The Frog Bog Pontification from the pond. It's funny. Except when it's not. But it usually is. Statistics Unique Visitors: Total Unique Visitors: Outgoing: Total Outgoing: 0 0 0 1619

Articles from The Frog Bog

Showing Some Love for the Caaaaaaaaaaaa-haaaaaaaaaaaable Guy 2007-06-05 09:45:55 Recently had a couple of insomnia-laden nights, so I spent a few hours on the couch channel surfing.  I watched some sports, some documentaries and part of Office Space, which is still funny after all these years.  But I saw one thing that really toasted my English Muffin(c).  It really ran a finger through my icing(c).  It really oxidized my avocado (which, as we all know, can be avoided by rubbing a little lemon or lime juice on the avocado)(c).  It’s a commercial for Haggar(c) clothing.  In it, two guys claim to be ”setting things right.”  The cable guy arrives at their place 90 minutes late.  A scruffy cable guy, by the way.  Unkept, devious and perhaps dishonest.  Yikes.  Anyway, they tell him the cable is on the roof then take the ladder away, trapping him until they decide to let him down.  In this way, they are “setting things right.” OK, here’s the scoop on cable guys.  I know this because, as frequent readers of this site w ...

The Fearless Frog’s Stock Picks for June 4, 2007 2007-06-04 10:02:17 The background info about The Fearless Frog is here. The more recent background info about TFF’s patented Alphabetic Inversion and Chart Reversal Strategy is here. Today RBC downgraded CM, which opened at $95.72, so TFF is upgrading MC, which opened at $20.93. BMO upgraded HTE, which opened at $29.91, so TFF is downgrading ETH, which opened at $36.14. BMO isn’t as household a name as Morgan Stanley or Goldman, but since TFF has been gaining ground over the last couple of weeks, it’s important to keep the momentum rolling.   The complete numbers for the year so far, complete with closing prices from Friday the 1st, are here. - ...

Our Big Trip Part 11- Connecticut, Niagara Falls, Kingston, NY and Humans Being 2007-06-01 11:45:23 The background info about Our Big Trip is here. Sunday, September 21: Kate woke up early to begin removing a great big gigantic 1,000 pound radiator and replacing it with a baseboard heater. She is quite talented at that sort of thing. The rest of us helped by running out the back door when she wasn’t looking. Noah had a gig with his trio at It’s Only Natural, a healthy restaurant near where he lives. Part of his pay for the gigs is gift certificates for the restaurant, and he had a couple saved up, so he shared one with Beth and me so we could eat on the cheap while listening to his band. And they were great. I’ve seen Noah play a number of times, and it’s always a lot of fun. Today was neat because he let me choose 75% of the stuff they played. So he, his bass player Henry and his drummer George Mastronis played some smokin’ jazz for a couple of hours while Beth and I and others ate and bopped around in our seats. Noah even pulled a melodica (a hooter, ...

100 Frogster Facts- Fact 4 2007-05-29 11:11:32 Fact 4 about me is that I LOOOOOOOVE icy pops (those Flav-Or-Ice things) in the summertime.  I was fortunate to go to Costco and procure 200 of them for a mere pittance (that’s my way of saying I don’t remember how much they cost but since I was at Costco they must logically have been relatively inexpensive). Except for the purple ones.  The purple ones are completely disgusting.  The red ones are cherry, the blue ones are blue, the green ones are lime, the pink ones are pink lemonade,  and the orange ones are orange.  The purple ones, however, are yucky beyond belief.     Nothing beats the heat like an icy pop (unless it’s a purple icy pop, in which case ANYTHING beats it).  And now that there is new and improved Flav-Or-Ice Plus, you don’t have to worry about not getting the nutrition from them your body so badly craves.  Flav-Or-Ice Plus icy pops contain 33% fruit juice.  So, by taking 3 of them out of the freezer and eating a third of each (as ...

The Fearless Frog’s Stock Picks for May 29, 2007 2007-05-29 10:42:16 The background info about The Fearless Frog is here. The more recent background info about TFF’s patented Alphabetic Inversion and Chart Reversal Strategy is here. Today Citigroup downgraded PTI, which opened at $27.83, so TFF is upgrading ITP, which opened at $4.72. Bank of America upgraded APC, which opened at $48.70, so TFF is downgrading CPA, which opened at $63. TFF came storming back this week, with a- well, maybe not storming.  More sort of drizzling.  Misting, perhaps.  OK, maybe without any precipitation, but certainly with some clouds on the horizon.  The TFF portfolio gained on the Wall Street portfolio, anyway.  The complete numbers for the year so far, complete with closing prices from Friday the 25th, are here. - ...

