Monday Pre-Holiday Market Fest

• How was your weekend?  Any summer barbecues or picnics?  On today's picnic table is Adrianne Palicki.
• Looks like the monthly and holiday play is working today.  Enjoy it!  The ISM number came in looking good and showing a pick-up in manufacturing.  Crude falling, too. 
• Tomorrow's trading day is only half a day, as traders leave early to pick up some potato salad and watermelon for the 4th of July barbecues on wednesday.
• I bought an HD DVD player yesterday.  I know you're asking me, "Muck, with all the poverty and lack of health care due to George Bush and the worst economy since the 1930's and not to mention the illegal and immoral war based on lies in Iraq, how can you justify buying an HD DVD player?"  Well, my TV's only unused connection was the HDMI port.  I connected my Nintendo Wii to the second of two composite video ports, and had to disconnect my old DVD player to do so.  I tried using the RCA ports for both the Wii and the old DVD, but the picture wasn't very good.  That gave me an excuse to head to Best Buy and buy the HD DVD player and an HDMI cable.  Back in business.  Nice picture, and nice job upconverting of older DVDs. 
• HD DVD is 70% of the high-def market, compared to Sony's Blu-Ray clocking in at 30%.  More on the battle of the high-def DVD players here.  Hard to say which format will "win."  Ultimately, I think we'll be streaming high-def video over the web, so this could be a short-term battle.
• The loud thud you just heard was the sound of New York restaurants dropping trans-fats from their menus.
• If baseball on TV is your thing, more televised batting practice ought to make you happy.  When I was a kid, I loved going to Anaheim Stadium and Chavez Ravine (Angels and Dodgers, respectively) very early to see players arrive at the stadium, get autographs, and try to get a ball from batting practice.  Not sure I could watch it on TV, though!
• Heading to Reno today.  It's work related.  REALLY!  Reno is a little over 2 hours away from here via car. 
• Okay, lets try this one...  Adrianne Palicki (naked, nude, topless, smoking, stripping, dancing, Supernatural, Friday Night Lights).  Adrianne trivia?  She worked at Togo's as a sandwich maker when she first got to LA.