Year: 2015

I like when my friends do well:

I. CHARLES

Did you see the fight?  Me, either.  But my friend Charles Harbison won on points:

ELLE: “Beyoncé Wore A Majestic Caped Jumpsuit To The Mayweather-Pacquiao Fight”

Lots of celebrities and athletes turned out to watch Saturday night’s hotly anticipated fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao but none looked so regal as Beyoncé in a fire engine red custom caped jumpsuit by Harbison.

VOGUE:  “Beyoncé and Mary J. Blige Were the Fashion Heavyweights”

Beyoncé opted for a Studio 5—style cardinal red Harbison jumpsuit with a blazer, providing a dramatic cape-like effect: Overall the look was a stylish alternative to the traditional evening dress. Thinking along similar lines was Mary J. Blige, who showed a hint of skin with an asymmetric jumpsuit from Valentino with a jaunty scarf-like accent.

VANITY FAIR:  “Beyoncé Looked Ready to Join the Avengers at the Mayweather-Pacquiao Fight”

Not to knock Nicki Minaj, her fiancé Meek Mill, or an exquisitely tuxedoed Jay Z, but if you’re going to show up to the “fight of the century” on Avengers: Age of Ultron opening weekend not wearing a bright-red cape that could shame almighty Thor’s, then, well, you’re going to be upstaged by Beyoncé. Before you pipe up, yes, that is a cape and not, as you might have guessed, a coat. Mere mortals wear coats; Beyoncé and the Avengers wear capes. Straight from the mouth of designer Harbison, the outfit is described as a “custom vermillion red Trompe L’oeil Caped Jumpsuit.” If there’s anything more superheroic than a cape, it’s a bright-red jumpsuit. We’re pretty sure Scarlet Witch is jealous and she’s probably not the only one.

II. PARVEZ

My friend Parvez Sharma’s “A Sinner In Mecca” premiered at Toronto’s HotDocs film festival last week, where it was the hot doc.  All three screenings sold out, with scores turned away.

Its trailer seems to be going viral — up another 12,000 hits since just yesterday — with views from all over the world.

The Iranian government has denounced it on their propaganda website as an attack on Islam, but BBC Persian calls it “shocking and courageous.”

Closer to home:

The Hollywood Reporter: “Wrenching, gritty, surreal and transcendent; visceral and abstract — an undeniable act of courage and hope.”

The Guardian: “[Told] with poetic simplicity…a delicately personal story and a call to action.”

Screen International: “Unprecedented…surreal.”

Indiewire: “Powerful, illuminating… a remarkable examination of contemporary Islam.”

The Toronto Star: “A deeply personal film about faith and forgiveness.”

Coming soon, we hope, to a TV or computer screen near you.

III. SETH

His third performance at 54 Below went so well, he’s been summoned to do a fourth.  Liz Smith writes:

I told you recently about a young man, Seth Sikes, who has appeared at the NYC nightspot 54 Below, singing the songs of Judy Garland.  I was assured it wasn’t some campy evening of drag, nor did Seth attempt to “channel” Judy in any way. He just … sang.

So I went off to see him last week and couldn’t have been more charmed. He’s young and handsome and enthusiastic. He doesn’t look Judy-ish (he’s blonde, for one thing) and he doesn’t try to duplicate her sound. He tells his tales of being attracted by early MGM musicals, Judy, and later overwhelmed by the lady alone onstage, at Carnegie Hall.

Sikes has boundless energy and a true, strong voice, with just the right amount of throb and drive and melancholy, depending on the number. But not too much. He never, ever veers into caricature. He wrote a good deal of the beautifully melded patter and links between the songs.

The place was packed, and one of the audience members was John Meyer, the songwriter who composed some of Garland’s better songs toward the end of her life. (Garland would announce, wryly “I’m going to sing a new song … and I haven’t learned a new song, since …” and she’d name some obscure vaudeville number.)

Meyer’s songs were good, and were well within Garland’s limited range at the time. Seth sang John’s “It’s All For You.” And it was.

Sikes is expected back at Below 54 sooner rather than later.

June 10, in fact — Judy Garland’s birthday.  The food and drinks are good, too.

I was prescribed a tube of cream for some white spots on my shin.  “It’s expensive,” my new dermatologist cautioned, unaware of My Vast Fortune.  “If your insurance doesn’t cover it or it’s too much at Publix, you might want to call this place and fax them the prescription instead.”  She wrote down the info.

