Wilbur Ross, Ken Greene and huge money..............

the bottom-feeders are playing with the "chiefs", the sooner the better..........today's CNBC piece on Ken Greene making such a huge windfall at the expense of Merrill Lynch and J.P. Morgan was a great story for Leap Day. Those massive profits at the expense of Wall Street dont' happen too often. And to think Goldman Sachs wouldn't trade with Mr. Greene. Like he said, I guess they are more concerned about their profits than they are their customers. Sounds like business as usual. On Leap Day it would take a leap of faith to believe the spin doctors of finance.

The Bernanke Testimony.........

The interrogation of Mr. Bernanke by Congressioonal members is grandstanding in an election year. The questions put forth to the esteemed Chair by most of those on the panel are elementary, probably the level of understanding of economics by most Americans. These are the same politicians who have saddled America with such huge governmental spending and budget deficits.

The beat goes on while the dollar gets hammered overseas.

A Native American story still untold.......

SWISS banking giant UBS, already among the hardest hit by losses on mortgage investments gone bad, now faces legal claims that it dumped some of the most toxic pieces of those investments on its clients.

In a lawsuit that offers a rare inside perspective on the dealings behind the current financial crisis, mid-size German lender HSH Nordbank alleges that UBS sold it $US500 million ($535 million) in complex investments that UBS's now-defunct hedge fund, Dillon Read Capital Management, later used as a receptacle for troubled sub-prime mortgage securities.

The German bank says UBS's actions led to a loss of at least $US275 million.

The lawsuit, filed in New York state court, portrays HSH as an unsophisticated investor duped by UBS, saying the Swiss bank "exploited the structure for its own ends, at HSH's expense, in violation of its contractual and fiduciary duties." HSH is demanding at least $US275 million in restitution, plus punitive damages.

Claims like this augur an acrimonious stage in the financial downturn, as disgruntled banks and investors turn to the courts to recoup massive losses.

In the US, municipalities are suing banks over souring investments or for contributing to the mortgage crisis. Mortgage lender Luminent Mortgage Capital has sued two banks, alleging that they mispriced mortgage securities.

And in December, Britain's Barclays sued Bear Stearns and two Bear fund managers, alleging that it had been misled about an investment and disclosing private correspondence between the two banks.

With history repeating itself once again after the debacle in the 1980's over CMO's, I thought I might bring to light one of the great stories never told in Indian Country that took place back in the 1980's.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs managed tribal money in NM at their Office of Trust Funds Management. I use the term "managed" very loosely.

In the 80's, the OTFM was a big buyer of collaterlized debt, (CMO'S, Collateralized Mortgage Obligations). CMOs were originally designed to meet the investment needs of the most sophisticated institutional investors and the securities industry quickly sought to market these to smaller institutions. As these investments became even more and more complex and difficult to comprehend, both institutional and individual investors continue to be sold these products with less and less comprehension of what they purchased. Collateralized mortgage obligations (CMOs) are financial debt vehicle first created in 1983 by investment banks Salomon Brothers and First Boston. Legally, a CMO is a special purpose entity that is wholly separate from the institution that created it. The entity is the legal owner of a set of mortgages, called a pool. Investors in a CMO buy bonds issued by the entity, and receive payments according to a defined set of rules. The mortgages themselves are called the collateral, and the bonds are called “tranches” (also called classes), and the set of rules that dictates how money received from the collateral will be distributed is called the structure. CMOs are complex securities which are claimed to be innovative investment vehicles, offering regular payments, relative safety, and notable yield advantages over fixed-income securities of comparable credit quality (AAA rated). Yet, CMOs have for decades have been a tool of some unscrupulous con-artist brokers who had invaded the multi-trillion dollar mortgage debt market to take advantage of even the seemingly most sophisticated investors. The OTFM investment managers were not sophisticated. They were in the bond market every week and roiled prices when they were looking for offers. It was almost a standing joke on trading desks that "the Indians are in the market".

I should know, I called on them every week when I was a salesman for Drexel Burnham Lambert on the West Coast. The OTFM were yield buyers and they bought millions upon milions of of CMO's.

In the 1980's, when interest rates rose above 10%, some CMOs lost 25 to 40% of their value regardless of the fact that these securities were “insured” and “AAA rated”. However, CMOs often have much less upside potential than bonds because when interest rates rise, investors usually re-finance their mortgages which cause higher paying CMOs to carry little premium in the market place. The OTFM held millions upon millions of dollars of CMO's for their tribal accounts. As those securities cratered I often wondered if tribal finance officers or tribal council heads were being called and informed of their loss of principle to their assets. I wondered how many millions and millions of dollars evaporated for the countless Native children across Indian Country who their tribal leadership was entrusted their finances to a governemental entity that owned so much toxic junk.

