SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. is in talks to sell off about $40 billion in real estate assets, The Financial Times reported late Friday on its Web site, citing people close to the talks. Sources told FT that there was a gap between what Lehman and potential buyers thought of the portfolio's value
Makes me wonder how big the "gap" is. I wonder if this is a proxy for how overmarked the rest of Lehman's mark-to-fantasy assets are...
mmmmm soylent green - much better than orange. (one of my fav. movies of all time - E. G. Robinson was a perfect cast for his role, especially when he went to take his soma and be converted in S. G.)
Mrs. Fields had ONLY one thing going for them: the aroma of fresh baked cookies in the mall or street was nearly irresistant until you checked how much the price/pound turned into in the way of actual, you know, cookies.
I've worked with restaurant chains in airports. There's a lot of difference between chains and franchise shops that exist in malls and airports.
In airports, it's all about people flow. You have to be able to grab eyeballs and get people through the lines fast and get the money outta their pockets as much as you can. You'll never see them again, so quality doesn't matter.
In malls, people are just killing time. They just want a place to sit down, and they can be cheap and not even wanna pay for the seat they are taking. You have to kick them out after awhile.
Tough times in chocolate all around... the Hershey's price increase was noted here earlier today. Plus Nestle had laid off their entire 300+ outside sales force a few weeks ago (at least according to a small grocer I know).
I commented on the last thread that I just bet if CSC was head of their recipe department this never would have happened... probably put a dent in the Prozac biz too.
But as we are often told - correlation does not prove causation.
It's not surprising that the bondholders are in favor of the "prepackaged" plan. If they read the May report from Mrs. Fields:
From the 10-Q filed May 13, 2008
We are highly leveraged. At March 29, 2008, we had $195.7 million of long-term debt represented by the Senior Secured Notes. The Senior Secured Notes mature on March 15, 2011, with interest payable semi-annually on March 15 and September 15. Due to borrowing restrictions under the indenture governing the Senior Secured Notes, our ability to obtain additional debt financing is significantly limited.
. We have suffered recurring net losses and negative cash flows from operations and have a net members deficit at March 29, 2008. As a result, we may be unable to make the scheduled semi-annual interest payments on our Senior Secured Notes. The aggregate amount of each semi-annual payment is $10.25 million and our next payment is due in September 2008.... We do not currently have the ability to repay the Senior Secured Notes should they become due and payable. These matters raise substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern."
If you were to examine their 1,211 store locations, I'd expect they are similar to California: 90% in malls. The virus stalking the small malls is highly contagious.
Lehman has been slow to deal with its commercial real estate portfolio, which the company valued at almost $52bn at the end of November and was worth $40bn at the end of May.
The portfolio includes mortgages and mortgage-backed securities that were valued at $29.4bn as of May 31. It also contains real estate assets worth $10.4bn at the end of May.
The scale of the operations is huge when compared with either Lehmans market capitalisation of about $12bn or its balance sheet.
Lehman declined to comment. People close to the discussions said no final decision had been made on the commercial real estate portfolio.
Mrs. Fields cookies just aren't very good. They have a strange taste and texture, are too doughy, and of course are expensive. They are no better than cheap old Chips Ahoy, and quite worse than other expensive cookies.
Greg Weston writes:
Mrs. Fields cookies just aren't very good. They have a strange taste and texture, are too doughy, and of course are expensive. They are no better than cheap old Chips Ahoy, and quite worse than other expensive cookies.
That's being far more charitable than they deserve really.
And Totally Crappy Bland Yogurt going under is no loss either.
If this is what demand destruction looks like, let's have some more, please.
Glad to hear I am not the only one who finds Mrs. Fields gross. They look and smell so good, and about every 2 years I get suckered into buying one and regret it.
Anonymouse: nothing to recommend for nationwide fresh baked cookies: they all taste like plastic. But store-bought Pepperidge Farms huge cookies with choc. chunks are great, especially if put in the toaster oven for a quick reheat.
JimPortlandOR writes:
Anonymouse: nothing to recommend for nationwide fresh baked cookies: they all taste like plastic.
That's because you can't make a good soft cookie that will survive transport or have a commercially-viable shelf life. Or be cheap, since a good cookie needs a lot of butter and eggs. And real vanilla.
Basically, I'm not really satisfied by a cookie unless it comes out of my own oven.
i recently sold several ounces of gold for chocolate
mock turtle | 08.15.08 - 8:48 pm
Actually, if you had peeled off the gold colored foil, you would have found waxy chocolate inside. Next time remember: Real gold doesn't come in a mesh bag with a pirate's picture stapled to it.
OT, but so the F what, everything is, or will be soon.
I'm sorry, but I'm faced with a harsh reality, i.e, the 10 yr Treasury aint been this low since about 1962. Think about it, at 3.8% and going lower, we are experiencing some generational dynamics -- which are the topic of discussion, debate or analysis. To me, that is beyond the oddities of this era of misinformation -- this is about systemic change.
In some way, which I don't see, this is linked to the next 1000 point drop in the next few weeks.
I used to cheat soccer moms, by installing pentium 4 motherboards with over clocked pentium 4's installed, with heat sinks, but no fans, into easy bake ovens. I'd sell them at a premium. I'd say they are computerized and have Intel inside.
This July, the Federal Housing Administration began taking credit scores into account and considering rates on a case-by-case basis for the first time since its establishment in 1934.
And, according to an August 4 news item, the U.S. government has the fewest bond traders making markets in its Treasuries since 1960
Fewer firms bidding for U.S. bonds means you're going to have sloppier auctions,'' said Mark MacQueen, a money manager in Austin, Texas, at Sage Advisory Services, who traded Treasuries at dealer Merrill Lynch & Co. in the 1980s.The taxpayer and the government are paying more no matter what happens.''
