FB: Liberty League

[SaintsFAN]

'Offers'...

Like 'Welcome to quiznos, would you like to try a super size Prime Rib sandwich today?'


I kinda do...

ha.... SF knew the Doggie would work in some Quizno's at some point..

['gro]

Great line about gas stations reg, Gro spit on his monitor. It's times like these that we should refer to the literary classics...

Life After Football
by Groseph G. Groberson III

The Ithaca grad is driving down the street in his cadillac. He's low on gas so he stops into the nearest station. The attendant comes out to fill the tank (IC grads never pump their own gas). The man pumping gas looks familiar to Mr. IC grad, "do I know you from somewhere?" he asks the station attendant. "Yeah" the grease monkey replied, "Didn't you play football at Ithaca? I went to Cortland.". This made Mr. IC very proud. "Haha now you're pumping my gas just like our fans used to chant! Hows that for irony you SUNY scumbag!". Cortland man disreguards the truth in that statement and becomes irate. He takes the jelly doughnut he was snacking on and smears it all over the windshield of IC's ride. "Not so tough now, just like when we stomped you in the cortaca game!".

From across the street darts a buiness savy rowan alum (aka bum) with a spray bottle and newspapers ready to clean up the cadillac. "2 bucks man I'll have it good as new!" he tells the IC grad. Both IC grad and Cortland alum roll their eyes. "Listen ex-rowan bum, I'm not giving you any money so you can go buy bright yellow mustard and smear it all over yourself and run around screaming 'LONG LIVE THE BORO!!' so beat it!". To make matters worse the bum's social worker shows up. He went to Hobart, and only wears purple. "This man needs help" says the hobart alum... consealing any signs of a lisp in his voice. "Come on Gary, lets go back to the shelter and play hide the pumpkin." They leave.

The owner of the gas station has been watching this unfold the entire time. As a union grad, he knows he needs to run a tight ship in order to succeed in business. He puts down his Volvo Weekly magazine and confronts the angry IC and Cortland grads. "Listen, both of you jerks must realize that no one cares about cortaca and if Union didn't make so many mistakes we'd be 7 time stagg bowl champs. Stop being so loud or my daddy won't let me watch the store anymore!!".

Suddenly, the tinted back window of the cadillac opens. Inside is a RPI grad, wearing the finest polyester suit and sex panther cologne. In one hand, a blackberry working post patterns like nobodys business. In the other, the firm round buttcheeck of his female companion... also being worked like nobodys business. He points at the IC grad (which upsets him because he had to put down the blackberry to do so).

"Hey driver! I'm not paying you to reminisce about your crappy life! Get me to the airport pronto... I hear it's gonna snow, and I don't want you making excuses!!"

[pumkinattack]

This is absurd.  Unless they have increased the number of gas stations in NYC, this statement is false.

Whoa, what's wrong with Gas stations? And, if you're talking about gas stations in Manhattan, well, I'd probably rather have a few of those than a job on Wall Street

Most people on Wall St right now don't have jobs.  I have a number of friends who were clearing $500k+ in 2006-2007 (above my pay grade) who have started new businesses or are doing consulting work for $50/hr, which sounds good until you consider the cost of living in Manattan and a lot of those guys didn't see this level of distress coming.  

An interesting statistic is that in 2007, financial services had more employed as a & of the workforce than any industry in 100 years (more than Auto, Grocery biz, etc.). That's not sustainable and a lot of these guys are going to have to find something else to do In my humble view, that's a long term structural positive because money changers, and that's what Wall St. fundamentally is, shouldn't be that prolific of any part of a developed economy.  The idea that that is how we've moved up the value-added chain doesn't fly except in the provincial view of NYC.  

[Yanks 99]

Great line about gas stations reg, Gro spit on his monitor. It's times like these that we should refer to the literary classics...

Life After Football
by Groseph G. Groberson III

The Ithaca grad is driving down the street in his cadillac. He's low on gas so he stops into the nearest station. The attendant comes out to fill the tank (IC grads never pump their own gas). The man pumping gas looks familiar to Mr. IC grad, "do I know you from somewhere?" he asks the station attendant. "Yeah" the grease monkey replied, "Didn't you play football at Ithaca? I went to Cortland.". This made Mr. IC very proud. "Haha now you're pumping my gas just like our fans used to chant! Hows that for irony you SUNY scumbag!". Cortland man disreguards the truth in that statement and becomes irate. He takes the jelly doughnut he was snacking on and smears it all over the windshield of IC's ride. "Not so tough now, just like when we stomped you in the cortaca game!".

