Goodbye

I’m not saying ‘goodbye, cruel world’ or anything like that–please don’t anybody call the police again.  I am saying goodbye to Mr. Sensitive.  There are too many painful memories here.  I don’t need to re-read the lies I lived, not yet–not while I’m still living with the ghosts of those moments.  Besides, I need to be less sensitive and a little more…squirrelly.  You can find me at squirrelorsomething.com if you ever have an urge to be squirrelly too.

FSX Double Friday Update

We missed last week’s FSX, so we have a little catching up to do this week. I know none of you even know what’s happened in the market recently without the FSX. So. What’s been happening? Um, March Madness? I know that’s not the stock market, but a lot of people care about it, right? Russia/Crimea. That plane that disappeared. Another update to the layout of Facebook that annoys lots of people, but they still have lots of money and spent $2 billion on some other company. So that’s the Katie-guest market update!

The actual overall numbers for the last two weeks:
S&P +0.9%
NASDAQ -2.1%.
FSX -1.0%

On to the people, with help from the girls.

Advancers

• LULU +10.9%. Jenny: Lulu gained weight. Reagan: She lost weight. Jenny: I’m trying to remember…what was her last place in the pet association thingamajig? President. I’m bumping her up to CEO. (You may not remember a previous update where Jenny came up with some weird pet society thing.)
• Marcus (MCS) +9.0%. Lee: Marcus broke to a new multi-year high. Jenny: Spring break! Or is it not his spring break? Reagan: We’re gonna go to New York and see them some summer. Jenny: Even if it’s not spring break, I bet their quarter ended and their students did awesome. (We’re not sure why Marcus is a “they”.)
• Nicole E. (NICE) +7.1%. Jenny: She’s winning that thing-y! (Referring to the brackets.) And they’re moving. Lee: They’re moving to a new house and she got a new job. Reagan: She’s secretly pregnant! This can be our new gossip blog! Jenny: Gossip Girl!
• Wilson (WILC) +5.2%. Jenny: He is president. Reagan: He’s president in the pet association, which is higher than CEO. Me: Then why would Lulu be higher than Wilson? Reagan: Because Lulu celebrates stupid things.
• Jodi Ann (JOY) +4.0%. Jenny: Students did good. Me: She’s not even teaching. Jenny: Josie did good on her test. Little Josie. (She says little Josie with her fingers about an inch apart like she’s the teeniest kid ever.) Reagan: Another thing to add to the gossip column. Josie Ann learned to talk and is cussing at her parents all the time.
• Mario the Younger (MAR) +2.9%. Jenny: He’s in love with the stroller. Wait, the baby hasn’t been born yet. He’s sleeping in the stroller. Reagan: He takes his midday naps in the stroller. He’s trying to get used to the baby’s schedule in a strange way.

Decliners

• Mario the Elder (MGEE) -3.0%. Reagan: His lovely wife isn’t there. Jenny: Lucas isn’t coming to Hilton Head, so there won’t be anyone to talk about sports with him. He can watch hockey with Brinky though. Pittsburgh Penguins!
• Katie (CATY) -3.6%. Katie: Why am I down, girls? Jenny: Because, mommy. That sweater. The rest of us: Ohhhhhh. Me: That was kind of rude. Reagan: You’re down because you’re going to be separated from your sweet baby boy during spring break.
• Charlotte (ICE) -4.3%. Reagan: Ooohhh, she’s probably reading Allegiant. Jenny: Yeah, that’s what I was going to say. Everyone dies.
• Brinkley (BCO) -4.8%. Jenny: He poured water all down his front today. Lee: One word. Cups. That’s why your dad’s down too.
• Ruby (RJET) -5.2%. Lee: Cups. Do you know what “cups” is? You’re about to find out. Jenny: What if he walks into their house and says “cups”? And then pours a drink on himself.
• Zondro (ZQK) -7.1%. Me: Did they kick him out of the association? Jenny: No. He’s in prison. Do you know why? He peed on one of the main central computers in the big office, like electronic room.
• Reagan (REGN) -8.9%. Jenny: I can’t think of any. I’m going to get it though. Did you throw something at Gideon this week? Lee: He’s your boyfriend? Jenny: Yes! Reagan: No! Me: I’m not ready for this. Reagan: I can’t get Free Four. I need 90 more cents to get it, and I can’t. (That’s an extra little Divergent book, for those who don’t know.)
• Jenny (GNE) -10.6%. Jenny: Because I’m going to throw a fit if I don’t have an A (said in a little bit of a British accident). We were supposed to have that quiz, and we didn’t. I have to write a paper on Arizona. I mean, no offense to Arizona. Reagan: Jenny’s down…all I can think of his that she doesn’t have an A. Jenny’s down because she had been like, “I’m gonna pack early to make up for the coast trip.” She didn’t though.