Yeah, well, good riddance. I had a cookie there once, and asked for the recipe, and they said, SURE, only two-fifty, so I gave them my credit-card. Only later did I find a charge for TWO HUNDRED FIFTY DOLLARS on my card! I'm SO ANGRY I'm GIVING AWAY the recipe for free! Here it is:
(Recipe may be halved): 2 cups butter
4 cups flour
2 tsp. baking soda
2 cups granulated sugar
2 cups brown sugar
5 cups blended oatmeal (measure oatmeal and blend in blender to a fine powder)
24 oz. chocolate chips
1 tsp. salt
1 8 oz. Hershey bar (grated)
4 eggs
2 tsp. baking powder
3 cups chopped nuts (your choice)
2 tsp. vanilla
They'll never make another penny from it! HA HA HA HA HA HA HA
haha. when i used to be a lowly mail lady (in the days when being a female mail carrier wasnt too common)...i delivered mail to thier dinky little office when they were first starting out....the ladies were total b_______s. looking down on the blue color worker (who prolly made more money than they did).
The whole concept of selling cookies in a mall is ridiculous. Even if you could make a cookie for 25 cents and sell it for $2.50, you would have to sell about 500 cookies a day to pay for the lease and staff. But a franchiser has to pay Mrs. Field 6% royalty and buy inflated ingredients, so he has to sell maybe 800 cookies a day.
How would you like to work for 15-20 years and somebody asked you what you did, and you would say: "I sold 800 cookies a day. I helped make fat Americans fatter."
It's sick. My grandmother lived her whole life on a farm in West Tennessee, and she never bought a mall cookie in her life. And she lived to 93 and died in peace under her own house.
When I was a freshman at Princeton a good ol' boy from Alabama caught, skinned, grilled, and ate a black squirrel on campus. That raised some eyebrows!
Little did we know he was 15 years ahead of his time.
A pump 22 pellet gun used to work for me. I had a stray dog at the time and she would wait til the critter hit the ground, pick it up and bury it for further use.
DCRogers writes:
"Yeah, well, good riddance. I had a cookie there once, and asked for the recipe, and they said, SURE, only two-fifty, so I gave them my credit-card. Only later did I find a charge for TWO HUNDRED FIFTY DOLLARS on my card! I'm SO ANGRY I'm GIVING AWAY the recipe for free!"
Yeah, this has been circulating for decades. AKA the Neiman-Marcus recipe. Bears no resemblance to Mrs. Field's cookies; it makes actually pretty good cookies. The trick is a) use good chocolate b) use as much oats as you can physically stir in by hand and c) dark brown muscovado sugar, the good stuff (i.e., India Tree or Billington's).
(Look, I once spent a year working with French-trained professional pastry chefs; I'm fussy about these things)
1 cup peanut butter, 1/2 cup butter, 1/2 cup oil oil
4 cups flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1 cup sugar, 1/2 cup honey
2 cups brown sugar
5 cups blended oatmeal (measure oatmeal and blend in blender to a fine powder)
24 oz. chocolate chips
1/2 tsp. salt, 1/2 tsp salt sub which is potassium
1 8 oz. Godiva bar (grated)
4 eggs
2 tsp. baking powder (aluminum free)
3 cups chopped nuts (your choice) use sunflower seeds and flax also
2 tsp. vanilla and 2 cups Kahlua with 4 cups vodka
You have to cut the fat and increase fiber these days. Peanut oil in cookies is a better fat. I also grind flax seed and add nutritional yeast, oatbran, wheat germ and when it comes to flour, better to cut down on high gluten stuff, which means adding more oatmeal, or a little corn flour.
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cientists finding a way to make the cotton seed edible. This scientific breakthrough could produce protein-rich food for malnourished countries. Third world countries will one day have laptops, low-interest loans, and edible panties. They should be caught up to Western Civilization in no time! Edible Cotton: Pics, Videos, Links, News
3 Lbs cement, couple dozen fruits and vegies. Mix in cement. Let set. Send from relative to relative for all time. No one ever tries to eat that shite.
That depends on whether your an insider cashing out as fast as you can on an SEC or FED screw shorty raid or you happen to be shorty. If your Shorty it could cause sever irritation and pain.
Someone mentioned the interview with a Walnut Creek girl and her aunt on a previous thread. I hadn't watched the interview, so off I clicked. I was watching the movie "Wag the Dog" come to life. Young girl with horrible war story. Nah, I thought, I'm just jaded from reading too much CR.
But when I went to look up this girl's dad, it turns out to be either this guy:
Or someone with his same name. I'd go with the former.
Now, if you want to confirm the weirdness, you look up the mom's last name Kulumbegova and you get scores of articles all apparently originating with AP, that quote another Kulumbegova who is telling pretty much the same story. Truly weird.
If the dad is actually the president, then this is all completely staged. Well, come to think of it, even if the dad and pres. aren't the same guy it could be staged.
1 jigger whipped squirrel brain with Ameretto di Sernoa.
Holy cow! How many squirrels does that take?
Fair Economist | 08.16.08 - 12:24 am | #
One. But it's gotta be a big one. In a pinch you can substitute a brain of similar consistency,...I'd recommend politician brain but they're even smaller.
"unborn living
living dead
bullet strikes the helmet's head"
jm morrison, and the doors
August 12 CNNMoney (Les Christie): Prime mortgages are starting to record disturbingly high default rates, which could slow any potential housing recovery. The delinquency rate for prime mortgages worth less than $417,000 was 2.44% in May, compared with 1.38% during May of 2007, according to LoanPerformance Delinquencies jumped even more for prime loans of more than $417,000, so called jumbo loans. They rose to 4.03% of outstanding loans in May, compared with 1.11% a year earlier. And prime loans issued in early 2007 are performing the worst of all, failing at a rate nearly triple that of prime loans issued in 2006 The extent of how bad these loans are doing is very troubling, said Pat Newport, real estate economist with Global Insight
Remember this is fox news. Pay attention to the part near the end where there's what looks like a moment of feigned disapproval at being "cut off" by the interviewer.
