Rick Sommer's

It happens.  And it has happened to me.  I am currently without a thought and certainly without a great thought.  So, rest has been prescribed.  By me.

Almost 875 posts certainly is, well, a lot.  Am not sure, at all, how others do this day in and day out.

Am thinking my new Kindle is to blame; I do like it and since I can share HH’s library of almost 80 downloads I am reading a lot more.  And enjoying it.  The little machine seems to allow me to read faster and I love coming back to my place by simply turning the machine on.

As No. 1 once said during a similar writer’s strike by me: You’ll be back, you love it. Probably, probably.

No. 1 is a life-long dedicated surfer.  He often scans the net to peek into web cams to see how the world’s waves are breaking, wishing he were there.  Here he has discovered a beautiful video made by a crazy Irishman who surfs the quickly breaking waves off Ireland’s rocky coast.  It is a lovely video, about six minutes long.  Wait for the ads to clear then click on Dark Side of the Lens.  Enjoy.

http://www.surfline.com/surf-news/best-of-the-web-dark-side-of-the-lens_46951/#

Are you looking forward to the launch of Boeing’s Dreamliner?  Not me.  Now two and a half years late and billions and billions over budget the plane had another hiccup last week.  Well, only if you feel an exploding engine could be classified a hiccup.  Seems that Rolls-Royce, the supplier, was testing the engine and it had what is described as an “uncontained” failure.  Simply put that means the engine spit out parts through the protective casing as it was revving up.  Holy crap.   Faring not much better is Boeing’s newly developed 747-8.  It, too, is a cool $1 billion over budget.  Cannot figure our how or why Boeing’s stock continues to levitate.

My Kindle arrived yesterday.  This is their newest version and differs from HH’s ’cause it only has WiFi.  This device is much thinner, lighter (8.5oz.) , $50 cheaper and has better type that is easier to read.  I signed-into her account (you can share six Kindles on one account) and quickly downloaded her massive (and friggin expensive!) library.  I’ll never get through them all.  But for now I am deep into Donna Leon’s latest Detective Brunetti mystery set in beautiful Venice.

Beach time this morning.  We had a helluva storm last night with enormous rainfall.  I’ll beach-it early, before the crowds.

Dinner tonight will be smoked salmon on pumpernickel bread, low fat cream cheese with chives, thinly sliced cukes, finely sliced onion, capers, fresh pepper and lemon wedge.  Oh, stop!

Stumbled across this.  You simply have to fast forward (3:25) to Prince’s guitar solo.  Astonishing. Jeff Lynne and Bob Petty have their jock straps handed to them; they are agog.  As one viewer has commented: Prince raped that guitar so bad it should have been censored. That is George’s son, Dhani, in the back; he is the only one to crack a smile, loving it.  The rest of them seemingly cannot live be upstaged so badly.  And love how Prince tosses the guitar at the end.  Don’t worry about the guitar, it was no doubt caught by the same Prince handler who held him up on the stage.   Tom Petty, Harrison’s son, and Prince – Guitar gently weeps

Good Afternoon

Yeah, yeah I know.  I’m an idiot for selling the tech names earlier this week.  Well, they can be bought back, if necessary.  How did I know Bernanke was going to give a holiday to the bulls?  Actually, today’s rally is more about the GDP revision, showing stronger growth.  But I was taught that GDP numbers were lagging indicators or a rear view mirror, not a forecast.  And I remember vividly studying a chart showing the last twenty years of GDP revisions.  Every original number had changed, both up and down.

Anyway, I bought some things; McDonalds (MCD); some more Annaly preferred (NLYprA), a good slug of American Express (AXP) and some Ecopetrol (EC).  The latter is the semi-state owned Colombia oil company.  Colombia’s stock market is hot as the economy is perking, oil prices are up and the constant battle against revolutionary insurgents seems to be under control.  The AXP idea came from Lazlo Birinyi.  I have subscribed to his monthly letter for a while and yesterday’s suggested AXP as a trade.  So far, so very good.

Lunch.

When my brother and I were young boys (together with our four sisters) we lived in the Ohio country.  Down the hill from our house, past Aunt Marce and Uncle Bill’s house, there was a small stream.  We called it the creek.  Together with cousin Mike we would spend hours in that small valley caused by the eroding creek.  We turned over rocks to find crayfish, built forts that lasted a fortnight, shot BB guns at everything and we would fish.  For a while we would catch small minnows.  They looked like fish to our young eyes.  We would take them up the hill, through the woods, and Aunt Marce would fry them in butter.  To my mind they tasted terrific.  Marce was never a great cook but she sure could fry up those minnows.  Am not sure they were ever gutted, however.

Those early fishing experiences probably explain my love of sardines.  My brother, Dave, shares the passion.  He eats his between bread with mayo.  I take mine “neat” with a squeeze of lemon, a slather of mayo and crackers.  Of course there is a little Kevin Kline-ish moment here; Kline famously dropped a flapping Wanda down is throat during the movie of the same name.  There is no denying the Wanda look as these Norwegian darlings plop out of the slim can onto a plate.  About this time HH has escaped the house and, in terror, fled to the furthest reaches of the property.  She won’t reappear until the empty sardine can has been disposed of in the outdoor trash.  Dave’s wife is the same way.  Of course, there is the issue of sardine aroma from the oil I have drained into the sink so I take the remaining lemon and grind it up in the disposal.