 

 

Larry Kudlow is Cancelled!

Have I ever used an exclamation point unironically?  If not, I can’t think of a more appropriate reason to break one out.  I found out today that CNBC has cancelled the nightly Republican campaign rally Larry Kudlow Report. I know that I didn’t actually win anything, but it feels so much like I won everything that I must have won something. First Maria ‘I Love Banks’ Bartiromo gets shown the door, and now Supply-Side Larry is put out to pasture? Could it be that CNBC is going to focus exclusively on markets, business, and economic analysis?  Could this be the end of the network’s endless, off-key insistence that tax cuts for rich people/corporations and indiscriminate deregulation of financial firms are the panacea the 2008-2009 financial crisis proved they aren’t?  Probably not, but this is still great news.

Bye, Larry. Don’t let the last two Presidential elections hit you in the behind on the way out.

Battle of the Awful Couches

It comes to this: Brinkley wants the couches, and he cannot have them.
He is launching a final assault and I must stop him at the small couch. It is harsh ground, and hazardous to anyone with exposed, human skin, but no matter. I have lost too much in these three years of continuous war. I have no use for these couches—I hate them, and I have always hated them—but he wants them. Brinkley wants the couches, and I don’t want him to have them because he wants them. Nothing else matters.
I am becoming like him.
Perhaps if the couches weren’t scratchy, uncompromising abominations even when newly installed (evicting my beloved vinyl couch), I would have done more.
Perhaps if the couches didn’t smell like the dead things Zondro rolls in or the dead things Wilson chews with, I would have fought back harder, sooner.
Perhaps if I had not already lost the paintings on the walls, the books on the bookshelf, and at least two chairs, I would have prioritized the couchlands.
Perhaps if I were not consumed with defending the entertainment center, reinforced now with boards, books, blankets, and dozens of comic book boxes…but it is too late now for regrets and recriminations.
Let the historians obsesses over counterfactuals; I have a battle to win.
The small couch is nearly lost. Having stripped it of all monetary value, Brinkley seeks now to make it utterly useless. He grinds crackers and chicken nuggets into the upholstery. He pulls stuffing from holes I cannot find, so much stuffing that I think I must be hallucinating. He removes the cushions as soon as he can and sets about digging out the springs and wires inside the frame of the couch. Soon he will be able to injure himself, as his ultimate aim—and with a couch, if you can believe it! He wants to discredit me as a parent, of course. But, you will observe, I cannot lose renown I do not possess. If he knows that, he does not care. No amount of disgrace or dishonor is too much to inflict, not for him.
The cushions are the key. If he cannot remove them, he will be unable to mangle and befoul the interior of the couch. I must create some sort of rigging to attach the cushions to the couch in such a way that he cannot pry them loose and cannot—in his fury and madness—rend them beyond repair. His strength is tremendous, and in the service of such unrelenting malice…
The rigging must be…somehow, it must…
I must do my best work.
I will survey the available materials during his nap, design the rigging this afternoon, and proceed to construction after he goes to bed. It won’t be enough, of course—the war will continue until I am dead or insane, or until he goes to kindergarten. But when he cannot remove the cushions at will, even if he overcomes these field works as he has all the others, he will be thwarted. No one deserves a good thwarting more than Brinkley, and so I will have accomplished something noble, something memorable. My son can destroy me, in the end, but he will not defeat me.

