Loving New York In 1964 I made my first trip to New York City. I may have been here before that but at age ten I can remember the visit with my mother and sisters on a visit from our home in Middleton, Wisconsin. We drove there in our white Chrysler New Yorker, strangely enough. We went to see the World’s Fair, which proved to be especially significant to my view of the future…
The Eisenhower Cohort General Dwight David Eisenhower (a.k.a. Ike) was Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Forces throughout its existence. That is when we all know he guided the efforts of Operation Overlord 75 years ago and pushed for the reclamation of continental Europe from the clutches of the fascist Nazi war machine. The books and stories that recount those daring days are plentiful and we have almost all seen some version of the…
Teaching to Learn I am way too impressionable. Not like Trump, who adopts whatever posture he has been advised to consider by the latest person to talk to him. But when I hear or read something that strikes me as valid, I take it to heart and most importantly, I try and act on it. Yesterday, my wife and I were talking about how to keep track of things we need to do. She likes…
No Joking Zone I am a strong believer in the value of a sense of humor. To me, being able to joke around about things sets people at ease and helps to break down the hierarchical barriers that often prevent the level of open communications that are essential in good management. There are many cautionary signs these days about what one jokes about. Since many people create jokes that are either off-color or politically-incorrect…
While Rome Burns Back in 1989 I went to the Amazon on a side-trip connected to a business trip to Brazil. In the prior five years, I had been back and forth to Latin America dozens of times as I ran first the Latin debt crisis team and then built from the ashes the Emerging Markets Department of Bankers Trust. During that time Brazil was our biggest debtor at over $1 billion and one…
Jetsetting Blues Today is fly back to NYC day. We are big fans of JetBlue and their direct transcontinental service, especially their new Mint Service. It is as good as any international or domestic carrier that we fly (acknowledging that many of the Asian and Middle Eastern carriers are pretty awesome if you have mega-bucks). For some renovation reason JetBlue has been relegated for eighteen months to the old Terminal 1 at SAN and that…
Seeing Red I’m generally not inclined to link one story to another and prefer that each story stands on its own as opposed to being part of a series. So, while yesterday’s story is preamble to this one, you be the judge of its independence. Yesterday we bought a red car. We had decided in advance and together to buy a white car, which is really funny to me because I have a favorite and…
Controlled Falling Back in May when we were driving out of Death Valley I experienced the feeling of free falling as we descended out of the high desert to the valley floor. I wrote about it and likened it to parasailing down a mountainside. Today, I took a summer ride up up Palomar Mountain on South Grade Road (S6). It is a nine mile ride up from the Rt. 76, which runs along the base…
Hardballing The latest poll (indeed, a Fox News poll) about the general election in 2020 is out today and it stacks up Trump against all the leading Democratic contenders. The issue of who wins is not in contention with these polls. Ever since they began taking them in May, Biden, as the leading Democratic candidate, has gravitated between a spread of +2 to +13. Biden is currently at +12 (with three other candidates trouncing Trump…
Coping: If You Can’t Fix It On my flight to San Diego, the movie list included Brokeback Mountain. Between Heath Ledger, Jake Gyllenhall, Michelle Williams, Anne Hathaway and Randy Quaid, it’s quite a movie. It is, in my opinion, one of the best stories about the human condition that I can think of. When I went back several years ago to find the original book by Annie Proulx, I was surprised to find that it…