Worlds Colliding We have an interesting week ahead. Some of it was of our doing, some of it is due to the state of the world. And some of it is just random happenstance. But it all comes together to create a week that we feel the need to rest up this weekend for. So tomorrow is the calm before the storm…but not really entirely. I have another one of those expert witness cases that…
Deflated Balloons I have this digital picture frame on my desk that was given to me three years ago by my daughter as a clear message that I not forget her or her children as Kim and I moved away to our West Coast hilltop. The only people that upload pictures to the digital file that cycles through the digital device, called a Nixplay, are Carolyn and myself. It sits in the alcove where my…
Uber Chapter Two Tonight in my ethics course I happen to be doing the session I call “Truth & Lies” and it is meant to focus on issues like whether “Fake It Till You Make It” is ever an acceptable strategy in business. We use the Theranos case study with Elizabeth Holmes and Sunny Balwani as the poster children of the issue. It’s an interesting case for many reasons, not the least of which is…
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…
Checking Out I just read that a successful real estate development executive who lived in Los Angeles and was 66 years old (that would be a few years younger than me) came to the decision that life was no longer worth living, and he chose to voluntarily check out. The reason I was reading about it as a news item was not because it is an isolated incident or that suicide in today’s society is…
Pushing the Season During this first trip to NYC in over 6 months, we are staying at the Cornell Club at 44th Street and Fifth Avenue. All the university clubs (except, of course, The University Club, which is further up Fifth Avenue) are on 44th Street between Vanderbilt and 6th Avenue (Avenue of the Americas, for you tourists). There are many notable attractions very close to here, but one of my favorites is Bryant Park.…
The Show Must Go On I am sitting on a redeye flight to New York, headed to a show tonight that Kim is singing in. She has been invited to sing at the Cabaret Convention at Rose Hall of Jazz at Lincoln Center. It’s only one song and its a duet with her pal Lennie (accompanied by Steven), which is a long-time flying configuration for her performances, but it is Lincoln Center and it doesn’t…
The Ebb and the Flow The tides, as we all know, are a direct result to the gravitational pull of the moon, but there is actually a lot more to that. The tides cycle from high to low twice per day even though the moon only passes over any given spot on the earth once per day, so what’s up with that? My earth science training reminds me that the tides are actually influenced by…
The Boys Are Back in Town Unlike Fred MacMurray, I do not have three sons (aka My Three Sons, the Americana TV series that ran throughout the 1960’s), but I do have two sons and they are just about all I can handle. They are two dramatically different individuals separated by thirteen years and two separate mothers. I can triangulate a few traits that they each have based on their mothers’ characteristics, but I would…
The Plot Thickens I am going to tell a tall tale here that is, unfortunately, all too true, or as Madeline Kahn said in Blazing Saddles, “It’s Twue, it’s Twue!” As I take on my Fireside Theater/Nick Danger/Dashiell Hammett/Sam Spade persona, I can’t help but think of Woody Allen’s Manhattan Murder Mystery when he tells his wife (Diane Keaton) that if she doesn’t follow his orders to not go snooping in the neighbor’s apartment, he…