The Market . . .

Looks like the bottom has fallen out of the market, the stock market. The market does not like Obama, his jobs plan (or reality lack of a job plan) and European debt problems (Greece, Portugal, Spain and Italy). The only European country that seems to be solving its problems is Ireland. Great Britian, not a member of the common market or a member of the European Economic Community, seems to be holding its own. Germany, bouying up the European economy, is fighting to hold on. The Swiss simply sit back and wait. Nothing heard from in the newly liberated states in Eastern Europe. I suspect they are truly teetering on ruin. No tell what is going on in Russia.

All that adds up with Obama uncertainly premeating the economy here in the states bodes bad news for all markets. The only thing seeming to be doing good is commodities but that is way to risky for me to get involved in. I suspect gold and silver will soar.

I guess I will just stick with coins for the moment. My collection will probably appreciate quite a bit. Though I am not in it for profit.

I see a buying opportunity opening up. Probably tomorrow. Also time to unload losers. I am of the opinion to trim some of those less than stalwart performers. I will probably buy some more DVY, an Exchange Traded Fund of dividend paying stocks. It is yielding 3.58%. at least that is well above US bonds. So it is probably a good time to acquire some more of it. It spreads the risk across 90 stocks and pays well.

And all the while a new roof is going on - in the rain. Things have stopped due to the sky is leaking. No hard rains but they can not count on that and must sit by and wait. I'm thinking they are finished for the day.

Football Weekend . . .

Football got into its first real football weekend. The previous games were sort of warm ups. The big time teams schedule the "big check" teams to play usually at home where the stadium is quite large and the seats get filled. The big check teams are wanta bes, need the extra revenue and the NCAA forces the big teams to schedule a few of the little guys every year.

LSU opened with Oregon, which was not a big check team. Oregon was ranked #3 and LSU #4 and the game was played at the Cowboys stadium in Arlington, TX. That was a neutral field for both teams but it really was more an LSU turf area. LSU sent about 37,000 fans and Oregon about 15,000 fans. Of couse, it is history now, LSU stomped Oregon and took its place in the national rankings. Oregon fell back to about #15 or so in the rankings. Oregon has since trashed a couple of teams out west.

LSU played Northwestern State, the Demons, from Natchitoches, LA. They were no competiton. The first string for LSU played the first half and the rest of the team played the second half. A good way for gaining experience.

LSU has since played Miss State, my father's alma mater. It was a good but tough game. Miss State played well for a while but simply got worn down by LSU. LSU's conditioning was superior and their depth of players was greater. Not that Miss State does not have a big team, they just do not have the talent in depth that LSU has. LSU really took over in the third quarter and by the fourth quarter had decimated the Miss State team.

Now on to West Virginia for LSU. Going to be a good regional game. Clemson demolished Auburn this weekend in an ACC rivalry game. Tigers facing Tigers. Auburn just barely beat Miss State and BYU. Both teams they played put up pretty big scores. They just out scored them. Miss State did not even score a touchdown against LSU. Clemson out scoured Auburn. That bodes badly for Auburn, no defense to speak of. Bama and LSU will eat them up.

So we will see how another high scoring offense does against the Tigers in the West Virgina team. Could be very interesting to watch. Since LSU shut down Oregon's vaunted offense and Miss State's offense, it will be challenge to take down West Virginia's offense.

Other teams that got stuffed were Ohio State. Miami took them down. They did not look to good to me. Notre Dame took down Meechigan State too. So a few of the big timers got shut down. Watched Kentucky lose to Louisville. That is an in state rivalry. I think I saw that Vanderbuilt destroyed Ole Miss, if so that is a bad set back for Houston Nutt. His days maybe numbered.

