The World Needs More Italians I am perhaps the least Italian-looking person you may ever meet. People might mistake me for German, Eastern European, Russian, Scandinavian and yes, I even get mistaken for being Jewish more often than you might think (must be the Eastern European shtetl look I have about me). But for the three years I lived in Rome, the many times I have visited Italy and spoken reasonably fluent Italian and any…
A Hallmark Card One of Kim’s favorite things about the holidays is to watch countless numbers of Hallmark holiday movies. Approximately 56 million people have access to the Hallmark Channel via their cable or satellite TV access. Since 2004, this cable channel has zeroed in on what is obviously a very powerful demographic. They really do two things throughout the year, produce and play holiday movies and mystery movies. I’m not sure why that combination…
Circling Around I recently took a motorcycle ride to to Mount Palomar with a friend in the neighborhood, Brian. Brian is 48 years old and has five kids that range from eighteen down to three. You don’t run into a lot of families with five kid anymore, but Brian seems blasé about that number of dependents, which is good because as I say to my kids all the time, “don’t worry, it’ll all be over…
Head Game I spent about five hours yesterday with my brother-in-law Jeff at his house. Jeff and I met seventeen years ago in 2005, the year I met my magnificent Kim. Since my relationship with Jeff only exists because of Kim (I’m not sure how, in a country of just under 300 million people at the time, I would have otherwise run into Jeff), let me digress for a moment and tell you how I…
Getting Pickled I have a funny relationship with pickles. I think it must have to do with PH balance or something. There are times I like them and times I find them very distasteful. If I’m going to have a hot dog, I generally prefer one with mustard and relish and relish is nothing more than ground up pickles, right? Maybe its the combination with mustard (something I believe Heinz may have combined and sold…
Influencer Hell A few years ago I read about a simple music teacher in South Korea that was eking out a living doing one-off music lessons. Then someone gave him the suggestion that he take his craft online and start leveraging himself by offering his lessons over the internet. The idea was initially about sourcing more clients through digital marketing, but also to create a network effect by allowing more students to access his supposedly…
Seeing Red Red has always been a controversial color. Red flags make bulls crazy. If you are especially angry, you see red. If you are an irresponsible driver you do things like run red lights. If you make a faux pas you might blush red. Redheads have been intriguing to men over the centuries for all sorts of reasons, most of which are too obvious and risqué to mention. If you exclude white, the most…
That’ll Do, Pig My old college fraternity pal, Doug, stayed with us with his wife, Liz, for the past few days. They came for a western trip to spend time in Phoenix, Sedona and San Diego. We had been inviting them to come out and stay with us for several years and they finally had the time on their dance cards to come out and make that happen. They timed it to join us for…
As the Ball Bounces This is the first morning since my return from New York City that I am feeling more or less normal and over my bout with a cold. Yesterday, Mike asked me if I was still on to go with him to his ballgame over in Carlsbad. To be honest, I hadn’t remembered that I had committed to a Thursday outing, but I do recall bugging him about when I was going…
The Uberization of Life I am just back from our five day whirlwind cabaret tour of New York City. We had Kim’s gig for the Make-a-Wish Foundation gala at Sony Hall on Thursday night (I was not-sleeping on the redeye at the time), the Mabel Mercer Foundation Cabaret Convention performance at Rose Hall at Lincoln Center on Friday night, the Those Girls show at the Laurie Beechman Theater on 42nd Street on Saturday night and…