Kabam!

Saturday morning and Sonnet and the kids in Oxford with Nita, Alain and the three zeds.  Last time together was a blast off.

I do the usual stuff a fella does on his own : stay up late watching TV, sleep in, and go to the office where I should be doing my US tax returns but instead catch up on two weeks of missed work.  Rusty keeps me company.  The building otherwise empty which suits me fine.

Me: "Who is more strict, me or Nita?"
Eitan: "Nita. You should have heard her yell at Zebulan when he left his retainer in his glass at the pizza restaurant . .."
Madeleine: "Definately Nita."
Me: "Good to know there's room for me to improve."
Madeleine: "Oh, Dad.

Burqa

On the Victoria Line.

The burqa is not common nor unusual in London : it depends on the area.  The Edgeware Rd (where the eZoka offices once located) for instance has a large Muslim community complete with the Islamic Bank and the Beirut Express restaurant. Older Women often covered while the next generation less so.

The burqa has caused debate in the UK with former Home Secretary Jack Straw asking Muslim women to remove veils covering their face in face-to-face meetings with him. He explained this was a request, not a demand, and that he made sure that a woman staffer remained in the room during the meeting. A media furor followed, of course. A 2011 poll indicated 66% of British support a burqa ban in public places. This has been ruled out by the Conservative-Libs and previous Labour govt (In France, then President Sarkozy said: "we cannot accept that women be prisoners behind a screen, cut off from all social life, deprived of all identity.")

I initially found burqa's shocking and now just strange : in London, everybody welcome so why not ? The bandar (a metal face mask often worn with the burqa) however disturbing : I think of something from Dune.

The Olympics Are Coming !

Madeleine after hours.

We anxiously brace ourselves for the Olympics, which begin in five days. The weather seems to take a turn for the better : a breathless weatherwoman announces "Jet stream moving north!" offering, just maybe, a break from the last four months of floods and record breaking rainfall.  To the organiser's credit, I receive multiple emails on how to navigate the city during the games (in a word: don't) while others warn us to avoid the 120 miles of central London roadways set aside for the Olympic Committee (absurd) and athletes or receive a £130 fine.  Adding to the fun : Heathrow border control agents taking "industrial action" the day before the opening ceremony or the busiest day at the airport ever. The police remove a bagel display of the Olympic rings at a local bakery on the torch route "sponsorship violations".  Then the security freak out : Bring in the army! Surface-to-air missles on council house rooftops !  Even Bruce Springsteen, jamming with Paul McCartney, shut down when their Hyde Park Olympics celebration concert went past the council end-time.  Where is the British sense of humour ?

I think it is going to be a hoot. Britain will organise itself, as it always does , and the games will be a success.  Longer term, whether the Olympics Stadium will pull the city center Eastward, well, that remains to be seen.

I lie on my stomach, naked; Sonnet gives me a back message.
Eitan enters our bedroom without knocking: "Arrgghhh!!"
Me: "What's the big deal?"
Eitan: "Put some clothes on Dad!"
Me: "It's my bedroom for Pete's sake. As for disgusting, you should have seen yourself at three.. Now that was gross."
Eitan: "But I was just a baby."
Me: "I'm just saying."
Eitan: "Just don't roll over whatever you do."
I move to roll over.
Eitan: "No, don't! Don't!"

Leavers Party

Y6 Graduation

Eitan's graduation ceremony takes place in the school auditorium, built our first year at Sheen Mount seven years ago and named after Tim Berners-Lee, who attended the school in the '60s.

Watching Eitan receive his recognition makes me think back to my sixth-trade exit ceremony from Longfellow grade school, where I very nearly was not allowed to participate. That morning I let off a stink-bomb on the orange school boss, crystallising the simmering wrath of ancient bus driver Gloria who hated trouble makers and most especially me (usually seated in the last row). This was no ordinary stink bomb, either : in an air-sealed film canister I mixed burnt rocket fuel and hydrochloric acid separated by aluminium foil; once turned, the HCL burned through the aluminium, reacted with the sodium elements creating pressure and - pop! - the thing blew emitting a remarkably noxious smell. Today the bus would have been evacuated and I would have ended up at the police station. Since this the 70s, Gloria opened the windows and carried on, glaring at me through gritted teeth, assuming,, correctly, that I had done the deed.

