Brother, can you spare $254.2 million?

OK, it's only $104 million in cash after taxes, but the Connecticut Powerball lottery jackpot, the biggest in the state's history, was won by three Greenwich wealth managers at Belpointe Asset Management, Greg Skidmore, Brandon Lacoff and Tim Davidson, otherwise affectionately known as the 1%.

The trio is already running into trouble with speculation they're merely proxies for an even wealthier anonymous client, especially since the check was deposited into a newly formed Putnam Avenue Family Trust.  They've retained Rubenstein Public Relations to handle media inquiries.

According to the Greenwich Time:

"Details of the alleged secret arrangement started to leak out Monday night in Greenwich, where a person familiar with the plot said that Lacoff tried to hire a Greenwich police officer to accompany him and the others to Rocky Hill to collect a check for $108 million.

"When a gaggle of reporters congregated outside Skidmore's home Monday night, the purported winner allegedly called the cops, who advised the trio that they could be exposing themselves to scams and threats to their personal safety. That's when the wealth managers fessed up to not being the real winners, the source said.

"At a community police partnership meeting Monday night in the backcountry, members of a citizens group were told by police that Lacoff, Skidmore and Davidson were not the real winners of the jackpot.

"Gladstone said he understands that lotto winners get hassled. By putting the money into a trust, the real winner can take advantages in the area of estate planning."

It's the third Powerball jackpot over $1 million in Greenwich in just six months.  Looks like the 1% know where to invest their money these days.

Mahna Mahna

After Thanksgiving dinner at Spice Market, we watched the new Muppets movie at Union Square, which scored a well-deserved 97% on the Tomatometer.

But where was Elmo?  Teams of lawyers explain that Elmo isn't really a Muppet, he's from Sesame Street.

Can't we all just get along?

Thanksgiving

A classic editorial from the WSJ's late but perennially relevant Vermont Royster, circa 1961.

And the Fair Land 

Any one whose labors take him into the far reaches of the country, as ours lately have done, is bound to mark how the years have made the land grow fruitful.

This is indeed a big country, a rich country, in a way no array of figures can measure and so in a way past belief of those who have not seen it. Even those who journey through its Northeastern complex, into the Southern lands, across the central plains and to its Western slopes can only glimpse a measure of the bounty of America.

And a traveler cannot but be struck on his journey by the thought that this country, one day, can be even greater. America, though many know it not, is one of the great underdeveloped countries of the world; what it reaches for exceeds by far what it has grasped.

So the visitor returns thankful for much of what he has seen, and, in spite of everything, an optimist about what his country might be. Yet the visitor, if he is to make an honest report, must also note the air of unease that hangs everywhere.

For the traveler, as travelers have been always, is as much questioned as questioning. And for all the abundance he sees, he finds the questions put to him ask where men may repair for succor from the troubles that beset them.

His countrymen cannot forget the savage face of war. Too often they have been asked to fight in strange and distant places, for no clear purpose they could see and for no accomplishment they can measure. Their spirits are not quieted by the thought that the good and pleasant bounty that surrounds them can be destroyed in an instant by a single bomb. Yet they find no escape, for their survival and comfort now depend on unpredictable strangers in far-off corners of the globe.

How can they turn from melancholy when at home they see young arrayed against old, black against white, neighbor against neighbor, so that they stand in peril of social discord. Or not despair when they see that the cities and countryside are in need of repair, yet find themselves threatened by scarcities of the resources that sustain their way of life. Or when, in the face of these challenges, they turn for leadership to men in high places—only to find those men as frail as any others.

So sometimes the traveler is asked whence will come their succor. What is to preserve their abundance, or even their civility? How can they pass on to their children a nation as strong and free as the one they inherited from their forefathers? How is their country to endure these cruel storms that beset it from without and from within?

Of course the stranger cannot quiet their spirits. For it is true that everywhere men turn their eyes today much of the world has a truly wild and savage hue. No man, if he be truthful, can say that the specter of war is banished. Nor can he say that when men or communities are put upon their own resources they are sure of solace; nor be sure that men of diverse kinds and diverse views can live peaceably together in a time of troubles.

But we can all remind ourselves that the richness of this country was not born in the resources of the earth, though they be plentiful, but in the men that took its measure. For that reminder is everywhere—in the cities, towns, farms, roads, factories, homes, hospitals, schools that spread everywhere over that wilderness.

We can remind ourselves that for all our social discord we yet remain the longest enduring society of free men governing themselves without benefit of kings or dictators. Being so, we are the marvel and the mystery of the world, for that enduring liberty is no less a blessing than the abundance of the earth.

