Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Top Five

Rink Rats semi-annual listing of Top Five.

Top Five ….

Excuses to get an extension on a Case Paper:
1). Have a sick child
2). Work
3). “I don’t get it.”
4). Computer breakdown
5). The weather

Reasons to snub:
1). Low self-confidence
2). Not a clue
3). New partner
4). Alcohol
5). The weather

Reasons for City of Claremont to merge with City of La Verne Water:
1). Univ. of La Verne will pay for it, one way or another
2). More meetings at Roberta’s Diner
3). Golden State Water tastes bad
4). University House can have more parties
5). The weather

College Bars:
1). Fall Creek House, Ithaca, New York
2). Hoot Owl, Canton, New York
3). The Sink, Boulder, Colorado
4). Rick’s Café, Ann Arbor, Michigan
5). He’s Not Here, Chapel Hill, North Carolina

Golfers in the world:
1). Adam Scott
2). Patrick Reed
3). Fred Couples
4). Suzanne Peterson
5). Graham McDowell

Say no to a union:
1). Find out what happened to Jimmy Hoffa
2). Matt Witt
3). Dues
4). Too many meetings with Arts and Science Faculty
5). The weather

Say yes to a union:
1). Find out what happened to Jimmy Hoffa
2). More time off
3). Free tickets to Vegas
4). More meetings
5). The weather

Places to gamble:
1). Caesars Palace Casino
2). Mandalay Sports Book
3). Red Rock Casino
4). The Man Cave
5). Binions Gambling Hall

To not to purchase a text book for a Graduate level class:
1). Too cheap
2). Too cheap
3). Digital
4). Lazy
5). The weather

Best Hamburger:
1). Pebble Beach Lodge, The Tap Room, Carmel, CA
2). PJ Clarkes, New York
3). Rusty Nail Inn, Canton, Michigan
4). In N’ Out
5). The Side Door Saloon, Petoskey, Michigan

Plans for the summer:
1). Visit Dad
2). Read history
3). Cocktails
4). Quiet
5). Volunteer in the community

LOOK FOR THE UNION LABEL -- ERIC HAUSER, AFL-CIO Strategic Advisor and Director of Communications, on a new direction for the labor movement, in a forthcoming memo, "Raising Wages ": "Established as federation policy, Raising Wages will unify and expand everything the AFL-CIO does under a common framework. ... This development had its origins in our 2013 National Convention, which broke new ground in organizing strategies, worker empowerment, and community relations. The energy fostered and the decisions made at our Convention were immediately channeled into formulating Raising Wages as our unifying framework. ... You will hear about a steady flow of initiatives on everything from raising the federal minimum wage to breakthrough efforts to organize domestic workers."

ELLE MAGAZINE's "10 Most Powerful Women in D.C.": Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker; Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine, St. Lawrence University ‘74); Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii); Hillary Clinton adviser Cheryl Mills ("counselor, international entrepreneur, advocate"); D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier; former U.S. chief of protocol Capricia Marshall, now ambassador-in-resdience, Altantic Council; Center for American Progress President Neera Tanden; NARAL Pro-Choice America President Ilyse Hogue; CNN Chief Congressional Correspondent Dana Bash; and POLITICO COO Kim Kingsley.

REMEMBERING ROBERT STAUSS - Dallas Morning News, bottom of 1A, "Democratic boss advised presidents," by Carl P. Leubsdorf: "Robert S. 'Bob' Strauss, the colorful Dallas lawyer who became one of the nation's top political figures as Democratic Party chairman and later held high governmental posts under presidents of both parties, died Wednesday of natural causes at his home in Washington. He was 95. ... He advised presidents of both parties, from Lyndon Johnson to George W. Bush, and was named to key government positions by Presidents Jimmy Carter ... and George H.W. Bush ...

"He once explained that he built a swimming pool at his Dallas home because, while none of his family particularly liked to swim, he liked to come home at night, fix a drink, sit by the pool and say, 'Bob Strauss, you're one rich son of a bitch.' ... Over the years, Strauss became legendary for his efforts on behalf of others, often with little or no publicity. He arranged adoptions for childless couples and helped raise legal defense funds for such leading Republicans as longtime Reagan advisers Lyn Nofziger and Michael Deaver.

--TOM BROKAW, sent from his iPad: "For my generation of political reporters, Bob Strauss was a treasure. Smart, plugged in, witty and self-deprecating, he knew what we needed and how to deliver it. Unfortunately, the best stories about him involve language and scenarios suitable only for the last call at 2 a.m. in the Wayfarer Inn bar [in New Hampshire]. Alas, the Wayfarer is gone, and now so is Bob. But the memories linger."

$80 MILLION FOR SIX WEEKS WORK? - Robert D. Marcus became chief executive of Time Warner Cable at the start of the year. Less than two months later, he agreed to sell the company to its largest rival, Comcast, for $45 billion. For that work, he will receive nearly $80 million if the deal closes, a severance payment that amounts to more than $1 million a day for the six weeks he ran the company ... 'It's not unprecedented, but it is rare and troubling,' said Robert Jackson Jr., an associate professor at Columbia Law School. 'There's something stunning about such big paydays for such a small amount of work.

The extraordinarily large exit package is just one more example of corporate America rewarding executives with outsize sums for sometimes minimal amounts of work, and it comes despite the growing debate over income inequality in America. ... So-called golden parachutes are common features in the employment contracts for public company executives, and they often reach stratospheric heights. And though Mr. Marcus is in line to receive a huge sum, his payout will not be anywhere close to the largest golden parachutes of all time.

