by John Walters
Happy 35th, Minka Kelly. Let’s go dutch on a pizza.
Also, a happy 34th birthday to the Humber Bridge in Yorkshire, which when it opened was the world’s longest suspension bridge at 7,280 feet.
Starting Five
“Honey, I’m going to the game. We got front-row seats.” “You’re bringing the baby!”
1. Dad Bod-acious
The dad: Keith Hartley. (Any relation to Dr. Robert Hartley?)
The baby: Isaac Hartley.
The photographer: Jon Soohoo.
The Dodger: Adrian Gonzalez.
Not in attendance: Steve Bartman.
The Cubs would win 1-0 in 10 innings. I’m not sure if Keith and Isaac had wandered home by then. The Cubs have, who are now 9 games above .500, beat former Cy Young winners Clayton Kershaw and Zack Greinke on consecutive nights at Wrigley.
Oh, so that’s the way it’s done…
2. The Sleeper
He’s a 6’11” Latvian with a sweet touch from beyond the arc, and I’m pretty sure he lost to Rocky Balboa in Rocky IV: he’s Kristaps Porzingis, and you’re hearing that he’s a “white Kevin Durant.”
Perhaps. On the other hand, ESPN Stats said yesterday that the only international player drafted in the lottery in the past 12 years who made an All-Star Game was Yao Ming. So what do you do tomorrow night if you’re an NBA team?
How I’d select the Top 5:
Minnesota: Karl-Anthony Towns, Kentucky
Los Angeles: D’Angelo Russell, THE Ohio State University
Philadelphia: Jahlil Okafor, Duke (Is Joel Embiid going to be the next Greg Oden?)
New York: Justise Winslow, Duke (because even if Porzingis has more upside, Winslow will be a star in this town from Day 1)
Orlando: Porzingis
3. This Is Going To Make A Great Anecdote in Lou Holtz’s Next Speech
Was Someone up above attempting to render a Final Verdict on Dr. Lou? Lightning struck Lou Holtz’s 11,000 square-foot Lake Nona, Fla., home the other night and destroyed a good deal of it. No one inside was seriously hurt. Meanwhile, Tiger Woods wonders how Whoever did this got the address mixed up.
4. Netflix is the New Green
Shares of Netflix, not unlike Kimmy Schmidt, appear unbreakable at the moment.
Shares of Netflix stock continue to torment my friend Dan Wolken. The video streaming service, whose stock is up 99% this year alone and nearly 1,300% in just the past three years, announced a 7-for-1 stock split, effective July 14, after the close of the bell yesterday.
In pre-market trading this morning it is already more than 2% over yesterday’s close at $696. Yes, but is a stock that trades at 177 times earnings a potential house of cards (and hence, a house of pain)?
5. The Most Polite Apprehension of a Mass Murderer You’re Likely To See Today
This is before police went on a Burger King run for Roof (really)
Here’s the arrest of Dylann Roof last week, courtesy of a police dash-cam, less than 24 hours after he murdered nine people. You’ll note that the car with the dash-cam made the gut-wrenching decision to leave the vehicle with “40 minutes of commercial-free classic rock coming up next.” What’s the correct word here? Gentle?
Here’s a second video showing more of the aftermath. Officer Joe Burris, the lone African-American policeman on this detail, pounds his arms together after Roof is put away in the squad car. He’s understandably amped about this arrest. A little more so than his colleagues, it seems.
Music 101
Girl From the North Country
Remember me/To one who lives there /For she once was a true love of mine
Released in May of 1963, written and recorded by the one and only Bob Dylan. Six years later he re-recorded it as a duet with the Man in Black.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqD6m55mTGU
Remote Patrol
One Million Years B.C.
TCM 8 p.m.
Plot? Who cares! It’s 91 minutes of Raquel Welch, then 26 years old, in full-busted glory. My cave or yours?
So, what you’re saying is if you’d put that summer job moola into not TSLA but NFLX a mere 2 years ago, you could buy TWO Teslas today AND have money left over to purchase a permanent Manhattan parking place? Well, just be glad you didn’t invest it in the 3D stocks. You’d barely have enough to buy a subway token today. 😉
I TOLD you the 3D stuff was in a bubble! Unfortunately, I started buying a bit BEFORE the bottom, so I’ve seen nuthin but red the past 9 months or so, seemingly every dang day. But, as a long term investor, I can wait. One of my early dogs – VDSI (bought in 2009) started taking off after 5 YEARS of inertia (more like a coma) & in just the last year, has more than quadrupled! This alone keeps me from chugging back a 6-pack of Diet Pepsi & weeping when looking at my energy stocks. That & the fact that I KNOW the oil cartel will soon tire of their little game.
What kills me is that my VERY 1ST stock, bought before I had done any research beyond looking at stats on Yahoo-Finance is STILL, by far, my best investment. (AMZN at $36 in Nov 2008). Apparently, my GUT is a stock-picking genius while my head needs ‘after school tutoring’.
imagine if the African American cop took some frustration shots at Roof. What would the outcry be?