It's All About Appearances

As time goes on I've come to realize that what I once thought was my absolute grasp on the secrets of the Universe were just a prelude to the growing realization that I understand nothing.

Nothing at all.

What I'm also realizing is that during that period of your life when you are on the path of professional ascendancy or at least hoping to be on that path it's not about substance at all.

It's always about appearances. The appearance of substance is priceless.

Which essentially means that the world is divided into just two camps.

Those that are truly capable and those that aren't, but may look good as they feign their way through the system and up the ladder.

For purposes of maintaining a dichotomy, I conveniently overlook those that are in no way capable, nor ever perceived as being capable.

I suppose that there could also be those that had been fully capable but got thrown to the curb as societ and technology passed them by.

Reserch in Motion seems to fall into that last category.

Just a few short days ago, after ridiculing the Research in Motion CEO's performance on the evening of the earnings report that missed analyst's estimates of $0.80 by 7/10's of a cent, the shares recovered from their immediate plunge and actually closed the quarter, which happened to be the very next day, up $1.

It doesn't matter whether you're dealing with a $14 stock or a $600 holding, but a 7% move is a big deal, just as apparently a 0.875% miss in earnings estimates turns out to be and then doesn't

I don't own shares of RIMM, but I have to wonder how in the second day of the new quarter it could be back down to a point that it's now trading 5% below its weekly low, which was already pretty low.

Did anything change?

Click to read more ...

Friendly Competition

I must be fixated on "oxymorons," just having written about them a few days ago.

Had it not been for a Tweet from Marek Fuchs of TheStreet.com regarding his attendance at a Fordham versus Harvard college basketball game in the Bronx, I'd never have known about the event, despite the fact that I'm an alumnus of both.

On the other hand, I did know that CNBC was broadcasting live interviews from within Goldman Sachs and was wondering whether a high school classmate, CFO David Viniar, would appear.

To his great credit, absolutely nothing untoward was ever said about him throughout the slew of slings and arrows directed at Goldman's higher offices. Sometimes, keeping a very low profile is a good thing, so it's not overly surprising that he didn't make an appearance.

Fuchs, who somehow finds the time between filming his entertaining and educational series "They Just don't Get...." for TheStreet.com and his parental responsibilities, Tweets with regularity. At last night's game his Tweets ranged from wanting his money back, despite the fact that his ticket was free and it being one of the most exciting games he'd ever seen.

He also was the halftime entertainment and penned an article for a local newspaper, while simultaneously putting out a fire in the Village of Tuckahoe.

Really. That's the name. Tuckahoe.

Oh, and did I mention that he was an author?

My guess is that somewhere along the line either the ecstasy kicked in or the game got competitive. I doubt that the halftime sermon alone would have moved him to hyperbole.

When I went to Fordham, there was a general understanding that Fordham alumni went, in disproportionate numbers into the service of the FBI and CIA and in turn, spent an inordinate amount of time investigating Harvard graduates.

Competition. Think G. Gordon Liddy and then think dirty competition.

Great mustache, just nasty competitor who believed that in order to protect our nation from its enemies you had to use the U.S. Constitution for personal rectal hygiene.

Friendly competition is more like the sort Inspector Clouseau engaged in with any of the adversaries that he faced, yet nonetheless, respected.

The adversaries, in turn, received amusement for their troubles.

I really don't know who won last night's competition, but I doubt that it was friendly.

There's a big schism between "The Bronx" and Cambridge. "Jenny from the Block" and William F. Buckley are reasonable poster children of their respective homes, just add some needle tracks to the former and ample elbow patches to the latter's images.

Whereas the stereotype of the Harvard man would have him asking "may I top you off, my good fellow?" the Fordham man was just as likely to ask "Yo, you gonna finish that least slice, or what, Mofo?"

Click to read more ...