FSX 2011 Year-In-Review

The good news is that the Family Stock Index added 10.7% over the last three months of 2011.  The bad news is that the FSX was down 17% in the first nine months.  At a 2011 closing level of 11,077, the FSX traded down 7.6% from its 2010 close at 11,991, and while we are well above the October low of 9,220, we are nowhere near the March peak of 13,698.  What does it mean for 2012?  I’m on record as saying 2012 is going to be a garbage year from a macro standpoint: there will be presidential elections in the U.S. and France and a generational leadership transition in China, so the powers will have no interest in muddying the trade and monetary policy waters any further than said waters will already be muddied by all the politicians crapping in them.  The markets will move only to the extent that exogenous factors move them, meaning the extent to which shit happens.  Where governments can influence economies and markets, they will hold them steady, so the only directional shifts are likely to come from unpredictable events.  Therefore, I predict that the S&P 500, which began 2011 at 1257.64 and ended at 1257.60, will end 2012 at 1257.56.  I further predict that my prediction will be wrong for unforeseeable reasons.  Separately, I predict that the Family Stock Index will close at 12,074 at the end of 2012, because those are the numbers my fingers went to just now, as though my keyboard was, in fact, a Ouija board.  You’re welcome for the future.

What everyone wants to know is how he or she did during the year, and I can tell you that the answer is probably not well.  Only 9 of our 24 stocks rose during 2011, and of those 9, only five rose decisively, and one of those doesn’t count because Justin cheated at the end.  I’m putting these into groups based on stars and stuff.

INVINCIBILITY STAR

 

1.  Reagan (REGN) Opening price – $32.83; Closing price – $55.43; percentage change +68.8%.

SUPERSTAR

2.  Lulu (LULU) Opening price $34.21; Closing price $46.66; percentage change +36.4%.

3.  Nicole B. (NI) Opening price $17.62; Closing price $23.81; percentage change +35.1%.

4.  Future Lee (MSTR) Opening price $85.47; Closing price $108.32; percentage change +26.7%.

WHATEVER JUSTIN

5.  Justin (WOLF) Opening price $2.61; Closing price $2.90; percentage change +11.1%.

DIMLY BRIGHT

6.  Marisa (MOLX) Opening price $22.72; Closing price $23.86; percentage change +5.0%.

7.  Jenny (LEN) Opening price $18.75; Closing price $19.65; percentage change +4.8%.

8.  Dustin (DST) Opening price $44.35; Closing price $45.52; percentage change +2.6%.

9.  Charlotte (ICE) Opening price $119.15; Closing price $120.55; percentage change +1.2%.

GOOD JOB NOT EVEN TRYING LOSER

10.  Brinky (BCO) Opening price $26.88; Closing price $26.88; unch.

BRIGHTLY DIM

11.  Lisa (LSI) Opening price $5.99; Closing price $5.95; percentage change -0.7%.

12.  Lucas (LEI) Opening price $2.33; Closing price $2.31; percentage change -0.9%.

13.  Nicole L. (COL) Opening price $58.26; Closing price $55.37; percentage change -5.0%.

14.  Marcus (MCS) Opening price $13.27; Closing price $12.61; percentage change -5.0%.

DIMLY DIM

15.  Winston (HWD) Opening price $11.70; Closing price $10.65; percentage change -9.0%.

16.  Katie (CATY) Opening price $16.70; Closing price $14.93; percentage change -10.6%.

17.  Icarus (FLOW) Opening price $4.09; Closing price $3.50; percentage change -14.4%.

18.  Mario the Elder (PBY) Opening price $13.43; Closing price $11.00; percentage change -18.1%.

DOUBLE DIM

19.  Mario the Younger (SUP) Opening price $21.22; Closing price $16.54; percentage change -22.1%.

20.  Zondro (ZQK) Opening price $5.07; Closing price $3.61; percentage change -28.8%.

21.  Wilson (WILC) Opening price $6.48; Closing price $4.57; percentage change -29.4%.

22.  Ruby (RBY) Opening price $5.71; Closing price $3.78; percentage change -33.8%.

STARHAWK

23.  Legacy Lee (LEE) Opening price $2.46; Closing price $0.70; percentage change -71.3%.

BLACK HOLE SUN

 

24.  Zero (FRZ) Opening price $2.75; Closing price $0.15; percentage change -94.5%.

FSX 2012 Changes

Here it is at last–your long-awaited, exhaustively-researched, arbitrary-yet-defensible 2012 Family Stock Index!

