by John Walters
Starting Five
Oops
1. NBA Twilight Zone
What was in the NBA water last night? The Cavs, Spurs and Clippers, who entered the night with three of the league’s four best records, each lost to a team that entered the evening with a sub-.500 mark. The Clips lost to Brooklyn by five in OT, the Spurs fell at home to Orlando (no, really) and the Cavs lost by 17 at Milwaukee.
At least we were treated to the signature play of J.R. Smith‘s career, as while he was supposed to be guarding Tony Snell, he recognized Jason Terry (whom he once elbowed flagrantly in a playoff game) seated on the Bucks bench, was probably shocked to learn he was still in the league, and then went over to greet him (so they’ve made up). Ball gets inbounded to J.R.’s open man, who dunks uncontested. How can you not laugh, even if you’re LeBron?
2. “Working on Building/Working on Building/STARS HOLLOW!”
Christian Borle and Sutton Foster. They were actually married outside Miss Patty’s stage.
Olay, sure, Taylor Doose teases Stars Hollow: The Musical early in Episode 3 of the Gilmore Girls revival, but did you really think they were gonna go for it for TEN MINUTES? And then the Palladinos go ahead and hire Christian Borle (currently playing Shakespeare as a rock star in Something Rotten on Broadway) and Sutton Foster to play the leads (“She was Kinky Boots!”). And what about your director, Nat?
Nat: Minimalist director
Anyway, it’s nowhere on YouTube, so you’ll just have to go to Netflix and see it for yourself. Note: Borle and Foster used to be married and were HUGE Gilmore Girls fans. They’d watch it together. They were married about eight years but remained friends after. Then Foster got the lead in Bunheads, a show that the Paladins produce, so she was a natural for the role of Violet here. She actually suggested Borle, a two-time Tony Award winner, to play Carl. And now you know the rest of the story.”
3. Ore-Gone
The Ducks never allowed fewer than 26 points in a game this year, even surrendering 28 at home to UC-Davis
The Ducks fired coach Mark Helfrich after four seasons. In his first two years in Eugene, the Coos Bay native went 24-4 and led Oregon to the national championship game. In the last two years the Ducks were 9-4 and 4-8 and this season were particularly awful on defense, finishing 125th nationally (out of 128 teams) in Scoring Defense, surrendering 41.4 points per game.
Coos Bay native and secular saint Steve Prefontaine would not be pleased
Still, isn’t it anathema at Oregon to fire someone from Coos Bay? Steve Prefontaine is from Coos Bay. Where would Phil Knight and Nike be without Pre (I mean, sure, he’d still be a monster success, but Pre is sort of Knight’s Moses), and where would Oregon be without Knight? I get it: the talent level had declined and Oregon couldn’t stop anyone.
So who’s next in Eugene? Memo to Chip Kelly, currently coaching the San Francisco 1-9’ers (UPDATED: 1-10’ers; I just wanted you to see the joke): Get back. Get back. Get back to where you once belonged.
4. Blue Bloods
Lonzo is a Ball-er. Bruins will be 8-0 when they visit No. 1 Kentucky on Saturday
You checked out the early men’s hoops rankings? Of the eight schools that have won at least three national championships, seven are ranked int the top 14. Kentucky (8) is No. 1, North Carolina (5) is No. 3, Kansas (3) is No. 4, Duke (5) is No. 5, UCLA (11) is No. 11, Indiana (5) is No. 14 and Louisville (3) is No. 14.
The only slacker among the eight schools with three or more cut-down-nets is UConn. The Huskies are struggling at 2-4.
The only school in the Top 5 without three national titles is No. 2 Villanova, which is both the defending national champ and the only school from a non-Power 5 conference to cut down the nets (twice, in fact: 2016 and 1985) since 1985 (UPDATE: I forgot UNLV, 1990; apologies to the Runnin’ Rebels and my old friend Paul Gutierrez).
Oh, and I’d be remiss not to mention that the school that has ended the longest winning streak in men’s college hoops history, Notre Dame, is 7-0 after taking Iowa down by 14 last night (and its women’s team is No. 1 with a date against UConn, winners of 79 in a row, a week from tonight).
I guess the lesson here is that in sports, as in America, it’s a lot more of an oligarchy than people would like to believe.
5. “We’re Going To Dine at Jean Georges—and Mexico’s Going To Pay For It!”
Can’t we just have a taco bowl and stay in?
That’s president-elect Donald Trump and potential Secretary of State Mitt Romney dining in New York City last night. They went to Jean Georges, a three-star Michelin Guid joint located above Columbus Circle. Official reports have the three men (they were joined by Reince Priebus as the designated “Why-don’t-we-change-the-subject?” guy) ordering “a young garlic soup with thyme and sautéed frog legs, and diver scallops with caramelized cauliflower and caper-raisin emulsion as appetizers.
“Priebus and Trump ordered a prime sirloin with citrus glazed carrots for their main course and Romney ordered lamb chops with a mushroom bolognese sauce. All three of the men had a chocolate cake for dessert.
Remember when conservative pundits killed Obama for ordering mustard with his cheeseburger (Laura Ingraham: “Do these men not have anything better to do?”)? Where are they this morning?
For once, I’m with Mike Pence. Spend about one-tenth the money and enjoy an appetizer sampler and then the burger at TGI Friday’s next time, guys.