Brinky’s NCAA Tournament Picks

I was unable to get Brinky to participate directly in filling out his bracket because I’m out of M&Ms.  Nevertheless, I know he wouldn’t want to miss a chance to beat me at something, so I filled out his bracket for my son based on what I know of him.  I think I did a respectable job; after all, three years in Purgatory allows a man plenty of time to develop an eye for detail (and the devilry in it).  I tried to make Brinky’s picks in accordance with what I’m sure would be his twin objectives: (1) defeat his father, and (2) infuriate his father in the process of defeating him.  What follows are the highlights of his picks.

First of all, Brinky’s not a fool so he didn’t pick any upsets of #1 or #2 seeds in the first round.  Besides, there are a lot of vicious creatures among the top seeds—wildcats, wolverines, badgers, gators—and Brinky admires vicious creatures.  He might have picked against UVa in the first round (cavaliers? what kind of pansy name is that?) except that they’re playing the Chanticleers of Coastal Carolina, and that sounds like a collection of extremely fragile light fixtures.  Brinky hates light fixtures.

South Region

Semifinals: Florida, Tulsa, Ohio State, New Mexico

Finals: Tulsa, Ohio State

Champion: Tulsa Golden Hurricane

Upsets:

• Brinky picked Tulsa to make it out of the South Region because he hopes to be a hurricane, and with a full bladder and surprise nakey time, maybe even a golden one.
• Western Michigan beats Syracuse in the first round because Orange is a color, not a mascot.
• New Mexico beats Kansas in round 2 because wolves eat birds, duh.
• Ohio State makes the regional final as a shout out to the Carbaughs and Woodses.  Alas, there the Buckeyes drown in the Golden Hurricane—potty-free Brinky for life!

East Region

Semifinals:  Memphis, Cincinnati, Iowa State, Connecticut

Finals: Cincinnati, Iowa State

Champion: Iowa State Cyclones

Upsets:

• Memphis easily gets to the Sweet Sixteen—Tigers versus Cavaliers, Chandeliers, and Colonials?  Come on.
• Connecticut beats Villanova because the wildcat mascot can’t overcome a school name that sounds like an ice cream flavor.
• Cincinnati rolls to the regional final because what the hell is a bearcat?  Sounds bad-ass, whatever it is.
• The Cyclones win the East Region, though, because the dream of causing F5 tornado damage is what motivates Brinky in everything he does.  That, and the tears of his parents.

West Region

Semifinals: Arizona, North Dakota State, Baylor, Wisconsin

Finals: ND State, Wisconsin

Champion: Wisconsin

Upsets:

• This region is really boring.
• North Dakota State rolls up its sub-regional because its team was involved in some kind of brawl earlier in the season, and Brinky gives big ups to brawlers.
• BYU beats Oregon in the first round because…ducks?  Seriously?
• Baylor beats Creighton in the second round (bears eat birds, you guys) and Creighton might very well have lost to Louisiana-Lafayette in the first round if not for that school name being stupid long.
• Wisconsin wins this region because badgers.  Brinky’s still developing his badgering technique, but he’s learning from the best badgerers around—his sisters.

Midwest Region

Semifinals: Wichita State, NC State, Duke, Arizona State

Finals: NC State, Duke

Champion: Duke Blue Devils

Upsets:

• Wichita State makes the Sweet Sixteen because there is such a thing as too damn many wildcats.  Also the mascot (a Shocker?) looks like the scarecrow from the ‘Lost and Found’ episode of Dora, one of the two episodes we’re allowed to watch this morning.
• NC State beats St. Louis, Louisville, and the scarecrow from Dora because wolves.
• Duke and Arizona State give us a titanic battle to represent the underworld—Blue Devils vs. Sun Devils.  The Prince of Darkness (Brinky) doesn’t really care for sunlight, so Duke gets the edge.
• Brinky picks Duke over State because his father hates Duke, and that’s how things work around here.

