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Stock Ideas Investors Daily Edge Taking Life’s Winnings to the Cashier’s Window
Stock Ideas Investors Daily Edge Taking Life’s Winnings to the Cashier’s Window 
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Arjun Murti is getting the last laugh. And just who is Arjun Murti? He’s the Goldman Sachs analyst who called for an oil “super spike” more than three years ago. |
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| Taking Life’s Winnings to the Cashier’s Window |
| Thursday, 09 October 2008 | ||||||||
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A very nice old lady lingered close to death for three days in an Annapolis, Maryland hospital this week. She was my wife Lynn's mother, who died yesterday after suffering a stroke while she slept Sunday night. It's why you're reading me today, instead of Lynn, as you usually would on Thursdays. Death and near death, of course, transforms all families. This week, mine was that family that you stumble across in hospitals… sad, resigned… waiting. I have to figure that what took her so long to go was that Mary Brady was toting a heavy load of life's winnings to the cashier's window. It took a while. She earned her winnings during her 84 years as a devout Christian… a woman who read her bible every day and who spent parts of each day in prayer. A doting mother, Mary Brady subscribed to the “when my kids are bad or in trouble, love them all the more,” school of parenting. She once told me that there was nothing her children could ever do that would embarrass her… “Even marrying you,” she added with a giggle. And, she bestowed that same largess upon her grandchildren. Now, I can't exactly speak to my mother-in-law's virtues as a wife. But the cranky old coot she was married to seemed pretty content right up to his demise, 12 years ago. Sadly, I think I am going to have to break my promise about something she and I agreed that I should do at her funeral. I promised to sing Rolf Harris' old novelty song “Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport.” You see, my mother-in-law was, well, a bit daft. She thought the following lyrics were hysterical:
Tan me hide when I'm dead, Fred Tan me hide when I'm dead So we tanned his hide when he died, Clyde And that's it hanging on the shed But, you know funerals. Lots of tension and grief sometimes brings out the worst in even the best people. So, “Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport,” was probably exorcised from the funeral service on Mary's 75th birthday – nine years ago. That's when Lynn and I gave her a new picnic table to replace the old one under one of her 100-year-old shade trees. At the family birthday gathering, one of the cousins asked me if I was going to coat the new table with paint or weather treatment. I looked at my mother-in-law and said, “That depends. Are you going to make another three years or 10 years? If it's three there's no need for either.” She laughed her ass off, while the cousin was mortified and let everyone far and wide know it. By now, you've guessed that events have me holding down the fort this week. Writing in Lynn's regular Thursday space at IDE comes as part of the deal. Yesterday, while Lynn was in Annapolis, I made my very first trade for her The Optionist options trading service. In truth, I was merely following detailed instructions that Lynn had left me. A 93% profit. It was another in The Optionists' incredible string of winners – something like 75 in the past 19 months. I thought of Lynn's mother when I pulled the trigger on that trade, because the fact that Lynn is who and where she is today – a renowned investment and options authority – is kind of her mother's doing. You see, Lynn and her mother, along with Bill Bonner and his mother, go to the same church in West River, MD. Well, at least Bill did while he was living in the states. The old church, by the way, is generally hailed as the finest example of “Carpenter Gothic” architecture on the East Coast. Anyway, among his other feats, Bill Bonner is, as you probably know, the founder of Agora Publishing. Back around 1996, my mother-in-law ran into his mother one Sunday in church and, at some point, the conversation turned to children. When she found out that Lynn had just finished her Master's work in linguistics, and that we were living in Maryland again, Bill's mom suggested that Lynn contact Agora. And, you know the rest. A lot of people made a lot of money thanks to a couple of old church ladies. Tomorrow, life's circuitous route will find Lynn and her mom, together in that old church's sanctuary one last time. Andy P.S. To let me know what you thought of today's article, send an e-mail to: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
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