Big Blue Huddle

Quote from: Bob In PA on April 25, 2021, 02:48:08 PM
Jolly: For me it was once racquetball and tennis (I don't think pickle-ball had been invented back then LOL). These days, it is just tennis, and rarely that.  It's not due to old age but rather to lack of free time.  Bob

I don't think the game is more than a few years old. I've never played it because I've never been around a court and don't even know where I'd find one. I would like to try it though and I suspect I'd really like it because it's less running. Specially now that I'm an old fart!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtCRY67SqvU

New bar room subject:

Racquetball or Squash?

Tennis or Pickleball?

As for me (at 68 years old), I prefer Squash over Racquetball even though I was the Racquetball champ in college for a couple of years. I just don't have the energy and endurance to chase the bouncy racquetball like I used to. Squash is more mental IMO, sorta like playing chess compared to playing checkers. There are no second chances when a ball gets beyond you and bounces back for a second chance to recover like with racquetball. I still play squash on occasion, but have trouble digging the ball out of the bucket or when the ball is too close to the side wall.

I don't have the flexibility, endurance, and eye sight that I used to have and I used to love tennis. Haven't played it in a couple years now. I have never tried pickleball, but it looks right up my ally. Maybe once I get to move to Florida, I'll get to play it. Anyone here have experience with pickleball?

Quote from: philo43 on April 25, 2021, 10:48:38 AM
JBG how true!!!!

I only golf once or twice a year - mostly to hang out with friends and have a couple of beers.  If there is a hazard to the left I hook it it, to the right I slice it.

Did you ever play Genegantslet  back in the day?  They had a hole (long since changed  - can't remember what number) that used to run parallel to Rt 12.  I took out a car's windshield while it was driving up Rt 12 with a wicked slice once.

Yeah, I've played Genny a few times. I mostly play Ely or Maple Hill in Marathon. I try to get out once a week, but my golf partner got in a wreck a few weeks ago and is in bad shape. You may have read about it. He fell asleep on Rt 81 along that stretch across from SUNY Broome and ran into a tractor trailer. The next week, all the large electronic signs on 81 and 17 had things like, "Stay Awake - Live", etc. It's what happens when you try to work 80 hours a week and keep up with his son's soccer games and his daughter's field hockey games. Anyway, last year my grandson got really into golfing so he is now my partner. He pushes me to get out and be active. In the winter, he constantly drags me out to go skiing and he's getting good enough that it's getting hard to keep up with him.

Getting back to Genny. The most memorable shot I had there was one of my shots that dribbled into the water. Very close to the shore line and only in a couple inches of water so it was possible to stand on the bank without getting wet and hitting the submerged ball. I chose a wedge because I was only about 50 yards out from the hole. Anyway, I took a full swing and displaced about 2 gallons of water right on top of my head. I was soaked from head to tail...LOL. My "buddies" really got a kick out of it!

Here's a couple of shots with my grandson (Willowbrook Golf Course, Cortland, NY):

Quote from: Bob In PA on April 25, 2021, 10:13:15 AM
I had intended (but forgot) to make a post "announcing" what even the casual investor probably knows... we are now in "earnings season."

Early next week Microsoft will announce, as will several many major players in major industries, followed in the next two/three weeks by the brunt of all major and minor companies.

IMO, the market's reaction (to both good and bad reports) will tell us what to expect from the over-all stock market for most of the remainder of this year.

Bob

Good point. However, I can't tell you how many companies came back with "higher than expected earnings", whose stock fell 10% the next day. It's very confusing. Market is extremely volatile and it's hard to know where to go. I bought a couple thousand bucks in SKLZ (Skillz) for no other reason than I read in Barons that Cathy Wood (of ARK investments) bought a few million shares and she has a reputation of getting high returns. The next day it went up 33% and I sold my shares and banked the profit. Revenue is in the red and the shares were down from a high of 43.72 on February 5th, and was at 12.55 a share on April 20th. It's now about 19.00 and I don't dare buy back in even though ARK doubled down and bought more than a million shares after the 33% bump.