New Orleans and the Monteleone . . ,

We got back from our New Orleans trip. We did all the things we wanted to do. Ride the St. Charles Street Car, walk the French Quarter and visit the French Market. Bought Parlines from Aunt Sallies, had coffee and binquets at Cafe du Mode. We dined deluxe at Galitois and even strolled down Bourbon Street. We found the city, the French Quarter, vibrant and alive with people all over the place. The tourists were everywhere having a good time. Where else can you walk out of a bar with your alcoholic drink and stroll down the street. It is truly a carefree zone. You see all kinds of people, mimes, drunks, strippers, hot dog stands, oyster bars on every corner, lots of food, good food at that. The major restuaraunts in the Monteleone were undergoing renovation so eating out was a must. But that was the intention anyway, Even brought a sport coat for the occasion. Certain up scale eateries require a coat after 6:00 PM, which is okay with me. My legs were sore from so much walking. I did not bring walking shoes so was stuck with my loafers which did not have the support of athletic shoes. Missed the LSU football game but it was ho hum anyway. Watched the end of the Meechigan and Catholics game. Thought Meechigan had lost but they came back and did in the Catholics. Poor Nortre Dame (the Catholics) no longe have the mystic and magic, they are at best a second tier team now days. En route to New Orleans we spent the night at the camp, ate dinner at Morels with Mark and Paul. The Camp looked good, well cared for with the grass freshly mowed. Some of the elaborate planting gone and will be missed. The new place next door is obnoxious. But then that's life along False River now days. We left New Roads and drove across the new bridge, nice and quick. Down to Baton Rouge, stayed on I-110 to I-12 and drove over to Covington. Ate dinner at the Acme Oyster Company, simple, a bowl of gumbo. It is located on US 190 just a couple of miles from the Pontchartrain Causeway. Like the new bridtge, the Audubon Bridge, we had never been across the causeway, so drove it across the lake. It was a pleasant drive and tooks right into I-10 on to downtown New Orleans. Got off at the French Quarter, went to the hotel and parked the car (and it stayed parked until we left). We really enjoyed the Monteleone Hotel, we found the employees to be pleasant, friendly, helpful and not over bearing. So it made the stay even better, no snobishness, just sort of family oriented. There was at the hotel six weddings and one convention going on. The Carousel Bar was packed nightly. We were surprised at how may tourists were floating around the French Quarter. They were everywhere. We think we will do it again, maybe next year. Who knows, we had a great time looking around in the shops and walking the French Quarter.

I am beat . . .

I am beat, kinda slept in this AM, tired after a day at Humperdinks solicting money for LSU Scholarships. Gary Taylor, our Treasurer, had the idea for the Cotton Bowl to have a box with a small poster asking for $5 per person to get into Humperdinks. Of course it is free to get into Humperdinks but the generous LSU fans contributed hardly at the Cotton Bowl last January. My diea was to get in their faces and asking for the donations. That worked. But it was tiring and others did not seem to have the knack for asking for the money. Not me. We had to split the take with the Dallas Alumni Club at the Cotton Bowl but not this time. So all that I collected went into the pot for the scholarship fund. Gary sold cozys and towels, T shirts and beads. I just begged. But we rolled up a nice return for our efforts. Opportunities like these do not come by a little remote chapter like us, so we had to make the most of it, Gary and his lovely wife, Linda, went off the game and I stayed at Humperdinks and count up the take. We collected and sold $5,268. We also collect from several motels that we ballyhooed on the web page and from independent vendors. So I expect we racked another thousand or so dollars. Nice take, right. I arrived at 8:00 AM and began collecting while Gary set up his sales table. Humperdinks (aka Humps) did not open until 9:00 AM but we had people there already. By 10:00 AM the place was rocking, by 11:30 we had already maxed out the building capacity. We who stayed at Humps to watch the game on TV had a more sedate time of it but still well populated with folks. We even had some that left the game at half time, the complained of having "High altitude seats." Any how, beer is a lot cheaper at Humps than at the Jerry Dome. We had a great time. I got home at about midnight, hoarse, tired and pleased at what we had done. But old guys like me can not take to many of these events. Counting out over $5,000 was quite a task. And it was great win by LSU. Oregon learned that SEC defensive football is quite different than west run and gun or speedy shoot outs. They found LSU defense equal to their highpowered offense and got kinda shut down. The LSU offense came alive in the second half and Oregon got beat pretty badly. Geaux Tigers . . . .