Music 101
So Quiet In Here
What the Beach Boys are to summer, Van Morrison is to autumn. He just fits this time of year. As you look outside at 4:50 p.m. and see darkness, your best bet is some mulled wine (I had some this weekend. Who knew!?! So good!) and Van the Man. This is from his 1990 album Enlightenment, which is highly under appreciated.
Remote Patrol
Doubleheader
No. 15 Purdue at No. 14 Louisville
No. 3 North Carolina at No. 13 Indiana
ESPN 7 p.m.
Honestly can’t name a single player on any of these squads. Does Grayson Allen play for one of these schools? No? Okay. Well, I guess this is roll call. Maybe I’ll know a name or two after tonight (Who am I kidding? I’m going to re-watch Gilmore Girls; you do what you like).
Don’t forget the UNLV Runnin’ Rebels in 1990, then in the Big West (non-Power 5 school winning National Championship)…
Poor JR, everyone is guilty of a brain fart now & then. And that one mistake was certainly not why the Cavs lost by 17 (SEVENTEEN!). The game wasn’t on TV, but from clips, it seems the entire team played flat. Which is also understandable in a 82 game season. Plus, they have 3 big games in a row up next (Clippers, Bulls, Raptors). Still, if I had actually watched, I’d have been screaming & moaning at the team, cause that’s what fanatics do. 🙂
That the Spurs & Clippers also lost to sub-500 teams last night made me feel a LOT better.
Stock update. On 11/4/16 (a mere 26 days ago), I bought more shares of a stock I’ve owned for several years. As of today, that purchase is up 37%. Before you think I’m bragging, you should know I’m STILL down 50% on that stock overall. Alas.
Also, I don’t own X, but I did buy into NUE several years ago, & while I am not up 450%, I have made 2.5 times my cost basis.
Meanwhile my champ of this year, NVDA, is 7-bagger overall for me. It leaped past DIS to become my 3rd biggest holding. Maybe one day it will reach Amazonian status & be a 21-bagger. 🙂
Did I ever mention why I don’t use a stockbroker? In 1980 (could have been 1981, my memory’s just not what it used to be), I wanted to make my very 1st stock purchase in a company headed by this “nice middle-age Midwestern man” I’d read in an interview. (He impressed me very much). My dad’s then stockbroker talked me out of buying BRK.A (original Berkshire Hathaway) for $400/share. I wanted to buy 4 shares. Today, that stock is $236,000/share…
What has been your most successful stock investment & has any “gotten away”? My coulda-been millionaire status with BRK.A sits like an iceberg in my Scrooge McDuck heart. Instead of swimming in cash, I’m just swimmin’.
Susie B.,
“Did I ever mention why I don’t use a stockbroker?”
FEES! FEES! Fees, I tell you.
I believe in a 90/10 kind of rule. Invest 90% in low cost index funds/treasuries and 10% in “experiments” — individual companies, angel investing, etc. Try and maximize your optionality: low downside, high upside. Patience is the virtue.
Also, rule #1 for me: Avoid CNBC. Watch on occasion for personal amusement. Carl Quintanilla is a cool cat, though. Read from the source actually surpasses that.
Hey Jacob, when I finally did start investing in 1985, I did so with no-load mutual funds. I don’t remember index funds at all at that time, but they could have existed. (My 401K is the same, although some of that is now in index funds.) I’ve done alright with the mutual funds – up until 2008, my AVERAGE annual return was 16%. Pret-tee good. Since then, my average is only about 12.5% overall. BUT, I pulled out most (left only $7500 in) of the money in Sept 1995 to build a new house (finished in early 97), which I could never have afforded without those investment monies as my 40% down payment.
In late 2008, as I watched my 401K & non-retirement mutual funds go down, down, down like the Titanic, I decided THEN would be the “perfect time” for me to try my hand at investing in individual stocks. 🙂 My 1st purchase was AMZN at $36/share. I should have put it ALL in that, but hey, I wanted to “diversify”. Anyhoo, I did pretty damn well until mid 2015, when my heavy-energy portfolio started to hemorrhage. Win some, lose some. And sure, only 2-10 times a day do I think if I’d ONLY put all the cash I had in November 2008 into AMZN. I’d be Scrooge McDuckin it right now! 🙂
My 401K & ROTH money will stay in funds (mutual or index), but I quite enjoy investing in individual stocks with my “non-retirement” investing money. There’s no mutual or index fund I’m aware of that has given an investor 21-25 TIMES her money within 8 years (as I have with AMZN). Another one of my picks paid me back ALL my investment within 3 years via regular & “special” dividends. I asked my Dad, who has invested almost solely in dividend-paying stocks for the past 60 YEARS, if he’s ever had a stock do that & he says no. So, it’s a HOOT! On the flip side, I lost all my money in 3 of my stocks this year as the companies went bankrupt. The only thing that keeps me from wanting to stab a fork into my hand is the knowledge that at least THIS year I won’t have to send off a hefty check to the IRS in April! Whoo-hoo!
Also, another ‘rule’ to know – the day AFTER you crow about a stock here at the ole MH, is the day it takes a swan dive. Whyyyy, NVDA, whyyyyy? It’s a CURSE I tell ya! (Seriously, this is the 4-5th time this has happened!).