Propeller Skies

Homecracka Ed G sent me Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails for Christmas. Having some grapefruit left over from a Hemingway Daiquiri* and plenty of maraschino liqueur, the first drink I mixed was the Seventh Heaven. Despite the grapefruit juice, this drink is disgustingly sweet - I almost spit the first sip out. After determining I mixed the drink correctly, I tripled the amount of grapefruit juice. This modified version of the Seventh Heaven was basically an Aviation with grapefruit substituted for lemon. Still too sweet.

Like the television show, this cocktail sucks ass. The Seventh Heaven is not recommended.

notes:

* A Daiquiri for men, not the strawberry bitch drink served at abominations like TGI Fridays.

This story starts, like most do, with recurring Propeller Skies character The Photographer. Or maybe it starts with Crunk B, who conned me into purchasing Der Pinguin. Or, the story could start with Paul Harrington and Laura Moorhead’s Cocktail: The Drinks Bible for the 21st Century*.

the set up

The Photogapher hooked a cracka up with a sweet cocktail shaker for Christmas. I anticipated mixing a few Martinis with it New Years Eve, while listening to music I want to hear and eating Cool Ranch Doritos in the comfort of my ghetto fabulous crib. So I stopped by Green’s for some supplies. Like every time for the last five years, I checked the liqueur shelf for maraschino liqueur. Could it be? Oh, hell, yes. Score! Maraschino liqueur was the last key ingredient** missing from my liquor cabinet. I had already obtained Plymouth Gin and more varieties of bitters*** than Atlanta has Peachtree Streets.

finally, the aviation

Made with only three ingredients, the Aviation is deceptively simple, yet mighty tasty. In the aforementioned volume, Mr. Harrington notes the Aviation has been described as a “Pixi Stix with a juniper aftertaste.” While not inaccurate, that description does not do the drink justice. Lemonade with a hint of cherry is more accurate. Tart and refreshing, The Aviation is Smoove as hell.

notes:

* Buy it, the book is worth the ducats. Of course I got mine while it was still in print for substantially less and will not be parting with it for any price.
** I am still looking for Amer Picon - if any readers know where to find it north of Macon, please leave a note in the comments.
*** Thanks to Ruthie for dragging one kind back from the frozen north.

Just so we are clear, internet, I have a few points to make about Access Atlanta and their corporate overlords, the Atlanta Urinal Constipation, before bashing David Graves. First, Access Atlanta is a neutered rip off of the far superior Creative Loafing aimed at bland suburban douchebags. Second, the Atlanta Urinal constipation as a whole is a poorly written pile of shit and is not worth the paper it is printed on.

That said, Mr. Graves faces the wrath of the Prizzo Skeezy for making completely retarded comments about Ghettoberry Hood. Mr. Graves asks the following about Castleberry Hill, “Being a burgeoning arts district, where are the coffeehouses, boutiques — or food marts for that matter?” Well, allow me to retort, Mr. Graves. The Coffee Loft is located at 322 Peters Street. Another coffee house, Tilt is at 274 Walker Street. How about actually wandering around the neighborhood you are reporting on next time, Mr. Graves? Or just firing up Google?

As for boutiques, try driving down Peters Street and looking - Urban Fusion is one shop that comes to mind. One block to the north on Walker Street are several small storefronts, along with the slightly larger Fog Armour.

The only thing Mr. Graves got correct is the lack of a grocery store.

Finally, Mr. Graves is a horrible photographer. There is no excuse for the flash reflecting off the glass in the poorly composed picture accompanying the article.

notes:

Original article: Star Shines On Peters Street. Visit Bugmenot to avoid the bullshit registration.

Yield, or revenue per car is another railroad performance measure I calculate. Because the capital and operating costs of rail are similar no matter if they are filled with raw sewage or gold, railroads with a higher yield are in a better position to put mad cash in their shareholders’ pockets. Keep in mind, since I am measuring revenue per car and not profit per car, management can fuck up and lose money while hauling gold. Conversely, a well managed railroad can make a nice profit hauling raw sewage.

So, if management will probably find ways to waste money anyway, why look for a high yield? Railroads with high yields and improving profitability may be turnaround plays. To calculate the yield, simply divide total revenue by the number of cars hauled. Cars hauled can generally be found under: volumes, volume and revenue, revenue table, revenues, or similar table headings. Searching for carloads or cars hauled also works nicely. Because I am lazy, I do not bother to subtract out non-freight revenue when calculating the yield. While this may be technically incorrect, revenues from operations other than moving shit around are generally a small percentage of the total and are therefore insignificant.

