Doug Kass Desperately Reaching For Common Ground With Warren Buffett Right Now

Warren Buffett is shaking things up a little this year at the Berkshire Hathaway shareholder meeting. He's invited hedge fund manager Doug Kass, who is bearish on the company, to ask questions at the event.

Kass, for his part, has shown signs of looking forward to being in a crowded arena with tons of people that completely disagree with him. To smooth things over in advance, he wrote a few things that he and Buffett have in common for The Street.

Here are some of our favorites:

• Television appearances: Warren Buffett has appeared on "The Office" (2011) and on "All My Children" (1992 and 2008). I appeared on the quiz show "Tic-Tac-Dough" when I was in fourth grade.

• Nicknames: Warren Buffett has been known, alternatively, as "The Wizard of Omaha", "The Oracle of Omaha" and the "Sage of Omaha." Again, in fourth grade, I was known as "The Professor."
  
  
• Palm Beach: Warren Buffett experienced the snobbiness of Palm Beach, Florida, in 1970, when, at an excursion with his investment minions, he stayed at the Colony Hotel, which he called "a friendly family hotel that is friendly if you were the Kennedy family." I spent many nights at Palm Beach's Colony Hotel when I attended board of directors meetings at both DMG -- now named Danaher(DHR) -- and for the Home Federal Bank of Palm Beach located on South County Road in Palm Beach. I currently reside in Palm Beach.
  
  
• Early interest in the stock market: At the age of 12, Warren Buffett started buying stocks -- with his sister Doris as a partner, he purchased three shares of Cities Service preferred stock for about $38 a share. The stock tanked to $27 a share, and Doris reminded him every day that they were losing money. When it recovered to $40 a share, he sold, netting a $5 profit. Cities Service eventually soared to $202 a share, teaching Buffett several important investing lessons -- namely, don't fixate on your cost basis, be patient in your investments and not to take responsibility for anyone else's money unless you're was sure you'll succeed. My Grandma Koufax taught me the stock market when I was 15 years old. I spent my vacations as a teenager "watching the tape" in a small brokerage firm in Rockville Centre, Long Island. I bought my first stock, Teledyne, in 1967. I did better on my Teledyne investment than Warren Buffett did with Cities Service. But, well, he did better subsequently!

As you can see, this is meant to be humorous, but at least Kass is trying. Read more of his attempts over at The Street>