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Rabid animals in New York City

I’ve spent the last two days looking at a great new real estate syndication and a middle market commercial lending operation that takes money from institutions and small investors like me. Much reading. Much due diligence.

Meanwhile the market keeps going up. Favorite recent stocks include AMD, SDRL, BRKA, FLEX, DIS, CENT, NFLX, HD and UNH. I shorted WFC but it’s going against me. I can’t believe anyone would buy that cockroach bank.

Raccoons in New York

A family of raccoons visited our house in mid-state New York. They left when they found no food. Since then I’ve become fascinated with raccoons. I’m not the only New Yorker. There’s a family of them — 22 in total — in Central Park.

raccoonsincentralpark

They’ve become New York’s latest tourist attraction. People feed them — which can be dangerous if they’re rabid, like many of New York’s investment bankers. If you wish to view our raccoons, the New York Times has a nice guide to viewing. Click here. 

If you’re looking for a new definition of rabid, read Matt Taibbi’s latest piece in Rolling Stone:

The Vampire Squid Occupies Trump’s White House
After running against Goldman as a candidate, Donald Trump licks the boots of the world’s largest investment bank

For Taibbi’s engrossing piece, click here.

Useful stuff

+ + The number one password is password. Change yours. Don’t make it too easy for the hackers.

+ Download Mario Run from the Apple store. The game is great. Your young kids will love you. Do it on a big iPad. Graphics will be better. It’s not dangerous like Pokemon Go.

supermario

+ Please don’t get these mixed up. When you do, you look sloppy and uneducated.

Your and you’re. (Don’t type your when you mean you’re.)
It’s and its. (It’s a great day. It’s is it is. Its beauty. That’s possessive.)
They’re, their and there.
Send and sent.
The Newton’s and the Newtons. (The first is possessive, not plural. The plural of Newtons is Newtons.)
Principal versus principle.
Publically and publicly. (The first is WRONG. It doesn’t exist.)
Less and fewer. (Less refers to numbers.)

+ Always assume that whatever you post on the Internet about yourself will be there forever — no matter what you do. The less you post the better.

+ Check. Check. Check. My eye doctor took my prescription off my glasses. He made a mistake.

+ I bought my latest eye glasses online for 88% cheaper.

Zsa Zsa Gabor died this weekend.

zsazsagabor

She was married at least eight times.

She once said, “A girl must marry for love, and keep on marrying until she finds it.” (She married rich people.)

Ms. Gabor’s many public appearances included a 1987 address to the American Bar Association convention in San Francisco.

“We’ve had enough routine speakers,” the chairman said, introducing Ms. Gabor as “an optimist who still believes in marriage.”

Telling her tales of marital joys and woes, Ms. Gabor confided, “I have learned that not diamonds but divorce lawyers are a girl’s best friend.”

A new crop of wonderful idiots

Idiot Number One

I am a medical student currently doing a rotation in toxicology at the poison control center. Today, this woman called in very upset because she caught her little daughter eating ants. I quickly reassured her that the ants are not harmful and there would be no need to bring her daughter into the hospital. She calmed down and at the end of the conversation happened to mention that she gave her daughter some ant poison to eat in order to kill the ants. I told her that she better bring her daughter into the emergency room right away.

Idiot Number Two

Early this year, some Boeing employees on the airfield decided to steal a life raft from one of the 747s. They were successful in getting it out of the plane and home. Shortly after they took it for a float on the river, they noticed a Coast Guard helicopter coming toward them. It turned out that the chopper was homing in on the emergency locator beacon that activated when the raft was inflated. They are no longer employed at Boeing.Image result for image of coast guard helicopter

Idiot Number Three

A man, wanting to rob a downtown Bank of America, walked into the Branch and wrote this, “Put all your muny in this bag”. While standing in line, waiting to give his note to the teller, he began to worry that someone had seen him write the note and might call the police before he reached the teller’s window. So he left the Bank of America and crossed the street to the Wells Fargo Bank. After waiting a few minutes in line, he handed his note to the Wells Fargo teller. She read it and, surmising from his spelling errors that he wasn’t the brightest light in the harbor, told him that she could not accept his stickup note because it was written on a Bank of America deposit slip and that he would either have to fill out a Wells Fargo deposit slip or go back to Bank of America. Looking somewhat defeated, the man said, “OK” and left. He was arrested a few minutes later, as he was waiting in line back at Bank of America.

Idiot Number Four

A motorist was unknowingly caught in an automated speed trap that measured his speed using radar and photographed his car. He later received in the mail a ticket for $40 and a photo of his car. Instead of payment, he sent the police department a photograph of $40. Several days later, he received a letter from the police that contained another picture, this time of handcuffs. He immediately mailed in his $40.

Idiot Number Five

A guy walked into a little corner store with a shotgun and demanded all of the cash from the cash drawer. After the cashier put the cash in a bag, the robber saw a bottle of Scotch that he wanted behind the counter on the shelf. He told the cashier to put it in the bag as well, but the cashier refused and said, “Because I don’t believe you are over 21”. The robber said he was, but the clerk still refused to give it to him because she didn’t believe him. At this point, the robber took his driver’s license out of his wallet and gave it to the clerk. The clerk looked it over and agreed that the man was in fact over 21 and she put the Scotch in the bag. The robber then ran from the store with his loot. The cashier promptly called the police and gave the name and address of the robber that he got off the license. They arrested the guy two hours later.

Idiot Number Six

A pair of robbers entered a record shop nervously waving revolvers. The first one shouted, “Nobody move!”. When his partner moved, the startled first bandit shot him.

Idiot Number Seven

Arkansas: Seems this guy wanted some beer pretty badly. He decided that he’d just throw a cinder block through a liquor store window, grab some booze, and run. So he lifted the cinder block and heaved it over his head at the window. The cinder block bounced back knocking him unconscious. Seems the liquor store window was made of Plexi-Glass. The whole event was caught on videotape.Image result for image of man knocked out

Idiot Number Eight

I live in a semi-rural area. We recently had a new neighbor call the local township administrative office to request the removal of the Deer Crossing sign on our road.

deercrosdsing

The reason: “Too many deer are being hit by cars out here! I don’t think this is a good place for them to be crossing anymore”.

HarryNewton
Harry Newton, who didn’t post yesterday because he was too busy with due diligence and eye doctors. If you’re feeling that Mr. Trump has a valid point about the C.I.A. being awful (and he really has), then you must read this New York Times book review “Debriefing the President” tears into the C.I.A.

debriefing

Read the short review. Click here.