Nope, not a chance it happened. Tribal leaders were never called. How big were the losses before all was said and done? A few million, a hundred million? Only the trading records can tell the story. And they are securely tucked away just like the BIA wants them to be. Transparency with unsophisicated investors is a one-way street. Twenty odd years later, the story is still untold. And history is repeating itself once again in the bowels of Wall Street. Buyer beware it's each man for himself.

My tax dollars at work.............

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7rAUu8djZ4


http://home.comcast.net:80/~bzee1a/

Did you know this Native American fact?

Of the 23 Native American tribes in Arizona, not all have their own correctional facility. Of those facilities that do, some are operated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), an arm of the federal government. Outside of that group, the largest tribes currently operate their own correction programs, including White Mountain Apache, San Carlos, Gila River, Ak-chin, Salt River, Tohono O'odham, and Navajo (within Arizona). These independent tribes employ roughly over 250 detention officers and dispatchers.

It's too bad the BIA can't do more for Natives in protecting their health but that isn't the role of government to protect people from harmful activities or is it? Diabetes, obesity, suicide, gang violence, meth, violence against women, so many children being born out of wedlock are but a few of the toughter issues in Indian Country. Maybe tribal judges could dole out court-ordered physical education classes, health classes, sobriety classes, diabetes screening classes, etc. Billy Mills, one of the greatest warriors ever in Indian Country and still a hero of Dean Parisian said it best. "Your life is a gift from the Creator," says Billy Mills. "Your gift back to the Creator is what you do with your life."

Alan Abelson at Barron's.......

For such a gifted writer who has such brilliant command of the English language he unfortunately has probably "lost" more money for investors than the S & L crisis, the 1986 bond market break, the 1987 stock market debacle, Bill Clinton's internet market bubble and Enronesque failings combined. You see, he is always "out" of an overvalued stock market. He is what Steve Leslie refers to as a "nattering nabob of negativity"! Good news doesn't sell in America. Not on Fox, not on CNN, only on the Disney Channel. America has this penchant for gloom and doom. There are family members who have it, friends, acquaintances and apparently everyone who reads his weekly rant in Barron's and believes it.

Lets get some things straight folks. Bear markets are followed by bull markets. There is a bear market going on today on Wall Street which is nothing more than temporarily lower stock prices. The stock market will go much higher in your lifetime. Listening to a broker or financial advisor talk you into selling your stock market exposure and buying bonds does two things. It assures him and his firm of some fat commissions and it assures long term, tremendous loss of purchasing power in your portfolio. Maybe the SEC should require that Barrons put a disclaimer on his column every week. No, that's not the answer either, because investors have every right to be wrong and if they wouldn't sell with such fear and panic it wouldn't allow for lower levels of stock prices. My old friend in LaJolla, Bill Gritz, the finest 80-year old ocean swimmer I have ever known, told me once, "Dean, buy them when there is NO good news in the newspapers about stocks, you'll make plenty of money".

Friday from the trading turret..........

I watched the Obama-Hillary chat last night for a few minutes.

America will get what they deserve with either of these two candidates.

The greatest country on the globe will have one of these two big spenders as it's next Commander-in-Chief. No wonder the stock market is under such selling pressure. Between 2 and 3 billion dollars of equity has been coming out of stocks since the first of the year. Every day.

We haven't seen anything yet.

Plato said long ago...............

Lack of activity destroys the good condition of every human being, while movement and methodical physical exercise save it and preserve it.

Here's a great American.......and telling it like it is........

David M. Walker became the seventh Comptroller General of the United States and began his 15-year term when he took his oath of office on November 9, 1998. As Comptroller General, Mr. Walker is the nation's chief accountability officer and head of the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), a legislative branch agency founded in 1921. GAO's mission is to help improve the performance and assure the accountability of the federal government for the benefit of the American people. Over the years, GAO has earned a reputation for professional, objective, fact-based, and nonpartisan reviews of government issues and operations.

The long tenure of the Comptroller General gives GAO a continuity of leadership and independence that is rare within government. Both elements help to allow GAO to consider long-range and cross-governmental issues and alert policymakers to problems looming on the horizon, such as the growing burden of entitlement programs and the need to transform the federal government to meet the needs of the 21st century.