The Fearless Frog’s Stock Picks for May 21,2007 2007-05-21 09:30:16 The background info about The Fearless Frog is here. The more recent background info about TFF’s patented Alphabetic Inversion and Chart Reversal Strategy is here. Today Deutsche downgraded MTL, which opened at $35.80, so TFF is upgrading LTM, which opened at $50.28. Wedbush Morgan upgraded NDN, so TFF is downgrading it.  NDN opened at $14.95. After a couple of weeks of letting the portfolios ride and not picking any new stocks, TFF came to an interesting conclusion- the TFF portfolio is getting crushed like a cockroach.  TFF will not go gently into that good Chapter 11, however, but will rage against the liquidating of the portfolio!  The complete numbers for the year so far, complete with closing prices from Friday the 18th, are here. - ...

The NBA Playoff Outlook and a Surprisingly Entertaining European Football Match 2007-05-18 09:21:40 This post was going to be about the NBA playoffs.  I was going to write about how the Spurs, a team that I had rooted for many times in years past as they played the evil Lakers, had officially become The Bad Guys, largely due to Bruce Bowen’s dirty play.  Yes, he is a dirty player.  It was also going to be about how a few days ago I was ready to pronounce the Pistons as the next champ, but their recent meltdown left me wondering.  But, as is often the case on this site, it turns out that this post is going to be about something completely different.  I went on a long bike ride yesterday, and spent about 5 hours practicing my guitar, so after dinner I was mentally and physically tuckered and I settled in for a little couch potato time.  I watched a little of the Red Wings/Ducks NHL playoff game, and was shocked to discover that EVERY SINGLE PLAYER ON BOTH TEAMS is currently recovering from a black eye.  Hockey is certainly one manly sport. I watched a little of the Pist ...

100 Frogster Facts- Fact 3 2007-05-16 08:09:52 Fact 3 about me is that I dream in color.  I know this because of a recurrent nightmare I had for a few months when I was 12 or 13.  I’ll outline it below, but I must warn you, it’s scary. I was sitting at the kitchen table having dinner with my family at our house in Plainsboro, New Jersey.  I leaned back in my chair and saw a bunch of UFO’s with one light on the bottom of each.  Some had red lights, some orange (dream colors).  They all joined together into a big batch and I saw a really bright light that blinded me.  Then my parents turned on the TV and there was something on the news about UFO’s and how they had come in peace and there was no need to worry, etc., UNLESS some of the UFO’s featured orange lights, in which case they were preparing to beam down Bigfoot to kill the person who saw the lights.  The news report went on to say that if you were underwater Bigfoot would leave you alone.  So I dug a trench outside our house, filled it with ...

Cleaning Up Old Business 2007-05-15 10:23:19 Well, the manuscript is done and shipped to some editorial folks.  Ahhhh. Now, then, it’s time to purge The Frog Bog of some open ends, so that as the flowers bloom in spring, so The Frogster can, er, bloom anew, and, uh, float in the freshly cleaned environment, cleaned of, um, algae-like residue from old posts.  Even though it’s not really spring now, but more kind of summer.  So, with the worst housecleaning battle cry in history behind us, to business: 1.   The NBA MVP, first mentioned here.  If Agent Zero had stayed healthy, he would have led his team to at least a second-round playoff appearance.  Yes he would have.  And as far as the arguments about making other players around him better, The Wizards’ tailspin without him is evidence of his importance to the team.  Final decision: unforeseen medical issues notwithstanding, I was correct.  Thank you very much.  2.  My Hanes modeling career, first mentioned here.  Since I have received no ess ...

My Biography as Told By a Bunch of Pictures I Found in a Manilla Envelope 2007-05-06 22:02:31 The manuscript I’ve been mentioning in some of my posts for the last few months is just about done.  I’m excited about this, but I’m finding that the last mile is the hardest.  Since I only have so much literary mojo each day, I am going to put The Frog Bog on a 2 week hiatus so that I can simply focus on finishing the book.  It’s easier to write a silly post than to get down to the business of connecting the various literary threads I am hoping to weave into a masterpiece, but it’s more important at this stage for me to get the latter done. I will not leave you empty-handed, however.  We got a used scanner a couple of months ago, and I had trouble with the driver, etc., but was recently able to get it up and running.  So here, for the first time ever in digital form, is my biography, as told by a bunch of pictures I found in a manilla envelope.  Since there are plenty of pictures on here that detail my current life, and since most of the pictures ...

