Traveling to the Middle East Over my working years, I travelled extensively in the Middle East. It began in the late 80s, thirty-five years ago, when I went through the region to work on disposing of my bank’s $4B of Latin American sovereign debt. In some ways, it was the petrodollar surge of OPIC and the Middle East that had created the Latin American debt crisis of that age since those petrodollars, which morphed into…
A Trip to the Shore From my hilltop I can see forty miles of Pacific Ocean. That shoreline from Oceanside down to San Diego or even from Oceanside north along Camp Pendleton to Dana Point is arguably some of the nicest stretches of beach in the world. There is something about the beach in Southern California that is integral to the way of life. For us, while we occasionally take a ride over to the…
Revising My Life Today I spent the day sorting through all my personal effects here in Ithaca. I want to get this all done in two days so that I can avoid inflicting my triage activities on my daughter and granddaughters. I want them to throughly enjoy their last stay at this house and not be burdened by having to be constantly reminded that we are moving on. Nothing disturbs our dog Betty more than…
Deanship My friend Gary spent many years as a Provost of a number of Universities. The Provost is the chief operating or administrative officer of the university and is basically charged with the running of the business of the university. The President of the university is the top leader of a university, butt his job is far less administrative and far more about the primary mission of fundraising and making bigger picture mission or policy…
The Immutable Power of Nature I have pontificated on many subjects here and in general. Pondering the great truths of life is something I am prone to doing more and more the older I get. I think in some ways that is very natural, but in other ways I have an unnatural need to declare these great truths, not so much because I don’t think others have thought them before me, but rather because I…
When Work is Done Does everyone know the joke about the sex survey that ends with the question, “How many people have sex only once a year?” And the little guy in the back is excitedly waving his arms and when asked why that makes him so happy he says, “Because tonight’s the night!” It’s a classic, right up there among the best because its all about wrong-footing the audience and then surprising them. I…
Arresting Development Back one summer in the mid-1990’s, I spent the Fourth of July weekend in Utah. Joining us that year was my nephew Alex, who must have been in high school at the time. We had taken a side trip to Fort Bridger, Wyoming where I had stopped at a roadside fireworks emporium and bought some seemingly harmless fireworks to shoot off in celebration of Independence Day. When the day came and it was…
Independence Day Today was July 4th. My whole life, July 4th has been a very special day for me. It began in my memory when I lived in Costa Rica in 1959 and 1960. As expats in a small far-away land, we were invited to the U.S. Embassy Independence Day barbecue, which was herald each year on the grounds of the Embassy in San Jose. It was a special day and we used to make…
On the Wine Trail The Finger Lakes area was designated in 2018 as the best wine growing area in the U.S. That is probably surprising to those who have only thought about Napa and Sonoma as holding that honor, but there are lots of reasons that the area has become such a winery-rich area. At last count there are over 120 wineries in the finger Lakes, nestled amongst the eleven Finger Lakes (Canadice, Canandaigua, Cayuga,…
Trashing It When I got my first vacation home back in 1987, it was a newly-built cabin on a three-acre wooded hillside in Hillsdale, New York, on the borderline of being in the Berkshires. The Berkshires (Egremont and such) were more toney and more expensive and this was my first vacation home. I paid cash for it and did a lot of the furnishing and fixing up myself. I had three local brothers who should…