Warren Buffett throws a party

Who knew?  Evidently Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway and billionaire, throws a fabulous shareholder meeting.

Now, if you'd never thought to put the word "fabulous" together with the phrase "shareholder meeting," you might want to check out the book A Weekend with Warren Buffett and Other Shareholder Meeting Adventures, by Randy Cepuch.  Financial writer Cepuch, wild and crazy guy that he obviously is, decided to learn more about a few companies in which he owned stock.  Five years and fifty shareholders' meetings later, he was able to write this amusing and actually quite informative review of their meetings.

Cepuch visited all the companies you've heard about: Berkshire Hathaway, Wal-Mart, Starbucks, Playboy; and a few you probably haven't, including Otter Tail and the Chalone Wine Group).  In addition to providing the inside story on these meetings ("At 9:40 Christie Hefner breezes in.  You can't miss her: She's wearing a brilliant white suit and has the bearing of someone who knows she must be 'on' at all times"), he also grades their informational content, their entertainment value, and their freebies. 

I can promise you that going to an open stockholder meeting is not my idea of a good time (I just barely understand the concept of compounding interest, after all), but reading about them was surprisingly festive.