I’m feeling a little bit old today because my fourth baby, Stock Gumshoe, just celebrated its eighth birthday. Eight years of solving teasers, sharing thoughts, and defusing marketing hype… and it’s still such a cute little fella! I certainly never expected this to grow and get the attention of so many people when I sat down to share with folks the “secret” solutions to those irresistible ads from the Motley Fool, Stansberry, Louis Navellier and all the rest… nor did I expect that my unstoppable urge to solve these puzzles, uncover a little truth and sanity, and find interesting stock ideas would lead to me churning out thousands of words of blather, day in and day out, until my beard turned grey — and I certainly never expected hundreds of new folks to show up every week who wanted to read about it.

I am very humbled that this little endeavor has snowballed into a substantial community of investors who like to think for themselves, share their ideas, and toss aside the hyperbole to see whether the morsels underneath are worth eating… so, well, all I can say is “Thank you.” And no, this is not a retirement speech — as long as the teaser taps are still flowing like maple sap here on Gumshoe Mountain we’ll be gathering up the preposterous pitches, distilling the slurry, and sharing what we find with you. It may not always be sweet and tasty, but, well, hopefully I will continue to learn a little more each day — one never knows what opportunity tomorrow will bring.

See? I can’t even say “Happy Birthday” without chewing up two paragraphs.

Today I’ve got a few different things to talk about — I do have an “Idea of the Month” stock to profile for you because I think it’s gotten more interesting than it has been in recent years, and it’s a stock that gets teased as the “Next Berkshire Hathaway” every now and then (I don’t own it

)… and also a couple updates on my portfolio and on other stocks to share. The “Idea of the Month” this time around is Leucadia (LUK), and we’ll get into that in more detail in a moment — but first, a little hodgepodge of updates:

I know a lot of you are interested in Sandstorm Gold (SAND), and I am too — though ...