Last Picture Show

Seriously the most beautifully tragic movie of all time. I must have read the book 20 times when I was 15-17 years old. There was one stretch where I was alternating between Last Picture Show and Texasville for six months.

I've been homesick/ nostalgic for Texas lately but it's for that mythic Texas. The one where you put on a clean white shirt and slide your boots across old dancehall floors on Saturday nights or eat thin hamburgers cooked on flat tops with your mom after school. I can't ever remember going to an old school picture show, but there was a time when my dad was on a search for the best chicken fried steak in North Texas. Now I guess you'd just yelp it or get on chowhound but I have no idea how he came up with these places unless he just wanted to see the old towns before they died and he assumed there would be a diner with a chicken fried steak wherever we went. There was this one in Southern Oklahoma which technically disqualified it from consideration for Best in Texas, but it had won some prize and was one hell of a chicken fried steak. The best part was walking down the street after lunch there was a facade of a picture show that was in the process of being torn down. We walked around the back and the whole back wall and roof were torn out but the rows of seats and the balcony were still up. That's the place I think of when I think of Last Picture Show. And there's a scene between Duane and Jacy that hits a little close to home. As Sam says "being crazy about a woman like her is always the right thing to do."

"Run along now Wichita...I can't protect your shoe shine all night."

Potash insane

So they caught a bid at 140 last week which was promptly turned down but guess the model did allow for some upside.

Heaping Mounds of Bull

Fertilizer Stocks are up huge this AM after Potash revised their Q1 earnings estimates from $0.70 - $1.00 per share to $1.30 - $1.50.  Here's the release.  One wonders how the business climate changed so much for them between January 28 when they gave their initial guidance and March 11 (seriously...the model allows for 85% upside swings over the course of 5 weeks?), but I guess you don't care if you're long.

I'd been kicking around the idea of some CAGC early this week but the chart freaks me out.

IBD 10 Tips to Success

Investors Business Daily is one of my favorite papers, but I have to pretend that the editorial page doesn't exist.  Members of the Tex tribe probably wouldn't mind most of what they put up, but two pages of "Obama is a Socialist Country Killer" gets to be a bit much sometimes.  Capitalism is made of win for these guys.  But seriously, if you want to learn a pretty solid system on how to pick stock winners, read this paper.  Start with the weekend edition which comes out on Saturdays.

One of the cooler things on IBD is the Leadership & Success column. The paper claims they've spent years studying great leaders, innovators and managers and have determined that most show a particular skill set that has helped them achieve their goals.   The paper cycles through these daily and throws up a couple of profiles of people who exhibit that day's trait.  Here's the list:

1. HOW YOU THINK IS EVERYTHING: Always be positive.  Think success, not failure.  Beware of a negative environment.
2. DECIDE UPON YOUR TRUE DREAMS AND GOALS: Write down your specific goals and develop a plan to reach them.
3. TAKE ACTION: Goals are nothing without action.  Don't be afraid to get started.  Just do it.
4. NEVER STOP LEARNING: Go back to school or read books.  Get training and acquire skills.
5. BE PERSISTENT AND WORK HARD: Success is a marathon, not a sprint.  Never give up.
6. LEARN TO ANALYZE DETAILS: Get all the facts, all the input.  Learn from your mistakes.
7. FOCUS YOUR TIME AND MONEY: Don't let other people or things distract you.
8. DON'T BE AFRAID TO INNOVATE; BE DIFFERENT: Following the herd is a sure way to mediocrity.
9. DEAL AND COMMUNICATE WITH PEOPLE EFFECTIVELY: No person is an island.  Learn to understand and motivate others.
10. BE HONEST AND DEPENDABLE; TAKE RESPONSIBILITY: otherwise, Nos. 1-9 won't matter.

It's a pretty good list but looking at it daily has me wondering/ contemplating if people really live deliberately/ the practicality or efficacy of cultivating personality traits.   

Seriously?

I'm putting this up as a place to "file" all of the content I consume and any thoughts I might have about it. I'm really looking at this as more of a tag-able online diary than anything else. I guess ideally some sort of discussion could come of it but that would require that people find my Texacalny blog. Clearly I need to click the "Monetize" blog because this is going to be huge.