The lady with her is her aunt, not mother. Laura Tedeeva. She's a real estate broker in Concord, CA (just thought I'd mention that to make this a little more relevant).
For homework you can go watch every video and look at every photo from the conflict and then run it through your own highly tuned brain.
Um, to continue from the last So. Ossetia post. Specifically regarding the Aunt that is interviewed on fox with the girl:
""Today, Laura Tedeeva-Korewicki must leave her Walnut Creek home and board a jet to Moscow in an act that immigration authorities call 'self-deportation.' The Immigration and Naturalization Service says she is an illegal immigrant who should have left the United States a long time ago."
"She admits she told the U.S. State Department she was married just to get a six-month visitor's visa, although she was actually divorced.
'They don't grant visas to divorced people with children because of possible kidnapping of children by parents,' she said. 'So, I lied.'
Huh? Ok this is troublesome on a couple of levels. According to old news reports, "today" refers to a day in July, 1996. She was back in the states 3 months later with a permanent visa. So after a legal battle that lasts many years, she gets "self-deported" and then manages to pull a Laura Richardson and make everything ok within a few months?
Someone please fill me in. I don't want to pay to read this story, but it's fascinating.
(disclaimer -- there are plenty of "ifs" in the following")
If you follow the thread of the aunt, Laura Tadeeva, you end up back in Ossetia. There is a website which hosts an old pdf U.N. list of humanitarian workers in Georgia circa 1995. I found another version of this list from 2003 as well. This is the site it's from:
OSCE Tskhinvali Field Office
Mr. Gancho Gantchev, Head/Political Officer
Ms. Nana Tedeeva, Field Assistant
At the "Oasis" in the village of Kvaisa you find:
Ms. Indira Tedeeva
If you refer back to the article I posted above about Tedeeva's deportation, you'll see that she fled Georgia originally because the network she was involved with that supplied the "rebels" was compromised.
(1992).
So why would I think that this Indira Tedeeva might be the same lady? Guess what the Walnut Creek's middle initial is.
Weak, right? But then go back to the article and note that her 16 y.o. daughter's name (at the time) was "Nana." On our list of humanitarians, we see that there's a Ms. Nana Tedeeva that works with Gancho Gantchev at the OSCE Field Office (On the other version of the list his name is spelled "Ganchos")
Are these the same Tendeev's? Certainly smells that way.
Now what about Gancho? The name Gancho Ganchev seems to be pretty common in Bulgaria. But if you do a little poking around you find that this Gancho is/was likely the the director of the Institute of Economy and Foreign Affairs of Bulgaria, among many other things.
There's a Gancho associated with the American Univ. in Sophia as well.
Apparently he was an annoyance to some because in '95 the "defacto authorities of So. Ossetia" wanted him gone. A Georgian minister opposed this and claimed the Russians were attacking and attempting to discredit the OSCE.
So, if Gancho is a spook, what are the Tedeeva girls doing hanging out with him while they're supposed to be selling houses back in Walnut Creek.
Where's Nana Tedeeva today? Still in GA? Still hanging with Gancho?
Hope you enjoyed the story. If you enjoyed it please put a little something in the CR tipjar.
There is a war of perceptions going on, and it looks like we're all the victims.
If you consider all the skullduggery that goes on under the guise of humanitarian and charitable work, this stuff makes sense.
OT, probably on a thread that's past its prime, but still:
Anyone know the current rates for "secured" loans to LLCs? Am I the only one that thinks loans to LLCs are soon to become much more expensive and much harder to obtain?
There's no government securitization/price control attempts in this market, not directly, at least not ASFAIK.
So we have cookie connoisseurs on the blog. Cookies make for a happier discussion of economics than squirrel and possum.
I checked out the Carol's website. You can sign up for their cookie of the month club for about $400/yr. You can buy them where? Cannes?
Do you have any insight into how many people they employee? They'd need what, about 5 administrative types, 5 factory workers, and 5 warehouse people to drive the forklifts around.
I'm not so happy about getting so effecient that we have 15 people humming away making and selling cookies and the rest of the population with nothing to do but sit around eating seaweed and reading books by Stendahl.
But I have a very limited perspective.
Carol's will someday set the world afire just like help-u-sell and fsbo models one would think.
Saw the info @ Wikipedia before this posting. Inspired to check while walking downtown in People's Republic of Berkeley. A Mrs Field's store did a good business there before genteel folk abandoned the area thanks to the PRB's inability and/or unwillingness to deal with thugs. Mrs Field's store long gone.
Man that blows chocolate chunks.
First?
Cheers,
Here's another big story that just came out.
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. is in talks to sell off about $40 billion in real estate assets, The Financial Times reported late Friday on its Web site, citing people close to the talks. Sources told FT that there was a gap between what Lehman and potential buyers thought of the portfolio's value
Makes me wonder how big the "gap" is. I wonder if this is a proxy for how overmarked the rest of Lehman's mark-to-fantasy assets are...
Pretty soon the malls are going to be nothing but pawn shops, dollar stores, and payday lenders.
And yet Radio Shack will live on...
Where does one buy Mrs. Fields cookies? I just came back from two major supermarket chains and couldn't find any!
Oh... they're retail chains.
Glad I bought orange juice and vodka (and TWM!)
Man, when people can't afford to buy overpriced mall cookies, just what is the world coming to?
Cheers,
stick a fork in us
if you can't make it in the cookie business, nobody is safe
To be fair, they were rather expensive and you only got a few cookies per package. This really is not a big surprise......
Now if Pepperidge Farm goes under, I have no idea what I am going to do wthout those Mint Milanos!
Oh My Glod! Girl Scout cookies are kinda pricey too. You'll get my Thin Mints when you pry them from my cold dead hands.
