Paul McMorrow - Snappy Title TK TK » Wall Street Journal

Poor NYC Businessmen Figure Out How to Recapture the Elusive Free Steak Lunch

admin — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 21:40:01 +0000

Well here’s a nice bit of entrepreneurial fraud: The WSJ‘s internet arm notes that Manhattan expense account lunches are back in full swing, in spite of a near-total ban on expense account lunches. We owe this bit of magic to a new website that takes your steakhouse receipt and turns it into fake receipts for stuff that can be expensed, like pens and cab rides and such. Thanks, internet!

Ken Lewis Grew a Beard

admin — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 13:06:58 +0000

But then he shaved it off, before any sort of financial paparazzi could get a shot of the thing. Deal Journal deconstructs the psychology behind the soon-to-be-ex-BofA chief’s sudden chin fuzz, and the FT presents several artist renderings of what the thing may have looked like. My vote is for the Old Dutch.

How Can We Miss You if You Won’t Disappear and Fake-Hunt Moose for a While?

admin — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 16:41:48 +0000

Sarah Palin, who at least is still liked by herself, slobbers on about death panels and bureaucracy in today’s WSJ. Wonkette notes that she’s “overquoting” “like” “she’s” “editing” “Zagat.” I think it helps to imagine her writing (“writing”?) this while clad in a Wal-Mart pajama set and chomping on a Crunchwrap Supreme.

WTF, WTC?

admin — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 13:33:17 +0000

This week is just larded with unfortunate anniversaries, isn’t it? In this week’s Observer, the paper wonders aloud why nobody seems to care anymore that nothing’s happening at the World Trade Center site. “Other politicians view it as toxic,” a blind source complains to the paper. “Not the borough presidents, not the City Council members – they’ve all run for the hills on this.”

Of course, there’s a sizable Lower Manhattan constituency that’s just fine with that state of affairs: The owners of the buildings that are in place right now. They’re watching office vacancies soar and rents freefall, so they’re not too wicked psyched about the prospect of a several million more square feet of product coming online. Except that, there’s little chance of that happening any time soon.

A New Leader in the Stippled Portrait Clubhouse?

admin — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 12:54:08 +0000

Back in February, this blog noted the appearance of a kids-smoking-pipes trend story in the Wall Street Journal.

It was accompanied by one of those old-tymey stippled illustrations of a pipe – one that was captioned, simply, “PIPE.”

Today marks the appearance of a different trend, and a different inanimate object is now on the receiving end of stippled portraiture.

The hottt new trend: Adults mangling their own heads, and the heads of their family members, in the name of saving $10 at the barber shop.

It’s illustrated by what is likely the most serious treatment of a set of Wahl clippers, ever, in the history of time.

FTC: Cans May Introduce Colleges to Beer

admin — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 12:51:08 +0000

For shame, Bud. Now college kids across this great and sober nation have been alerted to the existence of beer.

Reporters Not so Great at This Whole Finance Thing

admin — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 14:35:13 +0000

So says the WSJ, which chronicles the greatest hits misses of scribes-turned-failed-barons here.

Liar Loans Come to India

admin — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 14:38:18 +0000

In the slums, cash is plentiful. All you have to do is tell some private equity firm that you’re using it to start some fruit stand or something. No documentation necessary. Doesn’t that sound familiar?

A Tale of Two Brews

admin — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 13:18:27 +0000

Sales of fizzy yellow lagers brewed by SABMiller took it on the chin this past quarter, the WSJ reports today.

Meanwhile, Ruby Red debuted in a Mattapan backyard yesterday, and the beer’s obscene quantity of dry-hopped Simcoe had people saying stuff like, “This is really good, and I’m not just saying that because you’re standing there looking at me!”

Coincidence? Not likely.

Before There Was A Hole Downtown…

admin — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 13:25:11 +0000

…there was Hayward Place, a parking lot/would-be luxury high-rise that’s been trying to make a go of it for the better part of a decade now.

Millennium Partners, developer of the Ritz towers, has been collecting parking revenue while sitting on the thing for years, and since this is an election year, some folks have voiced objections about that particular state of affairs.

Here’s an item to add to the long list of reasons – now numbering in the thousands – why all the outrage in the world can’t get a crane standing on top of Hayward.

Today’s Journal has a brief (second item) on some trouble that Millennium has run into in San Francisco. In that city, it owns a Four Seasons. It just stopped making payments on a $90 million mortgage. Millennium thinks the tactic will force its lenders to rework the terms of the loan; it could also prompt the loan’s servicer to seize the property from Millennium.

Why take the gamble? The hotel’s value has fallen off a cliff recently, dropping by $55 million, and Millennium now finds itself seriously underwater, owing way more on the building’s mortgage than the thing is actually worth.