From across the street darts a buiness savy rowan alum (aka bum) with a spray bottle and newspapers ready to clean up the cadillac. "2 bucks man I'll have it good as new!" he tells the IC grad. Both IC grad and Cortland alum roll their eyes. "Listen ex-rowan bum, I'm not giving you any money so you can go buy bright yellow mustard and smear it all over yourself and run around screaming 'LONG LIVE THE BORO!!' so beat it!". To make matters worse the bum's social worker shows up. He went to Hobart, and only wears purple. "This man needs help" says the hobart alum... consealing any signs of a lisp in his voice. "Come on Gary, lets go back to the shelter and play hide the pumpkin." They leave.

The owner of the gas station has been watching this unfold the entire time. As a union grad, he knows he needs to run a tight ship in order to succeed in business. He puts down his Volvo Weekly magazine and confronts the angry IC and Cortland grads. "Listen, both of you jerks must realize that no one cares about cortaca and if Union didn't make so many mistakes we'd be 7 time stagg bowl champs. Stop being so loud or my daddy won't let me watch the store anymore!!".

Suddenly, the tinted back window of the cadillac opens. Inside is a RPI grad, wearing the finest polyester suit and sex panther cologne. In one hand, a blackberry working post patterns like nobodys business. In the other, the firm round buttcheeck of his female companion... also being worked like nobodys business. He points at the IC grad (which upsets him because he had to put down the blackberry to do so).

"Hey driver! I'm not paying you to reminisce about your crappy life! Get me to the airport pronto... I hear it's gonna snow, and I don't want you making excuses!!"

Gro...I don't know who came up with that...but that was freaking histarical...

+k my man...+k

[PBR...]

Great line about gas stations reg, Gro spit on his monitor. It's times like these that we should refer to the literary classics...

Life After Football
by Groseph G. Groberson III

The Ithaca grad is driving down the street in his cadillac. He's low on gas so he stops into the nearest station. The attendant comes out to fill the tank (IC grads never pump their own gas). The man pumping gas looks familiar to Mr. IC grad, "do I know you from somewhere?" he asks the station attendant. "Yeah" the grease monkey replied, "Didn't you play football at Ithaca? I went to Cortland.". This made Mr. IC very proud. "Haha now you're pumping my gas just like our fans used to chant! Hows that for irony you SUNY scumbag!". Cortland man disreguards the truth in that statement and becomes irate. He takes the jelly doughnut he was snacking on and smears it all over the windshield of IC's ride. "Not so tough now, just like when we stomped you in the cortaca game!".

From across the street darts a buiness savy rowan alum (aka bum) with a spray bottle and newspapers ready to clean up the cadillac. "2 bucks man I'll have it good as new!" he tells the IC grad. Both IC grad and Cortland alum roll their eyes. "Listen ex-rowan bum, I'm not giving you any money so you can go buy bright yellow mustard and smear it all over yourself and run around screaming 'LONG LIVE THE BORO!!' so beat it!". To make matters worse the bum's social worker shows up. He went to Hobart, and only wears purple. "This man needs help" says the hobart alum... consealing any signs of a lisp in his voice. "Come on Gary, lets go back to the shelter and play hide the pumpkin." They leave.

The owner of the gas station has been watching this unfold the entire time. As a union grad, he knows he needs to run a tight ship in order to succeed in business. He puts down his Volvo Weekly magazine and confronts the angry IC and Cortland grads. "Listen, both of you jerks must realize that no one cares about cortaca and if Union didn't make so many mistakes we'd be 7 time stagg bowl champs. Stop being so loud or my daddy won't let me watch the store anymore!!".

Suddenly, the tinted back window of the cadillac opens. Inside is a RPI grad, wearing the finest polyester suit and sex panther cologne. In one hand, a blackberry working post patterns like nobodys business. In the other, the firm round buttcheeck of his female companion... also being worked like nobodys business. He points at the IC grad (which upsets him because he had to put down the blackberry to do so).

"Hey driver! I'm not paying you to reminisce about your crappy life! Get me to the airport pronto... I hear it's gonna snow, and I don't want you making excuses!!"

ROTFLMAO!! classic dr. gro...pbr just spit coca-cola all over the computer monitor...now where is that rowan grad to clean it up?  +k still LOL at that story

[HSCTiger74]

Gro, +k for Life After Football. I'd bet you could go on any of these boards, pick any league, substitute the appropriate schools and get the same response. Classic!

[pumkinattack]

That is classic, Gro.  

