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Strategies & Market Trends : Booms, Busts, and Recoveries -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TobagoJack who wrote (14911)	2/11/2002 5:17:22 PM
From: Ilaine	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74559

Please don't stop on my account. It's like being a fly on the wall in a locker room, only without the visuals.-g-

To: TobagoJack who wrote (14911)	2/14/2002 5:11:05 PM
From: carranza2	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 74559

Hi, Jay, I'm back from a very long weekend at the Texas/Mexico Big Bend. The style in the Texas side is dusty boots, denim, Stetsons and Resistols, no cell phones [no service], no jewelry, no radio, no nothing. The Texas cowboys wouldn't dream of using Viagra and the Mexicans would probably overindulge. The preferred style on the south side of the border is drug dealer chic: Expensive silk cowboy shirts, ostrich boots, big gold cowboy belt buckles, ostentatious gold jewelry, ivory-handled .45s and custom fitted Kalashnikovs. For a good view of the 'mericun side of the border read a fine book, I'll Gather My Geese, by Hallie Stillwell, a lady who probably taught my grandfather. For a view of the Mexican side, read Drug Lord, by a guy named Poppa--this is a book you'll read in one sitting, I promise. No Ferraris on either side of the border, only souped-up pick ups, lots with darkened windows. Lunar landscapes and desolation interspersed with some of the most beautiful land God created. And it's going to stay that way because the lack of water makes it impossible to develop. Interesting place with the best and the worst in human nature. The good: The high-tech McDonald Observatory allows scientists to see into the guts of the Universe while the layman sees more stars than he ever thought could possibly be seen with the naked eye. Solar power development. High art in Marfa. A respect for tradition, history and family on both sides of the border. Some of the most charmingly quirky people you'll find on the planet. The bad: Reminders of the assaults on Indians by, ironically, the Buffalo Soldiers. The poverty in the Mexican side. The drug trade and its internecine warfare. Took my five year old son on a raft across the Rio Grande to a Mexican village, Santa Elena. No border formalities at all. No IDs, no searches, no passports, no guards, simply pay the guy $5 and he'll row you to another country and another culture. What does this have to do with BBR? Not a damn thing, simply a reminder that while $ is important, it isn't everything. And that's easy to say for me as I visited the remains of the cinnabar mine at Terlingua which yielded millions upon untold millions to its owner. The cinnabar [source of mercury] was discovered by my great grandfather but he screwed up his claim by selling it for peanuts. A terrific reminder to all BBRers that our financial lives are often ruled as much by chance as by design.