Once in a Lifetime

The only kind of "Talking Head" that I like is the kind that I saw in concert on a twin bill with the Ramones in Boston.

I don't like the kind of "Talking Head" that convincingly and arrogantly explains to the droolers in the viewing audience why American Tower stock would plummet in value upon the announcement of an AT&T takeover of T-Mobile, and then just as arrogantly explain how American Tower shares would soar once the merger fell through.

You would think that when the initial hypothesis was proven wrong and shares of AMT outperformed the market, they might curb in a bit of the "smug factor" and maybe even do a public mea culpa upon it's subsequent "unexpected" underperformance.

And you would also think that when Deutsche Telecom annouinces that it will devote $4 billion, coincidentally the same amount as the break-up penalty, to expand its T-Mobile network, they would grown tired of the thesis.

But what else can Talking Heads do besides talk?

I know that I'll never be invited into the "Talking Head" club, although I continue to savor my brief taste.

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Excesses

We're Americans.

We love excess and excesses and are probably harboring lots of pent up need to exercise excess, just waiting for an economic turnaround to finally get here.

In the meantime as those parts of the world that were once derisively referred to as "third world" are discovering the joy of excess, we still know how to party with the big boys.

I'm not certain whether I meant that literally or figuratively.

On Wednesday and Thursday my oldest son and I were in New York City, a place I rarely went to during all of the years spent growing up in the Bronx.

Of course, back then, the only places in "the city" to visit were things like museums and art galleries and they always seemed to take their child unfriendly causes to excess. Even the dinosaurs were a bit much, as if bigger was actually better when it came to extinct species.

Some of the great homes along Fifth Avenue, past residences to the Astors, the Morgans and others weren't appreciated by me back then, either.

Not even the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, a display of inflated cartoon characters taken to excess was enough to attract me to see them on anything other than a TV set.

They didn't have things like Bloomberg News and CNBC back in the old days. Not just to watch on TV, but to physically step foot into.

Those are great attractions. I'd see them any day. And that's exactly what we did while visiting the past couple of days.

Sure, Wall Street was always there, but I never knew about Wall Street when growing up.

The funny thing is that I still have no desire to actually visit the epitome of capitalism. No desire to have the obligatory bull and bear picture taken. I did, however, want to have a picture taken with some Occupy Wall Street protestors, especially since they are, among other things, protesting the great excesses of Wall Street and banking.

Maybe next year,

Ah, but a picture of a real New York corned beef sandwich. Now we're talking pictures.

On the way back home we stopped for New York deli food. Not to be overly chauvanistic, but you really can't get that kind of corned beef or pastrami anywhere else. The nice thing about the New York delis is that they don't offer corned beef sandwiches with a choice of cheeses or breads.

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