Top of the Wall Everywhere I look these days, I am seeing articles about one of two issues: homelessness in America and the crisis and the U.S. border with Mexico. It is sometimes hard to reconcile the two issues. On the one hand people from all over the world, especially Central America are finding the conditions in their countries intolerable and abuse for risking life and limb to get to the U.S. border to seek…
End of the Semester A semester seems to be an eternity when it begins. You look at the syllabus you have created for a course and you see something like sixteen weeks laid out ahead of you. That’s a something like fifty hours of class time lectures, hours of reading papers and grading exams, hunting for parking spots and lots of freeway time back and forth to campus. Then, before you know it, its the…
Duck, Duck, Goose It’s not completely random, but working with different lawyers on expert witness cases can be pretty hit or miss. As a hired gun, I am not in charge of anything in these cases expect the specific opinion that I am asked to render to support my team in the case. Like any lawyer considering accepting a case, I am asked to accept a case based on a minimal amount of research and…
A Benign Conundrum When I returned from my stint in Gulag Toronto, the assignment I was given in 1990 as punishment for presiding over a commodities merchant banking unit (I had been specifically asked to keep charge of it as I tried to wrestle the burgeoning global derivatives business to the mat during its adolescence) when it took a large loss on a supposedly secured cotton merchant loan. It turned out that the bonded warehouse…
Gearing Up This morning it is not yet time for me to emerge from my office cave into the light of day. I have spent five hours talking to an old lawyer friend getting some pointers about the Investment Advisors Act (the 40-Act, as it is called in the biz) as it pertains to an expert witness case that I am up to my eyeballs in and then putting it down in writing. Only a…
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…
Going to the Mountain I still feel new to my hilltop after three years here full time. It’s days like today that make me feel that way and stare in wonder at the beauty of the distant views. It forces me to remind myself that views may be one of the secrets to the universe. If you are a believer, like I am, that state of mind drives everything, very few things other than perhaps…
Bell Ringing We are only two weeks away from starting the official holiday season. I know I have discussed how much the season gets pushed forward on us by commercial interests and that’s all fine since we can each choose to ignore it if it offends us. But during Thanksgiving week, there is no avoiding the advent of Advent. We have our favorite holiday movies, which do not count the countless Hallmark movies that Kim…
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…
Being of Service When Kim joined the Hidden Meadows Women’s Club, she did so because she very much wanted to make more friends in the local community. She came back from the first meeting with a positive report that she felt there were many potential new friends to be had in the Club. One of the first things she did was to volunteer to have the next meeting of the group at our house. It…