Today’s sardine lunch was so tasty that I opened a second can and dropped those little slithering darlings down the throat.  Still with me?

Preferably eaten over the sink here is a desert designed to win old and young alike. HH and I envision grandson Sam, always a picky eater, wolfing these down.

Ingredients:

• Taco size tortillas
• Sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl
• Butter stick
• Mango, sliced
• lemon wedge
• ice cream, optional

Heat a small skillet, swipe with butter and lay on a tortilla.  After one side is wet with butter flip the tortilla and sprinkle with sugar mixture.  Flip again and add sugar mixture to the other side.  This should take about a minute.

When tortilla bubbles and is browned remove to a plate.  Add slices of mango and ice cream, if desired.  Squeeze with lemon and serve.  Add napkins.  OMG.

Good Morning

• Markets are a bit stronger as they react to a better than expected initial jobless claims number.  Now, lets see if the early gains hold.   As usual the key will be technology; without strength in tech there is little leadership
• This is a frustrating time to be a long-term investor.  While this group experienced terrific gains from March ‘09 until the end of April ‘10 there has been pain since.  Since May long-term has taken on new a calculation; a couple of days.  This action continues to push more and more retail investors away from stocks and into bonds.  As our population ages the yields from bonds (and perceived safety) becomes more and more attractive.  I have bought into this scenario but am thinking that mega-cap stocks with OK yields could be the next home for investor’s money.  Instead of 10% yields from junk bonds am wondering if 3%-4% dividends from large industrial shares might be the better play.
• But who can argue with bond performance?  Double digit returns are the norm so far this year.  Compare this with a decline of 6.3% in the S&P.  No contest.

Went to a tapas restaurant last night.  I normally think of these places as trendy and as such about to fall out of favor.  This has been the wrong outlook as more small plates are offered by more and more establishments.  The four of us had, I believe, seven plates and each was delicious.  Of course, as usual our bar tab trumped the food expense.  But we will return to this place, just across the street from the forbidding walls of our community.

This week our administrative offices received a phone call from the local newspaper saying they were likely to publish a photo of a bicycle in a tree.  Oh?  Yeah, you have a bicycle in a tree just outside your gate.  Sure enough there is a rusty Schwinn with balloon tires about fifteen feet up a live oak.  It appears to have “grown” into the limbs, like it has been there for years and years.  How in the hell did it get there and why hasn’t anyone (especially the tree surgeons) ever called our attention to it?   Not sure what we will do about it, probably just leave it up there.

Good Evening

This afternoon the market turned around to the upside.  Haven’t heard any good or reasonable explanation (other than an Apple event) for the move but I’ll take it.  My sales of Apple and Google look a little foolish but the Freeport-McMoran and Ford sales seem to be OK.  For now.

As today highlights the name of the game is trading, folks taking shots and buying off the charts.   For a sustainable move we will need something to put our teeth into.  A governmental, pre-November, move would help. Sustaining the Bush tax cuts, a tax holiday, another stimulus…..something.  Even so there are continued questionable economic stats still to come out.

Beautiful day here, the heat has broken and we are beginning to anticipate fall.  Early dinner party so am cutting this short.

Am on my second read-through of Roger Wilkin’s book.  This was picked-up by HH at the Monticello book store while on a recent pilgrimage there with grandson Jack.

Written in 2001 it is helping me understand our country’s conflicted origins.  This is a must-read for those trying to understand how our Constitution could have been written with a blind eye (sometimes two) toward Blacks and Native Americans.  Am still not totally satisfied that I understand it.  One sentence by Wilkins helps: “……the truth rarely gets in the way of nations and individuals to think well of themselves.”

Good Morning

• Notwithstanding my notoriously nervous trigger finger I have pulled it over the last few days.  Gone are Apple, Google, IBM, Ford and Freeport-MacMoran.
• Added to is TLT, the bond ETF.  Yeah, bonds are in silly season but I don’t care.  There is a serious appetite for bonds right now and a not so serious thirst for stocks…..just take a look at the volume.  So, September may live up to its reputation as being one of the worst months for performance and I want out of the way.

Went to the admissions office of our local university.  This is one of the ten North Carolina campuses and it is very pretty (above).  The place is growing like mad as parents and students discover the benefits of state-sponsored tuition.  Our campus has over 10,000 students.  North Carolina is the country’s oldest system and the state’s constitution requires that there be secondary education for all.  Until today.

I had hoped to audit a medieval history course or, if that was closed, a philosophy course on Kant.  In the past one must get the professor’s permission for a senior audit but this has not been a problem.  At the registrar’s office I was shocked to find out the gravy train has departed.  The state legislature eliminated free tuition for seniors.  Credited courses now cost $660 for up to five credits.  Even audited course now cost. The folks in the registrar’s office were sympathetic to my plight but I, nevertheless, went away a bit angry.  This is just one small reality of the new normal.  The balance sheets of all states cannot sustain free anything anymore.

We made shrimp tacos last night, very good.  I used Sam the Cooking Guy’s recipe and found it super easy.  The key is the sour cream/chipotle mixture.  Getting into the project I even purchased a new wok and one of those sleazy looking tortilla things to keep them warm.  Got them at the department store; ah, you know.  I had also intended to make Sam’s mango taco desert but discovered we had no vanilla ice cream.  Perhaps tonight. Sam the Cooking Guy – Shrimp Tacos