I think people get too worked up in their undergraduate institutions prestige.  I've met the current president of Goldman Sachs a couple of times (before he got that high) and he's got a BA from American University and no MBA (I think that's right).  He started out selling commodities (gold) for J Aron, whom GS bought in the 80's and worked his way up through FICC.  You'd think this guy would be Wharton/HBS or some combination like that.  The reality with Wall St. is that 90% of the revenue generators are sales people.  For this guy's kid, the real trick is finding the fit (and NOT pumping penny stocks), whether it's the blue blood/prep school, 8 ball and a bottle of wild turkey on Friday night while chilling is pastels liberal arts school (Union, Hobart, SLU - I think), or the driven, analytical focused schools with technical expertise (math/science) it's RPI/WPI.  I actually would push someone to Roch (after Hobart) personally.  They don't have the football program there (yet at least), but one of my best friends went there as just a student (played tennis for 1 year) and I enjoyed visiting.  It's an excellent and, imo, most well rounded school in the LL.  

[dlippiel]

Great line about gas stations reg, Gro spit on his monitor. It's times like these that we should refer to the literary classics...

Life After Football
by Groseph G. Groberson III

The Ithaca grad is driving down the street in his cadillac. He's low on gas so he stops into the nearest station. The attendant comes out to fill the tank (IC grads never pump their own gas). The man pumping gas looks familiar to Mr. IC grad, "do I know you from somewhere?" he asks the station attendant. "Yeah" the grease monkey replied, "Didn't you play football at Ithaca? I went to Cortland.". This made Mr. IC very proud. "Haha now you're pumping my gas just like our fans used to chant! Hows that for irony you SUNY scumbag!". Cortland man disreguards the truth in that statement and becomes irate. He takes the jelly doughnut he was snacking on and smears it all over the windshield of IC's ride. "Not so tough now, just like when we stomped you in the cortaca game!".

From across the street darts a buiness savy rowan alum (aka bum) with a spray bottle and newspapers ready to clean up the cadillac. "2 bucks man I'll have it good as new!" he tells the IC grad. Both IC grad and Cortland alum roll their eyes. "Listen ex-rowan bum, I'm not giving you any money so you can go buy bright yellow mustard and smear it all over yourself and run around screaming 'LONG LIVE THE BORO!!' so beat it!". To make matters worse the bum's social worker shows up. He went to Hobart, and only wears purple. "This man needs help" says the hobart alum... consealing any signs of a lisp in his voice. "Come on Gary, lets go back to the shelter and play hide the pumpkin." They leave.

The owner of the gas station has been watching this unfold the entire time. As a union grad, he knows he needs to run a tight ship in order to succeed in business. He puts down his Volvo Weekly magazine and confronts the angry IC and Cortland grads. "Listen, both of you jerks must realize that no one cares about cortaca and if Union didn't make so many mistakes we'd be 7 time stagg bowl champs. Stop being so loud or my daddy won't let me watch the store anymore!!".

Suddenly, the tinted back window of the cadillac opens. Inside is a RPI grad, wearing the finest polyester suit and sex panther cologne. In one hand, a blackberry working post patterns like nobodys business. In the other, the firm round buttcheeck of his female companion... also being worked like nobodys business. He points at the IC grad (which upsets him because he had to put down the blackberry to do so).

"Hey driver! I'm not paying you to reminisce about your crappy life! Get me to the airport pronto... I hear it's gonna snow, and I don't want you making excuses!!"

That is some funnish **** gro....damn!  +k

[SaintsFAN]

nice, gro...  SF knows he is going to borrow that at some point.

[pumkinattack]

Here's an interesting finance story to ponder for those interested (the Freescale deal can only be described as dogdlip - I/my firm kicked in $50MM in the primary market at that one in the peak of high risk, low yield deals, the PE firms involved are going to get wiped out on that one):

'Too Much Risk' Entering Loan Market Amid Debt Rally (Update1)
By Pierre Paulden

Dec. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Borrowers are enjoying looser financing terms following a record 46.6 percent rally in high- yield, high-risk loans, raising concern that investors will face steeper losses if companies default.

"Issuers have become emboldened," Scott D'Orsi, a Boston- based partner at Feingold O'Keeffe Capital LLC who oversees $1.3 billion of assets, said in a telephone interview. "I'm concerned investors are beginning to allow too much risk to creep into the leveraged loan market."

Since November at least a dozen issuers, including Ronald Perelman'sRevlon Inc., Freescale Semiconductor Inc. and Booz Allen Hamilton Inc. have asked lenders to change the terms of debt agreements to allow bond sales, extend loan maturities or pay dividends to private-equity firm owners, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Companies are gaining the upper hand in negotiations with lenders in the $540 billion loan market after the Standard & Poor's/LSTA U.S. Leveraged Loan 100 Index returned an unprecedented 46.6 percent this year. The market fell a record 28.1 percent in 2008 as banks tried to unload a $237 billion backlog of loans they promised to private-equity firms before the credit crisis started in July 2007.

