Screwball

I don't know where to put this because I don't want to make it political, even though this thread is a derivative of the political section of the forum. But it has to do with money, commerce, and and cash.

I went on a road trip today. From Cornhole, Ohio to Monroe, Michigan so some people could do some shopping. Pot shopping. Grocery stores should be so lucky. 15 registers, people going through ropes waiting on their budtender. Right off I75 there are 3 stores in Monroe. All packed to the gills.

Michigan is legal, Ohio is only medical, so here we are. I asked my budtender how many people they get from Ohio, and she said most of them. I drove through the parking lot looking at license plates, and most of them were from Ohio, even one from my own county, which would be an hour and a half away.  Too funny.

And incredible.

You can spend a couple hundred bucks in less than 10 minutes (x15 registers) while they line up to come in for 12 hours day. Wow! That's a shitload of money even without doing the math.

And the best part - all with CASH. How fucked up is that considering how the rest of the world works?

35 minutes ago, oblong said:

and… I suck at pool.  I played it a lot. A friend had a table and as kids we aways were down there.  Then in college I spent a lot of time in two halls during my slacker days. I never got better at it.  I just couldn’t master it. 

I was working during the day and went to school at night.  We used to skip the last class and go to the bar. They had a 3 or 4 tables. Cost a quarter a game, we played for a pitcher of beer. Losers buy. One of the best times of my life. And I'm still here...

Nothing like a bunch of drunks playing for money they don't have.

Adding; I wonder how many people got the connection when Eddy said in TCOM "I'm back?"

Kind of weird in a way, but The Hustler was 1961 and The Color of Money was 1986 - 25 years apart - and "could" be called a sequel? Seems most sequels don't live up to the original, but both of these were kick ass IMO.

1 minute ago, oblong said:

One clarification on 9 ball.  You don’t have to pocket them in order. You just have to strike the lowest ball first with the cue ball. Granted that often leads to pocketing that ball but it’s not required. If the 9 ball ends up in front of a pocket you can hit the lowest numbered ball left to knock it in. 
 

and… I suck at pool.  I played it a lot. A friend had a table and as kids we aways were down there.  Then in college I spent a lot of time in two halls during my slacker days. I never got better at it.  I just couldn’t master it. 

Correct on the nine ball stuff.

Most people know pool as something you do in a bar with bad cue sticks and a table that isn't flat. Gleason was a good pool player, but nowhere near the class as Mosconi. Those guys are really some kind of good.

Adding; speaking of chess, I have two episodes to finish the Queen's gambit series (no spoilers please). I've really liked it, but I'm a chess fan.

Curious; any chess fans here?

You can tell from the 1961 movie Gleason was a good player because of the way he held the cue. Pool is a game of geometry/physics and chess type thinking ahead.

To the way they set up the scenes, the one video I watched where Eddie ran the table (9 ball game); the balls were set up perfectly to make that run. I'm sure Mosconi choreographed that. I also read (it was fun looking into these two movies) that Gleason did many of his shots during filming.

You have a certain size rectangle for a table - bar size is 6 x 4 or close to that. Feet. When a ball bounces off the bumper or another ball, it bounces at some kind of angle. That is why you see the diamonds along the outside. Helps visualize where the ball will go once it bounces off.

That's only the beginning. Let's say we are playing a game of 9 ball. Whoever puts in the 9 ball wins the game, and you only play with 9 balls. Somebody breaks and then you must put in the balls by number. One ball, then the two, and so on. So you have to think about the next shot, and how to put the cue ball in a good position to do so.

The end of a pool cue is around a half of an inch. In the movie, you can see them putting chalk on the tip. They also use baby powder on their "bridge" hand. Gleason had a really tight grip. They do this so they can put spin on the cue ball so it reacts after hitting their target ball to go where they want it to go.

A simple example would be a straight in shot. Hit the cue ball high, low, or in the middle - it reacts a different way. Hits and goes with the ball, stop, or come backwards. The same holds true for side to side.

A chess game with balls.

11 minutes ago, oblong said:

The Hustler is one of my all time favorites.  I will never forget stumbling upon it.  I knew of it obviously and used to shoot pool in college in a hall decorated with some photos.  When my kids were very young they finally went to bed, the wife was out, and I noticed The Hustler was coming on so I got some beers and took the time to watch.  Captivating.   

Sometimes I'll call it up on a streaming service when available and just watch the final scene where he goes off on Scott.  The framing of the shots, 3 heavyweights in the same scene.  The way Gleason sits there looking now like a broken man who probably went through the same thing Fast Eddie went through with Bert but didn't stand up.  Who's the winner?

"Fat man.... you shoot a great game of pool."

"So do you Fast Eddie"

 

Willie Mosconi, the great pool player was the technical advisor in that movie.  IIRR, he had a line of pool cues back in the day. That movie did make the game more popular IMO.  We had a pool hall in town with about 10 tables. There was one in the back room where the big money changed hands.  There used to be hustlers that came though there, and we had some of our own as well, and our very own Minnesota Fats who I still see all the time. He can't play anymore because he can't see good enough.

