Joyce Hyser in a classic scene from Just One of the Guys (1985)
Day: December 24, 2018
“Discover the new J’adore Absolu film directed by the visionary Romain Gavras and his modern unique eye, starring our sublime muse Charlize Theron.”
Who is Ksenia? Beats me. But she looks good naked, and it’s Christmas, so enjoy.
Virginia Madsen in Class (1983)
1. What is the smallest metro area in North America with a professional sports team?
The trick is “North America.” The Regina, Saskatchewan metro is smaller than the Green Bay, Wisconsin metro, and they have a team in the CFL.
2. Everyone knows that Green Bay is the smallest metro area in the USA with a pro sports team. What is the smallest metro with TWO sports teams.
Buffalo, New York, although New Orleans is very close. The Bills and Sabres are the Buffalo teams right now, but that leads us to a variant on the question. At various times, Buffalo has had a team in all four major sports.
The Buffalo Bisons were a major league baseball team (National League, 1879-85). They employed at least four Hall of Famers that I can recall (Pud Galvin, Jim O’Rourke, Deacon White and Dan Brouthers), but never got closer than 10 games to the pennant winners. They finally disbanded after a disastrous 1885 season in which they finished 49 games out – in a season that was only 112 games long!
The Buffalo Braves were the original location of the franchise that has now become the Clippers. They made the playoffs a few times, but never seriously challenged for a championship. That franchise has now been in the NBA 49 years without a title, or even an appearance in the finals.
“Trump spends his Christmas Eve ranting about his enemies”
While this is not very Christmassy, it is completely in the spirit of Festivus, which was Sunday. Maybe he really is our kind of guy! I just hope he doesn’t go for the feats of strength against Putin.
Today’s drop took the Dow to 21,792.
It was the worst December 24th in history.
The Dow has now fallen more than 5,000 points since October 3, which represents almost a fifth (18.8%) of its value. The Nasdaq Composite is now 22 percent below its August high. The S&P 500 has fallen 20 percent from recent highs.
Oil dropped nearly 7% today, to less than $43 a barrel. That sucks for investors, but is probably a positive for you as a consumer. You may have already seen the impact of falling crude prices at your local pump. I bought regular unleaded for $1.91.9 yesterday. At Halloween time it had been close to three bucks.
UPDATE:
“Mnuchin calls in the ‘Plunge Protection Team,’” and summons the ghost of bear markets past.
“”Mr. Mnuchin could just as easily call on the order of the garter to take up arms and defend the realm.”
And if the Plunge Protection Team and The Order of the Garter can’t handle the job, there’s one powerful agency always on the ready: The Space Force
And the choice of presents (Alexandra Guilmant naked) is also excellent