Cheers,
To be fair, they were rather expensive and you only got a few cookies per package. This really is not a big surprise......
It was when they started substituting soylent green for flour and chocolate chips that they got into trouble.
Fifteen minutes till 5pm on the west coast.
Is DSL still alive?
Only the shadow knows....
As for the cookies, who cares.
Now Cinnabon, that would be a tragedy of biblical proportions. The smell of Cinnabon is the only redeeming quality of the airport travel experience.
Someday this war's gonna end...
PJ,
You're doing a really good job as a substitute blogger.
You ever thought about, like, making it a career?
and, you can't even get your fix pure easily: Hershey to raise prices 11 percent
mmmmm soylent green - much better than orange. (one of my fav. movies of all time - E. G. Robinson was a perfect cast for his role, especially when he went to take his soma and be converted in S. G.)
Mrs. Fields had ONLY one thing going for them: the aroma of fresh baked cookies in the mall or street was nearly irresistant until you checked how much the price/pound turned into in the way of actual, you know, cookies.
I've worked with restaurant chains in airports. There's a lot of difference between chains and franchise shops that exist in malls and airports.
In airports, it's all about people flow. You have to be able to grab eyeballs and get people through the lines fast and get the money outta their pockets as much as you can. You'll never see them again, so quality doesn't matter.
In malls, people are just killing time. They just want a place to sit down, and they can be cheap and not even wanna pay for the seat they are taking. You have to kick them out after awhile.
Tough times in chocolate all around... the Hershey's price increase was noted here earlier today. Plus Nestle had laid off their entire 300+ outside sales force a few weeks ago (at least according to a small grocer I know).
What about that "Dipping Dots" ice cream place? How can $2 cookies die and $4 cups of weird ice-cream-like stuff survive?
To Rich,
You really dated yourself with the Soylent Green comment or else you like watching really old movies.
What about Orange Julius? Anybody got data?
This is the dawning of the Apocalypse.
Cheers,
Boat52,
Soylent Green is a Friggin' classic.
SOYLENT GREENIS MRS. FIELDS!!!!!!!!!!!!
I kid you not.
Cheers,
Whoa. Orange Julius is part of Dairy Queen which is owned by Berkshire Hathaway. Who knew?
History of Dairy Queen, IDQ
- Dairy Queen
I commented on the last thread that I just bet if CSC was head of their recipe department this never would have happened... probably put a dent in the Prozac biz too.
But as we are often told - correlation does not prove causation.
John Stark,
"Whoa. Orange Julius is part of Dairy Queen which is owned by Berkshire Hathaway."
Glod bless you, Uncle Warren...Glod bless you.
Cheers,
It's not surprising that the bondholders are in favor of the "prepackaged" plan. If they read the May report from Mrs. Fields:
From the 10-Q filed May 13, 2008
We are highly leveraged. At March 29, 2008, we had $195.7 million of long-term debt represented by the Senior Secured Notes. The Senior Secured Notes mature on March 15, 2011, with interest payable semi-annually on March 15 and September 15. Due to borrowing restrictions under the indenture governing the Senior Secured Notes, our ability to obtain additional debt financing is significantly limited.
. We have suffered recurring net losses and negative cash flows from operations and have a net members deficit at March 29, 2008. As a result, we may be unable to make the scheduled semi-annual interest payments on our Senior Secured Notes. The aggregate amount of each semi-annual payment is $10.25 million and our next payment is due in September 2008.... We do not currently have the ability to repay the Senior Secured Notes should they become due and payable. These matters raise substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern."
If you were to examine their 1,211 store locations, I'd expect they are similar to California: 90% in malls. The virus stalking the small malls is highly contagious.
ChefVisar
This is the dawning of the Apocalypse.
We'll call it the Mallocalypse. Frozen yogurt and overpriced plastic hair accessories will fall from the sky.
That lehman brothers news is interesting..commercial real estate..
FT.com / Financials - Lehman in talks to sell $40bn in real estate
Lehman has been slow to deal with its commercial real estate portfolio, which the company valued at almost $52bn at the end of November and was worth $40bn at the end of May.
The portfolio includes mortgages and mortgage-backed securities that were valued at $29.4bn as of May 31. It also contains real estate assets worth $10.4bn at the end of May.
The scale of the operations is huge when compared with either Lehmans market capitalisation of about $12bn or its balance sheet.
Lehman declined to comment. People close to the discussions said no final decision had been made on the commercial real estate portfolio.
Mrs. Fields cookies just aren't very good. They have a strange taste and texture, are too doughy, and of course are expensive. They are no better than cheap old Chips Ahoy, and quite worse than other expensive cookies.
It's 98 degrees in the hometown, so the chocolate chips are draining from the MF cookies.
Has anyone noticed that chocolate melts at body temperature, which surely indicates that Glod intended it as humanity's nirvana?
It's not exactly casual dining, so what is it...
casual bingeing ?
Otis Spunkmeyer is still the best cookie in the mall!
Greg Weston writes:
Mrs. Fields cookies just aren't very good. They have a strange taste and texture, are too doughy, and of course are expensive. They are no better than cheap old Chips Ahoy, and quite worse than other expensive cookies.
That's being far more charitable than they deserve really.
And Totally Crappy Bland Yogurt going under is no loss either.
If this is what demand destruction looks like, let's have some more, please.
crispy: somehow the Spunkmeyer name doesn't associate in my mind with cookies.
We actually have a Otis cookie maker where I work...YUMMY!
Pretty soon the malls are going to be nothing but pawn shops, dollar stores, and payday lenders.
I don't care.. just as long as PSS sticks around. Without them I would be toast.
crispy&cole writes:
Otis Spunkmeyer is still the best cookie in the mall!
crispy&cole | Homepage | 08.15.08 - 8:15 pm | #
That's a funny way to spell Paradise Bakery.
