isolated, had fought fiercely for t [...]

Power To The People, Right On.

admin@s.com — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0100

It’s been very hard, But it’s getting easier now, hard times are over, over for a while

---John Lennon

They will be keeping vigil today in Central Park’s Strawberry Fields, for it was on this date in 1980 that John Lennon was gunned dow [...]

How Y'all Are?

admin@s.com — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0100

A number of years ago there was a silver-haired and mustachioed television chef named Justin Wilson who gained some measure of fame explaining the mysteries of Cajun cuisine, building his own personal brand by periodically uttering catch phrases that charmed the audience (I’m betting that Emeril was a regular viewer). Wearing a re [...]