National Semifinals

• Iowa State Cyclones vs. Tulsa Golden Hurricane.  Iowa State takes this one because Brinky’s not one to overreach, and hurricane-scale destruction is probably more of a kindergarten objective.
• Duke Blue Devils vs. Wisconsin Badgers.  Duke wins—why settle for badgering when you can horrify?

National Championship

• Duke Blue Devils vs. Iowa State Cyclones.  Do I have to say it?  I won’t say it, and you can’t make me.

Fine—Brinky picks Duke.

 

FSX Friday Update

I still believe we’ll print 5000 on the NASDAQ Composite, but…my conviction level is a lot lower than it was last week.  The March 4 Putin Pump is starting to feel—in retrospect—like the sort of capitulation buying that comes at the peak of a bubbly bull market.  Retail investors have been rushing back into the market over the last six months, and all those folks who’ve been waiting and waiting for a meaningful pullback to give them a lower entry point finally gave up and bought bought bought when the market shrugged off the unresolved Ukrainian standoff last week to notch new highs.  Are we at the point where there are no more incremental investors looking to buy the dip?  I didn’t think so at the time, but now I’m not so sure.  If that’s the case—the moment of capitulation buying has passed—it wouldn’t mean a crash is imminent, or even that we won’t retest the highs.  It would, however, mean that the bull market is over.  Time will tell.

The Family Stock Index traded down in line with the broader market, losing 1.8% on the week compared to a 2% drop in the S&P 500.  The all-time high for the FSX—17,343, reached on Dec. 31—is looking more and more like a top.  We failed to make new highs last week and I expect that we won’t have another shot to do so until the second half of the year.  The FSX may be stranded between 16,200 and 17,200 until we get some clarity about, well…anything.

Advancers

• Zero (Z) +6.2%.  Is it the Z?
• Zondro (ZQK) +3.8%.  It must be the Z.
• Mario the Elder (MGEE) +3.3%.  This may be a sign that Mario the Younger is going to name his upcoming son Mario after all (Mario the Youngest?).  That would be confusing for everyone except Grandpa, who’s almost certainly going to call the little guy Mario a few times whether that’s his name or not.

Decliners

• Lee (TGI) -2.3%.  I could not want to go to this Jeopardy! tryout any less than I do.  I’m really quite the recluse.  Fortunately, Brinkley gives me a handy excuse—I tell folks I can’t go anywhere because he can’t go anywhere (not peaceably, anyhow).
• Brinkley (BCO) -4.2%.  Unfortunately, it’s not just an excuse.  It’s also the truth.
• LULU -5.7%.  I’m considering buying a BB gun to shoot at neighborhood cats that are killing my fish, and investors are clearly concerned that I will be unable to resist popping Lulu as well.  I’m offended, frankly—throwing socks, stuffed animals, and koosh balls at her works perfectly well.
• Lucas (CTG) -5.7%.  For some reason, the rebranding/irrelevance/impending doom of Radio Shack makes me sad for Lucas.  Back in the ‘80s it would have been his kind of place.
• Josie (JCOM) -6.0%.  She really is a little cutie.  What’s negative about that?  Nothing, and that’s the point.  I’m not going to make fun of my baby niece—I’m not a monster, people.  It would be incredibly inappropriate to say anything about her giant head until she’s at least 1.
• Justin (XOXO) -19%.  I’m afraid the Team DW era may have run its course.  Is a postmortem premature?  Maybe.  We accomplished some great things, and Justin’s design work was often inspired and, at times, inspiring.  I can see the world I created more clearly because of Justin’s efforts and I’m immensely grateful. That said, the 2013 magic seems absent now, and sessions that were galvanizing have become demoralizing.  So…what’s up with XOXO?  I’m not going to waste more of Justin’s time with the details of my failure and Radio Shackish irrelevance, and that should be a good thing.  It’s not like I was helping to moderate Justin’s…irregularities.  I’m sure my brother is firmly in control of his pink shirt fetish.  He doesn’t need me or the Pritz looking over his shoulder to keep him from replacing all his clothes with tight pink shirts (including all his pants).  And certainly there’s no chance he’ll special order matching tight pink shirts for Icky, who won’t, of course, be renamed Pinky.  See?  Nothing to worry about.