Friday nights were pea pool nights.  We would have about a half dozen or so guys and throw a dollar on the pot. You took a pea.  If you won, you won the entire pot - 6-8 bucks. Big money for a kid not old enough to drive and you got to feel like a shark at the same time.

Don't get hit with a cue stick though - they hurt.  Oh, the memories and stories...  I haven't played in probably 45 years until a couple of weeks ago.  Not pretty, and I even missed my ball a few times.  Never again.

15 hours ago, oblong said:

Warren Zevon nominated for the Rock and Roll HOF brings a callback to one of scorseses greatest shots. 
 

 

The original (The Hustler from 1961) was pretty good too.  Gleason, Newman, George C Scott, and the bartender just happens to be the boxer Jake LaMotta.

Related; we all knew Gleason as the goofy bus driver in The Honeymooner's or the sheriff in Smokey and the Bandit, but he was a pretty good pool player himself.

Gleason showed real Hustler skills in Augusta

In 2024 we will not be voting for either Donald Trump or Joe Biden. ®

® = you heard it here first

It's getting harder to find dumb TVs as well.  I was in a Circuit City and they only had one model of dumb TVs.

It's really amazing how big some are and what you can buy them for.

On the other hand, they had a really cool racing simulator.  Looked like F1.  Seat, 3 screens, wheel, petals, the whole deal.  You could test drive it - I did - crashed and burned of course.  Only $9,900 and something.  No thanks.

14 hours ago, gehringer_2 said:

Haven't seen that mount  - but LOL - I feel your pain because I have the *same* issue -  want to move the one set between two different rooms seasonally, and yes it would be ideal to just pop the set out of one quick release mount and into the other. My existing mount with the quick drop-in is a Sanus, which is a standard enough brand, but it came from Costco and was apparently a one time special build for Costco and there is no record of it ever being in their catalog. I have no hope of getting a 2nd with the matching mount.....😢

See above, but as I was looking at the 8.76 million mounts on Amazon, Staples, Lowes, Home Depot, Best Buy, etc., there are mounts that come with two "wall plates" so you can just take the entire mount off, leaving just the wall plate piece and move elsewhere.  So, you would have wall plates in two locations.

15 hours ago, Screwball said:

Let's talk TV mounts. I'm sure most here have a TV, and have mounted one to a wall. I ran into a TV deal so I bought a cheap one for the garage. Attached, but not heated, so I want to take the TV inside for the winter. I have another I take in and out every year, and it's a pain. It should be easy, but you always need a tool of some kind. I do, but why?

I have the answer to that dilemma, kind of. One of my mounts is so easy to take off the TV, all you have to do is take out a thumbscrew and lift it off. When you put it on, just drop it on the spindle, screw in the thumbscrew, and done. No tools needed. Couldn't be easier, and I applaud the design.

But I can't find it. I checked my history purchases, searched all the usual suspects in retail land, and come up empty. Here is a picture of how it mounts. Bueller?

 

ON EDIT; There might be more TV mounts than flies

After looking through 8.76 million mounts I have found this guy.  The reason I like this one is 1) the simplicity 2) fully articulating 3) easy to remove the TV 4) easy to mount to the wall stud (2 screws) 5) Thumb screws for tightening the VESA plate and TV tilt adjustment.

So many of the "quick change/quick release" designs incorporate a stamped sheet metal part that has tabs on the VESA plate that attach to the wall mount, then you must put in a couple of screws to secure the plate.

Others have a drop in tapered slot kind of design that looks rather sloppy, and I'm not sure how they lock in. None of the mounts to a very good job describing the "quick change" mechanism if that's what is important to the buyer.  To me this is one of the most important features since some of these mounts are not very installation friendly.

With this one, all you have to do is unscrew the vertical "thumbscrew" and lift off the TV.  The VESA plate block has a female tapered hole that fits over a male guide that is pressed into the wall mount portion of the assembly.  This makes it very east to take the TV on and off.  Drop the VESA plate's tapered hole onto the mounts male spindle, screw in the thumbscrew and you are done - no tools required.

I have 6 TVs, now 7, and this is by far the best mount I have found for smaller (under 33lb TVs), and by far the best for quick removal and installation.

It is made by Mount-it or you can find it at Amazon in their endless pages of TV mounts.

https://www.amazon.com/Mount-Computer-Displays-Articulating-Compatible/dp/B000X381FA#

Obviously, there are cheaper mounts as this one goes for $27.99, but given how easy this one is to remove/replace it's worth every penny IMO.  And well built too.

Let's talk TV mounts. I'm sure most here have a TV, and have mounted one to a wall. I ran into a TV deal so I bought a cheap one for the garage. Attached, but not heated, so I want to take the TV inside for the winter. I have another I take in and out every year, and it's a pain. It should be easy, but you always need a tool of some kind. I do, but why?

I have the answer to that dilemma, kind of. One of my mounts is so easy to take off the TV, all you have to do is take out a thumbscrew and lift it off. When you put it on, just drop it on the spindle, screw in the thumbscrew, and done. No tools needed. Couldn't be easier, and I applaud the design.

