Poker 101 - Watching the Game

I retired at 54. I spent most of my life - in a medium business environment - negotiating purchases and sales of business...Someone once asked me if a guy from a big city comes in with 3 or 4 suits sitting around the table, for their client - isn't it a bit intimidating? My answer, no, not at all - they are the easiest to win over - because they have to leave the table with a deal - and they are willing to compromise the most - you just stand pat - they have to come across the line, after they try to intimidate and humiliate everyone on the other side to divide - the other side...if they feel they have accomplished the "divide" - they stand up and tell you that this deal isn't going to work - you now know you have the "hook set" you relate in a very calm response - "well, let us know if you decide to continue - and thanks for your efforts in coming" ...They'll call you within hours or a day or two, and want to revisit the deal....sorry for all this bull shit - How does this pertain.

Steven Balmer and Jerry Yang vs. Carl Icahn -children with 300 suits standing around - and a master - who is supported by friends - basically sitting alone on his side. Balmer and Yang, with California High School Attitudes - and Icahn - who just sits there, waiting for 302 men and women to exhaust every suburban and Golf Course attitudes toward - Business Surgery. This is all Very Big Money - don't confuse money with brains!

News, late Friday:

News emerged late yesterday that the Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) proposal to Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) a would be to buy, its search business and have the portal keep its content operations and sell its foreign investments....The Wall Street Journal, “Microsoft didn’t indicate how much it would pay under the plan...One school of thought is that the money could be used for a share buyback to raise Yahoo!’s stock price...It would require some perverse logic to see how the deal would benefit Yahoo! beyond an initial infusion of cash......If Yahoo! is left with nothing more than a content business, Wall Street would have to wonder whether the company could generate any meaningful operating income at all.....

Why then......are they trying to negotiate for this "Gorgeous Piece of Ass"...Because "The Mark" Needs (Wants Her!) The Pimp, Jerry Yang, doesn't want to be embarrassed in front of his Silicone Vally pimp friends - Icahn is patiently watching.....as professional poker experts, Relate "If you want to learn how players work the table, don't be in that game - your observation will be keener.
What does each want:

Balmer wants Yahoo
Yang - wants to relieve his embarrassment.
Icahn wants $34 or better for " the bitch", and is patiently waiting for the other two to exhaust their positions.

"God tells me that when he wants to teach everyone a lesson he picks a wonderful surrounding and fills it with a story to spin. He carefully selects the protagonist, the antagonist, the victims, the martyrs, and the bystanders who will say their peace. Then he leans over and whispers in my ear..."my most careful selection is in the people I choose to remain silent...for they are the "chosen" who will reap and will be regarded." - paul peachin, Chapter 3, "Last Man Standing" a book yet to be finished - 10 years in progress - probably never to be finished.

While we are on the subject of writing - My Bible is "The Elements of Style" by Strunk and White. I am currently reading "On Writing" by Stephen King - which I will add to Strunk and White - S & W is about sentence structure. King is about Follow Through. A few of King's thoughts:

Always trust the Editor
If you don't get "grammer" you never will
You can't force yourself to write - "it" has to come to you - like magic.
You still have to sit down to write, like opening the door, painful, then it comes or it doesn't - that's where it becomes "force" or follow through.