Expert is as Expert Does Last night was a glorious last night in Rome for us after a little more than a week of enjoying the wonders of Italy. There were several things that made it so special, not the least of which was the venue itself. We had been invited by my Italian partner, Damiano, to join him at a restaurant owned by a childhood Palermo friend of his. That restaurant is on the…
All The King’s Men Every time I think we have finally gotten past the shadow of the Donald Trump presidency, something takes me back and I find myself thrown back into the desperation of feeling like I’m that poor inmate stuck under the thumb of Ida Lupino, who plays an evil warden in the 1955 film Women’s Prison. The horror of that film is less about what goes on physically in the prison than the…
Did Atlas Really Shrug? Who is Atlas anyway? We know, if we’ve been to Rockefeller Center, that he has the world on his shoulders. In mythology, he is a mere Titan, not a god, but a Titan, and he is tasked with holding up the sky and the heavens after he and his gang of Titans tried to overthrow the Olympians and failed. Failed coups are a bitch and there are consequences. Atlas must have…
Cut and Paste The expression of cut and paste has taken on a derogatory connotation. It implies a degree of laziness or casual composition. You cut and paste when you don’t want or need original thought. I think that is actually a very unfair characterization of what can be a true creative process. I write a lot. I write every day…usually several times a day. Sometimes I write stories for this blog. Sometimes I write…
The Departure of Prosperity Today I spent the day driving Kim, Thomas and me up to Pasadena to see Kim’s family. Before going I went for bagels and cream cheese and to fill up the tank of the car with gas. It’s 107 miles to our nephew’s house in Pasadena, and with the small detour through West Hollywood to see Gary & Oswaldo for a late lunch, we would cover 260 miles. At an average…
The Hanseatic League My vague awareness of Medieval History reminds me that in the Twelfth Century or thereabouts, the craftsmen of the northern Germanic countries of Europe gathered themselves into a massive and extended guild of sorts to protect their interests as they grew their commercial enterprises. This collective or union was called The Hanseatic League and it existed as a powerful business force in the region for several centuries. This confederation was put together…
Selling Real Estate I sometimes wonder if other people connect their psyches and tendencies to real estate the way I do. In it’s simplest form, real estate is about buying, renovating, holding and then selling. These are all very distinct phases, but they are phases that everyone must go through. The possible exception is that some people avoid the renovating part of the equation like the plague while others embrace it, enjoy it and perhaps…
Scam Artists I Have Known Yesterday the Geek Squad came and with much wrangling (mostly “not my job” kinda stuff), I managed to get my TV’s switched over from Direct TV satellite service to streaming (I have the Cox Cable Gigablast 1 Gbps service). I have Apple TV ($149.95 and already obsolete from what I can tell) on the Office and Guest Room TV’s. I have FireTV from Amazon ($29.95… what a deal) for the…
Trust as a Four Letter Word We have a convention in this country that only partially or barely exists in many other countries. We buy life insurance. Initially, it is sold to us (note that I say sold TO us as opposed to bought BY us or sought out BY us) as a responsible way for us breadwinners to ease our guilt with the dependence we have created for our families on our income earning…
The Savior of the Western World A few days ago I wrote about my startling realization about ESG as both a corporate policy and investment philosophy driver. That realization was that the corporate world is very quickly coming around to the view that ESG is no longer a “nice to do” and has turned convincingly into a “need to do”. And that tectonic shift in investment approach is forcing boards to take ESG and all…