First, here are my reasons for removing the stocks that are being dropped from the FSX:

• LEE – removed because it makes me sad
• FRZ – removed because Zero annihilated it
• HWD – removed because it’s too volatile
• LSI – removed because it’s too volatile
• RBY – removed because it’s too volatile
• PBY – removed because RBY is too volatile
• LEN – removed because I have a bad feeling about homebuilders and Jenny’s going to have enough trouble with middle school without having to manage overcapacity in the market for new home construction

I can make four groups out of the folks who didn’t get new stocks: (1) never had a chance; (2) considered briefly; (3) seriously considered; and (4) this-almost-happened.  From the placement of a particular FSX member, it may well be possible to see what changes I’m leaning towards in the future.  I could go back to previous posts to see if that’s true at all, but that sure seems difficult.

Let’s use the Republican presidential candidates, shall we?  It’s not as though they’re good for anything else.

First, the Santorums:

• Brinkley (BCO)
• Lulu (LULU)
• Marcus (MCS)
• Reagan (REGN)
• Wilson (WILC)

Next, the Cains:

• Icarus (FLOW)
• Justin (WOLF)
• Katie (CATY)
• Lee (MSTR)
• Lucas (LEI)
• Marisa (MOLX)
• Nicole B. (NI)
• Nicole L. (COL)
• Zondro (ZQK)

Then the Perrys:

• Dustin (DST)
• Charlotte (ICE)

And finally, the Gingrich:

• Mario the Younger (SUP)

Better luck next time.  Or worse luck, as the case may be.

Now, on to the changes.

We have two new additions this year.  First up is Jodi Ann, Marcus’ lady.  Katie and I worked on this one for a while and I wasn’t at all pleased with our options.  I don’t know Jodi Ann well enough to be very creative yet; when you just met the box six months ago it’s tough to think outside it.  Katie came up with Joy Global (ticker: JOY) as a contraction of her full name, although when and if she changes said name we’ll be back to the drawing board.  JOY manufactures mining equipment, which is bad-ass, and I guess they’re pretty happy about it.  The stock trades at $75, placing it firmly between its 2011 high of $103 and low of $57, and giving it a market value of just under $8 billion.  I wasn’t sure about my choice of JOY (My Choice of Joy would be a great name for a band, though) until I noticed that it’s headquartered in Milwaukee, along with…Marcus Corporation!  I hope they’re on the same street.  No doubt one day I’ll feel comfortable enough to properly mock Jodi Ann along with everyone else, but for the time being JOY is liable to be more of a club with which to beat on Marcus for bailing on his real family for Christmas.

The second new addition is a dual-person/cat member, Namilita.  Charlotte named her two kittens Battle Angel Alita and Something Japanese That Gets Shortened To Nami, or Lita and Nami for short.  It sounds ridiculous to me, giving things long-ass names you never intend to use, but maybe that’s Katie rubbing off on me.  She wouldn’t sign off on Jennifer as a name when we knew we were going to call our daughter Jenny, so Jenny is what it says on the birth certificate.  I should just be glad she didn’t expect to call our son Brinky ahead of time.  Namilita will be represented by NL Industries (ticker: NL) which makes ball bearings, apparently.  Making ball bearings is even more bad-ass than making mining equipment, so I hope these cats are up to the bad-ass manufacturing challenge.  I didn’t even know there was going to be a bad-ass manufacturing challenge between JOY and NL, but it seems unavoidable now.  NL trades at around $13, closer to its $10.65 low than its high near $20, but nonetheless yielding a market cap in excess of $600 million.  That seems like a lot of ball bearings to me.

I’m making six substitutions to begin 2012, more than I meant to now that I think about having to write them up.  First up is Jenny, receiving her third ticker in less than two years (remember TOOT?).  Henceforth she will be represented by Jones New York (ticker: JNY), some kind of fashion company that I really should’ve stumbled upon years ago looking for Jenny options.  Instead, Katie found it, and she notes further that Jenny wants to be a fashion designer when she grows up, so it’s a good fit even beyond the ticker.  JNY trades at about $10.50, above its $8 low but well shy of a 2012 high above $16, and its market cap of $850 million puts it nicely in line with the small-cap style of the FSX.