"Loan investors are lowering their standards in an effort to put cash to work," said Jason Rosiak, a portfolio manager overseeing $3 billion at Pacific Asset Management, an affiliate of Pacific Life Insurance Co. in Newport Beach, California. "We are getting a sense that the balance of power is starting to shift back again to the issuers."

Dividend Payments

Banks have arranged $39.6 billion of leveraged loans since September, more than in each of the previous three quarters, Bloomberg data show.

High-yield, high-risk debt is rated below Baa3 by Moody's Investors Service and BBB- by Standard & Poor's. Loans are repaid first in bankruptcy, before bonds and equities.

A Revlon unit paid borrowers a 0.5 percentage point fee last month to permit the cosmetics company to refinance unsecured notes with new securities that share collateral with its bank loans.

"The amendments can be beneficial for the private-equity owners, bondholders and corporate management teams at the lender's expense," said Rosiak.

Revlon's shares have risen 74.7 percent since the agreement with lenders was announced on Nov. 6. Revlon Consumer Products Corp. sold $330 million of 9.75 percent notes due in 2015, the New York-based company said Nov. 23. Revlon Chief Financial Officer Steven Berns didn't return a call for comment.

Freescale, Booz Allen

Freescale, taken private in 2006 by firms led by New York- based Blackstone Group LP for $17.6 billion in a leveraged buyout, is offering lenders 7.5 basis points this week to allow it to extend debt maturities, according to people familiar with the situation who declined to be identified because details are private.

The company's $1.4 billion of 8.875 percent bonds due 2014 rose 2 cents to 88.5 cents on the dollar since Freescale asked lenders for the amendment on Dec. 1, according to Trace, the bond-price reporting system of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.

Rob Hatley, a spokesman for the Austin, Texas-based computer chipmaker, didn't return a call for comment.

Booz Allen, the U.S. government-consulting company purchased by Washington-based Carlyle Group in July 2008, is seeking a $350 million term loan to finance part of a $550 million payout to its owners, Marie Lerch, a Booz Allen spokeswoman, said last week.

"Booz Allen Hamilton is performing well, was low-levered when we invested in the company and will have less leverage after the recap than when we first invested," Carlyle spokesman Chris Ullman said in an e-mailed statement.

Signs of "aggressive lending" are also re-emerging in the high-yield market as corporate debt sales surpassed annual records, Bank of America Merrill Lynch analysts Oleg Melentyev and Mike Cho wrote in a Nov. 23 report.

"Investors are loosening key features of the credit agreement to extend maturities, share collateral or allow for cash flows to be re-directed away from the secured lenders, all of which can be table-setting for weak recoveries two-to-three years down the road," D'Orsi said.

To contact the reporters on this story: Pierre Paulden in New York at ppaulden@bloomberg.net

[mattvsmith]

A Canadian and two Americans (one of whom is named "The Rev") were in Sacheon, South Korea.  They walked into a hotel bar named "The Beatles Live Bar" and watched a Filipino duet play Metallica while getting hammered.

<add surreal punchline here>

This stuff really happens.  The Rev and buddies started at 4:30 pm after school, and The Rev just got in...it's 2:30 am.

The Lamp is lit.

[Jonny Utah]

JU the amateur stockbroker had his man load up (in JU terms) on Ford and BAC back in mid August.  JU may now be able to pay for his vehicle inspection with the dividends:



BAC on 8/8/09 (13.63)
Ford on 8/8/09 ($7.30)

Today:
BAC 16.17
Ford 8.93

[Frank Rossi]

Update:  Left a message for Athletic Director John Miranda (AD of the Princeton Regional Schools).  I'll fill you in once I speak with him.

[pumkinattack]

JU, that's great.  And as I did say back in the day, Ford is well managed and has the right business model, I just don't trust to gov't involvement in the industry (in hindsight, this current iteration of gov't is going to put political/regulatory risk in just about every industry).  If you had bought Ford back in March you could've had it for around a buck a share.  I personally scooped up a couple of hundred shares of GE at 8 bucks and feel good about that.

[iamhuge]

Update:  Left a message for Athletic Director John Miranda (AD of the Princeton Regional Schools).  I'll fill you in once I speak with him.

Let me know what he says.  If he wants me to delete the posts on this message board, I will.  I can't do anything about the ones I didn't post, obviously.  Thanks.