Buh-Bye, Danny!

* If you watched The Apprentice last night, you'll know what happened to guitar-totin' Danny. He was project manager for the college folk, in the battle with the high school grads on who could present a better promotional buzz for Nestle's coffee, Nescafe.

* Friday's in the stock market tend to move opposite the weekly trend as traders lock in gains. In addition, it's now Feb 4th, so the monthly-strength period (where paycheck deferrals flow into 401k plans) is about done. Should get interesting from here. I remain long at this point, and think the bull market trend is up.

* I watched a bit of the Lakers-Spurs game. For some reason, the NBA isn't as much fun when the Lakers suck. I don't know who that was out in the Purple and Gold. Lamar Odom? Chucky Atkins? Chris Mihm? Yeesh. Then on TV, they were interviewing Kobe Bryant, asking him about the rumors of Phil Jackson coming back to coach the team. That's Hollywood.

* The Apple ipod giveaway wasn't a bad idea, but the focus should've been on the coffee. The high school grads $10K giveaway and Cold vs. Hot taste test were great ideas.

* So your girlfriend is a dancer and she makes love for money, Used to get it free we really think you're lucky - Poison.

* Danny couldn't lead. He's very indecisive. He seems to be more concerned about group consensus and getting along with everyone. Heck, he would be a good government employee. Can you imagine him at the DMV dealing with customers? He'd be trying to cheer up folks who are frustrated with the long lines! "Here, I wrote a song about the long lines..."

* The Seattle Times Co. is doubling the price of their newspapers, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and Seattle Times. Will that kind of move increase readership, in a world where more and more folks are getting their news online for free?

* You can always count on Larry Kudlow writing an optimistic column. Here's one on the Supply-Side State of the Union. Snippet... the tried and true principle of compounded interest will replace the broken crutch of government entitlement.

* I need a new cellphone, so I was researching some Verizon phones, and I happened to check out their stock price. Look at that yield. My goodness. Hmm.

* I think the financials need to rally for stocks to go up.

* The Apprentice's Erin is a dead-ringer for Ashlee Simpson. Even the crackly voice.