Next we have Lisa, who’s been in and out of individual stocks more than any other member of the index.  This year I’m moving her into Lance-Snyders, maker of delicious salty snacks, because of its ticker symbol, LNCE.  If Lisa had a rap name, it would be L-Nice, and I challenge anyone to prove otherwise.  LNCE trades at $22.50, near the high end of its 2012 range of $17 to $24.  The market cap is $1.5 billion and it’s headquartered nearby in Charlotte, very convenient if we ever feel like having an FSX field trip.

Winston, Mario’s dog, needed a new stock for 2012; like the dog himself, HWD just would not settle down.  I had no good ideas for Winston at any point in the search, and then, out of the blue, Katie nailed it.  We were scrolling through tickers and as we passed ED, she said, “we can use ED for Winston because his first name should be Ed.”  So there you have it: all this time we’ve been thinking Winston was the dog’s first name, and really, it was his last name.  No wonder he doesn’t come when he’s called—his name is really Ed!  ED is the ticker for Consolidated Edison, the New York utility, which sports a market cap of nearly $19 billion and trades right at a 52-week high near $64.  That’s a little rich for an FSX stock, but after all, don’t we all already think of Winston as the most valuable member of the family?

Mario the Elder and Ruby the Only get new stocks this year; RBY was all over the place and I always said that, as a strict rule, if I changed one member of a married couple, I would change both.  Then I broke that rule by changing Zero and not Charlotte and broke it again by changing Lisa and not Dustin, so I guess it was really more of a guideline than a rule.  Ruby specifically requested a travel stock and then specifically requested US Air, but alas, you only get one request per stock swap.  The ticker for US Air is LCC—for low-cost carrier—which is beyond obnoxious and I refuse to countenance that kind of tomfoolery by adding it to the FSX.  Instead, I decided on Republic Airlines, because its ticker symbol is RJET.  You know, for Ruby Jet, or Ruby Joyce ET.  Interestingly, Republic is the company that operates the US Air Express brand on behalf of US Air, so it’s almost like I’m granting Ruby’s second request, even though I’m not.  Republic also operates Chautauqua Airlines, a fact that I swear I’m not making up.  RJET trades at around $3.50, giving it a market value of $165 million.  For Mario the Elder, I decided to go utility again, this time to MGE Energy, the holding company for Madison Gas & Electric of Wisconsin, because the ticker symbol is MGEE.  It reminds me of the MG that I’m pretty sure I drove to the reception after my wedding and also of the expression ‘gee, whiz!’ because it seems like something Katie’s dad should say, even though I’m pretty sure he doesn’t.  MGEE trades near a 52-week high of $47, valuing the company just north of $1 billion.

Last, but certainly not least, we have Zero, riding tall in the saddle after having Alderaaned his 2011 stock, the late FRZ.  I decided to put Zero in something sporty this year, a newly-minted 2011 IPO, no less.  He will be Zipcar, ticker symbol ZIP (as in nada, zip, zero).  Zipcar is a car-sharing service that came public back in April; I’m not sure what car-sharing is, but it seems like a responsible thing to do, and Zero is a very responsible chap.  The stock priced at $18, popped to $31.50, and then slid steadily to below the IPO price, trading now around $13.50.  That gives it a market cap of $500 million and, as a recent, high-profile IPO, plenty of followers to start squealing when Zero puts the screws in.

So that’s it.  And for those of you who don’t like my picks on your behalf, maybe you should think about being nicer to me in 2012.

FSX Friday Update

The lightest trading volume of the year merits the shortest write-up of the year, as the market’s animal spirits are awash in eggnog.  There’s no reason to trade: Europe’s been on vacation for three weeks; if you can make money in this flat market, you have; if you can’t, you won’t.  S&P 500 -0.0%—Happy No Year, everyone!

The Family Stock Index traded flat alongside the major indices, closing at 11,077.  Decliners trumped advancers 9-14 (Icky was unch), but the index might well have been up slightly if not for the special thing that Zero is doing, along with some corporate-world jitters for Justin (yes, I know it’s government work, but I’ve worked with the government, and org charts are the same no matter time nor place).  Eight new stocks will enter the FSX on Monday, so today we say goodbye to LEN, LSI, PBY, RBY, HWD, FRZ, the legendary LEE, and 2011 herself.  Auf Wiedersehen to all.  I’ll reveal the eight newcomers in a full write-up—today, if Brinkley ever takes a nap.