But I can't find it. I checked my history purchases, searched all the usual suspects in retail land, and come up empty. Here is a picture of how it mounts. Bueller?

ON EDIT; There might be more TV mounts than flies

27 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

so back in the day - around the early 90's or so when Microsoft was being the world's primary corporate Satan, the tech writers/press really picked up on "sowing FUD" as the description for Microsoft's primary strategy for freezing other actors out of markets that they still were not ready to compete in themselves. I don't know if it goes back further than that or not but that's where I first remember seeing it used.

Ok, based on the above from the helpers; U+D=G in F vs. G.

Giggle

I learned something new today. I don't think that should apply exclusively to crypto though.

FUD - three letters. I'm more binary.

Fear vs. greed.

3 hours ago, gehringer_2 said:

🙈🙉🙊   Short term market movement is all about momentum and technical investing - it's all perceptions and the animal spirts, along with the added dose deliberate manipulations, fraud and FUD distribution. 

What is FUD distribution?

I remember sitting in some corporate obedience training classes where they used Intel as an example on how to grow and control your own market - and they were right. Which is the kind of company you want to find and invest in. Not anymore, and not for a long time.

I think it all changed with the Enron stuff. Jeff Skilling should be on the Mt. Rushmore of financial criminals in my lifetime. He gave us the blueprint of how the leverage machine runs today.

Between Arthur Anderson accounting (some now legal that saved the world in 2008 (see FAS 157)) - and no rule of law - we end up with a rigged casino. Guess who loses.

13 hours ago, Cruzer1 said:

Yeah, they have too much power to wield when they can downgrade or upgrade any stock, but that is true with most financials. The best thing about financials at this time is that most portfolio managers are using them as the #1 sector, even if they are boring, but they usually come with a nice yield. I've had shares of little known MAIN, who pays a great 7% monthly (they even have a couple of special dividends, giving out 14 dividends/year).

Also, this has been a good week for the market. Hoping the fed doesn't screw things up.

It is the Fed's job to screw things up.  We wouldn't be in the position we are in if it wasn't for the Fed to begin win.  The market has crashed twice since I've been investing because of bubbles - and they still don't know what one looks like.

But they are only part of our financial system that is a sick joke.

27 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

PC sales have cratered and that's still a big driver for their business. Computer sales were one of the big beneficiaries of the work at home transisiton, but with that swinging back they are in the dumps. The Pandemic gaveth, and is passing is taking it away..

There is more issues than PC sales.

15 hours ago, oblong said:

Isn’t that also the fault of…. Everyone in this thread?  Everyone wants the best rates for their investment.  This is how it happens.  
 

I’m not saying this to point fingers or blame. 

I wasn't talking about the investing end of things. I've been a part of too many companies where the beancounters determine/have control over too many day to day decisions made within the company. Many times look to the short term instead of the long term - hence the penny smart dollar stupid.  They only see numbers on a balance sheet, not design, engineering, manufacturing, marketing, etc. Too many times the cheap quick way to do it eventually hurts the company in the long run.  They might get a bunch of good quarters, but then it catches up with them, and the bottom drops out.

And as beancounters, I don't only mean the accountants of the company.  This holds true for the board and CEO's.  They push the stupidity because they are loaded up with stock options - so cut cut cut - beat the street.  It's not a good business model IMO.

I used to go to an annual software thing for my company.  Several thousand people were there.  Bunches of them from HP.  I talked to these guys every year.  They said Carly Fiorina was running the company in the ground.  She was awful, only cared about "now" and would not support and spend where they needed to for longer term growth.  They hated her with a passion for what she was doing to the company.  The rest is history.  At least they got rid of her.

INTC (Intel) getting whacked to a tune of around %6 on troubling guidance based on what I read. Was down over 8 earlier today after their earnings release.

33 minutes ago, Cruzer1 said:

Hey, I own stock in those crooks! 😁 (JPM and GS)

I'm sure most people here do somewhere in their portfolio.  So their our crooks. 🙂

It is truly amazing what the large Wall Street banks get away with. Kinda, I guess, depending on how you look at it.

I go back to the financial crises of 2008-2010 ish with the aftermath. The banksters, with their reckless leverage blew up our financial system, the stock market, and many peoples lives.

And they get away with it because they really are "the smartest guys in the room." Along with owning everyone because of money they don't even have.

While I'm here, I didn't dig in too deep because I was short on time, but that FTX guy, or whoever he is, other than a giant crook, was banked by JPM & GS. Imagine that.

Back when I was a pup, we would call them the mafia. We just legalized it. Ponzi schemes, money laundering, propping up evil regimes. Money to be made so it's all good.  Pay a fine, admit no guilt, business as usual.

It all starts with the banksters.

Another example of pump and dump bullshit when you have a giant bubble. I think, someone correct me if I'm wrong - but BBBY was one of those momentum junkies the Robin Hood traders were all over a year of so ago.  Many are now broke.

Dumb fucks

The market is a whore