Regardless, I am aware that companies have been releasing (or preparing to release) their quarterlies, but it almost seems as if it has little to do with things - especially when I see a profitable up and coming technology company surprising analysts with higher than expected earnings only to have their share price dive the next day or stocks with negative revenue going up 

Interesting subject as I too had stains on my hardwood floors. I ended up renting equipment to refinish the main floors. It took a few days of prep and sanding (especially getting into the corners where the machine didn't reach) and then spent hours on my hands and knees putting on three coats of satin polyurethane over a 2-week period. Lotta work!

Since we are sitting on a bar stool, here's a question:

What is a better feeling - hitting a home run and the feel of the bat in your hands when you know you "got it" or, hitting the sweet spot with your driver and dropping the ball exactly where you wanted it about 350 yards away?

I really want to know because I have never had a drive like that, although in HS and college (and later in life, fast pitch softball) I hit multiple HRs and it is a great feeling - simply an incredible feeling. For some reason, my hand eye coordination was such that seeing/timing/shifting weight at a 90 mph fastball coming towards me came easy to me, but for the life of me, I can't seem to consistently hit my driver like I'd like. With thousands of swings, I've hit some solid shots, but the ball hooks or slices or just ends up lost in the woods. Any good feeling in my hands are erased by knowing the ball is probably lost. The harder I try, the more likely I am to worm hop it or skull it so bad that it's embarrassing. And if there's water, my balls automatically seek it out and grasp it from the air - so consistently that it seems like a conspiracy from the Almighty! So, in order to play a reasonable round of golf, I take easy 3/4 swings to let the club do the work while my golf partners out drive me by a hundred yards and tell me lovely things like "hike up your skirt next time" or ask me "does your husband play?", etc. I can't "grip it and rip it" because if I try to hit the ball long and hard, I never marry that sweet spot on the club head with the ball. It looks so easy and people tell me my hands are right, my stance is right, and that my swing is exactly what it should be. So why can't I hit the @#$ little white ball like I used to hit baseballs and the ole Dudley softballs? I want to know that feeling of driving a ball like an amateur DeChambeau

There has been considerable change in the market since the latter part of January, early February. If you were in tech stocks, you probably took a beating throughout March. I don't know if the GameStop fiasco caused the shift, but something put the fear of God in the big investors - and it wasn't the sudden rise to 1.5% ROI in the bond market. The correction took down a lot of up and coming technology companies like Plug Power and QuantumScape with 50%+ drops overnight. And of course, there was a change at the White House that threw uncertainty into the mix as the changes make it appear that heavy inflation is in the future - which in turn caused the bond market to rise. But of course, who wants to tie up their money in bonds that will return less than 2% if inflation kicks in many multiple times that? 

In the past, stocks were trading at a premium regardless of whether they had revenue or not and regardless of their PE ratio. Now, with the correction in the rear view mirror (knock on wood), the "corrected" tech sector should be back on track - just not so wild. However, I would avoid companies that show little or negative revenue and a high PE ratio as many players are changing to looking at "value" rather than getting caught up in the next newest technology. There just won't be as many 200-800% one-year returns with so many stocks like there was in 2020. If you had a few thousand in Tesla last year, you were golden and probably more than quadrupled your wealth in your portfolio. Now, it's getting really weird out there. Some say Tesla is going to 3,000 dollars - others say 1,000 - and many others say it's so overpriced it is due for a major crash. Dittos with cryptocurrencies, EV stocks, Pot stocks, etc. Will BitCoin go to 100k, or will new regulations cut it in half? No one knows. Tread carefully!

Thanks for the tip. I haven't heard of it and haven't spent a whole lot of time checking out HBO...with baseball season back, the Knicks looking like a real team, the Masters last week, and of course the upcoming draft. So many sports going on (finally) that I can get back into my old habits. Right now, my TV is on NFL Network pretty much round the clock except when games are on. And of course, today is the big wreck - I mean big race - at Talladega.