Now, for fun, I will draw a few conclusions from the above table. First, all of the railroads are clearly enjoying pricing power. This is obvious because yield has increased year over year for each of the railroads and current yields are all above the five year average. Second, Norfolk Southern (NSC) is far below the average industry yield for 2005, 2006, and the 2001 - 2005 average. However, alert readers will recall from railroad operating ratios that NSC has a better than average operating ratio that has improved dramatically over the 2001 - 2005 average.

To show how yield and operating ratio work together to determine profit, I subtracted the Operating Ratio from 100 and multiplied by the Yield for both NSC and CSX, its closest rival. Using this measure of profitability, NSC makes $324 in profit per car, or roughly 21 percent less than CSX, which makes $412 per car. If NSC were to increase its yield to the same level as CSX, say by reducing the amount of raw sewage hauled and replacing it with gold, they would make $502 per car in profit, or 18 percent more than CSX.

Yield is simply one performance measure. See also Railroad Performance Measures: Average Train Speed, the next article in the series, or Railroad Performance Measures: Operating Ratio at the beginning of this series.

I like railroads as an investment for the following reasons:

• Simple to understand - railroads move heavy shit from point to point;
• Macro-economic effects on railroads are easy to figure out - when the economy is good, people are shipping stuff, when it crashes, volume goes down;
• Efficiency, railroads use substantially less fuel to transport goods than trucks;
• Not affected by increasing traffic congestion; and
• There are only six Class I railroads in North America, making it simple to compare them.

Operating ratio is a key metric of railroad performance. It is basically a measure of profitability and shows the percentage of revenue used to operate the railroad. A lower operating ratio is better, as more revenue is falling to the bottom line or available to reinvest in the business. Over time, if the operating ratio is decreasing, the railroad is increasing profits. Railroads with lower operating ratios have more cash to reinvest in the business or return to shareholders in the form of dividends and buy backs. They also earn more for each additional dollar in revenue.

Despite being such an important measure, the operating ratio is easy to calculate. The operating ratio is simply operating expenses divided by revenue. Both items can be found in the annual report under the Consolidated Statement of Income, Consolidated Income Statements, or similar. This is generally at the back of the report to discourage investors from actually reading it.

A few conclusions can be drawn from the above table. First, Canadian National (CNI) has the lowest operating ratio, which is a sign of effective management. Second, Norfolk Southern (NSC) shows the most improvement over the five year average, a decrease of 11.9 points. This implies management has been successful at controlling costs and increasing efficiency. Additionally, NSC has the second best operating ratio of the railroads compared. Union Pacific (UNP) has the highest operating ratio, a sign of poor management. Their operating ratio, while improving on a year over year basis, is also above the five year average. This means management is getting worse over time. While CSX currently has the second worst operating ratio, they have the second highest decrease over the five year average at 10.1 points. For the industry as a whole, operating ratios declined from 2005 to 2006 and were well below the 2001 - 2005 average.

While important, the operating ratio is not the only measure of railroad performance. Several more will be posted in the future. Check out the next article in the series, Railroad Performance Measures: Yield.

Since this shit is boring, a little inspiration is in order:

notes:

Annual reports are available at the following web addresses:

• BNSF Annual Reports
• Canadian National Annual Reports
• Canadian Pacific Annual Reports
• CSX Annual Reports
• Norfolk Southern Annual Reports
• Union Pacific Annual Reports

Digging through annual reports and quarterly filings to analyze the fundamentals of a company is time consuming and rather boring. Because of this, retail investors often skip it, preferring to trade on tips from dubious sources such as their broker, neighbors in the next cubicle, or the internet. Analyzing fundamentals provides an edge to those who put in the effort.

A key to profiting in the market is knowing when to enter and, more importantly, exit positions. Buying low, when a company is trading at a discount to fair value, and selling high, when a company is trading at a premium to fair value, is much easier when fair value is known. Analyzing the fundamentals of a business is a way to determine the fair value of a company.

Financial reports only provide a picture of past trends and the current status of companies. However, based on those trends and macro economic assumptions, projections can be made that predict future company worth.

Another coffee shop, Tilt, recently opened in Ghettoberry Hood. Tilt is located at 274 Walker Street in a building previously occupied by a shady business. Said business often had folks of dubious background milling about in front of it, so the change is welcome.