POSTSCRIPT: He didn’t.

Advancers

• Eures Prime (MSTR +0.9%, LEN +1.7%, CATY +0.5%, BCO +1.2%).   4 of the 5 NC Prime Eures made the top 8 on the A/D list for this holiday week—and why not?  After all, the holidays proved this week to be exactly what each of us wanted: drama-free (Katie), lucrative (Jenny and Brinky), and over (me).
• Ruby (RBY +5.6%).  Boo-boo may not be as openly humbug as I am, but she’s more Ebenezer than Tiny Tim.  I say that best thing about the holidays is looking back on them from the safety of January.
• Nicole B. (NI +1.7%).  Will we get a wedding in 2012, or will Justin have too much science to write?  My backyard is available for nuptials any time except for April through October—the spiders booked those months years in advance.

Decliners

• Marcus (MCS -5.1%).  I’m turning this one, and the next, over to our FSX 2011 champion, Ray Gun!  According to her, Marcus is down because “he’s ashamed he doesn’t like us.”  If that’s not science, I don’t know what is.
• Justin (WOLF +0.7%).  Oh HELL no.

You know what?  I’m throwing the manual override on this one.   I wrote up Justin with 2 hours to go IN THE YEAR when he was trading down 4% on the week and then he staged a late rally on doodoo volume.  Like a bitch.  Well, I’m tired of Princess Justin having late-day rallies fall in his lap, literally and metaphorically, and I call bullshit.  Stick this in your science and write it.

I’m going to repeat the set-up, too, because I can.

• Marcus (MCS -5.1%).  I’m turning this one, and the next, over to our FSX 2011 champion, Ray Gun!  According to her, Marcus is down because “he’s ashamed he doesn’t like us.”  If that’s not science, I don’t know what is.
• Justin (WOLF -3.8%).  But after all, I’m not a professional science writer.  According to Reagan, Justin is “so so sad because he left us” a day before Chawlie, and that’s why he’s down.
• Zero (FRZ -39.6%).  Wednesday was a special day for Zero and I failed to give him the recognition he deserved.  He forced Reddy Ice, the former FRZ, entirely off the NYSE, and not just on to the Nasdaq, not even on to the AMEX for God’s sake, but to the Pink Sheets.  Even with a failure-lead of several months I couldn’t do that to LEE, and I surely tried.  FRZ is no more; the company now trades OTC under the ticker RDDY.  I managed to bankrupt my company, sure, but did I eradicate its ticker?  No, I did not.  Bravo, maestro.  I know enough about losing to know when I’ve lost at losing.

Name	Ticker	12/30/2011	Change
Brinkley	BCO	$26.88	+0.31
Charlotte	ICE	$120.55	+0.43
Dustin	DST	$45.52	-0.97
Icarus	FLOW	$3.50	unch
Jenny	LEN	$19.65	+0.28
Justin	WOLF	$2.90	+0.02
Katie	CATY	$14.93	+0.08
Lee	MSTR	$108.32	+0.97
Legacy Lee	LEE	$0.70	-0.04
Lisa	LSI	$5.95	+0.04
Lucas	LEI	$2.31	-0.04
Lulu	LULU	$46.66	-1.25
Marcus	MCS	$12.61	-0.68
Mario T.E.	PBY	$11.00	-0.20
Mario T.Y.	SUP	$16.54	-0.08
Marisa	MOLX	$23.86	-0.38
Nicole B.	NI	$23.81	+0.39
Nicole L.	COL	$55.37	-0.27
Reagan	REGN	$55.43	-0.14
Ruby	RBY	$3.78	+0.20
Wilson	WILC	$4.57	-0.02
Winston	HWD	$10.65	-0.05
Zero	FRZ	$0.15	-0.10
Zondro	ZQK	$3.61	-0.16

