Articles for September 10th, 2009
C.J. Wilson’s Wolfpack About to Get Bigger
For those Rangers fans who have been following lefty pitcher C.J. Wilson on Twitter (str8edgeracer), today’s announcement was definitely a “wait a second could it be?” moment:
str8edgeracer T shirts online! Cougarmerch.com
Wilson has been tweeting for some time now about his intentions to publicly distribute “Wolfpack” t-shirts he designed — based on his nickname for the Ranger’s bullpen that was inspired by a hilarious speech from the movie The Hangover. (If you’re confused watch the movie clip and read the Star-T post)
Wilson confirmed, also via Twitter, that all proceeds from the t-shirt sales will go to a C.J. Wilson’s Children’s Charities project:
str8edgeracer@J_Hix we’re donating the current $ to the charity event, a new youth sports medicine center in plano, past events have been hospitals, etc
So, if you’re a Rangers fan, you got that going for ya. Which is nice.
Brian Ferguson’s Gamble on A.H. Belo Corp. Stock Pays Off, Apparently
A wink-wink-working-at-work FBvian sent along this analysis of how Brian Ferguson and his partners have done since they sunk about $1 million into A.H. Belo Corp. stock. Looks good, right? (Honestly, that is really just a guess, because it took me a few times to read through the e-mail and not have my eyes instantly glaze over when looking at the numbers.)
I was reading your post on the Dallas Morning News this morning and it reminded me to go check on their stock. When I went to look there was a new SEC filing that caught my attention. This summer D ran a story about an investor who had decided to buy newspaper stock. What an idiot was my first reaction. I added the ticker to my stock pages so I could follow the implosion of the investment. (Horrible, I know!)
Anyway, today there was another filing showing the group had dropped below 5%. Their first filing was back on March 13. Yahoo Stock says the stock closed at 78 cents that day. They had 7% of the company. The new filing shows they were down to less than 5% around Aug 20 and finished the month at 3.5%. The price was between 3.25 and 4.00 during that time.
Using a little bit of math it is pretty much a given that they have returned all of their capital, eliminated any downside, made a healthy rate of return, and still have a couple percentage points in the company if there turns out to be any hope for newspapers (which I still doubt).
CEO Gets the Boot at Western Retailer
R. Mark Syrstad is out as president and CEO of Arlington-based Sheplers, the world’s leading retailer of Western-style clothing. While the company didn’t elaborate, one official says Sheplers wants to do a “course correct” and get back to “more traditional Western wear.” In a 2008 interview with D CEO, Syrstad expressed his desire to move Sheplers beyond its traditional customer base to attract “fashion-forward” men and women.
Wyly Calls for Carbon Tax, More Power for FDIC
Sean McCormick photo
Dallas billionaire Sam Wyly (pictured) is out with an expanded paperback edition of his memoir, 1,000 Dollars and an Idea. In it, the successful entrepreneur (Michaels Stores, Green Mountain Energy, etc.) has penned a new chapter about the “Great Crash of 2008,” then argues for a tax on carbon consumption and against excessive government regulation of the financial markets, because “over-regulation in free markets is dangerous.” He goes on:
Having said that, there are two ways the government can use regulation to help. The first is simply to require that the truth be told. Regarding derivatives and securitization and all this alphabet soup of complicated assets, the government should require disclosure. … The second regulatory aid that can be provided by government is to give the [Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.] the power to liquidate bank holding companies. For banks, the FDIC has the power to merge insolvent banks into solvent ones. All it needs today is the same power to deal with bank holding companies. … If given [that power], the FDIC could clean up the mess that the bank holding companies have created with their mountains of debt in probably a few months.
Great Michael Jordan Story, Involving a Dallas Evangelist
Michael Jordan will be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame this week. ESPN has issued a special collector’s edition “bookazine” to honor the occasion, filled with stories and photos and whatnot. One story you may not have heard before is this one: the time when Jordan was almost sliced in half by a samurai sword (slight exaggeration), as part of a Carolina stop of Dallas evangelist Bill Glass‘ prison ministry. Ball Don’t Lie has helpfully reprinted the piece for those of you without a subscription to ESPN The Magazine. Good stuff.
Frisco Police Chief Spoils Gun-Lover’s Fun
So what if the Frisco police chief won’t let you have that fully automatic weapon you’ve always desired. You mean you were still hoping to buy your gun as an individual? All true patriots know that you should form a nonprofit corporation or gun trust for your firearm purchases.
That way you don’t need law enforcement to sign off, and you won’t have to give Big Brother your fingerprints. Best of all, the whole family will be able to enjoy your weaponry:
When an NFA firearm is transferred or registered to an individual, only that individual may possess and use that NFA firearm. However, with a gun trust, any trustee may possess the firearm … Hence, where a family sets up a gun trust, all family members over the age of 18 could be designated trustees; thus enabling them to have possession of the firearm.
Fort Worth Claims Its Share of Assassination
So the city of Fort Worth wants in on the JFK business.
The spectacularly named Farris Rookstool III is leading the charge to put up an eight-foot statue near the site of Kennedy’s last public speech. “It was his last happy moment,” he said. You know, before those jerks in Dallas gave Texas hospitality a bad name, he implied.
Emmitt Smith Continues to Say Things With His Mouth
In case you hadn’t heard, Emmitt Smith criticized Tony Romo for not being a leader. Which led to this funny line from Deadspin’s A.J. Daulerio:
Smith told Sirius’ NFL radio that he’s yet to see the smiley Romo “snatch somebody up” for not doing their job on the football field, which means, I assume, that he’s never seen him be a leader nor kidnap a small child in a shopping mall.
Note to co-workers: if you slack off today, I will snatch you up.
Leading Off (9/10/09)
1. President Obama’s mention of Waxahachie’s Robin Beaton in last night’s health care speech is enough of a reason to post the transcript. I probably would have done it anyway, because I want to keep someone busy moderating comments all day. One-two-three — not it!
2. Since no one will probably care what I post here after Item No. 1, here is Dokken vs. Chicken.
3. Here is a good Avett Brothers song. And here is the worst sports column in the history of ever.
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