What is this, the Food Network?

Perfect weather all weekend. Did some yard work today and watched the most boring Brickyard 400 of all time. Starting to get excited about football season.

Market Operations
On Friday I was debating whether I wanted to buy a position or 10 in some kind of 3X long etf, like TNA (hee hee). Everyone knows a debt ceiling deal was going to happen, I mean everyone. I Twitted this to sum it up:
The big bounce up tomorrow will go down in history as the most telegraphed equity spike in the history of man or animals.
I did not take the position on Friday, not because I was afraid of something going wrong, but because it's not the type of trade I want to start making too often. Not my trading type. Still, looks like an easy up day tomorrow. Will it hold? Who knows and after tomorrow it will probably take a couple days for things to settle out. Annoying really.

Josh Brown wrote a wonderful missive on the debt ceiling and the stupid politics involved in it. You really should read the piece as I can assure you most of the smart players were reading it all day long:
Traitors
Snippet:

To Stanley Druckenmiller and the rest of the Oldtimers' Game brain trust, let me say this: Your ideas about missing a Treasury coupon "just to see what would happen" are so dangerous that I fear someone's been tampering with your meds. How is it possible that otherwise intelligent people could reasonably believe that the world's reserve debt instrument should be used for a political gambit? Mr. Druckenmiller (and friends), we agree on the need to get our house cleaned up, just not on your plan of swinging a wrecking ball at it to get the maids' attention. Congrats on your retirement, please don't feel the need to ever offer public comment again.

Stop on over.

What is this, the Food Network?
It was a cook intensive weekend!

Last night I posted the pictures of the pork butts I rubbed and set on The Big Steel Keg to cook overnight. I went with apple wood for smoke and put the meat on the smoker at 10:30pm. Temperature had stabilized at 230-260 degrees. I kept an eye on it until 12:30am then went to bed. Checked on it at 7am this morning and the Keg was rock solid still at 250 degrees! Awesome result with the lump charcoal.

Anyways, let's see the pictures!

Here they are about ready to foil; cook time 12 hours:

Internal temp at 195 degrees, into a foil wrap and stuffed in a cooler to finish:

Pulling pork, look at this thing fall apart:

Big tray of meat:

Butt on buns, that does sound exciting:

This cook came out great and it was my first overnight cook.

For dinner I wanted to have something fast so I just made english muffin mini pizzas. If you have kids they LOVE this item and it's super easy to make:

Nice!

I know plenty of financial bloggers do cooking, we should have an inaugural Blogger BBQ Cookoff and set up a voting poll to see who wins. Any takers?

Have a good night.

Wired on Saturday Night

Well wireless actually. New modem purchased and I had a new router I had never installed for various reasons. 3 hours of frustration with the crappy directions and trying to do this on a Macintosh computer (longer story) and I was back online this morning. Should be good to go now.

Debt Ceiling
The joke that is the debt ceiling drama continues on. What bothers me about the whole thing is we are side stepping any serious discussion of finance and spending. The focus now is "raise the ceiling or the world ends" or things like that. Another missed opportunity for any kind of change.

Saturday Entertainment
I am going to try and smoke some pork butt tonight. I messed this up the first time I tried it. I am going to put the small butts on the smoker around 10pm and smoke them all night. If I set up the Big Steel Keg correct, it should run all night around 250 degrees. We shall see in the morning if it went ok. These take about 12-14 hours to really be done right.

Random Reads
Broaden your mind with these links.

-Today in 2003 (via Little Bits of History) the last of the old model VW bugs were made. Hated those things, but 65 years in production is a good run.

-I ordered the novel "The Lost City of Z" which is about Percy Fawcett's tragic search for a golden city in the Brazil rainforest.

-The most legendary engine of all time? Maybe the 1969 all aluminum ZL-1 Corvette engine. This was one of the sickest things ever made in the United States.

Visual Cues
They sell these now?:

see more funny videos, and check out our Yo Dawg lols!

Who would have guessed?:

see more Historic LOL

Film Clips
Stream these movies!

One of the best episodes of the TV series Highlander was the double feature of Something Wicked/Deliverance. Duncan Macloud was overwhelmed by a dark spirit after he took his head and turned into a total badass. I actually liked him this way! In the following clip at the 25:00 mark he tries to get help from an old friend but he is now totally lost:


The film "Gaataca" was a wonderful film that sounded a cautious note about the future of genetic prejudice. The final scene with Ethan Hawke getting set to leave on a space trip is a must see:


Rock Blogging
Some music to roll on the weekend.

Reader C-T was looking for "Personal Jesus" from Depeche Mode because she is in love with singer Dave Gahan. I love this live version:


Watchtower likes Johnny Cash's last tune, "Hurt":


Jim Croce from reader Gawains with "You Don't Mess Around with Jim":


I heard a new version of "Mr. Bojangles" on the radio the other day. I wanted to freaking puke. Instead of a sad song, full of soul and feeling it was changed into some techno pop nightmare for club use. Disgusting and if I were Emperor I would dismiss that version with EXTREME prejudice. Anyways, here is an old version by The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band:


Two songs to go.

I know I have had this on a few times, but I was in the mood for the "Crossroads Duel": so here it is:

Love it.

Close the show with a favorite one of mine, Black Sabbath and "Warning":


Added: Rubbed Butts:

Big Steel Keg after dark, I hope I don't get bit by the fisher cat:

Have a good night.