Did Facebook public offering hype set it up for a perceived fall? SSFF?
Two penny-pinching hillbilly brothers are looking at a bad year. They were going to be eatin their seed corn. They decide to pool their resources and use their trump card - inside knowledge on the fastest running horse in Kentucky.
They decided to pool what money they had and bet it on the local horse. They were so excited that they got into a bit of a quarrel over who would go to the Derby and place the bet. They couldn't afford to both make the journey, it would eat up the bet and reduce their winnings. They flipped a coin and made a plan.
The winner would do whatever it took to go to the Derby as cheaply as possible. He was to beg for food, hitchhike and walk, to save every dime they had to bet on this horse.
The brother who stayed home wanted to know how he'd know they'd won? They didn't own a phone, they had been borrowing the phone of the local pastor. But they didn't want the pastor to know what they were up to - gambling. So they decided the brother at the race would just send a short text.
The day of the Derby, the brother at home waited and waited. Come sundown, he meandered over to the preacher's house, knocked on the door, and asked if there were any messages.
Sure enough, the pastor said. His brother had sent a short text...
"S S F F"
The homebound brother thanked the pastor kindly, but on his way home tried to ponder what the message meant. It was a little TOO cryptic. But the more he thought about the horse race, the more excited he got.
"Started Second, Finished First!" he thought! SSFF!
He got so excited he decided to welcome his brother home with a big party. He dragged out what was left around the barn, started a bonfire, broke out the moonshine, and invited all the neighbors over for the homecoming.
Sure enough, he saw his brother, hunched over, plodding back up the hill. But he didn't look too happy. As soon as he got into earshot, he started chasing guests away, taking away their drinks, and gathering up the food his brother had handed out. He yelled to his brother on the porch, "You dang fool, what are you doing? Why are all these people here?"
Shocked, his brother told him about the text message - Started Second, Finished First... SS,FF
"NO! You dang clodhopper! That was SSFF! Started, Stumbled, Farted, and Fell!"
(note: This summer I intend to weed out and take off line the weakest blog posts going back to 2005... the ones that SSFF.)SSFF is my inside baseball reference to a big announcement gone bust. SSFF comes from a joke my parents found absolutely hysterical back in the 1970s. The only other source I found for the SSFF joke, online, was the transcript of a performance in North Carolina by a negro singer, born in 1908, who was telling the joke in 1981.
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| See wikipedia for attribution of Tony McCoy's fall |
They decided to pool what money they had and bet it on the local horse. They were so excited that they got into a bit of a quarrel over who would go to the Derby and place the bet. They couldn't afford to both make the journey, it would eat up the bet and reduce their winnings. They flipped a coin and made a plan.
The winner would do whatever it took to go to the Derby as cheaply as possible. He was to beg for food, hitchhike and walk, to save every dime they had to bet on this horse.
The brother who stayed home wanted to know how he'd know they'd won? They didn't own a phone, they had been borrowing the phone of the local pastor. But they didn't want the pastor to know what they were up to - gambling. So they decided the brother at the race would just send a short text.The day of the Derby, the brother at home waited and waited. Come sundown, he meandered over to the preacher's house, knocked on the door, and asked if there were any messages.
Sure enough, the pastor said. His brother had sent a short text...
"S S F F"
The homebound brother thanked the pastor kindly, but on his way home tried to ponder what the message meant. It was a little TOO cryptic. But the more he thought about the horse race, the more excited he got.
"Started Second, Finished First!" he thought! SSFF!
He got so excited he decided to welcome his brother home with a big party. He dragged out what was left around the barn, started a bonfire, broke out the moonshine, and invited all the neighbors over for the homecoming.
Sure enough, he saw his brother, hunched over, plodding back up the hill. But he didn't look too happy. As soon as he got into earshot, he started chasing guests away, taking away their drinks, and gathering up the food his brother had handed out. He yelled to his brother on the porch, "You dang fool, what are you doing? Why are all these people here?"
Shocked, his brother told him about the text message - Started Second, Finished First... SS,FF
"NO! You dang clodhopper! That was SSFF! Started, Stumbled, Farted, and Fell!"
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