Bob Cramer's Blog

To my loyal reader(s), at this point, I am beyond excuses:  I have abandoned you.   It has just been a few months since I shared an original blog post here but it feels longer to me too; do I dare say I found a bigger and better outlet for some of my crafty writing (like my Nov. 25^th piece on the editorial page of the AJC, which to be honest doesn’t have a readership that much bigger today than my erratically written and consistently ugly blog, but impresses my NY family more and there is nothing like fresh ink on paper and don’t forget the nice little picture that made me look 20 years younger).   I ask you ol’ faithful reader(s), is shooting for the “big time” really that much of a sin?  I had some important things to say, and I had to work hard harassing the editorial page editor to get that piece printed.  So please, cut me some slack.  I am back and back for good.  It is a New Year’s resolution.

Now that my reliability issue is behind us, let’s look forward to 2012 and an avalanche of political ads, political chatter, stock market anxiety and more about European contagion.   Last night I was over at our friend’s house, and he made an exquisite Italian dinner.  We reviewed a cookbook with recipes from across Italy and not once did we talk about Italian bond auctions and a yield over 7%.   We just paid homage to a picture Mr. Barilla whose family makes primo pastas and we sampled some Italian wine and all was well. 

I say don’t bet against the Europeans.  I was in the steam room before last night’s Italian feast and the talk among the membership at my fancy Atlanta club was European vacations.  Talk centered on  “Midnight in Paris”, Paris during Christmas, Rome, Vienna, I was about ready to invest in a Euro Rail Pass and yank the kids out of school.  Then I remembered I had a mortgage to pay (actually I am about to refinance said mortgage but I will save that story for its own blog focused on human torture), a highly innovative Social Media company to attend to, and numerous other commitments that prohibit a timeout for European exploration. 

So I’m stuck back here in the USA.   That’s not so bad; the NBA is back, bowl games are on every five seconds and the NFL playoffs abound which will include our Atlanta Falcons.  There’s talk about Apple TV and an iPad 3, and a partridge in a pear tree (I just can’t let go of Christmas, except our tree is tilting again and it already fell over once so it is time to replant it or at least put it on the side walk for City of Atlanta sanitation to deal with).  My wife says that is a project I need to deal with today, but the weather is surprisingly warm here in the ATL and I have a noon shotgun tee time, so I better shut this blog down, get the tree outside while leaving a trail of pine needles in its wake and not wake up the kids who seem to really sleep late (I wish I could sleep til 7).  Anyway, if I slept, I wouldn’t have time to blog, and you would be missing all this valuable insight and then I would have to apologize again.   Oh, it is a vicious cycle. 

Anyway, Happy New Year, and let’s make it a goal to meet here more regularly.