Platitudinous

Another new word! Dan Loeb used the word platitudinous in his letter to the BOD of Nabi Biopharmaceuticals. "We received a terse note dated May 1, 2006 which addressed our specific issues and concerns in a perfunctory and platitudinous manner."

I wonder - how important is financial modeling relative to tracking fundamentals. If you take forensic accounting firms such as CFRA that do deep dives into the financials and compare their performance to someone who has very little financial knowledge but almost perfect insight into fundamentals -- it would seem that the fundamentals person would have the edge. If that is the case, how important really are excel models. (Beyond just being a security blanket... "this is the WORST case I can think of... (until it gets worse than these numbers.")

NYC

One surprising thing that I will miss about New York City is the bagpipes. There is an annual series of parades that are held (in conjunction with all of the street fairs) in NYC each year on the weekends. A distinctive and distinguishing sound that marks these processionals is the sound of the bagpipers. Bagpipes are a bittersweet instrument. They make a beautiful sound, but the sound is beautiful only because it is so sad.