Recommendations

I wish all our little speculations had quintupled over the last year or two, as HYMC has done (and yet I’m still holding two-thirds of my shares).

In the meantime, though — while I hope for great things from PRKR and ANIX and CNF and OPRT and RNGE and VERU, among others, all to be purchased only with money you can truly afford to lose — I have some other things to suggest:

BROADWAY

I’ve previously plugged Just In Time and Chess if you can squeeze Broadway into your budget.

Let me now add one more — Spelling Bee — and happily echo the New York Times: “TENDER, JOYOUS, BITTERSWEET, and VERY, VERY FUNNY.”

I had never seen the original (and have never attended an actual spelling bee), so when four participants were called up from the audience last week (only the last of whom I recognized as a star, Daniel Radcliffe), I was wondering — “Wow. Really? They could be selling those four seats rather than wasting them on cast members — and wait! Why aren’t they advertising Daniel Radcliffe?!” (I was wondering these things because I am a small investor in the show.) But it turned out they had sold those seats. All four were paying theater goers who only upon arrival had signed the nightly volunteer list to get up on stage. So every night’s performance is a little different, with different jokes — and I can’t wait to see it again. It is, indeed, very, very funny.

AUDIBLE

I’m not a runner, but The Running Ground was given lots of stars, even for slugs like me, so I figured I’d give it a try. And finished in less time than it would take me to walk the marathon (if I would ever walk that far, which I never have and never would). The last time I ran was 33 years ago, from the Waldorf Astoria Hotel up to and around the Reservoir, with a Secret Service detail. I embarrassed myself too thoroughly to elaborate here, except to say that in the seventh grade, preparing to sprint 100 yards, Coach Athans told me to lean forward and run on my toes. He forgot to mention that this works for sprinting only — so for the next 34 years, up until my final run, that’s in fact how I ran any distance, building calf muscles the size of unabridged dictionaries.

I digress. I finished listening to The Running Ground over a series of a few power walks, eager to recommend it to runner friends of mine — and non-runners alike.

LATE-NIGHT

Lots of presidents have been known for their senses of humor; and we have elected some dim bulbs. But have we had a buffoon before? Seth Meyers takes a closer look.

60-SECOND SPOT

Daddy — How Was Your Day?

Have a great weekend!

I increasingly believe we will, in fact, be able to save our democracy.