Once at Longfellow, the kids filed from the bus while my exit blocked: straight to the principal's office. Mrs Faulk a large African American who who wore African native garb and large jewelry and scared the bejesus out of us kids; I sat expectantly, anxiously, awaiting my punishment. The law came down hard : no graduation walk. In my classroom a buzz surrounded my mis-deed and my teacher, the lovely Mrs Riles, devastated : I was her most earnest student, after all. Riles marched me back to Faulk's office where they conferred and I cried (knowing my parents would be in the audience). Faulk relented and I participated.

I recall like yesterday the ride home : I stared out the backseat window of the Volvo 544 as the houses went by knowing I was really in for it later. Secretly, my mom told me later, she and my father rather quite proud of my chutzpah.

Year 5 Celebration

Madeleine celebrates her departure from Sheen Mount with a few best friends. She will miss her final year at Sheen Mt entering Hillhouse for year 6. Friend, teacher and parent reviews are glowing.

Madeleine themes the afternoon around "clay building" and the kids make faces, monsters, worms .. usual stuff (below, one of hers. The head comes off to reveal a secret hiding place). From there it is an hour of football while I cook burgers then dinner and desert (sugar high! sugar high!) . The parents linger over rosé . Our gal is moving on to her next big adventure.

Customer Support And Spider Man

The friendly people at Eric's telecommunications company keep Eric on hold 15 minutes.

I catch Eric in the midst of everything : programming educational maths with the head of the Arizona math department funded by the Bill and Melissa Gates Foundation ; co-authoring and editing another Calculus text book; shopping for groceries, ripping out tarmac and being a newly wed while his kids grow up : Ben to college in August to study applied math (with a full scholarship); Jonah in to modern theatre (football long gone) and Isabel at horse camp. Phew. We troop around Cambridge looking for a cable for his internet which takes us to Harvard Yard where we sit and watch the commotion.

Eric helps me out re Spider Man and the Hancock Tower (from Samruby.com): The story opens with Spider-Man racing to Kennedy Airport to catch a flight to Los Angeles.The Daily Bugle is sending Peter Parker to L.A. to document the end of the Champions. He goes to the downtown high rise that served as their headquarters. Construction on the building hadn't been completed when the team called it quits. Because of those construction issues, two large panes of glass pop out of the window frames and fall to the street below. One of them falls directly for Peter, who is lost in his own thoughts as usual. The Angel sees the incident and flies out the window. He's able to divert one pane, but the second one continues falling toward Peter. However, the combination of his spider-sense and his superhuman leaping ability enable him to move out of the way.

Back Bay

Let's see.. .catching up on my blog from last week. From Park avenue to Berkeley St where I join Tony and Susan and admire the view from their roof deck, pictured, enjoying dinner and drinking white wine on a cool summer evening.  The sun sets over sailboats in the Charles and across the river is MIT.  They live in one of the only NY style condominiums in Boston and keep the 6th floor. Every window has a similar impressive view.

The John Hancock Tower : Inventing a way to use the blue mirror glass in a steel tower came at a price. The building's most dangerous and conspicuous flaw was faulty glass windows. Entire 4' x 11', 500-lb windowpanes detached from the building and crashed to the sidewalk hundreds of feet below. This used in an early Amazing Spider Man comic but I cannot find the issue doing a web search. Spidey saved the day of course.

Park And 61st

I assume this fellow, caught on Park Ave in front of the Regency, walking home from work, 3:45PM. Though he could just as easily be returning from the drug store.  At First Boston we had a similar guy : Paul Miller, who was from the olden days of investment banking before Salomon Brothers and the trading floor blew it up (and nearly destroyed the economy - but I digress). No, Miller was in his 70s and at the tail end of his, presumably, illustrious career.  He kept a corner office in PAZ (largest on the floor) and his ancient secretary would shuffle by the analyst bullpen without a nod nor hello, 10:30AM sharp, 15-minutes before Miller (Her day concluded five minutes after he left).  

I met Miller a few times in investment committee meetings where he was always impeccably dressed and rarely said a word.  Once, he stopped the table, surrounded by 15 or so of the firms most sr investment bankers, by noting: "These valuations are based on future cash flows. How the hell do we know what that means?" The conversation resumed following a respectful pause.

