Category: Stuff Larry Sez

He really deserves his own blog, but I don’t see it happing.

Poetry from Wall St.

Posted on by Meryl in Stuff Larry Sez

dracula__s_daughterYou might or might not know that there was a big stock market rally yesterday. It came after the Fed announced (not quite this way) that they’re going to go on printing money to keep things all fluffed up. This made people optimistic about the future, and they wanted to buy stock. It also caught the pros by surprise, as they were expecting the Fed to be more restrained, and for the market to go lower.

These pros (like hedge fund managers) had to buy stock to cover their short positions. This short-covering meant that the pros lost a lot of money.

So much for the background behind the quote about this situation that Larry copied down for me, from Art Cashin, who directs floor operations for UBS (an investment bank) on the NY Stock Exchange:

“There’s enough blood in hedge fund alley to cater Dracula’s daughter’s wedding.”

I think there are poets who might be willing to sacrifice one of their beloved cats for a metaphor like that.

Bony Moronie

Posted on by Meryl in Stuff Larry Sez

LarryLarry has been selling his vast collection of blues and jazz autographs, mostly on eBay, but also from his website.  This morning at breakfast, he was commenting on the sale of a Larry Williams autograph. In case (as for me) the name Larry Williams doesn’t signify, he was a one-hit wonder, hitting #14 on the charts in 1957 with Bony Moronie. Worth a listen even if there’s no nostalgia involved.

Larry mentioned that Williams tried to follow up with Short Fat Fannie, a song that references every hit of the period, and then Dizzy Miss Lizzie, but they never made it. They languished, but Bill Haley’s Skinny Minny made it to the top 40 in 1958.  So much for breakfast this morning.

Farm chores, kittens, and poetry have been eating the days.

 

 

Travels with Larry

Posted on by Meryl in Stuff Larry Sez

Larry battingAfter years when one of us had to be managing things at home–kids, work, whatever, Larry and I got used to separate vacations. But recently we traveled together to Sedona for a few days.  I remembered how much fun it is to travel with Larry.  Here are a few remarks.

When I was wondering what created the mountains that seemed to uniformly end in long broad plateaus, Larry said, “They ran into height restrictions in the building code.” Continue reading “Travels with Larry” →

Catalogs

Posted on by Meryl in Stuff Larry Sez

LarryLarry was telling me how North Korea says its rockets are poised to attack Washington DC, Los Angeles and Austin, Texas.

“How did Austin get in there?” Larry asked. “Why not Washington, Chicago and Peoria?”

Earlier, I had been commenting on my new rooster, Cloud, who has proven to be very timid. I hadn’t seen him mount any hens, but yesterday I saw him chasing a hen, which is a good sign.

“Good,” Larry said, “At least he’s bi.”

Trends and jokes

Posted on by Meryl in Stuff Larry Sez

LarryLarry’s been making dozens of funny comments lately, and I keep thinking I’ll remember them and post them later. You know how that goes.

But yesterday, he related a joke about a dead donkey (that pairing of words itself is pretty funny):

Two men pay $100 for a donkey, but when they go to get it, the donkey is dead. The farmer offers to give them their money back, but they take it anyway. Later, they see the farmer and says again how sorry he is about the dead  donkey. They say, “No, no, we sold him for $998.” Continue reading “Trends and jokes” →

Of stockmen and stock markets

Posted on by Meryl in Stuff Larry Sez

Stockman's holtelIn an email exchange, a friend who is attending the Cowboy Poetry Festival in Elko Nevada, mentioned that she is staying at the Stockman’s Hotel.

“I’m assuming that’s not a name that was decided on by a marketing agency, so I’m bracing myself for lots of weak coffee, overfluffed potatoes, and modern day stockmen,” she wrote.

Larry replied, “Times have changed. You might find that today’s stockmen drink green tea and go to morning yoga classes.”

On the same day, the NY Times headline read: Continue reading “Of stockmen and stock markets” →

No liability

Posted on by Meryl in Stuff Larry Sez

Larry at batAlthough the pros wait until the end of February to start spring training, Larry’s Senior League, the Creakers, has it’s first pickup game today. Larry’s off to test his new bat. With  the warning label in mind, I told him to be careful not to kill anyone.

“Okay,” he replied, “But we have them all sign waivers, you know.”

And with that, the season begins.

 

No words needed

Posted on by Meryl in Stuff Larry Sez

Larry battingIt’s not baseball season yet, not even time for spring training, but on TV the other day they were interviewing a new Oakland A’s player, Hiroyuki Nakajima. He’s Japanese, and was speaking through an interpreter.

“How can he play in the majors and not speak English?” I asked Larry.

“Baseball is a game of signs, not words,” he replied, and proceeded to illustrate this with a story from his trip years ago to play baseball in Nicaragua with a group of volunteers called “Beisbol por la Paz.” Continue reading “No words needed” →

Resolution vs. intent

Posted on by Meryl in Philosophical, Stuff Larry Sez

new-years-resolution-appleIt’s a strange custom we have, resolutions at the New Year.  About 10 years ago, I took a tip from my daughter: “Aim small and succeed.” Since then, several excellent small resolutions have become part of my life:

  • Only eat good chocolate
  • No biopics
  • Keep a bottle of water in the car
  • Always pee before leaving the house

Those last two sort of go together. Continue reading “Resolution vs. intent” →

Smart men

Posted on by Meryl in Stuff Larry Sez

Larry was reading David Brooks’ column on Social Science this morning. It contained an observation that men are dumber around women. Researchers “gave men cognitive tests after they had interacted with a woman via computer. In the study… the male cognitive performance declined after the interaction, or even after the men merely anticipated an interaction with a woman.”

“So you guys are really smart,” I commented. “You just seem dumb because we’re so bewitching.”

“We’re geniuses in the locker room,” Larry replied.

Rainy day projects

Posted on by Meryl in Recipes, Stuff Larry Sez

When I was in college, I briefly got a free room in a wonderful old farm house outside Cambridge in exchange for being a housekeeper for a bunch of Harvard business school grad students. (One of them was Wally Haas–the Levi’s scion.) I can’t imagine they were very happy with the arrangement because I knew nothing about housekeeping, and very little even about neatness. I can’t remember whether I was supposed to cook as part of the deal, but I do remember having some big dinner event for which I roasted a chicken. The chicken was beautiful on the outside, but bloody juices spurted when the knife went into the leg. It was hugely embarrassing, though I’m probably the only one of the group who remembers it.

I thought of this today, trying a recipe by Melissa Clark for roast chicken that is supposed to be an easy way to get the whole chicken to cook quickly and evenly. It’s a little like spatchcocking, which is cutting the backbone out and laying the bird flat, but in this case, you just cut the skin of the legs so you can flatten the chicken into a very hot frying pan and roast it in a very hot oven.

The recipe called for ramps, a lovely spring vegetable. I don’t have ramps, but I had a lot of spinach from the garden, some fennel, an onion and some lemons, and I wanted to give it a try. The capers are a nice touch, but not essential. You could probably add a bunch of root vegetables in small chunks if you put them in earlier.

Continue reading “Rainy day projects” →