OT - Here's another free <a href="http://www.financialsense.com/Market/wrapup.htm>Brian Pretti commentary.
Also, since many here feel MF cookies suck balls, can someone recommend a great cookie that doesn't have a spermick name? TIA
Yes, Otis Spunkmeyer are very good.
Glad to hear I am not the only one who finds Mrs. Fields gross. They look and smell so good, and about every 2 years I get suckered into buying one and regret it.
Anonymouse: nothing to recommend for nationwide fresh baked cookies: they all taste like plastic. But store-bought Pepperidge Farms huge cookies with choc. chunks are great, especially if put in the toaster oven for a quick reheat.
Is Ben's Cookies still around? I liked them, for the 6 mos or so they were in my local mall.
-Jaso
A bad cookie is generally an exception, it is hard to screw up chocolate chip cookies.
Chocolate chip cookies made with rice flour have an interest taste to them that I like (look for wheat-free labels).
Also try any health food store that sells them with whole-grain flour.
JimPortlandOR writes:
Anonymouse: nothing to recommend for nationwide fresh baked cookies: they all taste like plastic.
That's because you can't make a good soft cookie that will survive transport or have a commercially-viable shelf life. Or be cheap, since a good cookie needs a lot of butter and eggs. And real vanilla.
Basically, I'm not really satisfied by a cookie unless it comes out of my own oven.
i recently sold several ounces of gold for chocolate
"i recently sold several ounces of gold for chocolate"
Bet there are a lot of gold bugs with chocolate in their pants right about now.
mock,
You fool...You can't eat Glod!
Cheers,
Anonymous | 08.15.08 - 8:57 pm |
"Bet there are a lot of gold bugs with chocolate in their pants right about now."
Nah, we bought till 2004 and stopped. We're still very much to the upside.
Cheers,
Also, since many here feel MF cookies suck balls, can someone recommend a great cookie that doesn't have a spermick name? TIA
I guess the old Toll House recipe gets dinged for sounding too much like an over-priced home builder?
i recently sold several ounces of gold for chocolate
mock turtle | 08.15.08 - 8:48 pm
Actually, if you had peeled off the gold colored foil, you would have found waxy chocolate inside. Next time remember: Real gold doesn't come in a mesh bag with a pirate's picture stapled to it.
Americans have been over-consuming for a decade, and one of the best categories to cut back on is chocolate cookies. Tighten your belts America!
"one of the best categories to cut back on is chocolate cookies."
Not the cookies! Never!
Have there been any chocolate squirrel recipes yet?
"We're still very much to the upside."
Me too but I bet that guy I sold that silver to at 21.5 is scratching his ass. Maybe he'll sell it back to me at less then 12.
crispy&cole writes:
Otis Spunkmeyer is still the best cookie in the mall!
DITTO this!!
What about Krispy Kreme? Next?
I went to Mrs. Fields website and a popup said she wanted to put a cookie on my computer.
Can't make money givin em away!
Me too but I bet that guy I sold that silver to at 21.5 is scratching his ass. Maybe he'll sell it back to me at less then 12.
When gold drops below 300 and silver below 4...I might give you a call.
Cheers,
OT, but so the F what, everything is, or will be soon.
I'm sorry, but I'm faced with a harsh reality, i.e, the 10 yr Treasury aint been this low since about 1962. Think about it, at 3.8% and going lower, we are experiencing some generational dynamics -- which are the topic of discussion, debate or analysis. To me, that is beyond the oddities of this era of misinformation -- this is about systemic change.
In some way, which I don't see, this is linked to the next 1000 point drop in the next few weeks.
Amen, see yah....
Pepperidge Farms Chessman cookies have butter and eggs in 'em and they are fine.
Opps,
Deete, delete, edit:
Re: " which are the topic of discussion"
Meant to add, NOT, i.e, Not a topic of pondering...
Ross,
I hope you said no. Choc Chip Cookies tend to melt in there. Can be a real mess.
Cheers,
I used to cheat soccer moms, by installing pentium 4 motherboards with over clocked pentium 4's installed, with heat sinks, but no fans, into easy bake ovens. I'd sell them at a premium. I'd say they are computerized and have Intel inside.
I'm such a cad.
Cheers,
GLD, SRS, SDS, pick your poison
I've been nibbling on SRS this past month and getting my ass handed to me each time.
Americans have been over-consuming for a decade, and one of the best categories to cut back on is chocolate cookies. Tighten your belts America!
Japan is enforcing a 33.5" waistline limit for men now. Since I want to go back there I need to get to work . . .
I don't understand why the likes of Simon nd General Growth Properties haven't been crushd in the markets. Them and REITs.
Max writes:
What about that "Dipping Dots" ice cream place? How can $2 cookies die and $4 cups of weird ice-cream-like stuff survive?
Mrs. Fields probably had a lot more debt than Dipping Dots does.
The first of these discretionary income places that are blowing up have large debts they are servicing.
Kind of like their former customers.
Oh a story link:
U.S. Bond Market: The Look Of Fear... and Failure
U.S. Bond Market: The Look Of Fear... and Failure | Elliott Wave International
This July, the Federal Housing Administration began taking credit scores into account and considering rates on a case-by-case basis for the first time since its establishment in 1934.
And, according to an August 4 news item, the U.S. government has the fewest bond traders making markets in its Treasuries since 1960
Fewest Treasury Traders Since 1960 Hit Taxpayers (Update4)
Fewest Treasury Traders Since 1960 Hit Taxpayers (Update4) - Bloomberg.com
Fewer firms bidding for U.S. bonds means you're going to have sloppier auctions,'' said Mark MacQueen, a money manager in Austin, Texas, at Sage Advisory Services, who traded Treasuries at dealer Merrill Lynch & Co. in the 1980s.The taxpayer and the government are paying more no matter what happens.''
"paying more /............ LESS yield!
Yeah, well, good riddance. I had a cookie there once, and asked for the recipe, and they said, SURE, only two-fifty, so I gave them my credit-card. Only later did I find a charge for TWO HUNDRED FIFTY DOLLARS on my card! I'm SO ANGRY I'm GIVING AWAY the recipe for free! Here it is:
(Recipe may be halved): 2 cups butter
4 cups flour
2 tsp. baking soda
2 cups granulated sugar
2 cups brown sugar
5 cups blended oatmeal (measure oatmeal and blend in blender to a fine powder)
24 oz. chocolate chips
1 tsp. salt
1 8 oz. Hershey bar (grated)
4 eggs
2 tsp. baking powder
3 cups chopped nuts (your choice)
2 tsp. vanilla
They'll never make another penny from it! HA HA HA HA HA HA HA
What? No squirrel in the recipe?
Japan is enforcing a 33.5" waistline limit for men now. Since I want to go back there I need to get to work . . .
Troy | 08.15.08 - 9:26 pm | #
That'll make their Sumo Wrestling competitions pretty interesting.
Rob Dawg writes:
What? No squirrel in the recipe?
Rob Dawg | Homepage | 08.15.08 - 9:38 pm | #
Nor cannabis... what's with that?
Dry,
We don't talk about how many guns we own either. More than Shelia might be reading.
Rob Dawg writes:
Dry,
We don't talk about how many guns we own either. More than Shelia might be reading.
Rob Dawg | Homepage | 08.15.08 - 9:43 pm | #
Oh I get it... 'blended oatmeal'... wink, wink.
haha. when i used to be a lowly mail lady (in the days when being a female mail carrier wasnt too common)...i delivered mail to thier dinky little office when they were first starting out....the ladies were total b_______s. looking down on the blue color worker (who prolly made more money than they did).
Oh I get it... 'blended oatmeal'... wink, wink.
- dryfly
Yeah, and when time comes to harvest our oatmeal we carry our Swiss made scoped 22 long hiking stick.
What's wrong with liking Soylent Green? I think when it came out, I was like maybe 52 years old. I was like blown away.
The whole concept of selling cookies in a mall is ridiculous. Even if you could make a cookie for 25 cents and sell it for $2.50, you would have to sell about 500 cookies a day to pay for the lease and staff. But a franchiser has to pay Mrs. Field 6% royalty and buy inflated ingredients, so he has to sell maybe 800 cookies a day.
How would you like to work for 15-20 years and somebody asked you what you did, and you would say: "I sold 800 cookies a day. I helped make fat Americans fatter."
It's sick. My grandmother lived her whole life on a farm in West Tennessee, and she never bought a mall cookie in her life. And she lived to 93 and died in peace under her own house.
and died in peace under her own house.
doesn't sound like a pleasant way to go
When I was a freshman at Princeton a good ol' boy from Alabama caught, skinned, grilled, and ate a black squirrel on campus. That raised some eyebrows!
Little did we know he was 15 years ahead of his time.
I just raided the store of Milanos.
This thread is not good for someone with anorexia/binge eating disorder
Last I checked the Simon Property Group had a PE of 50.
Their investors must know something we don't.
If you want more squirrel recipes, just say the word.
They are eating my basil as well as my tomatoes. It is like they are trying to make themselves into a nice pasta sauce in advance.
Working on a pigeon recipe.
poor joke
MRS. FIELDS?!?!?!
This is clearly the biggest shoe to drop as of yet.
God damnit, Debbie. If Hot Dog on a Stick goes down, I'm going to suck a muffler.
Here is your Chocolate Squirrel.
12th
A pump 22 pellet gun used to work for me. I had a stray dog at the time and she would wait til the critter hit the ground, pick it up and bury it for further use.
I likened it to a poor man's quail hunt.
Re: They'll never make another penny from it! HA HA
That seems to be on topic..
DCRogers writes:
"Yeah, well, good riddance. I had a cookie there once, and asked for the recipe, and they said, SURE, only two-fifty, so I gave them my credit-card. Only later did I find a charge for TWO HUNDRED FIFTY DOLLARS on my card! I'm SO ANGRY I'm GIVING AWAY the recipe for free!"
Yeah, this has been circulating for decades. AKA the Neiman-Marcus recipe. Bears no resemblance to Mrs. Field's cookies; it makes actually pretty good cookies. The trick is a) use good chocolate b) use as much oats as you can physically stir in by hand and c) dark brown muscovado sugar, the good stuff (i.e., India Tree or Billington's).
(Look, I once spent a year working with French-trained professional pastry chefs; I'm fussy about these things)
1 cup peanut butter, 1/2 cup butter, 1/2 cup oil oil
4 cups flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1 cup sugar, 1/2 cup honey
2 cups brown sugar
5 cups blended oatmeal (measure oatmeal and blend in blender to a fine powder)
24 oz. chocolate chips
1/2 tsp. salt, 1/2 tsp salt sub which is potassium
1 8 oz. Godiva bar (grated)
4 eggs
2 tsp. baking powder (aluminum free)
3 cups chopped nuts (your choice) use sunflower seeds and flax also
2 tsp. vanilla and 2 cups Kahlua with 4 cups vodka
P.s. Also, use the oatmeal whole, not ground up.
2 tsp. vanilla and 2 cups Kahlua with 4 cups vodka
Mother's little helper?
Doc Holiday Cookies writes:
1 cup peanut butter, 1/2 cup butter, 1/2 cup oil oil
I'm just glad we're finally getting to share some actually useful information here. You know, the really important stuff. Cookies.
Doc,
I'll try the last line without the vanilla.
You have to cut the fat and increase fiber these days. Peanut oil in cookies is a better fat. I also grind flax seed and add nutritional yeast, oatbran, wheat germ and when it comes to flour, better to cut down on high gluten stuff, which means adding more oatmeal, or a little corn flour.
Ross,
Kahlua is cheaper and adds a nice flavor and if you don't like alcohol, the heat will vaporize it, leaving behind the hint of coffee.
You bunch of little girls. Exchanging cookie recipes on an important blog like this!
Damn. I want more squirrel recipes.
Another great flour is rye flour, which is a great prebiotic and very good for yah:
Lesaffre Human Care | Home
Vegetarian Support Formula is a reliable source of B-complex vitamins and Cyanocobalamin (B12).
Look at all the good crap in this stuff: what was Mrs Fields thinking? No wonder she went under....
Chocolate topics when the nation is falling apart is a big clue we need to explore new blogs ASAP.
who cares? only fatties eat crap like this.
Here Ross,
Recycled Tyvek® Aprons: The Better-Than-Plastic Apron
A regular throw-away plastic apron might be good enough for small jobs. But for complete protection from food splashes, hot oil, dangerous chemicals, and other big messes, the serious professional chooses a Tyvek® apron.
Adult and Children disposable Tyvek Aprons - (219) 989-4630
cientists finding a way to make the cotton seed edible. This scientific breakthrough could produce protein-rich food for malnourished countries. Third world countries will one day have laptops, low-interest loans, and edible panties. They should be caught up to Western Civilization in no time!
Edible Cotton: Pics, Videos, Links, News
Slow night?
10 year Treasuries anyone??
Chocolate squirel chip cookies? Christ...I KNEW I needed a booby trap on that one.
Damn...I go tenden me stills and come back findin' me self raided.
Well...I'm Increasing the voltage to the ol Super Colander Tin Foil Hat...I gots me eye on all ya's...
Cheers,
Any of you ladies have a fruitcake receipe?
Lefty,
3 Lbs cement, couple dozen fruits and vegies. Mix in cement. Let set. Send from relative to relative for all time. No one ever tries to eat that shite.
Cheers,
@ Lefty,
O Joe and Seb with flour, fruits and nuts a LOTS of brandy from Lefty's
Re: Mrs Fields
Well that's the way the cookie crumbles
(ducks quickly)
Squirrel Dessert:
A dessert apertif:
1 jigger whipped squirrel brain with Ameretto di Sernoa.
2 jiggers Grey Goose Vodka.
splash of ameretto. Shake or stir. Serve over ice in a 4 to 6 ounce glass.
Cheers,
guess Amos aint famous anymore.
who needs cookies? Im all cracker all the time. And corn chips with salsa. I also consider popcorn part of the "crunchy" food group.
The banks are a now the "Credit Crunch" food group....watch your teeth, only floss the ones your gonna keep.
Jeez, I just checked in at Yahoo and the feature shows Michael Phelps with an ear piece. "Question of the day. What is on Michael Phelps Ipod?"
I gotta find something to short come Monday morn. I can't take the incoming much longer.
Ah screw it ...
YouTube - The Crimson Permanent Assurance part 1
Cheers,
Next you'll be telling me Bigfoot is real...
Huh?
Anonymouse et al:
DeLuscious Cookies & Milk
your arteries will not forgive me but your taste buds will.
Is the U.S. Banking System Safe?
PrudentBear
Oh my God FFDIC. Just when I had my hat on.
Oh well. When do we get level 4, 5 etc.
"Is the U.S. Banking System Safe?"
That depends on whether your an insider cashing out as fast as you can on an SEC or FED screw shorty raid or you happen to be shorty. If your Shorty it could cause sever irritation and pain.
1 jigger whipped squirrel brain with Ameretto di Sernoa.
Holy cow! How many squirrels does that take?
where does one find those cookies
credit repair
Misean
I like the part where they toss bernanke and Paulson into the safe
Off Topic - Skip At Your Own Risk
Someone mentioned the interview with a Walnut Creek girl and her aunt on a previous thread. I hadn't watched the interview, so off I clicked. I was watching the movie "Wag the Dog" come to life. Young girl with horrible war story. Nah, I thought, I'm just jaded from reading too much CR.
But when I went to look up this girl's dad, it turns out to be either this guy:
Eduard Kokoity - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Or someone with his same name. I'd go with the former.
Now, if you want to confirm the weirdness, you look up the mom's last name Kulumbegova and you get scores of articles all apparently originating with AP, that quote another Kulumbegova who is telling pretty much the same story. Truly weird.
If the dad is actually the president, then this is all completely staged. Well, come to think of it, even if the dad and pres. aren't the same guy it could be staged.
go here if you can stand to see how are cookie crumbles
Unknown Domain
1 jigger whipped squirrel brain with Ameretto di Sernoa.
Holy cow! How many squirrels does that take?
Fair Economist | 08.16.08 - 12:24 am | #
One. But it's gotta be a big one. In a pinch you can substitute a brain of similar consistency,...I'd recommend politician brain but they're even smaller.
Sorry to hear about it...
I had no idea that "Chocolate" was ill.
OT?
every day a photo- homero simpson (version Ardilla)
YouTube -
FFDIC
thanks for your links...always fascinating, informative and terrifying
where's my teddy bear?
Night of the living dead. Zombie banks live to trade another day...
bearly
yes
"unborn living
living dead
bullet strikes the helmet's head"
jm morrison, and the doors
August 12 CNNMoney (Les Christie): Prime mortgages are starting to record disturbingly high default rates, which could slow any potential housing recovery. The delinquency rate for prime mortgages worth less than $417,000 was 2.44% in May, compared with 1.38% during May of 2007, according to LoanPerformance Delinquencies jumped even more for prime loans of more than $417,000, so called jumbo loans. They rose to 4.03% of outstanding loans in May, compared with 1.11% a year earlier. And prime loans issued in early 2007 are performing the worst of all, failing at a rate nearly triple that of prime loans issued in 2006 The extent of how bad these loans are doing is very troubling, said Pat Newport, real estate economist with Global Insight
"Question of the day. What is on Michael Phelps Ipod?"