Before his appointment as Comptroller General, Mr. Walker had extensive executive level experience in both government and private industry. Between 1989 and 1998, Mr. Walker worked at Arthur Andersen LLP, where he was a partner and global managing director of the human capital services practice based in Atlanta, Georgia. He was also a member of the board of Arthur Andersen Financial Advisors, a registered investment advisor. While a partner at Arthur Andersen, Mr. Walker served as a Public Trustee for Social Security and Medicare from 1990 to 1995. Before joining Arthur Andersen, Mr. Walker was Assistant Secretary of Labor for Pension and Welfare Benefit Programs from 1987 to 1989 and in 1985, was Acting Executive Director of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation. His earlier technical, professional, and business experience was with Price Waterhouse, Coopers & Lybrand and Source Services Corporation, an international human resources consulting and search firm.

Mr. Walker currently serves as Chair of the U.S. Intergovernmental Audit Forum and as Chair of the principals of the U.S. Joint Financial Management Improvement Program. He is also a founder and principal of the U.S. Joint Auditing Standards Coordinating Forum. He also serves as a member of the Independent Audit Advisory Committee for the United Nations.

Mr. Walker is on the Board of the International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions and various educational and not-for-profit entities. He is a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration, the National Academy of Social Insurance and an active member of various professional, public service, and other organizations, including the Sons of the American Revolution. He is listed in Who's Who in the World and Who's Who in America.

Mr. Walker is the author of Retirement Security: Understanding and Planning Your Financial Future (John Wiley & Sons, 1996) and a co-author of Delivering on the Promise: How to Attract, Manage and Retain Human Capital (Free Press, 1998). He has also written numerous articles and opinion letters on a variety of subjects. Mr. Walker is frequently quoted on a range of government and management issues and has been the subject of several cover stories in various national, professional and governmental journals.

Mr. Walker is a certified public accountant. He has a B.S. degree in accounting from Jacksonville University and a Senior Management in Government Certificate in public policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He has received honorary doctorate degrees from several colleges and universities, including his alma mater. Mr. Walker has completed numerous continuing education courses in a wide range of fields, including the six-week CAPSTONE course for military Generals and Admirals. He has also won a number of awards domestically and internationally for outstanding leadership in several areas.

steinhardtsorosparisian said...

Jimmy Cramer, your Mother taught you better. We know it's all about impact statements and holding "eye-balls" on CNBC but we can do without your continual harrassment of the Fed Chairman. It's getting so old you sound like you gave financial advice to the ancient Greeks.

The Republican Fisherman..........

A woman in a hot air balloon realized she was lost. She lowered her altitude and spotted a man in a boat below. She shouted to him, "Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don't know where I am."

The man consulted his portable GPS and replied, "You're in a hot air balloon, approximately 30 feet above a ground elevation of 2346 feet above sea level. You are at 31 degrees, 14.97 minutes north latitude and 100 degrees, 49.09 minutes west longitude."

She rolled her eyes and said, "You must be a Republican." "I am," replied the man. "How did you know?" "Well," answered the balloonist, "very thing you told me is technically correct, but I have no idea what to do with your information, and I'm still lost. Frankly, you've not been much help to me."

The man smiled and responded, "You must be a Democrat." "I am,"replied the balloonist. "How did you know?" "Well," said the man, "you don't know where you are or where you are going. You've risen to where you are, due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise that you have no idea how to keep, and you expect me to solve your problem. You're in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but, somehow, now it's my fault."

An old Lakota proverb..........

"See how the boy is with his sister and the other ones of his home lodge. Watch him and you can know how the man will be with your daughter."

Native American Advisors, Inc.

If you think you are getting sound advice from a brokerage firm or a bank, think long and hard. For over a decade I was a New York Stock Exchange and NASD arbitrator and heard the stories of investors who sued brokers and their firms. It wasn't pretty. It was a demanding task and the longer I was an arbitrator the more fearful I became of Wall Street's sales mentality. Brokers are generally far more concerned with their income than an investor's outcome. Investors that confuse a sales pitch that generates a broker's income with impartial investment advice continually amaze us. When Americans finally wake up to their retirement nest-egg shortfalls "planned" by their local Rotary club stockbroker who sold them the latest investment fad de jour they might investigate what a fiduciary firm, offering unbiased independant financial and investment management is about. Do you think large professional investors use a stockbroker who is not a fiduciary? Not a chance. They are required to use fiduciary investment management firms like Chippewa Partners that protect and grow their portfolios.