It’s Not For My Benefit

It is a little for my benefit, on account of I like things to be where they go, but putting clean clothes away in dresser drawers and closets is not simply tidiness for tidiness’ sake.  I gather up the dirty clothes where they are shed like snake skin in the various ladies’ rooms and bathrooms upstairs and downstairs, I wash them, I dry them, I fold them, I sort them, and I take them back upstairs…but I do not put them away.  The reason for that is because I don’t know where they ought to go.  Katie, Jenny and Reagan organize their own dressers and I don’t know what they want accessible and from which drawers they expect to access it.  Also, they have too many clothes and I might put the wrong ones on top and the right ones at the bottom so they can’t find one of the five or so outfits each actually wants to wear.   And by five I mean three.  In laundry matters, I draw the line where I draw it not because I can’t go further, but because such effort would be counterproductive.  So what do Katie and the girls do when I bring their clothes upstairs to their respective rooms?  They leave them wherever I put them, good sense, self-respect, and my exhortations notwithstanding.  They operate as though the latest pile of clothes is all they have to pick clothes from and it is an immovable monument to multi-generational laziness.  If I nailed shut all the drawers of their dressers, I predict it would take at least a week before any of them noticed.  And by a week, I mean they’d never notice.

So why should my three ladies put their clean clothes away?  No reason, really.

Cat fur and litter-box funk-crumbs will be the must-have accessories of 2012, after all.

“Your stupid cats got hair all over my clothes again!” Katie complains several times each week.  “I know,” I agree, adding a sympathetic, slow shake of the head.  “It’s too bad there’s nothing you can do about it.”

Because I am nice I now lay a spare bed sheet over Katie’s mound of clean clothes.  Does it help?  In the short run, yes.  In the long run, no.

Brinky Cup – Week 16

The penultimate week of the NFL regular season was one of wasted victories.  Like the Eagles’ win over the Cowboys, Charlotte’s BC-leading 13-3 Week 16 comes too late, and like the Colts’ second straight victory, Justin’s 12-4 2^nd place showing does nothing but lock up the Bizarro Brinky Cup for Ruby.  Is it better to be in the depths or in the abyss?  Well, here’s what’s in the depths:

And here’s what’s in the abyss:

You be the judge.

Unlike Justin and Charlotte, Jenny has been able to turn her late-season surge into a bonafide playoff push.  With yet another stellar week (12-4), she’s in fifth place overall and comfortably in the playoffs.  With one more week to go in the regular season, what remains to be decided?  Dark Mario has a significant lead in the Brinky Cup, but with three competitors within 4 games, he can’t afford another mediocre 9-7 week.  Marcus and I have to decide whether or not to make some risky picks to take a run at Mario—well, Marcus should focus on getting his picks in on time, period—and Lisa has to decide whether or not to update her picks in the last week.  There are no games until New Year’s Day, leaving plenty of time to agonize.  The Brinky Bowl playoff picture has solidified: Dark Mario, Dark Lee, Marcus and Lisa are in and Jenny’s position looks secure, with Tara holding onto the sixth and final spot by a three-game margin.  Jodi Ann, Mario the Elder or Brinkley could put up a huge week and bump Tara out, but the odds aren’t good.  As for the Bizarro Brinky Cup…it’s all over but the crying.  Here are the complete Week 16 results:

• 13-3 (1):  Charlotte
• 12-4 (2):  Jenny, Justicole
• 11-5 (5):  Brinkley, Dark Lee, Lisa, Mario the Elder, Reagan
• 10-6 (2):  Jodi Ann, Marcus
• 9-7 (2):  Dark Mario, Tara
• 8-8 (1):  Lee
• 7-9 (3):  Katie, Mario the Younger, Ruby

Brinky Cup Standings (through 16 weeks):

	Games Back
Dark Mario	–
Dark Lee	3
Marcus	3
Lisa	4
Jenny	8
Mario T.Y.	11
Tara	12
Jodi Ann	15
Lee	16
Mario T.E.	16
Brinkley	17
Charlotte	21
Katie	27
Reagan	29
Justin	33
Ruby	43

FSX Friday Update

I was hoping I could get a guest FSX update out of someone visiting this week, but the timing didn’t work out, and so I turned to Reagan.  Alas, she was feeling too much Christmas spirit and not enough whimsy, and so her efforts alternated between too-plain-to-post and too-mean-to-post.  Fortunately, I’m not afflicted with Christmas spirit in the least—unless that’s why I have a stomach ache.

