by John Walters
Starting Five
Kelly, 46, heads across 6th Avenue and one block north from Fox to NBC
Me-Gone Kelly*
*The judges, for a limited time, will accept “The Kelly Flies”
As a former employee of both NBC and Fox, I can get behind Megyn Kelly‘s decision to move from the latter to the former. Why? There are so many more lunch choices within the building, silly.
Kelly, 46, is a survivor of Toxic Fox Syndrome (TFS), which happens when you wake up and realize that you must attend the same Christmas party (not to mention the same “War On Christmas! Party”) with Sean Hannity and Bill O’Reilly.
Kelly will make a lot of bank at The Peacock (likely between $17 and $22 million per year), but UNLESS SHE’S TAKING SAVANNAH GUTHRIE’S PLACE ON TODAY, SHE WON’T BE WORTH IT.
Why not? Because Kelly’s target audience won’t be tuning in to NBC to see her between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., and she’s simply not warm enough a TV personality to pull off that Oprah/Ellen schtick. She’d be great on MSNBC at 8 p.m. as a lead-in to Rachel Maddow or with Matt Lauer between 7 a.m. and 9 a.m., but she’s actually not compelling enough on TV—I don’t think—to be a midday-feelgood-TV-must-watch. NBC overpaid for a TV news personality. Not the first time.
2. What’s Wrong With This Headline?
This story ran on Mediaite.com last night. Maybe whoever produced the piece (likely the author; that’s how digital publishing works in 2017) was still hung over from Saturday night.
3. A Travelsty In Lawrence*
It wasn’t even a Eurostep by this Euro
*The judges will accept “Walk-Off Win”, “Rock Chalk, Jaywalk!” and “Gimme Two Steps, Gimme Two Steps, Mister”
Listen: It was a terrific game at Jog Allen Fieldhouse between Kansas State and Kansas, a welcome distraction on a dreary January week night, but when a white kid (Svi Mykhailiuk) who sounds like a goalie for the Canucks can pick up his dribble at the arc and score a game-winning lay-up and none of the three refs toots his whistle, we got a problem. Kansas wins, 90-88.
4. Trump Attempts To Assange Voters
Presented without comment, other than to say that PEOTUS promptly deleted this after tweeting it:
Trump just tweeted about Assange then deleted it — very likely because autocorrect changed “Assange” to “Assuage” pic.twitter.com/THIW8OOxO9
— Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) January 4, 2017
5. Let’s Pick a Stock (But Not a Max Bialystock)
Nvidia, whose logo is reminiscent of Pied Piper, saw its stock price rise 220% in 2016
If you read this site regularly (then your name is either “Susie B.” or “Mom”), you know that I’ll frequently devote an item to a stock and talk about how high it has risen (CHK) or how steeply it has plummeted (FIT) and then finish with something such as, “If you had bought this stock at the start of the year….” and then we all feel poorly that we’re not rich and that we didn’t have this foresight.
Well, guess what? It IS the start of the year.
So what I’d like to do is take nominations for a stock that you think will blow up this year; perhaps not a “single-bagger,” as Ms. B would say (100% rise), but at least a 20%’er. At least And then on Friday we’ll adopt this stock and periodically check on how it’s doing so that 12 months from now we can all feel stupid for not heeding our own advice. I have a couple of names in mind, but I’ll just take nominations today and tomorrow. Thanks!
Reserves
Bill O’Reilly Is Pathetic, But You Already Knew This
First, watch the clip within this link. The Fox News host notes that many performers have been asked to perform at the inauguration and almost all have said no, and then says that it is “NOT CONFIRMED” that they are turning down the gig out of fear of being blackballed by the Hollywood liberal elite. He continues assuming this is why, although he repeatedly (because Fox has lawyers, too) repeats that none of this is confirmed.
Now watch the clip below, in which Charles Krauthammer simply and calmly tells O’Reilly, “You have presented no evidence!”
“Bah!” scoffs O”Reilly. “The evidence is that there’s nobody booked!”
Krauthammer, calmly: “They don’t wanna play for Donald Trump.”