There was a much cheaper version, she told me, but this one seemed to have fewer side effects and so is priced higher.

I am so lucky not to have to worry about these things!  I have Medicare!  I have an American Express card!  And it’s just a little tube of cream.

But, no, the Publix pharmacist told me, Medicare doesn’t cover it — “No problem,” I bragged, proferring my Amex — and it costs $1,595.

I pulled my card back so fast I dislocated my elbow.  Well, not that hard — but $1,595?  For a little tube of cream?  I tried Walgreens — $2,200.  I tried the phone number the place she had given me — $75.  I went with that one.*  It arrived a few days later, I applied it for a month, the white spots are mostly gone, and no discernable side effects.

But how nuts is this?  The whole drug pricing system is crazy, and getting worse — “For drug companies, price hikes offer an easy way to boost sales without years of costly, risky research to find new medicines,” reports the Wall Street Journal — and I was thus heartened to see Congressional Democrats and the Admnistration beginning to do something about it.

(One of the criticisms of Obamacare was that, in order to secure passage, Big Pharma was given a pass on drug prices.  But not, of course, forever.)

First I saw this piece: “Generic Drug Price Sticker Shock Prompts Probe by Congress.”

. . . The prices of more than 1,200 generic medications increased an average of 448 percent between July 2013 and July 2014, [Senator Bernie] Sanders said during the hearing, citing federal records. . . .

And then this in yesterday’s New York Times:

Runaway Drug Prices

FOOD

I found myself craving creamed spinach.  This doesn’t happen often (as the rest of my tale will confirm) but I found a box in the freezer and popped it into the microwave.  “Are you crazy?” I heard Charles say from someplace in food heaven; “it can’t still be good” — it was dated October 27, 2007 — but I’m here to report it was fine.

My overarching philosophy (after smelling anything first): waste not, want not.*

FUN

If you’ve not yet seen the iPad magician, take 4 minutes to watch.  (Thanks, Mel!)  Even better than last week’s dining dog.

*It’s estimated that “in 2010 alone around 60 million tons of food waste was generated in the U.S.,” and that “25-40 percent of the food that is grown, processed and transported in the United States will never be consumed.”

EVERY DOG HAS HIS DAY

Yes, another dog video — thanks again, Mel — but this one, from Vancouver, is only 42 seconds.

A TALE OF TWO DONORS

I love all donors.  Realistically, I love some even more than others.  I was thinking about that recently because two things happened within minutes of each other.

The first thing was that a lawyer who works in Moscow and can rarely make it back for “events” but gives anyway emailed to ask what the new giving limit was this year.  (It goes up every two years with inflation.)  I told him, and four minutes later saw his credit card come through for $33,400.

The millions of human-size contributions we get are ultimately even more important, and way more democratic.  But facing $889 million in pledges already rounded up by the Koch brothers, every $33,400 I can grab is tremendous.

So that was donor number one.

Meanwhile, as that was going on, another email arrived from a guy I’ve known since the ’60s — a man of some means — whose help, over the last few years, I’ve been trying to enlist.

He wrote:

Subject: Hillary

I know what you are going to say but I have to add my two cents.  The Clintons seem incapable of adhering to the rule of law.  The email situation at the State Department; and now the Clinton Foundation with its 1,100 foreign donations that were not properly accounted for.  I understand that the Republicans would be worse but Hillary is not someone that I feel really good about. All the best . . .

To which I replied:

Hey, I know this comes from a good place, and am happy for a chance to answer it, but would push back on your two cents with two of my own:

1. No laws were broken.  NONE.

2. Yes, because they said they would, they should have disclosed the donors fully and timely, but they’re doing it now.  Here’s the website. Not sure it’s complete yet, but I see Saudi Arabia and Norway – have at it.

3. Remember what we’re talking about: the Foundation has saved and/or improved TENS OF MILLIONS of lives here and around the world. Shouldn’t that count for something as you judge them?  What have you or I done by comparison?  Check out their annual reports.