The market rallied this week, if only enough to recover last week’s losses.  The victory of the Republican corporatists over the Republican crazies is getting no play in the market; I expect that’s because investors have such low expectations for anything substantive to come out of the political process that they’re no longer considering Washington as a factor in valuations or earnings estimates.  With so many people committed to derailing the train, is it any wonder that the market’s stopped waiting at the station?  For my part, I was hoping the crazies would blow up their own caucus, and I think there’s a still a good chance that they will.  I do honestly pity the Speaker of the House, and I can’t imagine what it must be like to deal with all these prima donna first-term lunatics.  I don’t think he has a stomach ulcer or two so much as his ulcers have a Boehner.  All I want from this is for the voters to understand what they were voting for in 2010 when they voted against the (admittedly inept) Democratic leadership in the House.  Then if they want to do it again in 2012, with full knowledge that their representatives don’t intend to participate in the political process so much as vote no on everything, so be it.  It would be like Bush’s reelection in 2004.  I didn’t think we deserved what we got in Bush’s first term, but all the disasters of the second term—FEMA’s Katrina blunders, Rumsfeld’s Iraq insurgency blinders, the financial crisis of 2008—we had all that coming.

The FSX gained 4.4% to close at 11,157, putting it back into bad-but-not-terrible range in terms of year-to-date performance.   I will pay attention next week, but only because I can’t not pay attention and not because any meaningful year-end positioning is likely to take place.  I’m going to make quite a few changes in the roster going into next year, as well, so I’m not even sure which positions are getting positioned.  Somehow I doubt we have a 900-point week in us, and absent that, we will finish in the red for 2011.

Advancers

• Lisa (LSI) +9.0%.  There’s almost no chance of a white Christmas in Hilton Head this week, and even a sniff of spring-like weather is enough to send Lisa’s stock soaring.  Think of this week’s pop as a preview of the more formidable rally we can expect once spring is truly on the way.  Lucas (LEI +13%) looks like an even bigger HHI fan until you calculate a risk-adjusted return on him—13% is more like 3% for a less excitable person.  However you run the numbers, no one’s springier than Lisa.
• Zondro (ZQK) +9.0%.  Earlier this week I felt guilty about leaving the dogs out in the cold—don’t worry, I’m back to not caring—so I let them spend the morning in the family room with Brinky.  What I discovered is that he is a much better baby if he has his dogs in the room with him—they’re just as good as people to him, and maybe even better, because he doesn’t get frustrated with the dogs when they don’t pick him up.
• Marcus (MCS) +8.4%.  A man doesn’t have to apologize for deciding he wants to break with old holiday traditions and—in my opinion—he shouldn’t.  He also doesn’t have to explain to his family that he’s making that break and why but—my opinion again—he really should.  The market is funny about disclosure.  In the short term, it doesn’t want to know why a company beats earnings expectations or why a stock blows through price targets and technical resistance levels indiscriminately.  It’s a different story in the long term, though, and the market loses patience with guessing games after a few quarters.  When the market loses patience, bulls lose money.  Marcus already failed to send me his picks this week, even with a reminder.  If he pulls one of his disappearing acts in 2012—whatever the reason—I expect the market to pound him.  And by ‘the market’ I mean ‘Charlotte.’
• Legacy Lee (LEE) +8.1%.  The new management keeps walking around the place giving me funny looks; they’re hoping I clear out early, and so is the market.  Well, you’re going to be waiting until the close of business next Friday, jerks, so you might as well pull up a chair.  And not the big chair, either, because that one’s still mine—for a week, at least.
• Katie (CATY) +6.5%.  The recent rally in Katie (+32% in Q4) is pricing in her love of Christmas, her husband’s long-overdue haircut and our plan to quit fast food in January.  But the real kicker is the spelling proficiency shown by her daughters.  Both won their class spelling bees this month and Reagan already dominated her grade bee (the highest level she can win until next year).  Jenny’s school bee is next month and Katie has high hopes, even if Jenny herself doesn’t.  I don’t quite share the excitement, but I’m not suggesting that it’s misplaced.  Spelling is definently important.
• Brinkley (BCO) +5.1%.  Brinky discovered this week, on his first birthday, that presents and toys are pretty awesome.  I think his presents will be as helpful for me as they are fun for him, even if the market doesn’t know it yet.

