Reefer Madness The 1936 cult classic movie Reefer Madness has been called one of the worst movies ever made. I suppose that is what made it a cult classic. It was produced by a church group as a cautionary tale for the youth of America to warn them about the hazards of recreational drug use (mostly marijuana) and how it could lead to harder drugs, personal failure and general societal malaise. In overshooting its mark,…
The Man with the Pan You all know by now that I am the proud owner of a like-new 2019 BMW R1250GS Adventure motorcycle. You also may recall that I am still stumbling around with the registration process out here in California (or even in New York for that matter) given the COVID-19 closure of all DMV facilities. Given what we all know to be the experience at whatever DMV we go to, it will…
The Ass in the Hat The sun did not shine, it was too wet to play, so we stay in the house all that cold, cold, wet day. I sat there with Kim. We sat there we two, and I said ‘how I wish we had something to do.’ And then something went BUMP! How that bump made us jump! And we saw him! The Ass in the Hat. And he said to us, ‘why…
Narrowing the Gap Filling gaps is an important part of healing. As I think about the world, writ large, as they say, I think about all the things that need healing right now. I feel compelled to address one of those gaps that I believe is getting more and more obvious and, as such, needs the fresh light of day in hopes that awareness helps to narrow the gap. Anyone who spends a moment looking…
Giveth and Taketh I have a complicated life right now for several seemingly silly reasons. The first involves my newly acquired motorcycle and the other involves my newly acquired car. Let’s start with the car. I have been leasing new cars for many years now. I am simply not a fan of residual value prognostication and much prefer to pay a budgeted amount over three or four years and be done with the whole affair.…
The Northern Star Polaris or Alpha Ursae Minoris, the brightest star in the Ursa Minor constellation, is the name of the celestial body which we have come to know as the North Star or Pole Star. As such it enjoys the “pole” position at the axis of the heavens. To some it seems to be the center of the universe since all the other stars appear to rotate around it. Of course this is just…
A Golden Opportunity Back in February when our two friends Gary and Oswaldo were staying with us for a few weeks, an interesting thing happened. One of the reasons they chose that time (literally right after we made our final escape from New York City) to come and stay with us was that Oswaldo likes to be helpful and he wanted to assist Kim in the moving preparations. He did just that. Oswaldo is an…
Ring Theory As I sit here watching the sun rise, I am, for some reason, unable to stay in bed much past 6:00 – 6:30am. It does not seem very dependent on the time I fall asleep and yet we do everything we can to keep the bedroom darkened against the dawn. Because I sleep with a CPAP machine (something I have done for twenty-five years ostensibly due to snoring, but likely now to ward…
Rocks in the Head I have always had a thing for rocks. I collect geodes. Lots of geodes. My favorite antiquities are pre-Columbian art, especially the pumice stone statues (one standing woman and two heads) and the pumice stone footed dish. The sculptures I have preferred to collect are usually a composite of rocks and metal. I have my Socrates in Ithaca and my buffalo here in San Diego. I think the reason I favored…
Getting Chile In 1985 I was sitting in our Chairman’s office with five other senior officers of Bankers Trust Company. I was 31 years old and had been with the bank for nine years. I made the first-line officer rank of Assistant Treasurer in 1978, Assistant Vice President in 1980 and Vice President in 1982. This was somewhat of a lockstep, but a lightning-fast lock-step if that isn’t too much of a non-sequitur. The career-track…