BIG DEAL: APPLE/COMCAST EYE TV DEAL - Apple Inc ... is in talks with Comcast Corp. ... about teaming up for a streaming-television service that would use an Apple set-top box and get special treatment on Comcast's cables to ensure it bypasses congestion on the Web ... The discussions between the world's most valuable company and the nation's largest cable provider are still in early stages and many hurdles remain. But the deal, if sealed, would mark a new level of cooperation and integration between a technology company and a cable provider to modernize TV viewing.

Apple's intention is to allow users to stream live and on-demand TV programming and digital-video recordings stored in the 'cloud' effectively taking the place of a traditional cable set-top box. Apple would benefit from a cable-company partner because it wants the new TV service's traffic to be separated from public Internet traffic over the 'last mile'-the portion of a cable operator's pipes that connect to customers' homes ... That stretch of the Internet tends to get clogged when too many users in a region try to access too much bandwidth at the same time.

BIRTHDAYS THIS WEEK – Birthday wishes and thoughts this week to: Marcus Allen (54), Robert Carradine (60), Aretha Franklin (72), Norah Jones (35), Henry Paulson (68), Tara Pugliese …famous teen chef, Gloria Steinem (80).

COLLEGE CHRONICLES - Richard C. Levin, who stepped down as president of Yale University in June, will next month become the chief executive of Coursera, a California-based provider of online academic courses.

Founded two years ago by a pair of computer science professors at Stanford University, Coursera enrolls seven million people in hundreds of free massive open online courses, or MOOCs, from more than 100 partner universities in 19 countries.

Mr. Levin, who has been an adviser to Coursera since January, has been experimenting with online education for years, beginning in 2000 in a partnership with Stanford and Oxford. In 2007, he started Open Yale Courses to make dozens of classes taught by Yale professors available without cost.

COLLEGE HOCKEY PICK OF THE WEEK – Friday 3/28, 8:00 PM ET (ESPNU); NCAA regional matchup, #13 North Dakota (23-13-7) vs. #4 Wisconsin Badgers (24-10-2). Midwest Regional semi-final, Badgers win 5 – 4.  Season to date (7-4).

THE SWAMI’S WEEK TOP PICKS –

(NCAA Men’s Hockey, Mar. 29) #17 Denver Pioneers (20-15-6) vs. #3 Boston College Eagles (26-7-4), BC prevails 6 – 3.

(NHL, Mar. 29) Detroit Red Wings (33-24-14) at Toronto Maple Leafs (36-29-8), Red Wings end Leafs season end collapse, 4 – 2.

(NCAA Men’s Final Four): South – Florida Gators, West – Wisconsin Badgers, Midwest – Louisville Cardinals, East – Virginia Cavaliers.

2014 Season to date (18-21), ouch!

BRACKETOLOGY BLINK - No perfect brackets left on Quicken, Yahoo, CBS or ESPN -- A run of upsets ended any chance of someone having a perfect NCAA tournament bracket in Warren Buffett's $1 billion challenge. ... The final three people's brackets in the Quicken Loans contest ... had ninth-seeded George Washington beating Memphis. The Tigers won 71-66. ... It only took 25 games for everyone to be eliminated. ... Only 16 people remained perfect after 10th-seeded Stanford topped New Mexico. Then Tennessee routed UMass, leaving only six people ... Gonzaga's victory over Oklahoma State cut that down to the final three. ... The top 20 scores will still each get $100,000.

At CBSSports.com, only 0.03 percent of entrants were still perfect after Mercer upset Duke. The final remaining unblemished entries were also ruined by the Memphis win. ... After 28 games, all 11 million [ESPN] entries had at least one mistake.

MARKET WEEK - An up-and-down performance by stocks this month is putting March’s usual bullish performance at risk: the Dow and Nasdaq are both modestly negative for the month, while the S&P 500 is barely positive. The Dow and S&P 500 haven’t fallen in March since 2008; the Nasdaq since 2005.  However, stock index futures are pointing to a higher Monday open for U.S. stocks. No major economic reports are due Monday, although a busy week for numbers is ahead, with the latest on home prices, new home sales, consumer confidence, GDP, durable goods orders, jobless claims, personal income, and consumer spending all on the schedule.

DRIVING THE WEEK - Obama arrives in the Netherlands Monday where he will tour the Rijksmuseum then hold a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Rutte ... In the afternoon, the President will hold a bilateral meeting with President Xi Jinping of China. Obama will then travel to the World Forum at The Hague to participate in the Nuclear Security Summit ... In the evening, the President will attend a G-7 leaders meeting on the situation in Ukraine at Catshuis, the official residence of the Prime Minister ... Obama meets the Pope on Thursday.

Case-Shiller home prices Tuesday at 9:00 a.m. expected to rise 0.6% ... Consumer confidence at 10:00 a.m. Tuesday expected to tick up to 78.6 from 78.1 ... Third estimate of fourth quarter GDP growth Thursday at 8:30 a.m. expected to 2.7% from 2.5% ... Univ. of Michigan Consumer Friday at 9:55 a.m. expected to rise to 80.5 from 79.9.

Next week: words and Jack Ass of the month.

Until Next Monday, Adios.

Claremont, CA
March 25, 2014


#IV-49, 206

2 comments:

  1. NCAA hockey picks: Wisconsin over UND seems like a safe bet. Hope you'll be more adventurous in next week's forecast for the finals, Swami.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Stay tuned for The Swami will not disappoint.

    ReplyDelete