After getting my six-year-old on the bus one morning last week, I followed through on a plan to work from home in the morning and come into the office around lunchtime.
I'm glad that I did. And you will be, too.
I worked away in our quiet house with two companions - our border collie Sterling (named for my NASCAR hero, superspeedway maestro Sterling Marlin), and CNBC.
Sterling snoozed under a blanket, and CNBC - with billionaire investor Mario Gabelli as the guest host - provided a soothing background hum as I tapped away on my laptop out on the kitchen couch.
I've always liked Gabelli, currently the head of Gamco Investors. Given that I'm the co-author of a book called "Contrarian Investing," I'm sure you're not at all surprised that I was "schooled" as a value investor - and that I continue to have a value bias.
And Gabelli - as a Graham & Dodd disciple - is the prototypical value guy.
So when I got Joey off to school - and discovered that Gabelli was the guest host (after switching from SpongeBob to Squawk Box) - I immediately decided to work from home that morning just so I could hear "Super Mario's" latest views on the capital markets.
Even though I was focused on my Private Briefing column, I still picked up what I needed to with the TV on in the background.
But when they "teased" the fact that Gabelli was going to give viewers his thoughts on "two stocks that will double," I temporarily forgot about my column - and waited to hear what the billionaire value investor would tell me.
As it turns out, both his recommendations were companies that I'm very familiar with.
