Dick Sears Commentary:  Teddy & Chappy

The market seems to be resting, or maybe it's
the summer doldrums. Let's hope the bulls come
back from the beach soon. In the meantime,
here's a tale you might find diverting.

In 1965, my father bought a summer house on
a little island off of Martha's Vineyard. He was
looking for peace and quiet, and an island off
another island, what could be better? It takes two
ferries just to get there. The name of the island
is Chappaquiddick or, as some call it, Chappy.

His plan worked well, until July of 1969, when
Mary Jo Kopechne died in Teddy Kennedy's car
the night he drove it over the side of Dike Bridge
and into Poucha Pond after a late night party.

Say goodbye to Chappy's peace and quiet.

Teddy's alibi, produced after a suspiciously
long delay, was that he had been taking Mary Jo
to the Edgartown ferry and made a wrong turn.

It wasn't a convincing story. His "wrong turn"
required him to leave the paved main road and
take a dirt road going in the opposite direction.

It seemed obvious that they were going to the
beach for sex, which was probably more
damaging to Teddy than Mary Jo's death. If
there had been an innocent explanation, he
might have got some sympathy. Instead he
came across as a liar and philanderer. It may
well have cost him the Presidency.

A year and a half later, in March of 1971, I spent
a week at Father's cottage on Wasque Point.
One evening, as I was looking out over Katama
Bay, I saw several sets of headlights going
west along the beach. They never returned.

It didn't make sense. According to the maps
of the time, the beach was a dead end. It had
a cut in it through which Katama Bay met the
Atlantic Ocean.

The next day I set out to investigate. I drove the
beach myself, and I discovered with mounting
excitement that it never did come to an end.
I was able to drive right through to Katama.

It seemed the maps were out of date. Wasque
Beach and Katama had joined. Chappaquiddick
was no longer an island.

Wow!  Teddy could have claimed he was trying
to drive Mary Jo home via the beach. Her motel
even happened to be in Katama. True, he didn't
have four-wheel drive, but hey, it's late, we've
probably missed the last ferry, what the hell,
we'll let some air out of the tires and give it a try.

That could have been the innocent explanation
Teddy was looking for.

I told a friend about it, and he wrote it up for
New York Magazine, which put it on the cover as
"The Perfect Alibi that Teddy Overlooked." The
angle was that even with days to think it over,
the high-powered  Kennedy Brain Trust  had
missed an obvious solution to the problem.

Alas, after the article came out, several letters to
the editor pointed out that Wasque Beach didn't
fill in until a storm the following winter. As any
local could have told us, in 1969 there was still
a inlet from Katama Bay to the Atlantic Ocean.
You couldn't yet drive from Wasque to Katama.
Chappaquiddick was still an island. I had egg
on my face.

On the other hand, if my theory had been right,
the brain trust would no doubt have figured it
out, and Teddy might have become President.

Now that I think about it, I regret that I have but
one face to get egg on for my country.
 

The Market Day by Day

The week started well, but that's all you can say
for it. It looks like the August slump has arrived.
It's usually a bad sign when the GTI does much
worse than the NASDAQ, as has happened now
two weeks in a row.

Returns for the Week:
Gilder Technology Index (GTI):  - 2.0%
Nasdaq Composite Index (NSD):  - 0.3%
S&P 500 Index (S&P):  - 0.6%
 

Makeup of the GTI:
The GTI companies are those "Telecosm
Technologies" in the Gilder Technology
Report whose stock is readily available to
investors. If a company is not traded on the
NYSE, AMEX, or NASDAQ National Market,
it is not in the GTI.

This past week there were 28 companies in
the GTI.

Advances vs. Declines:
Among the GTI stocks this week, there were
6 up, 22 down, 0 unchanged.

Map of Chappaquiddick Today










 

The Year to Date



The GTI's Origin (1/1/99) to the Present



The GTI's Weekly Change, Last 52 Weeks



Trailing 3-Month Returns, Last 52 Weeks

 

The GTI fell 94.1% from its March 6, 2000,
high to its October 9, 2002, low.  Click here
for the details of its long recovery attempt.