Anyway, I'm always up for a "whodunit" and HBO does a good job. I better set my DVR up to catch the show from the beginning. Again, thanks as I'm always trying to find television worthy of watching

I used to travel for a living while auditing suppliers so I tried a little bit of everything. Hard to list them in order, but I love:

1) Creole / Cajin (when in New Orleans or Baton Rouge)
2) Seafood (when in Boston or Maine)
3) Japanese (when in Tokyo - or locally at the Kampai in Vestal)
4) American BBQ (too many to list, I like my ribs dry or wet - favorite of all time is in downtown Minneapolis on Market Street called Market Bar-B-Que where the ribs are so good they don't even put sauce on them)
5) German (if you're ever in Springfield, Mass, definitely check out "the Fort" [as the locals call it ] actual name is "The Student Prince"). Restaurant is in an old fort left over from the Revolution and the restaurant was started by Hitler's private chef who fled Germany when he saw what was going down. Has the second largest stein collection in the world. Food is out of this world.

Not a huge Italian food guy. I like it, but I don't love it.

Man that got a laugh out of me. I was blown away until I read through all the posts. Good one! 

I've been having a hard time finding something worth watching. Sad because I have a couple hundred channels on Direct TV, plus Netflix, Prime, Hulu, HBO, Tubo, etc.

I try to find an interesting movie most nights and then watch a silly sitcom afterwards before going to bed just to lighten the mood and go to sleep without having nightmares. The sitcom I've been watching lately is "Anger Management" with Charlie Sheen as an ex-professional baseball player turned therapist and a horn dog. Gives me a few laughs here and there. My girlfriend had never seen "Becker" before and it isn't available on the streaming channels, but I found a two hour+ show of highlights on YouTube and she laughed her butt off. If you've never seen Becker, Ted Danson plays a miserable unhappy doctor who makes Dr. House look like a nice guy with good bedside manner.

Quote from: Bob In PA on March 27, 2021, 04:58:25 PM
Jolly: "Twin Peaks" is one series I never watched that I wish I had. Hopefully I'll get to it some day. From what I know about it, I think it will stand the test of time (won't seem "passe" or out-of-date).  Bob

Bob, it's available on Netflix. It's worth an hour of your time to just watch the first episode to see if you get hooked or not. And never ever Google to find out something or it ruins it...LOL

My favorite (the kind of show you change your schedule so you don't miss the next episode and talk about it the next day with fellow workers) was "Twin Peaks". There's some very close seconds for me like "Fargo" and "Lost"

For comedy (that's a toughy because there are so many) but I don't think it's possible to beat "Three and a Half Men". The supporting cast was incredible (Berta the Maid, Rose the Stalker, Evelyn the Morally Loose Unloving Mother, Alan the Bumbling Brother, Jake the Lovable But Slow Kid, Judith the Vengeful Ex-Wife, Dr. Linda the Sarcastic Psychiatrist, and of course, there was the centerpiece (not a supporting character) Charlie the Man Whore. Seinfeld, Everybody Loves Raymond, Big Bang Theory all deserve a shout out. They just didn't tickle me quite as much as Three and Half Men

That is really too difficult to answer because each genre fits a different mood at the time. I will only mention what I consider 5-star ratings for each genre and I'll underline the one I feel is the best.

For me: Tombstone is my favorite western, hands down. I also loved the HBO movie, Purgatory. But I'm not always into western movies anymore. Liked the spaghetti westerns with Eastwood, never cared much for any of the John Wayne movies.

For comedies, it is hard for me to find a move that makes me laugh more than Christmas Vacation, although Trading Places, My Cousin Vinny, The Hangover, Old School are all equally side splitting funny. Have to mention Something About Mary, Back to the Future, Crocodile Dundee, and We're the Millers. They crack me up!

