A Free-Standing Facility I was listening to a television advertisement for a private cancer clinic. I find it mildly distressing that there is a need for specialized cancer centers, but the need must exist if someone has spent the money to make cancer treatment a for-profit enterprise. I’m not sure what it says that these centers need to advertise. Do people with cancer want to be pitched? Isn’t cancer the infamous C-word which is not…
The Chill in the Air As I walked my 200 steps to work today, I was reminded that the winds in lower Manhattan get pretty crazy through the canyons of buildings. It is pretty much windy all year long, but today it was windy with a distinct chill of the impending season. It was sunny and the sky was blue, like waking up in the Dolomites or Alps in the morning, but the Weather…
OK Boomer I see the New York Times has just declared “OK Boomer” to be the war cry of Generation Z as it battles against the generational opportunity injustices foisted upon it by the Baby Boom Generation. I wrote of this in my Global Pension Crisis book in 2013, so I will except that here. We are living in what Esquire magazine recently called The Worst Generation: “The Baby Boomers are the most self‐centered, self‐seeking,…
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. …
One Fine Day Again I am staring out across New York Harbor at the Verrazano Bridge from my dining room table. It is the last week of October and we are an hour from sunset, so its that loveliest time of day. I wandered home, walking the entire half block along State Street with a pleasant breeze blowing. There is not a cloud in the sky and the water is just mildly choppy, just enough…
Taking a Day I am something in between a workaholic and a lazy bastard. I truly do not know which of the extremes is more prevalent. I know I have worked for forty-three years mostly non-stop. I had several instances when I could have and perhaps should have reasonably taken a break from work of something like six months. There was always something that drove me to keep working or, most often, jump into my…
A Little Bit City, A Little Bit Country Donny and Marie Osmond made A Little Bit Country, A Little Bit Rock ‘N Roll their theme song for their variety show in the 1970’s. It was driven by the schizophrenia of Nashville in that era. Mashing up music genres must have been an unnatural act. In today’s multi-pronged social-media-saturated world, I guess everyone has an easier time with mash-ups. As I headed uptown this morning in…
To Be or Not to Be I don’t know whether I want to work anymore. That sounds funny when I read that back. Work is one of those funny words that can mean just about anything. I was not a privileged kid (not that I was “underprivileged” either), so I did my share of manual labor jobs as a kid. Given a childhood interrupted by my mother going to graduate school for four years,…
Home Town Heroes Kim and Lennie put on a show last night. One from Indiana and one from Missouri, giving tribute to their home states and all the song writers that came from, lived in or happened through their home states. They also indulged their mutual love for New York City and its vast array of song material, by singing a few of those tunes as well. I would like to take a moment…
Forever Young When I wake up each morning, I take stock in how I feel. I’m pretty sure everyone does some form of this assessment consciously or subconsciously. This morning it has been conscious. To begin with, I awoke at 5:18 after sleeping since 11pm. My conscious mind said I should go back to sleep for another hour. When I awoke next at 5:34 I knew it that was all she wrote. I have…