Zumbro River

Took my father float fishing down Zumbro River, going fly rodding for small mouth today. Father's day gift. The day was perfect, crisp, clear, high of 80. Fishing was poor -- it has been a wet summer. Went w/ Larry Barnhardt, of Mezappa, who runs a flat-bottom guide boat down the river. Paid 140 for it, but regularly costs 250, I believe. I caught 2 lb big mouth bass, and 4 lb northern. Northern on spinner, bass on fly. Some of the things for memory of the trip:

- Best time for smallmouth: Mid-June, but then take chances with weather. "Get as close to spawn as possible..."
- Put in about 10 min from Mezappa, at dam, take out at bridge. When get to bridge, get way over to the left, out of the rapids. River is very navigable if water is down -- could easily take the 12 foot john-boat w/ two oars and the trolling motor. Make sure have anchor.
- Total trip legnth: about 4.5 miles. We set in @ 11, and out @ 4:30, including a leisurly lunch and taking several long passes at the best water. Could do in 2 hrs if went strait through.
- Takes about 1 hr. 15 min to get there from the citites. Takes 10 min or so from the dam to the bridge by car.
- Key to fishing smallmouth: Play the eddies, etc. Use no more than 2-3 casts to get out to target, and if fly lands cleanly, "fish it out..." even if not the perfect position -- a quiet approach trumps a perfect placement. After trying regular bass/panfish poppers, put on Larry's specials: a long hook, covered with colored frizz, a weight at the front end near the eye of the hook. They sink, but can still be used w/ fly rod. While fishing edge of fast / slow water, through up into slow water, then twirl the rod to slow the line from pulling too fast, then with the left hand, rod tip down, pull 5-6 inches at a time, sharp, to imitate a crawdad's movement. Fish rocks and rapids.
- Surface temp yesterday, says Larry, was 77. Didn't catch any smallies.

Vietnam Era Zippo Lighters

In nam, solgiers would inscribe things on their Zippo lighters.  Most inscriptions were uninteresting.  Some were good:

"We are the unwilling, led by the unqualified, doing the unnecessary for the ungrateful"

WE CAME BECAUSE
WE BELIEVE
WE LEAVE BECAUSE
WE ARE DISALLUSIONED (sic)
WE COME BACK BECAUSE
WE ARE LOST
WE DIE BECAUSE
WE ARE COMMITTED
 
ALWAYS TOPPED
OR ALWAYS STONED
I MADE IT A YEAR
I'M GOING HOME
 
HO CHI MINH IS A
COMMUNIST MOTHER FUCKER
 
IF YOU HAVEN'T BEEN HERE
SHUT THE FUCK UP
 
IF YOU GOT
THIS OFF
MY DEAD ASS
I HOPE
IT BRINGS YOU
THE SAME LUCK
IT BROUGHT ME
 
IF I HAD BEEN AT
KENT STATE THERE
WOULD HAVE BEEN
ONE HELL OF A BODY COUNT
 
I LOVE THE
FUCKING ARMY AND
THE ARMY LOVES
FUCKING ME
 
Here's the full article:
http://www.suntimes.co.za/1998/06/28/lifestyle/life01.htm

Berkshire Hathaway acquisition Criteria

I was @ the Berkshire Hathaway annual shareholder meeting in 2004. This is the from their annual report of that year -- note how anti-BS it is. So many of those damn consultant-types saying they know how to invest this / that... Look at these rules! They are simple. Question: Why do you think they won't participate in auctions? This is the antithesis of bureaucracy. I remember one of the questions was how Warren/Munger determine pay packages for their execs... and specifically if they use compensation consultants. Warren pontificated for a few minutes on how they like to keep things simple, on the back of a napkin, for example. Then, true to the act, Munger leans forward to the mic: "I'd rather throw a viper down my shirt than hire a compensation consultant." They seem to have a general disdain for consultants of almost any type. I'm in corporate America, and I see this: most consultants are 99% talk, and companies hire them to make it feel like they're doing something.

If you've read this far, you have an interest in the Berkshire Hathaway site, which is a testament to design simplicity, to information, to content. Remember when yahoo.com had a simple interface, like 1997? Google still does, now a couple months around the IPO... Here I say it: The start of the fall of google is when they allow advertising on their main page. It will mark the day when the pressures of public ownership trump commitment to the idea of pure search. Any bets on when this will be? I give them one cycle of earnings reports... some bright exec will say "we can meet numbers advertising on the main site..." and then the age of google's innocence is gone. But I digress.

--------------


Berkshire Hathaway Inc.
acquisition Criteria

We are eager to hear from principals or their representatives about businesses that meet all of the following criteria:

(1) Large purchases (at least $50 million before-tax earnings),
(2) Demonstrated consistent earning power (future projections are of no interest to us, nor are "turnaround" situations),
(3) Businesses earning good returns on equity while employing little or no debt,
(4) Management in place (we can't supply it),
(5) Simple businesses (if there's lots of technology, we won't understand it),
(6) An offering price (we don't want to waste our time or that of the seller by talking, even preliminarily, about a transaction when price is unknown).

The larger the company, the greater will be our interest: We would like to make an acquisition in the $5-20 billion range. We are not interested, however, in receiving suggestions about purchases we might make in the general stock market.

We will not engage in unfriendly takeovers. We can promise complete confidentiality and a very fast answer -- customarily within five minutes -- as to whether we're interested. We prefer to buy for cash, but will consider issuing stock when we receive as much in intrinsic business value as we give. We don't participate in auctions.

Charlie and I frequently get approached about acquisitions that don't come close to meeting our tests: We've found that if you advertise an interest in buying collies, a lot of people will call hoping to sell you their cocker spaniels. A line from a country song expresses our feeling about new ventures, turnarounds, or auction-like sales: "When the phone don't ring, you'll know it's me."