O’Reilly: “Bull!”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_JWBxG1P4A
Music 101
Time of the Season
This may have been the Freedom ’90 of videos for the Sixties as a parade of lovelies pass by on screen as Colin Blunstone of The Zombies ask the musical question (and was he the first to do so?), “Who’s your daddy?” This tune by the British band reached No. 3 on the U.S. Billboard charts in March of 1968, which was sort of funny because the band broke up in December of 1968.
Remote Patrol
Heaven Can Wait
8 p.m. TCM
Reds
10 p.m. TCM
It’s Warren Beatty night on Turner Classic Movies, and if you have the willpower to stay up until 1:30 a.m. to finish a 3 1/2-hour movie about love among the Cossacks, God bless you. But the opener in our double feature, a remake, is ineffably charming and harks back to a time when playing for the Los Angeles Rams meant something. It’s not quite Shampoo, but it is peak Beatty (and, you get super ripe Dyan Cannon and just-past-ripe Julie Christie).
There is going to be, I think, a huge tech IPO sometime this year. And as with any other prominent tech IPO, the stock will soar in the first few months, shareholders and CNBC “analysts” will get wary and question where the revenue stream is, and then come back to earth for the foreseeable future.
If you are in it for the long-haul, good deal. If not, probably not a best “recommendation.” Anyhow, perhaps keep an eye on Slack, Uber and Airbnb.
The latter two are building pretty impressive moats in the United States. Uber will be hammered for their international pursuit. People will forever have houses to rent, so I personally like Airbnb. Honestly, though, I’d need to do a lot more research. My opinion at the moment has quite a bit of ignorance in it.
“My opinion at the moment has quite a bit of ignorance in it” will be the title of my ESPN2 debate show.
Great. I’ll only watch if you have Nate Silver on. I’d really like to know the winner before that Friday night NBA matchup.
FYI – the term “single-bagger” is not used. The “bagger” name doesn’t start until you make at least 4 times your money; as in 4-bagger, 5-bagger, etc. Before that, you have a double & a triple. 🙂 (And before THAT, you just wear a lot of black & choke back the tears). 😉
I’m expecting all of the following stocks to increase by at least 20% in 2017 unless the market finally has a correction : SPWR, RIG, NE, CHK, NOV, ATVI, CAMP, POT, KMI, DDD, GILD, & LL. Do I own any of these stocks? Why, yes, all of them except LL & it’s been on my Watch-list for years. I just haven’t yet decided if the company will pull through it’s scandal/debacle of the Chinese formaldehyde flooring. ALL the stocks except ATVI were pummeled (let’s just call them the ‘Rhonda Rousey stocks’) within the past 2 years, so are poised for lift-off. ATVI is a gaming stock & while it was not pummeled like all the others, the stock was basically flat in 2016 & SHOULD do much better this year. (I’ve owned since 2009 & may actually buy some more in the next few months).
Jacob – what about all the lawsuits against Uber & Airbnb? How many rapes/murders can be committed by Uber drivers/passengers before folks think it’s too DANGEROUS to “take a ride” in one of those “death cars”? Perception is everything in that kind of business. One horrific incident can have a huge impact, enough to kill a company. Look at LL – they were flying high for several years & then BOOM, 60 Minutes does that story (followed by investigations, lawsuits, etc) & it’s still not clear if the company will survive the fallout.
Susie B.,
The regulations that both of those companies must combat are good points you raise. People are dumb and perception does indeed run wild these days. However, people also LOVE — LOVE — the bottom line, even though they correlate profit with growth (see: Amazon). Again, if you are going to invest so you can make a profit for 2017 (or whatever year they IPO), you are only being a fool (and I use “you” in general terms).
When I was younger, I always remember hearing Amazon would never make money. The narrative seemed to last much longer with them than with the social media companies that followed. Anyhow, if patience persisted (which is NOT the case on Wall Street), anyone that looked long-term on Amazon would be pretty happy right now.
Sheesh. I’m personally going with Vandalay Industries (VAND). Latex is always in demand.