And we might remind ourselves also, that if those men setting out from Delftshaven had been daunted by the troubles they saw around them, then we could not this autumn be thankful for a fair land.

Low Earth Orbit

Sublime.


Earth | Time Lapse View from Space, Fly Over | NASA, ISS from Michael König on Vimeo.

Barack's Blues

It's not getting any better for Obama.  In fact, it's getting worse, much worse.

Democratic pollsters Patrick Caddell and Douglas Schoen wrote a red-meat op-ed piece in today's Wall Street Journal that says it's over for Obama and that he should abandon his bid for re-election . . . to clear the way for another and more capable candidate - Hillary Clinton.

I see Bill and Hillary Clinton's fingerprints all over this, despite Hillary's obligatory protestations about having no interest in returning to the White House.

Excerpts from "The Hillary Moment."

"When Harry Truman and Lyndon Johnson accepted the reality that they could not effectively govern the nation if they sought re-election to the White House, both men took the moral high ground and decided against running for a new term as president. President Obama is facing a similar reality—and he must reach the same conclusion.

"He should abandon his candidacy for re-election in favor of a clear alternative, one capable not only of saving the Democratic Party, but more important, of governing effectively and in a way that preserves the most important of the president's accomplishments. He should step aside for the one candidate who would become, by acclamation, the nominee of the Democratic Party: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

"One year ago in these pages, we warned that if President Obama continued down his overly partisan road, the nation would be "guaranteed two years of political gridlock at a time when we can ill afford it." The result has been exactly as we predicted: stalemate in Washington, fights over the debt ceiling, an inability to tackle the debt and deficit, and paralysis exacerbating market turmoil and economic decline.

"We write as patriots and Democrats—concerned about the fate of our party and, most of all, our country. We do not write as people who have been in contact with Mrs. Clinton or her political operation. Nor would we expect to be directly involved in any Clinton campaign.

"If President Obama is not willing to seize the moral high ground and step aside, then the two Democratic leaders in Congress, Sen. Harry Reid and Rep. Nancy Pelosi, must urge the president not to seek re-election—for the good of the party and most of all for the good of the country. And they must present the only clear alternative—Hillary Clinton."

Another new "it's over" flank has just been put forward in this Chris "I felt this thrill going up my leg" Matthews MSNBC broadside:

Makonikey Sunset

Ironman

No, Jetman!

Puppies

Occupy Wall Street

11.11.11

Some numerology trivia making the rounds today . . .

Add your birth year and age you'll turn this year and it adds up to 111.

And for doomsday followers, livescience.com reports:

"But perhaps the most intriguing 11/11/11 mythology to pop up is the number's link with the supposed 2012 Mayan Apocalypse. The ancient Mayan long-count calendar ends on Dec. 21, 2012, and some people believe that this date will usher in a new spiritual era, or even doomsday. Nov. 11, 2011 most likely became linked with Dec. 21, 2012 when believers noticed that the U.S. Naval Observatory had set the exact time of the 2012 winter solstice for 11:11 Universal Time on Dec. 21, according to John Hoopes, a scholar of Maya history at the University of Kansas."

Kodak Colorama

An article titled Kodak's Grand Central Moments in today's Wall Street Journal reminded me of the many memories I have of the huge 18-by-60-foot Kodak Colorama displays that used to frame the eastern balcony of Grand Central Terminal when I was a boy and later a commuter.  Excerpt here:

"Travelers passing through Grand Central Terminal between 1950 and 1990 could hardly avoid Eastman Kodak's "Colorama" advertisements. Piercing the gloom of the station's cavernous main hall like stained-glass windows that promised a better life here on earth, these backlighted transparencies were scaled to compete with outdoor billboards in Times Square. Measuring 18 feet high and 60 feet across, they were promoted as the world's largest photographs. Every day for 40 years, more than half-a-million viewers could look up and bask in these colossal testaments to American plenty and pulchritude."

I grew up watching and later showing Kodachrome slideshows to family and friends. I still mourn the passing of Kodachrome film and processing last year.

You can view the full gallery of Colorama transparencies on kodak.com. Even better, there's an exhibit on Coloramas at the Chrysler Museum of Art through the end of the year. And this video on YouTube:



Alas, Kodak's fortunes continue to wane, as reported today:

"Eastman Kodak Co. warned Thursday that it will have trouble staying in business if it can't squeeze more money out of its patent portfolio or raise new funds by selling debt.  The cautionary statement, in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, came as the company reported another drop in cash in for third quarter, even after it drew $160 million from its credit line.  Kodak shares were off 6.3% at $1.12 in early trading Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange."