____________________________________________________________________________________

Brethren:

Greetings from From the Bullpen!  The end of January is almost here, which means that our annual Winter of Discontent is almost past the worst of it.  We hope.  Just keep gritting your teeth, closing your eyes, tapping your heels, and chanting, “I want to go . . . to Spring Training!”  Before long, we’ll all be in the Land of Oz where our baseball diamonds are glistening as green as Emerald City. 

Okay, I’m getting desperate.  But at least in a week and a half, I’ll be in Scottsdale for a couple of days of golfing—I mean client meetings and a malpractice seminar—with a few colleagues who wish to remain anonymous at this point in time.  I’ll be thinking of all of you. 

BOOK REPORT:

The Snowball:  Warren Buffett and the Business of Life

For those of you who have not yet read it, I highly recommend the seminal work on Warren Buffett, titled above, written by Alice Schroeder, who was granted virtually unlimited access to Buffett and his cadre of business associates, friends, and family members, including the Cardinal of Curmudgeons, Charlie Munger.  In a word, the book is fascinating.  At 800 pages in length, it is a bit intimidating to start, but it is a page-turner that I polished off in about three weeks. 

The Oracle of Omaha is a incredibly brilliant man, but as Ms. Schroeder demonstrates in abundance, he is an extraordinarily complex man with a highly underdeveloped ability to deal with his own emotions.  Perhaps because of his refusal to deal with his own father’s death, or because of the emotional battering that he and his siblings took from their crackpot mother, Buffett simply cannot deal with the illnesses and deaths of his family members and close friends.  Remarkably, he was not even able to attend the memorial service of his late wife, Susie, although the celebrated Bono was there, no doubt trying to cement a large donation to one of his many charitable causes. 

There are so many great stories from “Snowball” that I could share with you to whet your appetite for this book, but I don’t want to spoil it for you.  Let’s just say that if you’re from Nebraska and you like to read, you won’t want to miss out on this great book. 

THE TRIP

Well, it appears we have a stalemate on the scheduling of the Trip.  To lay it on the line, B.T. is concerned that his first grandchild may very well be born during the last week or two of August, and he doesn’t want to miss this blessed event, so he would prefer the earlier proposed trip dates (August 13-15).  Possum and Mouse, our two members from the rodent family, have both expressed a preference for the later August dates (August 20-22), although neither has indicated that it would be an absolute conflict for them if the Trip occurred on the earlier weekend in August.  I of course want as many people on the Trip as can make it, and do not want to be caught in the middle.  So here’s my suggestion:  If it is possible that Possum and Mouse can schedule around the earlier August dates for our trip, this would be a win-win for everyone.  Since B.T. has very little control (although he may think otherwise) over the timing of blessed events, I don’t know that there’s anything he can do at his end to clear up his schedule. 

In any event, if any of you geniuses should have a good suggestion for how to resolve this matter, I urge you to sound your voice and help us muddle through this scheduling issue. 

Only 19 more days until Pitchers and Catchers Report.  Thank you, God!

                                                                   Skipper