Three Calls and Six Texts I don’t do business dinners much any more. There was a time when it felt like I had one every night. I’m not sure I remember which job had the most of that, but I’ll bet it was during my private banking days. That was between 1994 and 1999 when I was 40-45 years-old and my children ranged between young and younger. I mention the children because what you mostly…
Why Don’t He Write? We all remember Dances With Wolves, that wonderful Kevin Costner epic about life on the plains for a post-Civil-War soldier who befriends the local Indian tribe and realizes that they are better people than most western settlers he knows. Costner gets to his lonely and desolate frontier fort by means of a buggy ride from a noxious frontiersman who eats pickled eggs and farts loudly. He has one great line as…
Donna Azucar In 1974 I was a student at Cornell majoring in Economics and Government. My studies had taken a decided focus on development economics and third-world government. It’s not complicated, my mother was a UN diplomat living in Rome and serving as a director of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). She was the dominant force in my life, my role model, my muse. I assume I wanted to follow in her footsteps. …
Thick as Thieves Bankers stick together. The concept of a Club Deal and a Syndication were both invented by bankers. They love to hang together so that no one looks too stupid when a deal goes bad. Everyone likes to free ride on the other guy’s diligence or smarts. I should know, I was a senior banker for over forty years. And you’ve heard the expression “honor among thieves”? That implies that one banker would…
Limping Towards Greatness We all want to believe that the path to success is about moving in a straight line towards our goal, gaining momentum as we go and charging across the finish line with a building sense of certainty and satisfaction. That may happen for some people, but I would like to meet them. Success is far more often a four-cushion shot or even a random walk. I have even seen people accidentally…
Why So Serious? As of today, the fifth-ranked movie of 2019 is Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker, the non-Marvel prequel to the Batman franchise. I went with my youngest son, who has been addicted to the Joker character ever since Heath Ledger made it his swan song for all intents and purposes. The trend in movies has clearly moved to a combination of Disney animation blockbusters for kids and Marvel superhero blockbusters for adolescents. In fact,…
Downtown Bombshell Yesterday was another day of rest for me. I was enjoying being back home after three weeks away, so I just lazed around opening mail, sorting through motorcycle gear, organizing stuff, watching a bit of MSNBC to catch up on the news (though I must say these days none of us is further away from it than our smartphones) and waiting for our evening adventure. Kim had booked us for another SAG/AFTRA…
I Walk the Line No, this is not a piece about Johnny Cash, though I imagine that his song by the same name talks to a similar problem we all face in one way or another. And there’s yet another song title. What exactly is a line? Is it simply a demarcation or is it a barrier not to be crossed. Is it about providing guidance and directionality or is it a warning not to…
The Small Wide World I am in Milan for a series of meetings with a small private Italian chemical company that is partnering with us on a small pilot plant to make hydrogen and/or ammonia. I have combined this trip with my return from my motorcycle tour of Turkey, so it feels like a bit of a drawn our return home. Nonetheless, I am rallying to the mission. I met up with my two colleagues…
Whistling Past the Maelstrom We’ve been planning this trip to Turkey for a year. We have a group of motorcycle buddies (couples and stags) that like doing an international bike trip each fall. In the recent past we’ve done Croatia, Greece and Sicily. While sitting on a terrace in Palermo last October, we agreed on a Turkey trip for this year. It started to take shape in February, came together as a committed plan in…