Decliners

• Future Lee (MSTR) -1.2%.  With the spinoff of LEE underway, management will now be fully focused on MSTR.  This particular management team didn’t fare so well at the last stop (80% decline in LEE since it was added to the FSX), thus the market jitters.  Book War is on schedule and I’m very pleased with the progress to date.  Nobody around here much likes me when I’m writing, though, and that alone may explain the recent selloff.  Oh, but you know what I almost forgot?  Half of one of my molars just up and fell off yesterday and I had to make an emergency visit to the dentist to get a temporary crown.  That was after I got three fillings on Wednesday, so maybe the market is pushing me to take the Trapjaw leap in 2012.

• Wilson (WILC) -2.3%.  Doesn’t share Zondy’s enthusiasm for the baby, or for life in general.
• Zero (FRZ) -29%.  Zero will certainly miss Charlotte, and one should never discount the perils of being outnumbered by cats, but Katie explained the real reason for the continued pressure on his stock: she was planning to get him an ‘I Am T-Pain’ mic but she forgot and now it’s too late.  Case closed.

Name	Ticker	12/23/2011	Change
Brinkley	BCO	$26.57	+1.30
Charlotte	ICE	$120.12	+2.44
Dustin	DST	$46.49	+0.49
Icarus	FLOW	$3.50	-0.05
Jenny	LEN	$19.37	+0.60
Justin	WOLF	$2.88	+0.18
Katie	CATY	$14.85	+0.90
Lee	MSTR	$107.35	-1.33
Legacy Lee	LEE	$0.74	+0.06
Lisa	LSI	$5.91	+0.49
Lucas	LEI	$2.35	+0.27
Lulu	LULU	$47.91	+2.65
Marcus	MCS	$13.29	+1.03
Mario T.E.	PBY	$11.20	+0.37
Mario T.Y.	SUP	$16.62	+0.51
Marisa	MOLX	$24.24	+1.48
Nicole B.	NI	$23.42	+0.89
Nicole L.	COL	$55.64	+1.94
Reagan	REGN	$55.57	+2.57
Ruby	RBY	$3.58	-0.04
Wilson	WILC	$4.59	-0.11
Winston	HWD	$10.70	+0.38
Zero	FRZ	$0.25	-0.10
Zondro	ZQK	$3.77	+0.31

Top 200 Songs of All Time – 20 to 1

Your host for the final installment of the countdown would be none other than Mr. Sean Combs himself.  Did you know that Katie bought some new sheets for us this week, and the sheets she bought were Sean John sheets?!  I was so excited.  Here he is making Puff Daddy Face on the cover of US Weekly from last month.

Why does he make that face?  Because he can, ladies and gentlemen.  Did you know he does one of the ‘I am American business–I watch CNBC” spots they show all day?  There’s Puffy, Jerry Jones, and some other people I forget.  As you read the top 20 songs, imagine it’s like Ready To Die and Puffy is mumbling nonsense in the background of every song.  Yeah.  Money.  Cash.  Yeah.  Hoes.  It’s all good.  Yeah.  Cash.  Money.

Rank	Title	Artist
20	Drive	R.E.M.
19	The Way I Am	Eminem
18	Silver Lining	Rilo Kiley
17	Bump N’ Grind (Old School Mix)	R. Kelly
16	Stratford-On-Guy	Liz Phair
15	Big Pimpin’	Tha Dogg Pound
14	Ten Years Gone	Led Zeppelin
13	One More Time	Daft Punk
12	Nightswimming	R.E.M.
11	Pictures Of Success	Rilo Kiley
10	That’s What You Get	Paramore
9	Teenage Dream	Katy Perry
8	I Want It That Way	Backstreet Boys
7	Find the River	R.E.M.
6	The Song Remains the Same	Led Zeppelin
5	1901	Phoenix
4	Kashmir	Led Zeppelin
3	Hey Ya!	Andre 3000
2	Lose Yourself	Eminem
1	Angry Chair	Alice In Chains

Top 200 Songs of All Time – 50 to 21

This segment of the show is hosted by Nick Lachey.

