Pension-fund

The book is very well written and strikes the right balance between portfolio math and a discussion of the various ideas in investment performance. I specialize in automating financial reports and this book explained what many of these reports were trying to do (but which, I now see, could do better). I spent ($$$) for this book (...) and it was well worth it. This book isn't about beating the market, it's about understanding the components of one's investment return. How much is related to the balance of the portfolio, the stock selection, the market's broad movement. Was the manager taking unnecessary risks? If he did well was it due more to the portfolio's balance or the market's movement. I also keep going back to this book, it's a great reference.

The May 3, 1977 issue of "The Washington Post" reported there was no truth to published reports that the Washington Redskins were signing "Lava-Lava" Lenny, the 390-pound "Polynesian Panzer," or that team President Edward Bennett Williams gave permission to use player pension funds to keep the big fellow in pineapples.

"Lava-Lava" Lenny was a fictional creation of G. B. Trudeau, who needed a reason that Williams would hire former Ambassador Duke as the General Manager for the Redskins, even in a comic strip. Then again, who else had better expertise in sports medicine? The experience could certainly not be any worse than having the man give a speech on a college campus. The "Doonesbury" daily comic strips collected in "But the Pension Fund Was Just Sitting There" are from 1978-1979, when President Jimmy Carter was looking over weapon systems and Georgetown students were protesting Professor Henry Kissinger giving a speech for at a dinner honoring the wife of the Shah of Iran (of course, it is impossible to read some of these strips and not remember what was to come in the years ahead). Meanwhile, Comrade Phred is the new Vietnamese ambassador to the U.N., Rick Redfern has to be part of the White House press corp, and Dr. Dan Asher, author of the phenomenally successful "Mellow: How to Get It" is on the Mark Slackmeyere show (but so is his old man and Congresswoman Lacey Davenport).

Of course, today the idea of 390-pound linemen in the NFL does not sound so far fetched, but the strips that really hit home here are the ones where ABC's chief of programming Freddie Silverman checks out what NBC is doing in response to his "jiggle" shows and the solution is--full frontal nudity. Okay, so we are not there yet, but, then again, maybe I am just watching the wrong channel. Yes, these old Donnesbury strips are dated, but they rely as much on Trudeau's characters as they do on the headlines of the times and when it comes to caustic commentary on the national scene, there is nobody better.

The May 3, 1977 issue of "The Washington Post" reported there was no truth to published reports that the Washington Redskins were signing "Lava-Lava" Lenny, the 390-pound "Polynesian Panzer," or that team President Edward Bennett Williams gave permission to use player pension funds to keep the big fellow in pineapples.

"Lava-Lava" Lenny was a fictional creation of G. B. Trudeau, who needed a reason that Williams would hire former Ambassador Duke as the General Manager for the Redskins, even in a comic strip. Then again, who else had better expertise in sports medicine? The experience could certainly not be any worse than having the man give a speech on a college campus. The "Doonesbury" daily comic strips collected in "But the Pension Fund Was Just Sitting There" are from 1978-1979, when President Jimmy Carter was looking over weapon systems and Georgetown students were protesting Professor Henry Kissinger giving a speech for at a dinner honoring the wife of the Shah of Iran (of course, it is impossible to read some of these strips and not remember what was to come in the years ahead). Meanwhile, Comrade Phred is the new Vietnamese ambassador to the U.N., Rick Redfern has to be part of the White House press corp, and Dr. Dan Asher, author of the phenomenally successful "Mellow: How to Get It" is on the Mark Slackmeyere show (but so is his old man and Congresswoman Lacey Davenport).

Of course, today the idea of 390-pound linemen in the NFL does not sound so far fetched, but the strips that really hit home here are the ones where ABC's chief of programming Freddie Silverman checks out what NBC is doing in response to his "jiggle" shows and the solution is--full frontal nudity. Okay, so we are not there yet, but, then again, maybe I am just watching the wrong channel. Yes, these old Donnesbury strips are dated, but they rely as much on Trudeau's characters as they do on the headlines of the times and when it comes to caustic commentary on the national scene, there is nobody better.

For much more fun with Duke and the Redskins, check out the Doonesbury collection "We're Not Out of the Woods Yet."