Me, Myself and Everyone Else in the Universe 2007-05-04 20:28:10 Last night as I was falling asleep watching the Warriors crush the Mavs, a Time Warner commercial came on.  It showed a bunch of skateboarders executing tricks that apparently would not have been possible without cable, internet and phone service provided by Time Warner.  Then the announcer said you should immediately sign up for Time Warner service to, get ready… “…share your individuality with people just like you.”  - ...

Waiting for the Alien Invasion 2007-05-03 16:53:01 I hope the aliens get here soon.  The reason I hope the aliens get here soon is that until they get here, we’re going to continue to embark on silly studies like the recent one by a Penn professor and a Cornell student.  In it, they claim that there is evidence of racial bias in NBA officiating (black refs call more fouls on white players and vice versa).  If you like, you can read the New York Times article about it here.  It is silly.  It is silly because, as Mark Twain noted (”Lies, damn lies and statistics,”) you can make stats say whatever you want them to say.  It is also silly because the study was based on box scores, which list the officiating crew, but do not break down fouls by ref.  So I deem the results dubious at best.  However, let’s suppose for a moment that the stats are right on, and there exists some measure of racial prejudice in the NBA.  What have we learned?  Why do we need people to spend time and energy on this subject?  Here ...

Celebrity Guest Blogger #2 2007-05-02 09:54:11 Our special guest blogger today is writing from an uncharted desert isle.  “Three years.  It’s been three years.  I can’t believe it.  It was only supposed to be a three hour tour.  A three hour tour.  I can’t take it any more.  Who found the tree sap for the pancake syrup?  Me.  Who saved everyone from the WWII vet who didn’t know the war was over?  Me.  Who took a coconut on the nose?  Me.  Who became the radio to warn us about the typhoon?  Me.  Who towed the mine out into the lagoon, where it exploded harmlessly?  Me.  Who saved Mrs. Howell’s life?  Me.  Finally, who burned the bush with the mind-reading berries, saving us from total self destruction?  Me me me. Without me, we wouldn’t have survived three weeks on this island.  I’m the hero.  But do any of the others admit that?  No.  I’m The Official Fall Guy.  The moron.  The scapegoat.  The whipping boy.  Well, I’m tired of it.  Sk ...

The Spiderflex Bicycle Seat, or My Beautiful Calves 2007-05-01 09:56:23 I love riding my bike.  I realize how fortunate this makes me, because many people cannot find some form of exercise they really enjoy.  Riding my bike isn’t exercise to me, it’s fun time.  It’s great to get outside, taste the bugs in your teeth feel the wind on your face and interact with the fun and exciting people in the neighborhood.  A couple of months ago, I rode past a cop who, I decided, was looking at me funny.  Since I’d recently had an unpleasant encounter with a member of the law enforcement community, which is chronicled here, I had a bit of a chip on my shoulder about this.  On my way back past the cop, I turned off my Ipod (NOTE:  If you are my wife, yes, you are right, listening to my Ipod while riding my bike is dangerous and I never do it.  What really happened was that I was singing to time my pedaling like the drum beaters used to do for the rowers on those Viking longboats, and on my way back, I stopped singing).  As soon as I c ...

The Fearless Frog’s Stock Picks for April 30, 2007 2007-04-30 09:35:26 The background info about The Fearless Frog is here. The more recent background info about TFF’s patented Alphabetic Inversion and Chart Reversal Strategy is here. Wachovia downgraded EEP today, so TFF was hoping to upgrade the inverse symbol, because it would be funny, but, alas, the Wall Street types have no sense of humor, so there is no such symbol.  Today Jeffries downgraded EDE, so TFF is upgrading it.  EDE opened at $25.06.  Bank of America upgraded MTB, which opened at $112.91, so TFF is downgrading BTM, which opened at $18.68. Wall Street now leads TFF by about 2 percent, after a tough week for the TFF portfolio. The complete numbers for the year so far, complete with closing prices from Friday the 27th, are here. - ...