Smart investors understand that an unbiased fiduciary investment manager like Chippewa Partners is a far superior alternative than a broker pushing their latest investment fad. Wall Street's mentality is about sales and marketing, not making clients money, understand that at your peril.

Recognize that what distinguishes Chippewa Partners is not only our assignment to manage serious wealth but an important means for allowing our valued clients to do the things that are most important to them. Like you, our plans, hopes and dreams inspire us every day and we are grateful for the opportunity to help our clients with their goals and to improve their lives. We believe it is a privilege to work for our clients. At Chippewa Partners we are about doing the right things, the right way, for the right reasons for clients who don't have the time, talent or training to manage a serious investment portfolio. Clients know the serious money we manage for them is serious business. Managing money for busy people with other things to think about deserves serious attention. Our expertise and track record developed over 25 years balances financial acumen and absolute integrity with dedicated professionalism. We welcome and invite your inquiry to manage your serious money.

Native America beware...........

From time to time we bump into tribes that are still dealing with individual stockbrokers and buying bonds from their inventory. Until 12/31/2009 stockbrokers will no longer have to provide written notice to a client each time they make a principal trade. Instead, the client will only need to give oral authorization before a trade is made. Be honest. Mom and Pop in Mandaree don't have a clue about principal versus agency trades. The SEC continues its assault on fiduciary protection. Investors deserve trusted advice. The fox is still in charge of the hen-house. And don't forget, in 1999 investors won 61% of their claims against brokers for abusive practices, in 2006, only 42%.

Stock Market Volatility............

America is still the land of opportunity. If you read the financial pornography that the media tosses out every day you might think we are in our last days for the Republic. The buyers and sellers have been beating each up over the last few weeks and months and the calendar year hasn't been all that great. Call it what you want, recession, slow-down, lower growth rates, declining GNP, it is all the same, temporarily lower stock prices. It's a waste of time for me to try and time any market pull-back. I'll stick to my knitting and do what has served me so well over the years. Yes, stocks are cheaper now than they were last fall and might get cheaper before this year is out.

If you can get this through your thought process the next time you hear the world ending by some "fast-talking schizo" on CNBC you will be better off so listen up.

Stock market exposure solves long-term problems usually in excess of the inflation rate. Bonds don't.

And all bear markets turn into bull markets. Sit tight.

Where's Michael Bloomberg???

One of the many things that annoy me when I speak to a liberal is that they have no facts to back up their grandiose vision for America and how to change it. I love this "CHANGE" mantra that is feeding a frenzy of HOPEBAMA lovers..........simply amazing that the Democrats won't address criminal immigration, social security reform or tax reform. That said, I am not happy with McCain and these are my reasons why. He supported amnesty for millions of illegal aliens, he opposed using waterboarding on terrorists, he voted against oil drilling in the ANWR, he opposed the Bush tax cuts, he supported keeping the death tax(that really doesnt' sit well with me) and he authored the McCain-Feingold bill.

He is not a conservative. Where does that leave my vote? America may get what they deserve in November. The real GOP is battered and lobbyists spending a billion dollars EVERY DAY to sway votes in the halls of Congress for special interests is truly disgusting.

Tax the rich?

Send me an email and say "thanks" when you get your government hand-out to stimulate the economy. I hope you invest it in the the stock market or at least pay down your credit card debt. I guess being successful has it's drawbacks in that not only do I not get a government "hand-out", I get to pay for yours, too.

Right up Hillary's alley.................

Fortune.com reported Friday that Goldman added coverage of sex-reassignment surgery to its medical plan last year. The article was part of a sidebar on “unusual perks” that came with Fortune’s latest ranking of the 100 best companies to work for in the United States. (Goldman was No. 9, up significantly from No. 36 last year.)

Goldman employees can undergo the procedure, which normally costs anywhere from $5,000 to $150,000, and have it paid for entirely by their medical insurance.

Goldman isn’t the first financial firm to cover sex-change surgery for its workers. A recent survey of more than 1,000 employers conducted by the Human Rights Campaign found that many banks, law firms and other large companies have added at least partial coverage of transgender treatments to their medical plans.

Bank of America, Wachovia and Deutsche Bank are among the firms who now cover such treatments to some extent, Fortune.com said. Goldman and Bank of America will cover the cost of the actual operation. At Wachovia, sex reassignment surgery is considered elective, and so the operation is not covered but related prescriptions and post-operative counseling are.

