The Regulatory Tent I watched Brian Moynihan, CEO of Bank of America on Morning Joe this morning. I met Brian a few times when he was back running Fleet Bank. He is in Washington to go before Congress with some other bank CEO’s to talk about whether ten years after the financial crisis, banks like Bank of America are still too big to fail. Listening to him discuss the state of the financial services industry…
Life on the Tarmac Tarmac is a great word. It connotes so much more than macadam or asphalt. Tarmac says you are going places. It has an exotic nature to it that implies that something is about to happen and that its likely to be something meaningful. If you are stuck on the runway or idling on the asphalt, that sounds bad and wasteful. But is you are poised on the tarmac, you are about…
Beyond the Horizon I’m staring out over the ocean this morning from my room in Bermuda. It’s a beautiful sunny morning here with billowy clouds in the sky and the ocean this side of the reef is that special azure blue that we all amaze at when we come to such places. It is hard not to think about retirement when you come to a place like Bermuda because it is such a pleasant place…
Another Big Ass Fan My nephew and his family moved back to Southern California recently. As a young family with a toddler, they needed a transition living arrangement while they managed the move from Minnesota and wrangled the sale and purchase of a house. My sister, who lives nearby said it was going to be very difficult for her to put them up for that transition period since their home would have to be upended…
Mintless Mango Mojitos We are sitting by the edge of the pool at Elbow Beach Club on Sunday afternoon. It’s been a pleasant three days in paradise, and we will have dinner in Hamilton tonight, return our Twizy’s and depart for the airport in the morning. The pool barman has offered us any drink we want, so Kim ordered a mango mojito. There was an issue. It seems he was tragically out of fresh mint…
My Amigo Mike In 1971 I transitioned from high school to college by way of a summer in Cleveland. That was the summer the Cuyahoga River caught fire and the summer I learned how to fend for myself. I arrived in Cleveland from Rome, Italy, where I had lived for three years, skipping over the all-important Woodstock to Kent State years of American life. I promptly rented a room in a fraternity house on the…
Close Friends About fifteen years ago I was between marriages and more conscious than at most times about all my physical flaws. I was walking down lower Fifth Avenue near 15th Street, which was near where I lived on Union Square. I noticed a sign next to a door which proclaimed it the offices of Dr. Joyce Martin, M.D. – Dermatology. I had known a Joyce Martin in college. She was a peripheral part of…
Stranded In the movie The Endless Summer, the filmmaker documents a group of surf bums chasing the eternal wave all around the planet. I think the title and the poster were more famous than the movie itself. As I recall, the narrator sounded a lot like Warren Miller, the guy who made thousands of ski videos with similar narration. He, like Miller was the exact opposite of the people he was portraying. They were wild,…
On the Beach We have all been taught that the sun is not good for us. It seems that everyone my age has had some part of their face or neck trimmed of potentially carcinogenic material. We all know we should slip/slap/slop on the spf 30 gunk to keep ourselves safe. And yet, I still see the ads for the lovely beach resorts and want to go sit and frolic in the sun no less…
Planes, Trains, Ships and Automobiles John Candy was one of my favorites. I can rarely pass up a John Candy movie, but my all time favorite is that Thanksgiving classic, Planes, Trains and Automobiles. So when my lovely wife got all wierded out by the ASPCA commercial (she absolutely cannot watch them), I had to randomly flip the channel and it landed on PT&A, which was just starting. I’m writing this for two reasons. The…