Name	Ticker	3/14/2014	Change
Brinkley	BCO	$29.19	-1.29
Charlotte	ICE	$204.93	-7.71
Dustin	DST	$95.98	-0.69
Icarus	FAST	$48.52	-0.53
Jenny	GNE	$11.12	-0.18
Jodi Ann	JOY	$55.75	-1.07
Josie Ann	JCOM	$48.55	-3.12
Justin	XOXO	$9.78	-2.25
Katie	CATY	$25.44	-0.37
Lee	TGI	$63.69	-1.52
Lisa	LNCE	$27.50	-0.33
Lucas	CTG	$16.81	-1.02
Lulu	LULU	$46.78	-2.83
Marcus	MCS	$14.50	+0.09
Mario T.E.	MGEE	$39.84	+1.28
Mario T.Y.	MAR	$53.88	-0.91
Namilita	NL	$11.00	-0.15
Nicole E.	NICE	$40.70	-0.31
Nicole M.	COLM	$83.22	-0.78
Reagan	REGN	$329.50	+1.39
Ruby	RJET	$9.34	-0.29
Wilson	WILC	$7.36	+0.05
Winston	ED	$54.66	-0.78
Zero	Z	$87.10	+5.07
Zondro	ZQK	$7.92	+0.29

 

 

There Must Be Two Ukraines

Big stock market selloff today (Dow down 230, NASDAQ -1.5%) despite decent economic data…what gives?  This kind of extreme reaction could be hard to explain, but fortunately the financial press is a bottomless well of insight.  Here’s a sample (with proper attribution, of course):

“Stocks down on Ukraine fears.”

-Everyone

Is this a different Ukraine?  Because I thought there was only one, and the situation is the same there today as it’s been since last Tuesday.  You remember last Tuesday?  That’s when the market rocketed to all-time highs because Putin said he wasn’t planning to invade the rest of Ukraine.  Russia controls the Crimean peninsula and is planning to stage a referendum there to formalize that control; Ukraine and every other country says nuts to that.  But today the stock bulls are worried about the same geopolitical situation that they were elated about last Tuesday?  Bullshit (no pun intended).  Bulls are worried because they know stocks are trading at unsustainable multiples on unsustainable earnings and the sea of liquidity that has lifted all boats for five years is finally receding.  What the bulls don‘t know is why we haven’t had a meaningful correction, and that’s why they’re worried.

Operation Tiger Beat – Diplomatic Preliminaries

The time is nearly upon us.  I have promised Jenny for years that she will be able to move into a finished basement on her thirteenth birthday, and I now have just over four months to keep my promise.  The circumstances under which I made the promise and my reasons for doing so escape me at the moment, but no matter—I gave my word and that’s what matters.  There are spiders involved, and so this will be a military operation—Operation Tiger Beat, because

Katie has graciously agreed to act as my chief-of-staff—even as she is ordinarily above my station—and she has committed to have operational options prepared for our joint review no later than March 31.  I’m not yet in a position to set detailed objectives or to assign theater and unit commands, but I can certainly begin to address the diplomatic and security concerns that will arise.

I’m speaking, of course, of the fragile peace between the Pfaff Empire and the Yard Dominion of the Spiders.