Rank	Title	Artist
50	When It Rains	Paramore
49	Nashville	Liz Phair
48	Ignoreland	R.E.M.
47	A Man/Me/Then Jim	Rilo Kiley
46	Gz Up, Hoes Down	Snoop Doggy Dogg
45	Cupid	Sam Cooke
44	The Good That Won’t Come Out	Rilo Kiley
43	The Great Beyond	R.E.M.
42	Black	Pearl Jam
41	California Love	2Pac & Dr. Dre
40	In the Light	Led Zeppelin
39	Under The Blacklight	Rilo Kiley
38	Down In A Hole	Alice In Chains
37	Pain	2Pac
36	‘Till I Collapse	Eminem
35	Papercut	Linkin Park
34	Electrolite	R.E.M.
33	The Execution Of All Things	Rilo Kiley
32	Nutshell	Alice In Chains
31	Shane	Liz Phair
30	The Ocean	Led Zeppelin
29	California Gurls	Katy Perry
28	Speed Of Sound	Coldplay
27	Tik Tok	Ke$ha
26	Warning Sign	Coldplay
25	I Took Your Name	R.E.M.
24	Strange Loop	Liz Phair
23	Achilles’ Last Stand	Led Zeppelin
22	Come Into My World	Kylie Minogue
21	I Gotta Feeling	Black Eyed Peas

Top 200 Songs of All Time – Interlude

I feel a need to interrupt what I was doing to say that I love Nick Cannon.  He has a great name and his performance on Up All Night is amazing.

And I believe in everything he’s thinking in this picture.

Separately, Mariah Carey’s face is the face the little girl across the street is 100 percent going to have when she grows up.  Reagan plays with this girl every day and I didn’t see it until just now.

Reagan, it seems will look like Svetlana Alliluyeva here:

Because here she most certainly is right now, alongside, well, you know.

Happy early birthday to Iosef Vissarionovich, by the way, turning the big 1-3-2 tomorrow, a birthday he shares with Brinky.  Coincidence?  I say no.

 

Top 200 Songs of All Time – 100 to 51

If this were a countdown, do you know who would host it on VH1?  Freddie Prinze Jr.

Rank	Title	Artist
100	Welcome to the Jungle	Guns N’ Roses
99	White America	Eminem
98	Try Not To Breathe	R.E.M.
97	Should’ve Said No	Taylor Swift
96	That Don’t Impress Me Much (Pop Remix)	Shania Twain
95	Bars Of The Bed	Liz Phair
94	Do I Have To Say The Words?	Bryan Adams
93	Superman	Eminem
92	I’m Real (Murder Inc. Remix)	Jennifer Lopez and Ja Rule
91	Easy	Liz Phair
90	Misery Business	Paramore
89	Jeremy	Pearl Jam
88	In Da Club	50 Cent
87	Paparazzi	Lady GaGa
86	Suspicion	R.E.M.
85	Freak Of Nature	Liz Phair
84	Rearviewmirror	Pearl Jam
83	If	Janet Jackson
82	More Than A Woman	Aaliyah
81	Junkhead	Alice In Chains
80	Rock Your Body	Justin Timberlake
79	Stan	Eminem
78	In My Place	Coldplay
77	Make Me Bad	Korn
76	Burn	The Cure
75	I Think I’m Paranoid	Garbage
74	What The Hell	Avril Lavigne
73	Would?	Alice In Chains
72	Sweet Child O’ Mine	Guns N’ Roses
71	My Favorite Mistake	Sheryl Crow
70	Harder Better Faster Stronger	Daft Punk
69	E.T.	Katy Perry
68	Dosed	Red Hot Chili Peppers
67	Mayqueen	Liz Phair
66	Absolutely Fabulous (Rollo Our Tribe remix)	Pet Shop Boys
65	Dead Man’s Hill (Live)	Indigo Girls
64	My Immortal (Band Version)	Evanescence
63	Dirty Day	U2
62	The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite	R.E.M.
61	When the Angels Fall	Sting
60	Perfect World	Liz Phair
59	On Bended Knee	Boyz II Men
58	Cleanin’ Out My Closet	Eminem
57	Help Me Mary	Liz Phair
56	Otherside	Red Hot Chili Peppers
55	A Change Is Gonna Come	Sam Cooke
54	Love Story (Pop Remix)	Taylor Swift
53	Headache	Liz Phair
52	Stairway to Heaven	Led Zeppelin
51	Everybody Hurts	R.E.M.