While I am far from contemplating retirement, I see some of my business school friends who are already into theirs.  How does one transition from work gracefully in this day and age, assuming one would wish to work indefinitely, as I do. The new economy, at least for MBAs, based more on capital flows and relationship services than hard-earned skills; most of us want it rich and want it now which is not necessarily a satisfying long-term strategy even if successful somehow.  Law is one profession that does it right : lawyers gain respect as they get older. Same as the Japanese.  

Me, I would like to go like "Uncle Ed" who I met at the Benjamen Moore paint shop in Providence, RI , in the summer of '87.  Uncle Ed in his 80s and helped around the store, always with a smile and friendly word to us painters. He loved his job.

First Office, First Love

Katie's new office - woo hoo! - on Varrick St in a converted art-deco warehouse. It is a busy place with lots of young companies and young people. Free coffee. A keg on every floor. I park for the day and do some emails and other things that qualify as work in the  new-new economy.

New York was a by-lane during the first Internet boom-bust with its lame-ass "Silicon Alley" magazine and bunko companies like Novic Media and Bolt.com. But now, well into Web 2.0, Manhattan seems loaded with tech media activities. There are some good vc's, too, like Union Square which has backed tumblr and Twitter. Still, the Big Bucks remain in SV: FB alone accounted 20 percent of California’s personal income growth for the 2011/12 calendar year). It all makes me kinda itchy - like itchy to be in the game.

I watch a riotous MTV program 'Friendzone' where a college dude prepares for a blind date with assistance from his best female friend .. . only the best friend is his love-interest, and he asks her out instead. It's kind of like Candid Camera and I am surprised how emotionally raw these poor kids are (She: "I am likes totally shocked. I totally did not expect this. It's so sweet." He: "So where do you think it's going to go?" She: "Well , um, oh my God I don't know"). Still , I am watching (between ads for 'female pads' and Kit Kats). I think of Ben and Jonah.

"Oh my god. Losing him would be like losing my right arm and starting over. Without my arm."

--Cheryl on MTV's Friendzone

The Coffee Man

This fellow mans his stall on 41st and 5th across from the NY Public Library - 6:45AM and he serves his customers with enthusiasm and watches the others go by.  We shake hands after I take his picture.

The CFO

Brian and I once worked together on Wall St. We have remained in contact periodically and through Christmas cards. He is now the CFO for HSBC North American responsible for the group's global investment portfolio or about $80 billion of balance sheet assets.  Brian tells me that following '08, the portfolio down to $30 billion but, since he joined two years ago at the behest of the CEO, things have improved. I am not surprised.

Lower East Side

Katie and I find our way to Chinatown, home to the largest enclave of Chinese in the Western hemisphere. We eat some Chinese food.

Afterwards I am drawn to Columbus Park, at the end of Mulberry St, by the sound of Chinese ceremonial gongs; confusingly there are four 'orchastras' performing ancestral music with men and women singing (to my ear) off-beat . (Katie: "Maybe they are telling a story") The green is completely unexpected surrounded by toy shops, vegetable stalls, an uninviting hotel, tenements and restaurants. I spy this clever dude gambling.

The park built on Five Points’ "height," famous in the 19th century for its population density, disease, infant and child mortality, unemployment, prostitution, violent crime, and urban destitution . It's only rival : certain neighbourhoods of London's East End. I find about everything in NY beyond human scale.

102

What's Up, Girl?

Katie and I by the Beacon Theatre - I think she is checking out what is showing.

In Londonberry, Eitan is "Coach's Player of the Year" for the Elm  Grove All Stars which, dear reader and for posterity, finished 4th in the Premiere Elite Division of the Surrey Youth League.  This is like football central with hundreds of teams competing across the 'home county' in various age classes.  It is nice to observe Eitan's recognition since he now plays defensive-back and often outside the limelight.  He is a safe pair of hands (feet) though, and Coach observes "he never makes mistakes". I enjoy seeing him part of the team, modest, getting his bit done and building some confidence.  It is what sport is all about.

"A hundred times have I thought New York is a catastrophe and 50 times: It is a beautiful catastrophe."

--Le Corbusier

New Yawk

I arrive in Manhattan for a week of meetings and catching ups.  And it is hot as hell.  Katie and I walk from 104 St to Worth Street or about 120 blocks or six miles.  A highlight the highline in the 20s and teens which winds its way through Chelsea.  Here we are on B'Way entering Times Sq. Sean John - or whatever he is called now - still pulls (see 20 story billboard behind me).