This will seem to the Dominion like an unbearable provocation.  The German remilitarization of the Rheinland in 1935 will inevitably be invoked, and the obvious dissimilarities will beignored.  The most significant difference is the fact that we are under no treaty obligations whatsoever as it regards the disposition of the basement and are fully sovereign there to no less an extent than in the office where I write this.  Permanent occupation and development of the basement will, nonetheless, be alarming in the extreme to the Yard Dominion.  All it would take is a silver-tongued(?) politician or two stirring up the old enmities to take us to the brink of war.  I continue to believe that full-scale war is unlikely.  Nevertheless, I don’t expect cooperation, and the forced eviction of all squatters and transients—eight-legged and otherwise—will be a messy affair, no two ways about it.

I believe that the Dominion’s level of military readiness is roughly comparable to mine—which is to say, awful.  I had a terrible summer and fall—domestic turmoil and nothing to do with spiders (so far as I know)—and the same period was a muggy, buggy bonanza for the Dominion.  To make matters worse, I failed to clear and clean the basement ahead of winter, as I normally do.  The same problems I already alluded to were to blame for that failure, but of course it would do no one any good for me to say anything more specific about the nature of those problems than I have.  The point is that had I targeted a late fall launch for Operation Tiger Beat, the spiders would have had an unmistakable advantage.  And yet, I can only assume they have had a terrible winter, the deepest and most unrelenting that I can remember.  They will have incurred terrific casualties, and for all any of us know there may be more winter weather yet to come.  The bottom line is that while neither they nor I will be rebuilding our forces from scratch, we’ve each suffered setbacks such that undue adventurism is hardly to be expected.

There is one undeniably compelling reason for the Dominion to exercise restraint: once Operation Tiger Beat is over, I will withdraw combat forces and they’ll have Jenny again manning the marches of the Empire.  Why does that matter?  Because Jenny already spends hours every week in the basement, listening to music and singing and skipping around like a crazy person—and there have been no incidents.  Jenny isn’t alarmed by the fact that spiders are probably watching her from every dark corner down there.  Jenny isn’t terrified that several divisions of spiders will descend from the underside of the deck and breach the poorly-sealed basement door, less than five feet away from their deck stronghold.  If I had to sleep in the basement, I would have to burn down the deck.

FSX Friday Update

Stocks sold off on Monday after the weekend’s dramatic events in the Crimea—an understandable reaction in a market priced for perfection, although early losses were cut in half by the close of trading.  After the close, Crazy Vlad Putin declared that he wasn’t planning to invade Ukraine (right now), and that was enough for stocks to soar to new all-time highs on Tuesday.  What kind of market makes investors willing to pay more for risk assets on Tuesday—with the status of Russian-occupied Crimea unresolved—than they were willing to pay before Russian troops invaded the peninsula?   If you’ve been reading this section of the Friday Update, you know the answer.  Since you haven’t—just admit it—I’ll give you a hint: it’s a six-letter word starting with B-U-B-B-L-E.

As an aside, if Putin is planning to invade the rest of Ukraine, would he say so before he was ready to launch?  Wouldn’t he, in fact, say that he is of course not planning to invade?  Just a thought.

The Family Stock Index returned to its customary spot—lagging the market—with a sub-par 0.6% gain for the week.  We came within fifty points of the all-time high (set back in December) during Tuesday’s furious rally, but like the Dow Industrials, we failed to join the broader indices in uncharted territory.  At 17,113, the FSX is down 1.2% for 2014, trailing all three major indices and struggling to find leadership.  Hey, don’t look at me—I just work here.

Advancers

• Lucas (CTG) +9.7%.  Has Lucas invented the next WhatsApp?  Is he in advanced talks to sell his tech startup to Facebook (or Google or Apple or Microsoft) for billions of dollars?  Most importantly, does he have a good name?
• Dustin (DST) +2.8%.  Dustin can handle the programming, sure, but the name is what gets you the big bucks.  Would Facebark have 1 billion users?  Would Gaggle be the world’s dominant search engine?  You see what I mean.
• Lisa (LNCE) +2.7%.  So I’ll come up with a billion-dollar name for the company, and all I want is a 1% stake.  It’s a small price to pay for access to my poetic prowess.
• Jodi Ann (JOY +3.3%) and Marcus (MCS +2.3%).  Did you know glutens are a real thing?  I didn’t believe in them until they took Marcus out behind the woodshed for a multi-month beating.  But all’s well that end’s gluten-free, if you ask me.
• Lee (TGI) +0.01%.  I’m sure it’s a simple misunderstanding, and I hate to be a stickler, but…I said one percent, not one cent.  Percent.  See, this is why you need me for the wordery.