I think your standards are too high.  In the last 20 years, F.E.C. records show, you’ve found just one candidate for President, House or Senate worthy of your support — $1,250 to Chuck Schumer in 1999.  Chuck is swell, but he’s not the only one, let alone the one who most needed help.  And I would argue that the urgency to help has become much greater since 1999, as Republicans have moved ever further right . . . even as your own capacity to help has, I hope, increased.  (Under Obama, the S&P has more than doubled.)

So surprise me: make a once-in-a-lifetime-size gift to help steer your country toward reason and inclusion, belief in science and all the rest.  If you’d enjoy some “event” to go with that, terrific.  But all I really want is to see the forces of progress win – and for that all I really need is your money.

Your friend of long standing . . .

Too much?  I’m not holding my breath, but stranger things have happened.*

*For example: I have an Amazon Echo.  You can tell it, “Alexa: play the Grateful Dead,” and she will.  You can say, “Alexa: what’s tomorrow’s weather?” and she’ll tell you.  Well . . . a few nights ago, Alexa was playing something but the conversation was getting really focused and I wanted her to be a little quieter (there are 10 volume settings) so . . . and here’s the spooky part . . . stranger, even, than if my friend of 50 years decides to make a once-in-a-lifetime contribution (though perhaps only barely stranger) . . . are you ready?  At the exact same instant as I said, “Alexa: volume four,” my friend said — so simultaneously you’d think we’d rehearsed — “Alexa: volume four.”  The same instant.  The same level.  (Why not “volume three” or two or five or one or, “Alexa: softer” or “Alexa: stop,” all of which would have been reasonable and all of which we’ve said to Alexa before.)  So — c’mon, Alan!  Give me that credit card!  What’s $33,400 when the next president may well get to replace four octogenarian Justices with 48-year-olds?  The course of our nation is in your hands.  “Alexa: make him do it!  Play God Bless America!”

These interactive charts from Bloomberg tell an interesting story about the pace of social change in America — everything from inter-racial marriage to women’s suffrage and the temperance movement to medical marijuana.

And speaking of gay marriage, don’t forget to vote May 22 (if you’re Irish).  Click here for a terrific little clip.  Have a great weekend.

BOREF

I’m not even clear what “racks and trays” are in the context of landing gear.  (“Overhead bins” and “tray tables” I know, but this must be different.)

Still, I like this quote:

“When Total Air Group first encountered the WheelTug concept, we were amazed by the opportunities to help streamline airline operations and reduce wear and tear on aircraft and engines,” said Michael Silvius, TAG´s CEO. “We have been enthusiastically working with WheelTug for several years now, and are delighted to have acquired a formal relationship and role in the project. We look forward to leveraging our expertise in aircraft maintenance, repair, and overhaul work to design and produce the racks and trays for the WheelTug avionics suite.” . . .

Who knows whether WheelTug will ever come to fruition — and with it, stock in its grandparent, Borealis.  As always, it remains a gamble.  But every time an industry insider expresses support, as above, my spirits flutter.

BARNEY

Onto NBC’s elevator strides Barney Frank with the book-tour escort his publisher has provided — I’m so proud to be one of his book‘s three blurbs — and whom does he see towering in the corner but John Cleese, one of the funniest men in the world.  He, too, has a book out.

There is that second or two when those entering the elevator register obvious recognition (Monty Python! Fawlty Towers!) . . . then surprise . . . then confusion (should I look away? should I smile? should I say somehting? do the others realize what’s happening?) and then Barney turns and says, “Good to see you again, John.  We keep meeting in elevators.”

Cleese squints.

“In St. Louis two weeks ago,” Barney offers.

Cleese stares down at the former Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, and says, finally . . . “Are you the juggler?”

Some in the elevator crack up, though no one is sure whether he’s joking, but Barney explains again about St. Louis and John asks his book-tour people, “Have I ever been to St. Louis?”

We don’t have far for the elevator to ascend — “Late Night With Seth Meyers” is taped on the eighth floor in studio 8G — but it’s long enough to establish that St. Louis is the one with the arch, and that John Cleese is a person who has never been there.

You can watch the entire show here — 41 minutes.  Both Cleese and Barney are really funny, as is Seth Meyers.  But wait.  There’s more.

Barney exits the elevator with his book-tour person and proceeds past Fred Amison to the Green Room, with its little fruit plate, bite-size chocolates, and a Late Night mug for each guest.  Off of gthe Green Room are dressing rooms for each guest, their names glowing from an iPod mounted by each door.  BARNEY FRANK.  LINDA CARDELLINI.  JOHN CLEESE.