Some Depeche/Mozilo mashup? YouTube -
Whoa...Shnaps on the big screen:
YouTube - Shnaps
heres whats on bernankes ipod
YouTube - Ten Years After - I'd Love To Change The World
Off Topic Cnt'd:
Forgot to post a link to the "Wag the Dog" video.
YouTube - Ossetian girl tells the truth about Georgia
Remember this is fox news. Pay attention to the part near the end where there's what looks like a moment of feigned disapproval at being "cut off" by the interviewer.
The lady with her is her aunt, not mother. Laura Tedeeva. She's a real estate broker in Concord, CA (just thought I'd mention that to make this a little more relevant).
For homework you can go watch every video and look at every photo from the conflict and then run it through your own highly tuned brain.
Obama supports Mrs Fields adding extra ingredients:
YouTube - Barack Obama on Marijuana Decriminalization (2004)
Late night humor:
YouTube -
Um, to continue from the last So. Ossetia post. Specifically regarding the Aunt that is interviewed on fox with the girl:
""Today, Laura Tedeeva-Korewicki must leave her Walnut Creek home and board a jet to Moscow in an act that immigration authorities call 'self-deportation.' The Immigration and Naturalization Service says she is an illegal immigrant who should have left the United States a long time ago."
"She admits she told the U.S. State Department she was married just to get a six-month visitor's visa, although she was actually divorced.
'They don't grant visas to divorced people with children because of possible kidnapping of children by parents,' she said. 'So, I lied.'
Huh? Ok this is troublesome on a couple of levels. According to old news reports, "today" refers to a day in July, 1996. She was back in the states 3 months later with a permanent visa. So after a legal battle that lasts many years, she gets "self-deported" and then manages to pull a Laura Richardson and make everything ok within a few months?
Someone please fill me in. I don't want to pay to read this story, but it's fascinating.
Here's a freebie explaining the Tedeev deportation.
American Dream dashed with deportation papers
This actually makes the subject more on topic because it turns out that the husband is a.... real estate agent as well.
Last blast on the So. Ossetia dog wagging:
(disclaimer -- there are plenty of "ifs" in the following")
If you follow the thread of the aunt, Laura Tadeeva, you end up back in Ossetia. There is a website which hosts an old pdf U.N. list of humanitarian workers in Georgia circa 1995. I found another version of this list from 2003 as well. This is the site it's from:
http://www.assistancegeorgia.org.ge/
This list contains the following:
OSCE Tskhinvali Field Office
Mr. Gancho Gantchev, Head/Political Officer
Ms. Nana Tedeeva, Field Assistant
At the "Oasis" in the village of Kvaisa you find:
Ms. Indira Tedeeva
If you refer back to the article I posted above about Tedeeva's deportation, you'll see that she fled Georgia originally because the network she was involved with that supplied the "rebels" was compromised.
(1992).
So why would I think that this Indira Tedeeva might be the same lady? Guess what the Walnut Creek's middle initial is.
Weak, right? But then go back to the article and note that her 16 y.o. daughter's name (at the time) was "Nana." On our list of humanitarians, we see that there's a Ms. Nana Tedeeva that works with Gancho Gantchev at the OSCE Field Office (On the other version of the list his name is spelled "Ganchos")
Are these the same Tendeev's? Certainly smells that way.
Now what about Gancho? The name Gancho Ganchev seems to be pretty common in Bulgaria. But if you do a little poking around you find that this Gancho is/was likely the the director of the Institute of Economy and Foreign Affairs of Bulgaria, among many other things.
There's a Gancho associated with the American Univ. in Sophia as well.
Apparently he was an annoyance to some because in '95 the "defacto authorities of So. Ossetia" wanted him gone. A Georgian minister opposed this and claimed the Russians were attacking and attempting to discredit the OSCE.
So, if Gancho is a spook, what are the Tedeeva girls doing hanging out with him while they're supposed to be selling houses back in Walnut Creek.
Where's Nana Tedeeva today? Still in GA? Still hanging with Gancho?
Hope you enjoyed the story. If you enjoyed it please put a little something in the CR tipjar.
There is a war of perceptions going on, and it looks like we're all the victims.
If you consider all the skullduggery that goes on under the guise of humanitarian and charitable work, this stuff makes sense.
Killing Fields.
I walk and make my own cookies
Aren't chocolate chip cookies the things left behind in your browser cache after you visit Nestle web site?
Help-U-Sell BANKRUPT!!!
Mrs. Fields never had the good sense of adopting the business model of Carol's Cookies. (YUUUM! SLUUUURP!)
Now, if Carol's goes under, I'll know Armageddon is upon us.
OT, probably on a thread that's past its prime, but still:
Anyone know the current rates for "secured" loans to LLCs? Am I the only one that thinks loans to LLCs are soon to become much more expensive and much harder to obtain?
There's no government securitization/price control attempts in this market, not directly, at least not ASFAIK.
So we have cookie connoisseurs on the blog. Cookies make for a happier discussion of economics than squirrel and possum.
I checked out the Carol's website. You can sign up for their cookie of the month club for about $400/yr. You can buy them where? Cannes?
Do you have any insight into how many people they employee? They'd need what, about 5 administrative types, 5 factory workers, and 5 warehouse people to drive the forklifts around.
I'm not so happy about getting so effecient that we have 15 people humming away making and selling cookies and the rest of the population with nothing to do but sit around eating seaweed and reading books by Stendahl.
But I have a very limited perspective.
Carol's will someday set the world afire just like help-u-sell and fsbo models one would think.
Saw the info @ Wikipedia before this posting. Inspired to check while walking downtown in People's Republic of Berkeley. A Mrs Field's store did a good business there before genteel folk abandoned the area thanks to the PRB's inability and/or unwillingness to deal with thugs. Mrs Field's store long gone.