Where the Coffee Loft is narrow and multi-story, Tilt is an expansive horizontal space with plenty of seating, wood floors, and exposed brick walls. While I enjoy the out of the ordinary set up at the Coffee Loft, I also dig being able to see the whole shop at once.

On my first trip to Tilt, I ordered a medium Mocha. While slightly sweeter than I prefer, the mocha was dope. On the second trip, I ordered a Machiatto with a hit of caramel. For Prizzo Skeezy readers familiar with Caramel Machiattos served up by Starbucks, Tilt’s are a whole different experience. Tilt makes their Machiattos correctly - a shot of espresso marked with frothed milk. The espresso was deliciously bitter, with the caramel at the bottom providing a nice counterpoint at the end. Tilt’s Machiattos are Smoove as hell.

In contrast to the Coffee Loft, Tilt is open in the evenings. Due to Tilt’s convenient hours and proximity to my ghetto fabulous condo, I suspect I will spend plenty of time there chillin’ like a villain. Tilt Coffee Shop is highly recommended. However, the Coffee Loft remains highly recommended and I will still patronize them when they are open.

Along with the Elliott Street Deli & Pub, The Coffee Loft*, located at 322 Peters Street, is a Ghettoberry Hood business I patronize regularly. The owner and his minions brew an excellent cup of coffee and are also super friendly. Espresso products are delicious, as are the tasty smoothies. My favorite Coffee Loft drink is the mocha.

Because the Coffee Loft is in a narrow space, the first floor is dedicated to the espresso bar, with limited seating. On Saturdays, the second floor loft is open and features comfortable couches and other chairs. While I recommend chillin’ like Bob Dylan in the loft, unfortunately, it features smooth jazz from a horrible station in Roswell. This is not an issue for me, as I always roll with my Iphone.

As per usual for coffee joints, plenty of cookies and pastries are available for sale. However, some of the tasty snacks at the Coffee Loft are vegan. While I normally consider that a bunch of tree hugging hippie bullshit, the cookies are excellent and taste perfectly normal.

A key issue for me is the Coffee Loft is open limited hours, from 7:30 in the morning through 2 in the afternoon on weekdays and Saturdays from 8 in the morning to 5 in the evening. More evening and weekend hours would be nice, as The Man keeps me down during the week. The Coffee Loft is highly recommended.

notes:

* No link provided, because they only have a retina destroying Myspace page, which makes my eyeballs bleed.

About a month ago, I joined the ranks of the doucheoisie and bought my ass an Iphone.

initial impressions

The coolness quotient is insanely high.

Setting up the damn Iphone was a nightmare. First, I had to wait forever to download a bloated new version of Itunes. Next, I swore at my computer while AT&T’s shitty activation page timed out twice during the set up process. After an hour and a half, I could finally make a call. Note to Apple: every other phone I have owned just worked the second I hit the power switch. None of this arduous set up bullshit. Steve Jobs is now just a low rent Bill Gates.

Already having an Ipod Photo, I figured the Ipod interface programmed into the phone would be pretty useless to me. Not so, I find it convenient to have my favorite tunes with me almost all the time.

The email features work well enough, however, this is not real push email like the Blackberry system. Also, every once in a while I am unable to send mail from my Yahoo! account on the Iphone.

the good

• Safari pwns - easily the best mobile browser ever;
• Google maps with traffic; and
• Text messages are stored as conversations.

the bad

• Internet over EDGE is slower than a motherfucking goddamn Dodge Durango. Seriously, what the fuck?*
• Syncing requires attaching the phone to my PC with an old fashioned cable, despite the fact that fucking Bluetooth is built into the motherfucking Iphone - syncing also takes for goddamn ever; and
• Fragile, I dropped it once from two feet off the floor and part of the touch screen went dead.**

to buy, or not to buy?

AT&T’s ultra slow EDGE network cripples the Iphone. At this time, the Iphone is not recommended.

similar products considered

I also looked at Blackberries, but since I was ineligible for an upgrade, one would have cost more than the Iphone. Treos were dismissed for a similar reason, along with their complete lack of coolness.

notes:

*Blackberries have 3G on real networks like Sprint and Verizon. Fuck AT&T. Bunch of bitches, anyway.
** The Apple store was kind enough to swap it out. Even better, the customer service person was a pretty slightly nerdy hottie.