THE MORE THINGS CHANGE . . .

So three years ago (not to the day, but damn close) I pulled my head out of the hole in the wall into which I'd rammed it and fell into a fitful sleep. Visions of Yadier "Fucking" Molina's home run teased my mind, but I managed to get a few hours.

And when I woke up I tried to convince myself that with three young studs in Wright, Reyes, and Beltran, the Mets would be all right.

And they were until about 150 games through the 2007 season.

Anyway, this past season they sent their entire starting lineup, 4/5 of the rotation, 2/3 of the front office, and 16.3 million of their fans onto the DL before limping in at an abysmal 70-92.

But all that is sorta ok in the big picture. It sucks, but what are you gonna do? That's not what has me so damn exorcised that I'm actually posting for the first time in about 6 months. No, you know what really, really, REALLY blows?

The FUCKING YANKEES just added another goddamn title to their gaudy total. To recap: Mets suck for the umpteenth time in my life. Yet again, they rode the wave, won ungatz, and now suck balls. By way of contrast, the Yankees won their 7th World Series of my lifetime.

I will now stick my head back in the Yadier "Fucking" Molina hole and not remove it til opening day.

THE BRIEFEST UPDATE YET

I'm alive.

I'm well.

That is all.

YET ANOTHER BRIEF UPDATE

Just popping in to say hello.

Still very busy with work, and the case remains interesting. Pretty exciting actually. Lots of action, lots of contentious exchanges with opposing counsel, lots of fantastic evidence piling up. Should continue to be both busy and good.

On the non-work front, Mrs. Mike and I will be celebrating 10 years of nuptials early next month. Hard to believe it's been a decade. Amazing.

Finally, as to the world beyond work and marriage, I'm aware of it in theory, but that's about it. Apparently some famous people died last month and this Obama fella seems to be in the news every day about something. Health care, All-Star games, staring at chick's asses, what have you.

Think the guy needs to take a short summer break if you ask me. For his sake as well as everyone else's.

Til the next update . . .

BRIEF UPDATE

Yes, I'm alive and actually doing quite well. I've been VERY busy at work. In fact, this is the busiest stretch I've ever had, at this or any other job. 12, 14 hour days, every day, and I've been putting in quite a bit of time over the weekend as well.

I also don't see this changing any time soon as the schedule in the case I'm on is expedited and aggressive. Plus, a lot of traveling should be in my near (and mid-term, and distant) future.

That said, I'm really enjoying the work. Very exciting, lots of action, constant battling over this and that. It's tiring and often stressful, but at its core it's what I signed up for when I got into litigation. I'm starting to get to the point where I'm senior enough that the amount of real "lawyering" starts to balance all the busy work, the shit work, the hierarchical stuff, and all the hours. We'll see how it keeps going.

IRONY ALERT

So a writer from the New York Times plagiarizes a blogger. Nice.

If this damages Dowd's career -- or somehow harms the Times -- it'll certainly give credence to the idea that blogging is bad for reporting. Heh, heh.

What I wanna know, of course, is did Dowd sneak into Marshall's mother's basement to steal his words, or did she access them some other way?

COUSIN TIMMY'S STRESS(-FREE) TEST

I'm sure by now we've all heard that -- surprise, surprise, surprise! -- all the banks "passed" the so-called "Stress Tests." They passed, huh? Was it a gentleman's C? An over-inflated B+? Did they make the Dean's Treasury Secretary's list?

Anyhow, Yves at Naked Capitalism has a nice take-down of not only Treasury, but the fawning and shamelessly pro-bank reaction of our good friends in the mainstream press. Or as she put it, "[t]he unduly charitable coverage of the stress tests." Some highlights, starting with a few facts the NTY did not cover:

1. The fact quite a few of the banks negotiated their fundraising requirements down, calling the integrity of the process into question

2. No mention that the purpose of this exercise from the outset was to prove the banking system to be solvent. What kind of a test is that?

3. No mention that asset sales (the reason Citi was able to negotiate its fundraising down from $10 billion, and presumably others as well) are almost certain to be a non-starter.

The WSJ joined in on the self-serving fun as well:

The Wall Street Journal , in "How the Stress Tests Stopped the Market Bleeding," depicts Geithner, the Fed, and Obama as saviors of the market:

Mr. Geithner successfully beat back criticism that the examinations were a political ploy, leaving much of the number-crunching to the Federal Reserve. The stock market regained its footing as consumer confidence crept back. And several major banks reported unexpectedly strong earnings for the first quarter, boosting confidence about their long-term health.

[] the only critics Geithner "beat back" were some of the bankers themselves. The stock market regained its footing because it was oversold and Citi and Bank of America said they'd had a good January and February. The consumer confidence numbers are stronger in no small measure because stock market movements are included in the computation! In fact, in the Conference Board's release, the stock market rally was the single biggest contributor to the improvement in sentiment.

As to the press' breathless prattling that Wall St. has been saved from the dangers and horror of "nationalization" or receivership, Yves noted:

The illogic is breathtaking. It has now become conventional wisdom that a bankruptcy is the only way to straighten out GM, yet there is no realistic plan for getting the banking industry into a configuration that reduces systemic risk or end incentives for banks to gamble with their now explicit government backstop or a realistic plan to clean up the bad assets (we do not believe the PPIP will succeed). Receivership for the weakest banks is a far better approach for taxpayers and the economy, yet the Journal is touting the line that what is best for incumbent bank management is surely best for America.

Finally, she observed that many of the real villains escaped notice, as usual:

And the other big shortcoming is that the securities and derivatives exposures at the big capital markets players (Citi, BofA, JP Morgan) were given the short shrift.

Nothing new here, huh?

Check out the whole piece. It'll put some of this in better perspective.

Have a nice weekend.

TOUGH WEEK FOR BURT REYNOLDS

First Pontiac, and now Dom DeLuise. As that first link makes clear, Pontiac had some strong pop culture connections: the GTO, Knight Rider's Kit, and of course, Burt's black Trans-Am from Smokey & the Bandit. And, as some of you may recall, that's a car I talked about right here a little over two years ago.

Those ubiquitous mid-70's through mid-80's memories. We even owned an '84 Grand Prix.

And, of course, who seemed to be Burt's sidekick in many of his iconic movies (but not Smokey & the Bandit)? Dom DeLuise. DeLuise sits in my memories through two separate comedy franchises of my youth: the Burt Crew, with its fast cars and hot chicks and blooper outtakes as the credits roled. And also Mel Brooks. DeLuise seemed to be in every Mel Brooks movie. The obnoxious gay director at the end of Blazing Saddles. The hideous emperor, dispatching with food & lives in History of the World, Part I. Pizza the Hut in Space Balls. He was even in Silent Movie, right?

The franchise that made the black Trans Am, and the fat guy who made me laugh in Burt Reynold's movies. Both gone in the same week. The older you get, the more the icons of your youth pass along.

At least the memories remain.