Supposed Cramer Scandal - Don't Shoot the Messenger

I have to addess this, since it has blown up in the blogs yesterday. It's regarding this video interview with Jim Cramer which was posted on thestreet.com late last year as part of a section called "Wall St. Confidential".

Last December I recall watching (and re-watching) it several times to understand exactly what he was talking about.

In it Cramer describes how hedge fund managers can manipulate stock prices. For whatever reason this got "scooped" in that infamous rag the New York Post (4 months after it appeared).

Of the two methods that Cramer describes that funds use to manipulate stocks to increase their value and increase their fees, the first (which he admits to doing in his manager days) is legal; the second which he doesn't admit to, is illegal.

Some people in the public are enraged by JC's revealation. Maybe I'm too much of a JC disciple to be unbiased but I fail to see what he says here anything less than a public service.

Cramer cannot own stocks himself anymore because of his occupation as a journalist who rates stocks and the SEC surely tracks the activities of his charitable trust, so it's not like he's using these tactics and his voice in the media to get rich from the markets (obviously he makes money as an author, TV personality and speaker).

This is like a high school teacher saying they inflate grades. Everyone knows it happens, universities know. But if anyone admits they did it, they would be shot as the messenger.

Real Life Zelig

Zelig is one of my all-time favorite movies. In the movie: Leonard Zelig as a defensive mechanism developed the condition of spontaneously transforming to become like the people he is with.

It's great because it spoofs the kind of insecurity and pressure we all feel to be accepted -- in droll Woody Allen style.



Well now it turns it there's a Real-Life Zelig.

"Now psychologists in Italy have reported the real-life case of AD, a 65-year-old whose identity appears dependent on the environment he is in. He started behaving this way after cardiac arrest caused damage to the fronto-temporal region of his brain.

When with doctors, AD assumes the role of a doctor; when with psychologists he says he is a psychologist; at the solicitors he claims to be a solicitor. AD doesn't just make these claims, he actually plays the roles and provides plausible stories for how he came to be in these roles."

Douche Chill (with Instructions)

This is "Douche Chill" (It's a 2 second mp3):

Douche Chill(25 kb)

This is how you use "Douche Chill":

You cue up your playlist, then you add "Douche Chill" to it like ten or twelve times and hit shuffle.

As you groove to your tunes, you will get a happy and unexpected douche chill at random intervals.

Impending Doom...and a week of hell

Almost two weeks ago, Tuesday Night I felt the impending doom. A cold or something coming on - hard. My first instinct was to try to self medicate, so I went down to Mayday's and knocked back a few Rickard's and a chicken sandwich.

I'd been pretty lucky, not getting sick except for a day at a time or so in the last two years, so I figured I had this shit figured out. But, it didn't work this time.

The next morning I woke up with a KILLER headache. It felt like a brain aneurysm. It was so bad I could barely open my eyes. I was even in too much pain to try to sleep through it. I almost never take medication because it always seemed like it never did anything, but I finally broke out the Advil and Neo-Citran. In addition I was super-dehydrated. I drank and drank and drank a ton on water but it wasn't helping. So whhat was happening to all that water ? Well, when I sat on the can I found out.

It must've been the flu, seeing how bad my stomach was. I barely ate for two weeks, I couldn't even bear the thought of a coffee or beer.

On the upside, I lost a bunch of weight to kick off bikin' season. This was useful since we were still in the middle of a six week deep freeze. I also saved a lot of money, since I believe in eating quality food, and usually a lot of it.

Finally last Thursday I felt well enough to go for a ride. That flu totally sapped me, but I'm getting my strength back. I have 20 hours of pedal pushing in the last week -- trying to play catch up.