PORK = Spending pigs/hogs/congressmen

In fiscal 2008, Congress endorsed 11,735 special-interest earmarks worth $16,900,000,000. Thousands of these spending items were NOT EVEN written into the actual budget bills, rather they were "air-dropped" at the last minute into non-binding conference reports.

99.9% of Americans don't understand what a line-item veto is.

And it seems a good half feel the Government owes them something and that they need to "tax the rich" to get what it is they "want" from the government.

God help our nation.

Siring is NOT fathering.......

Being a Dad is more than impregnating a female. Acting as a Father is an important and demanding job, 24/7/365. Across Indian country, and on my reservation, the White Earth Reservation of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, the absence of fathers has reached epidemic proportions. It is child cruelty to bring children into the world intentionally without a father present. Most would agree that a full commitment is required of parenting. Planned or unplanned, a child makes certain demands of parents that must be met in order for the child to develop and thrive. That is a massive disadvantage now inflicted on nearly 70% of Black children and nearly 50% of Hispanic and Native American children. Violence against women in Indian country is also a horrific story and the numbers are staggering. It's another complex problem that the government can't fix. Personal responsibility is a difficult concept and unfortunately it is being lost to many in this generation.

Sub prime..................

This whole sordid story of subprime greed and fraud is still unfolding. The global ramifications are hard to fathom. So, sit back, grab a drink and watch the REAL story of how this mess came about. This video from YouTube is the definitive piece on how the collapse came about and told by a couple of the best. Enjoy this video!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJ_qK4g6ntM

Yahoo..............

The yings and Yang's running YHOO might want to get a grip. Let shareholders vote on the 50% increase in the stock price that MicroSoft offered up. They were dead in the water and truth be told, might still sink. MicroSoft is throwing them a life raft and they don't even know it. Or believe it. This will get good before it's over.

Native American Lac du Flambeau follies.............

The cash crisis at the tribe is so severe that the Chippewa band's lawyers were told last month to quickly close on a $50 million bond deal "so that the contractors would not walk off the job in Mississippi," where the tribe is an investor in a planned Mississippi River casino, according a memo by Brian Pierson, a Milwaukee attorney representing the tribe. The Lac du Flambeau has already poured at least $8 million into the riverboat project.

Proceeds from the bond offering were used to refinance $22 million in debt that was incurred on the Mississippi project and on Lake of the Torches Resort Casino on the tribe's Vilas County reservation. The bulk of the remaining $28 million is earmarked for the Mississippi boat deal, which has not yet received a required state gaming license.

The Mississippi riverboat deal is separate from an earlier bid by the Lac du Flambeau to launch a gambling boat in Cancun, Mexico. The tribe lost more than $3 million on that boat, dubbed the Dream Catcher, and bills continue to run up as it sits in dry dock in Florida. The boat is for sale.

In a three-page Feb. 2 memo to the Tribal Council, Pierson blames financial woes on the low seasonal revenue at the tribe's profitable casino in northern Wisconsin; payments on bonds that came due; and a multimillion-dollar investment in XIT Networks, a start-up telecommunications security company based in Houston.

The beat goes on in Indian Country. Just another example of tribal leadership coming up very short on business acumen. It's the Bands money, not the the Tribal Councils money! Fiduciary responsibility at Lac du Flambeau? There is none!

investment fad de jour.......

I was enjoying a conversation with a colleague this morning about my trip to Florida. One topic that surfaced was, "what's new in the mutual fund universe?"

There is no end in sight for the proliferation of ETF's. The money grab for assets is simply stunning. Buyer beware of the "toxic junk" that is to come in the next 18 months. It will mystify you beyond words. Between the mutual funds with warranties and the buffered return enhanced notes with 13-month principal protection up to a 10% decline in the S&P 500 stock index you will dizzy yourself.

Let me simply give you some free advice if you are a client of a brokerage firm and your broker wants to "protect" your account with the "new" and "latest" structured product.

Just say "NO".

Then call us.

TD Ameritrade

They are going in the right direction. The best thing in the industry today and only getting better. True champions for independend Registered Investment Advisory firms like Chippewa Partners. They believe that supporting unbiased financial advice will grow their business. They believe it and support it. And frankly, they make Number 1 and number 2 in the advisor space look gutless.