"The island. The island belongs to the devil."

--Crazy man on the street

Walmart Turns 50

Eitan at Walmart USA in April.

Having experienced the 200,000 SF mega-store at 7,000 feet next to Evergreen, Colorado (population 9,038), I was interested to learn a few facts : like Walmart employs 2.2 million people or third most in the world after the US Dept of Defence (3.2 million) and the Chinese army (2.3). Walmart crammed with useful stuff from coca-cola crates to deer rifles all priced to shift and the economies work : who can compete ? Local shops sure can't. For every two jobs made by Walmart, an estimated 2.8 jobs killed - I sure saw this in Montrose whose charming High Street slowly gutted.  But is this such a bad thing ? Walmart makes life cheaper , if less pretty. This is an American business success story.

No, the thing I find difficult about Walmart is that 67% of hourly wage-earners are women and less than 15% of Sr Managers are women. 4 of 16 board members are female.  In the 1980s State Farm Insurance, the largest insurance provider in the US, argued that women did not want the high-paying jobs : 97% of sales agents men while over 2/3 of the assistants and secretaries women. It took Guy Saperstein's civil class action to change that - now agents are 50-50 male: female with State Farm's CEO reporting the quarterly ratio to Saperstein and the overseeing judge for years after the judgement. Walmart needs the same kick in the can.

All datas and sources at sumofus.org/post/walmart-at-50

Quick Test

In one of the creepier images, the Shard opens with a laser display that makes me think of "The Day The Earth Stood Still." (photo from Getty)

Sitting around the breakfast table, Eitan, Madeleine and I take the abbreviated test required of those seeking citizenship administered by the UK Border Agency. Of 15 questions we answer five correctly. Questions include 1) Who was the first PM of Britain; 2) What are the countries that make up Great Britain; and 3) who was the first Norman King of England?  Eitan nails Boubicca, the she-male warrior who helped defeat the Romans.  Thank goodness for me and Sonnet that our citizenship application, in 2003 after six years in the UK, required simply a pledge to the Queen or to God (I chose the former, Sonnet the latter).  Six weeks later, the papers arrived.  Eitan and Madeleine also received passports. Unlike in the US, being born here does not count.

Me: "I got us a few books."

Madeleine: "That's nice Dad."

Me: "Let's see, 'The English Civil War,' by Diane Purkiss.  'The Tudors, Henry VII and Henry VIII,' by C. J. Meyer"

Madeleine: 

Me: "'The Gunpowder Plot' by Alan Haynes. 'The Scourging Angel, The Black Death in the British Isles' by Benedict Summer."

Madeleine: "I'm reading 'The Great Brain."

Me: "Which one do you want first?"

Madeleine: "I've already got a book Dad."

Me: "How about if we start with the plague. That's probably pretty good."

Madeleine:

Me: "Definately the plague. I'm going to read that one first."

Madeleine: "I'm going to finish 'The Great Brain Goes To The Academy.'"

All In The Gang

I take Rusty to work today and realise I am with him all day.  My beloved companion as the kids reject me.

I take Eitan, Jack and Joe to football practice. As I usually jog during this time, I wear my running tights which puts the boy on high alert ("Dad will you please take those off").  On the pitch, after my run, I stretch ("Dad please don't do that OK). I sit with the dog and watch the boys train ("Can you go farther away?").  I take it all in stride though and this is only the beginning.

Eitan: "I always wonder why Scooby Doo and Shaggy eat Scooby snacks. Why Shaggy?"
Me: "What are you boys doing this summer?"
Joe: "I'm going to Ireland for a week, then we are back for the Olympics and then Spain for two weeks."
Eitan: "We're going to Italy!"
Jack: "I'm going camping."
Me: "Cool. Is your brother going?"
Jack: "Nah."
Me: "Why not?"
Jack: "He can't be bothered. He's too busy partying."
Joe: "Party, party, party."
Me: "Like what's that mean? What does he do?"
Joe: "Party. Like hang out with girls and stuff."
Me: "Sounds fun."
Jack: "I guess."

Date Night

This groovy couple, who I spy in Mayfair, somehow capture London's mood : on the move, full of confidence.  Rich.  The city's time will inevitably pass but for now, it remains all that.