For Drama, I love Tommy Lee Jones movies where he's chasing someone - my favorite would be Double Jeopardy followed by The Fugitive. I also tend to gravitate towards movies with Bruce Willis, my favorite being RED, and Bandits. One of my favorite legal dramas of all time is Primal Fear with Edward Norton and Richard Gere

Not a huge romance fan, but I love the movie Phenomenon with John Travolta, Robert Duvall, Kyra Sedgwick and Forest Whitaker. Also really liked Roman Holiday (not sure if that can be categorized as romance and should probably be under comedy). I have to admit I liked Runaway Bride

For family movies, I don't think it's possible to find a better movie than Second Hand Lions. In that category, The Sandlot and We Bought a Zoo is right up there though.

For Sci-Fi, not a big fan but loved the Men in Black series and Guardians of the Galaxy was good

Regardless, my tastes might seem eclectic compared to others and there is no way I could ever pick just one movie that I consider my all time favorite.

If there is any lesson to be learned about playing the market, it's "never brag about your gains".

I am heavy into tech stocks. I buy rising tech stocks whenever they dip and then turn around and sell them a few days later when they recover. It has worked very well for me. I started in mid-November with an input of 10k just to see if I could squeeze out some extra money. I felt like a genius as by the middle of February - a mere 3 months playing the market - I was up 54% and felt like a genius. Then came the third week of February and some of my favorite stocks were down 10-12% so I snatched up several of them seeing it as a great opportunity. Then they went down again...hmmm. The next day, even further....hmmm. By the second week of continual going down I began to panic - I was an absolute miserable person to be around. I went through 3 weeks of hell watching my stocks go down, down, down and couldn't believe it when my initial investment was now down -6% overall. I went from +54% to -6% in 3 friggin weeks - more than half of my portfolio's value. It was no consolation when I read that Elon Musk lost 22 billion during the tech sell off and I was perplexed by the idea that since the bond market went up .01% that people would panic and decide they had to put their money in bonds with a whopping interest rate of 1.5% over 20 years.

Anyway, it was a stressful three weeks, but finally a pretty good recovery this past week. I had no choice but to sit pat with my fingers crossed and hope for the best. This past week my portfolio recovered 2.5k, and I'm up 15.4%, but all my stocks but one are still in the red and I need another couple of good weeks just to get back to where I was. If it ever gets back up to where it was, I'm going to sell them all and put it into savings and wait for the next big tech sell off before jumping back in. I think I have aged about 5 years in the last few weeks. Part of me thinks the big guys on Wall Street are getting together to see how many individual small investors they can shake out or go bankrupt as a bit of payback for the Robinhood's gang of Gamestop players that made the short selling millionaire's club get butt hurt. Just thinking out loud.

Anyone else have a near heart attack during the tech selloff?

Quote from: philo43 on March 10, 2021, 05:49:56 PM
On the what are you watching thread, Ozzie had mentioned a show by Stanley Tucci about Italian cooking.  I replied, knowing where he lives there is really no good Italian food. Got me to thinking about starting this thread.

3) Dick's Sporting Goods started here in 1948,  Dick Stack had a 2 stall garage / gas station that he borrowed $300 from his grandmother to open his first bait and tackle shop.

Got me thinking about another story that locals from the Binghamton area might find interesting about Dick's Sporting Goods. But first I'll comment on the Italian food. In the 1940s, the Binghamton/Johnson City/Endicott area (know as the Triple Cities - hence the name of the Yankee's primary minor league club was called the "Triplets"), the population more than doubled. The largest influx of immigrants came from Italy and only knew a couple of words in English, mainly: "which way E J?". Once they got to EJ's, George F. Johnson would give them a job as EJ's was a huge company supplying most of the shoes and boots in America as well as our entire military. The huge influx of Italians is exactly the reason there are good Italian restaurants in the area as most of them brought their home cooking recipes straight from Italy. I remember having dinner with Nate Cortese one night and I asked him how he got started in the restaurant business. He told me it was his mother's idea so they opened a small restaurant. As a young man, Nate would take orders then call home to his mother who would cook the food and package it. Nate would then drive like crazy over to Conklin Ave, grab the food and bring it back to the restaurant and then serve it. Anyway - that just made me laugh. The restaurant is still a favorite among many people around the state. Nate was an incredibly good man...may he rest in peace.

