Captain's Blog, stardate 3/22/07

NEW YORK (Fortune) -- MARKS: Wednesday was a nice day to buy in the AM, what with the FED and all. Dow up 159 to 12,447...still a ways from 12,845. Why was anyone surprised? Maybe it was hedge fund trading, a la how Jim Cramer explains it? Do you believe that subprime-itis is over? Do you believe in miracles? You and Al Michaels....hey, who's chirpin' about this one? "Tweeter will close 49 of its 153 stores..." Morgan Stanley (Charts) a mega-winner today, see below....

NEW ISSUE OF FORTUNE: Yup, I'm Green! We just put out "The Only Green Issue that Matters." And it rules. I LUV Susan Casey's cover story on Patagonia! Yvon Chouinard is just an amazing guy. Ditto re Nick Varchaver's story on Dupont. The big point here, and Marc (the heart is a lonely) Gunther explains this to us, is that green has gone from puttin' in some extra insulation in the factory to creating profitable and scaleable businesses based on green process and technology. How cool is that!

COVER STORY ON BILL FORD: I was just thinking back to that great story we did on Bill Ford by Alex Taylor a few years ago. And we've certainly covered Bill; and his company since, but that one sticks in my mind because of the Ford (Charts) recall and because President Bush has automakers on his brain. That and I remember the tremendous job Alex did and the access we got. (Thought I'm not sure I would do a cover story right now...) It's what we have always done and will continue to do at Fortune. It's cause Fortune Means Business! (Of course Bill's plans haven't always worked out. I remember some guy who went to Hotchkiss with Bill telling me that he "was a nice guy..." Kinda faint praise perhaps?)

SOUTHERN SWING: First of all had a great time in Atlanta visiting with Greg, John, Chrissy and Jane and everyone at JWT, especially Cindy! (Hey gal!) Lunch was super cool with you folks from Southern and SunTrust (Charts) and MindShare. How cool was it to hang out with Roger Staubach?! Is he the man or what? Loves Fortune, right?... Up in Raleigh, (with Lisa D!) you all at McKinney are super bad! (Brad & Co., you rock!) Ditto with the folks at SAS, (Hello Dr. Goodnight! You wild and crazy guy!) Lenovo (Charts), Nortel (Charts) and Rocket. Loved the food at An!

LOOSE CHANGE: Has Morgan Stanley been on the comeback trail or what. Who-wee Doggies!!! as Jed Clampett would say. Maybe John Mack IS the man after all (my bad John!) Great numbers in Q1, plus they got the $1.58 billion Ron Perelman verdict overturned. Amazing, tho' it will be appealed.....Deep Blue told me that McDonald's (Charts) is trying to stop use of the word McJob. Sorry Charlie!.....Congrats to Bethany McLean on getting some nice pickup on her super smart piece about subprime mortgages!......Mariah! You drive more carefully, here!?.....From CNN's Paul Amin: If you were the headline writer for a San Antonio newspaper, The Spurs had a 10-game winning streak going into last night...then they beat the Kings. What would your headline be? "This Winning Streak Goes to 11" Paulie also loves coincidences. His fav this week: "The Celtics were fined $30,000 by the NBA over what the league said was inappropriate contact between Danny Ainge and the mother of Texas phenom Kevin Durant.The two sat next to each other during the Big 12 tournament, which Ainge says was a coincidence." I'll be off next week, (Vaca, yeah!)