I am quickly coming to the conclusion that it is simply getting too damn hard to pursue the American Dream in the way in which we have all grown up to know it. What I am talking about is independent, free-standing home ownership. There are many reasons for this conclusion, but I will start with one and ramble from there. This Dream is predicated on what used to be one of the key differentiators about…
Back in 1997, an informal group of us at Bankers Trust got together and decided to make some venture capital investments. I could say lots of profound things about how financially savvy we all were (we actually were somewhat), but the real issue was that we were all getting paid way too much and had too much money sloshing around in our bank accounts thanks to the excessive bonus structure we enjoyed in the banking…
After we moved to this hilltop five years ago, one of the things we felt the property lacked was outdoor lighting. I have always felt that good outdoor lighting does wonders to improve the look and feel of a nice property. A dark shapeless house is just that unless it is well lighted. I actually think a so-so house can be made to look like a spectacular house from sunset until midnight (assuming that’s as…
I spent the better part of forty years working in Midtown Manhattan. I started in 1976 reporting for duty at 280 Park Avenue (between 48th and 49th Streets), and was there almost to the end of the firm in 1999. The Bankers Trust building was a mainstay during those years when other banks like Manufacturers Hannover Bank, Chemical Bank, Chase Manhattan Bank and J.P. Morgan all went through mergers and consolidations with their offices swirling…
It’s only mid-November and we are seriously into decorating the house for Christmas. Most years that doesn’t happen until just after Thanksgiving, which is the traditional starting gun for the holiday season. I could give you lots of reasons why we have started to do all this sooner this year. Both Kim and I find ourselves having just finished big projects (hers a vocal concert and mine a series of expert witness testimonies), and the…
I’m sure I’ve mentioned how much I like certain magazines. My current favorites are The New Yorker, Sunset and National Geographic. The appeal to me of The New Yorker is less about life in the City and which restaurant to go to next than it is about the broader cultural messages it provides about everything from politics to literature to theater and music, as well as the current cinema and humor. I think of The…
I don’t think the world operates on a web of conspiracies the way some people do. I feel like the exact opposite is the case. I believe people are trying their hardest these days to make sense of everything that’s happening when the truth of the matter is most likely that there is minimal rhyme or reason to most of it. One of my favorite themes revolves around the fact that we live in an…
Every day is a new adventure. The great Chinese curse says “may you live in interesting times“. These times are nothing if not interesting. In 2017, as Donald Trump took the reins of government in his first presidency, we were all unhappy or surprised by many of his choices for senior cabinet positions, Bringing Rex Tillerson in as Secretary of State made us all wonder what was going on. Jeff Sessions as Attorney General was…
We almost live as close to Los Angeles as we do to San Diego. I think if it weren’t for the traffic in the LA basin, we might think of Los Angeles as our nearby city. Occasionally, and especially when we plan international travel, we look at the flights coming and going from LAX. It always surprises me when we can’t do considerably better either in terms of schedule or price flying out of LAX…
I believe that it will take a while to figure out the new normal when it comes to life in these United States. Last Wednesday was stage one of the cycles of grief. We were all in some form of denial. But then, in the next few days we have all mostly gone through denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance all in a jumbled mass of emotions. Actually, I feel like denial was really more…