These guys have integrity (which by the way is dam hard to find in or around Wall Street, that's a given) and committment. When America wakes up to their retirement nest-egg shortfalls "planned" by their local Rotary club stockbroker who sold them the latest fad de jour they might investigate what a fiduciary firm, offering unbiased independant financial and investment management is all about. The chances are good that the guys they need will be associated with TD Ameritrade.

I'm thankful we are.

Orlando, Florida.........

When I travel on business I try to get in some bird-watching, "crane" watching to be exact. No, not the spindly legged sandhills and whoopers that inhabit North America but the kind that are stationary and only fly "up" in the sky.

Cranes mean construction. Growth. I love seeing cranes in the cities I visit.

The "crane" watching in Orlanda the last couple of days was excellent.

Super Bowl XLII

It's hard to use the words Super Bowl without mention of the word "party". And SB42 had it going on! Glendale, Phoenix and Scottsdale had it figured it. Wow.

Friday nights MAXIM party was so-so. Well, it wasn't that bad, check it out at the link below.

http://www.maxim.com/Sports/MaximsSuperBowlXLIIParty/slideshow/965.aspx

It was cold and there wasn't much covering all the skin and there was no shortage of big hair and high heels. The venue might have been perfect had it been 75 degrees. There was a certain big name rapper and his entourage that were a hoot, it's all about the show. John Elway is much bigger than I thought. He is a few pounds heavier than his playing weight but he's bigger than I had expected. His dark-haired girlfriend was hard-pressed to leave his side, the "talent" at the party seemed to be ready and willing. There was more "skin" at the party than I've laid eyes on since walking on Bondi Beach in Sydney,Australia. MAXIM might want to do a little better planning next year in Tampa for their venue. Outdoor porta-potties would be a welcome addition.

The Travolta party on Saturday night was first-class. Chris Collingsworth and his family can bust a move and it was nice to see his "team" on the dance floor. For a white guy he can dance. The Circ de Soleil artists were a treat, no, they were absolutely fantastic and REO SPEEDWAGON can still sing and play. I enjoyed them more than TOM PETTY at the SB halftime show. It was a very comfortable venue and the set-up was like Travolta, class. Marshall Faulk's Foundation has it right and the auction items for breast cancer were terrific. I put in 3 bids for a signed Tom Brady Patriots helmet at the silent auction at $750, $1,250 and $1,400 thinking that if they won I might double my money on EBAY this week but that was my limit and when I left the party the helmet was being bid up for well over two grand. Oh well, I'm still cheap.

One of the nicest guys I met and chatted with was Sean Salisbury.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sean_Salisbury

He's a hoot and had some nice things to say about our mutual friend Kenneth "Pete" Shaw, who played in the NFL for 7 seasons and knows just about everyone in my old home town of San Diego. I had no clue the average life expectancy of an NFL player is only 58. Warren Moon was a treat as well and those two guys ought to take their "schtick" on the road! Good chemistry and great speakers.

When Sunday arrived, The University of Phoenix stadium was a great venue for the big game. No shortage of police and we saw the cops strictly enforce scalping laws. Sitting on Row 20 on the 48 yard line was easy to take. Spike Lee was a couple of seats away and the Giants fans were fun. We were rooting for the Pats but hey, it was a great football game to the final gun. Martha Stewart was there, looking awful bored. The blonde lady sitting two seats over was wearing a million dollars worth of diamonds and was very nice. I can't put a name to her face but that was the nicest piece of carbon I have ever seen on a finger, even nicer than my friend, Cynthia Ekberg-Tsai's 17-carat monstrosity of "ice".

All in all, it was a memorable weekend. From the great weather on Saturday, the ambience at Morton's, lunch at the Capital Grille and the fine fare at Asia de Cuba in the Mondrian in Scottsdale. And congrats to both the Giants and Patriots and their rabid fans.

It's been awhile since I have been in the Salt River Pima area. Wow, I don't remember the millions of Canadian geese wintering on every golf course in the area. I should have brought a shotgun! The hundreds of limo's that rolled in from Vegas and LA were awesome. Our 32 footer was sweet but it didn't have a fireplace like some of them!! Our driver didn't know about the door for the peons so he inadvertently dropped us off on the Red Carpet for the Travolta party. I must have been a buzz killer for all the paparazzi!!! Coming home, as the Boeing 777 headed up over Coffee Pot and Show Low for the land of the Navajo it was nice to look down on the vast rough country harboring some of the biggest mule deer in America. The Southwest is a special place, and to Phoenix, you did good!!