Anyway, George Johnson was a kind-hearted man who did everything he could for his employees including financing their homes, their medical needs, building parks, putting in merry-go-rounds (the largest collection of merry-go-rounds in the world), golf courses, a cemetery in which he paid for his employees' funeral costs and gave them free plots, etc. He built a PGA golf course known as En-Joie, home of the BC Open for many years and now a regular stop on the Senior tour. Each green was in the shape of one of their shoe styles. The greens have since been modified, but originally, they were the shape of shoes.

One other thing of interest was the name "BC Open" which was named in honor of another guy (Johnny Hart) who was born in Endicott. Hart was the author of the comic strips "BC" and "Wizard of Id". So all the signs and paraphernalia around the golf course had characters from the BC comic strip. In the early years of Binghamton's hockey team, the team was called the "Broome Dusters" that also characterized everything from the BC comic strip. Those were the good old days for Binghamton locals. We loved that team!



Another thing about the area: George F. Johnson (father of EJs) and Thomas Watson (father of IBM) were always trying to outdo each other in taking care of their employees and going to great lengths to help the local families have a good life. Watson decided to start a college in an old house in Endicott called "Triple Cities College" and giving free education to employees who wanted to further their education and eventually get promoted. As the students outgrew the house, farmland was purchased in the town of Vestal and the school renamed Harpur College in honor of Robert Harpur who was an original settler and teacher in Binghamton. The 2-lane highway eventually turned into a nightmare jammed 4-6 lane highway known as Vestal Parkway and the college is now morphed into Binghamton University. Here's a picture of Vestal Parkway in 1951, two years before I was born:



The Parkway is now a congested nightmare and the only reason I ever use the road is to eat at Kampai or go to Best Buy...and then I take the backway on Old Vestal Road. Anyway, I digress as I ramble on this morning with nothing better to do.

The story I was going to share before getting sidetracked was about Dick's Sporting Goods. In the mid-late 60's, my brother started selling guns at school. Such a thing would be unheard of today, but that's how it used to be. It got to the point where plenty of kids were getting off the bus with long guns over their shoulder to go into the school and horsetrade or sell. It got to the point where the Principal would routinely announce on the morning PA system that if you brought a gun to school, make sure it is unloaded, keep it in your locker and only do your trading between classes. It didn't seem odd back in the day as we had a rifle range in the school as well as had a competitive rifle club competing against other kids from other schools. Go figure huh? LOL

Regardless, by the time my brother was 15 years old, he had sold and traded so many guns that he accumulated about 20,000 dollars cash. He got my father to get an FFL, then made a deal with Ithaca gun to sell guns on commission. Ithaca stocked my brother's shelves with about a hundred guns. My brother used his 20k to tear down part of the old barn and build a facade to have a legitimate gun shop. It was about 2000 sq. feet with rows of racks and glass cabinets purchased from another gun dealer going out of business in Syracuse. Remington Arms followed suit as did Rugar. But the early 70's, we had only one big competitor and that was Dick who had his gun shop on Court St. in Binghamton. We both sold guns and fishing equipment as well as bows and arrows for hunting. People would come to us and say they could buy a 10-22 Rugar at Dicks for 59.95, so we would sell the same thing for 55.00. People would go to Dicks and do the same thing and he'd knock off 5 bucks to beat us out. My father was a gunsmith so we did a lot of business in gun repair and the one thing we had on Dicks was our ability to "blue" and "re-blue" guns as well as build custom rifles. Anyway, this went on for a few years, each always trying to one-up the other.

Then one day, the Sun Bulletin (original morning paper in Binghamton) had an article about Dicks deciding to get into different kinds of sales including apparel, sneakers, and all kinds of sporting equipment like tennis, golf, baseball, and such with a de-emphasis on guns. We laughed out loud and went around high-fiving each other laughing and saying, "yeah baby, we won, we won". Needless to say, Dick certainly got the last laugh on that one as we eventually closed up shop in the late 80's and Dicks went on to be a multi-billion dollar business all across the U.S. He was right - we were wrong!