Decliners

• Reagan (REGN) -1.3%.  We lost power for about two hours this morning—it could have been much worse. considering that ice fell steadily from 6PM last night to 10PM this morning.  What’s puzzling is that REGN—up slightly through midday—plunged from $335 to $305 in the first fifteen minutes after the power came back (even though she rebounded later).  During the outage, Reagan kept suggesting/insisting that we should all play Monopoly, so I can only assume that she had some Monopoly-related scheme thwarted, initially, by my reticence, and finally, by Duke Power.  The source of my reticence?  What are we supposed to to do with Brinkzilla while we play a lengthy board game with shiny pieces and paper money?  Reagan never really answered that question…and neither did she back away from Operation Monopoly.  But after all, if she had an idea for neutralizing her little brother, it’s probably not something I want to know about.
• Jenny (GNE) -1.7%.  Jenny’s mom wouldn’t drive to Target on the ice-covered roads to get Jenny a copy of Catching Fire, and the best excuse she could come up with was ‘you can’t even watch it because the power’s out.’  So I ask you, dear readers…do you think you know anything about injustice?  Because you don’t.
• Wilson (WILC) -8.4%.  It’s hard to navigate icy steps when you’re 150 years old.  Poor Wilson’s so low to the ground that he’d almost certainly survive if he slipped and fell, so there’s not even the sweet release of death as potential upside.  Winter just plain sucks for sesquicentenarians.

Name	Ticker	3/7/2014	Change
Brinkley	BCO	$30.48	+0.07
Charlotte	ICE	$212.64	+3.80
Dustin	DST	$96.67	+2.61
Icarus	FAST	$49.05	+1.86
Jenny	GNE	$11.30	-0.19
Jodi Ann	JOY	$56.82	+1.82
Josie Ann	JCOM	$51.67	+0.27
Justin	XOXO	$12.03	+0.10
Katie	CATY	$25.81	+0.40
Lee	TGI	$65.21	+0.01
Lisa	LNCE	$27.83	+0.74
Lucas	CTG	$17.83	+1.58
Lulu	LULU	$49.61	-0.69
Marcus	MCS	$14.41	+0.32
Mario T.E.	MGEE	$38.56	-0.02
Mario T.Y.	MAR	$54.79	+0.56
Namilita	NL	$11.15	-0.06
Nicole E.	NICE	$41.01	-0.07
Nicole M.	COLM	$84.00	+0.91
Reagan	REGN	$328.11	-4.30
Ruby	RJET	$9.63	+0.05
Wilson	WILC	$7.31	-0.67
Winston	ED	$55.44	-0.61
Zero	Z	$82.03	-1.57
Zondro	ZQK	$7.63	-0.17

Family Heirloom

I was on the lookout for a Thor #126 (who’s not, right?) and not having much luck.  It’s not a tough book to find, but a copy meeting my requirements (presentable cover, max grade g/vg, 1/2 OS or less) has proven elusive.  When I found this, I was compelled to relax my requirements.

This copy grades out at Good (2.o) and could price a little higher or lower depending on how you feel about writing on the cover.  I happen to love writing on the cover, especially if a kid back in the 50s or 60s decided to help the artist out by adding dialogue or facial hair where it was obviously lacking.  In this case, the original owner limited herself to a tasteful signature above Herc’s head.  And what a signature it is:

Needless to say, once I spied this young lady’s moniker, there was no question but that I would spare no expense to acquire this lost family treasure (and by ‘spare no expense’ I mean pay up to 80% of guide).  Who is Kathy Eure, you ask?  I have no idea.  But it’s clear that we share more than just a distant ancestral bond.