At which point Barney all but smacks his forehead with his palm and bolts after John Cleese to explain.

It seems the tall, funny star he met in St. Louis was John Lithgow (“Third Rock from the Sun,” etc.).

And that when he met John Lithgow, he confused him for the Monty Python guy.

So things had come full circle.

“Don’t worry,” the giant reassured Barney, “people confuse the two of us all the time.”

Enjoy the show.

Let’s start with this:  Right now, the trade playing field is tilted badly against America.  Our markets are almost entirely open – I believe the average tariff we levy on imports is just 1.4% — while the countries we trade with are not nearly so welcoming.  Their average import duties are three or four times as high on average (and in some key situations much higher still).  But on top of that, their businesses are not saddled with the same (worthy!) labor and environmental standards that ours are.

This is not good for America — and it causes American CEOs to do something in their shareholders’ interest that they might rather not: shift good jobs abroad, both for the lower labor costs and to avoid the higher tariffs.  Japan charges a 30% duty on cars and/or auto parts manufactured here . . . but ZERO tariff on the same cars and parts manufactured in Mexico.

So this sucks.  And should be fixed.

And then there’s NAFTA — which did a lot of good for American exporters and their American workers . . . and for American consumers – but that absolutely did not live up to its “side agreement” provisions with regard to worker and environmental standards.

That sucks, too, and should also be fixed.

OK?  The status quo that American workers have been stuck with for a very long time is rotten and should be fixed.

And that is the whole point.

There are a lot of important but smaller points to be debated and negotiated, but the big point is that patriotic Americans who care about a fairer playing field for American workers and American businesses, large and small, should want to fix the status quo.

Perfection is unrealistic, but major strides toward fairer trade, with lower barriers to our exports and higher, more enforceable labor and environmental standards?  That’s something we should not just support but demand.

And that’s exactly what the President and his team have been working for years now to get.

The TransPacific Partnership – TPP – would cover our trade with 11 nations.  And because Mexico and Canada — our NAFTA partners — are two of those 11, it is also our chance, after two decades, to fix NAFTA.  NAFTA’s unenforceable “side agreement” provisions would be folded into the body of the treaty itself, and so for the first time be enforceable.

The details are of course super important.  But there’s little reason for me to believe that this President — a Marxist according to some, the most liberal in our history according to others, an enemy of Wall Street according to yet others  — is secretly working to make things worse for American workers or to weaken our hard-won Democratic health, safety, and environmental regulations.

So my take on this is: let’s give the President the same “fast track” Trade Promotion Authority — TPA — in negotiating the TPP that Congress has given every Democratic president and every Republican president (with the exception of Richard Nixon) since FDR.

At the end of the day three things will be true:

(1) There will be things in the deal we don’t like.

(2) Even so, it will be a major improvement over the status quo.

(3) And in case it’s not, Congress can — and should — vote it down.

And then there’s this:

China is not a party to the TPP.  They are busy trying to organize global trade their own way.  If we don’t seize the chance to do it “our way,” it will be a great gift to the Chinese at the expense of our own workers.  Nothing against our Chinese friends – but why would we want that?

Here an opposing view.  It is completely well-intentioned, of course.  But it has not changed my own.

One last note:

I emailed a friend who heads a labor union.  We are not close friends, and it is not a giant union; but we run into each other a lot and it is definitely a meaningful well known union . . . so when I heard on a conference call how passionately opposed he was to fast-track and TPP, I emailed asking him to call me so I could better understand his concerns.  He didn’t call, so I emailed a few days later to make sure he saw the first email.  He emailed that he had, but was traveling, and would call.  I emailed that he could call while in transit — a great way to spend down time waiting for planes or whatever — but that I looked forward to it, whenever.  Another week has passed.

Not to make too much of this — he’s busy, I’m busy, you’re busy, we all drop balls — but I do think there is an understandable but reflexive inclination among progressives to oppose trade deals, given their very real flaws (especially as regards the non-enforceable NAFTA provisions) — and that labor leaders, especially, will not be inclined to be seen by their members as weak in any way in protecting their members’ interests.  And rightly so.

But they shouldn’t protect the rotten status quo, either.

So if the TPP, once it’s finally negotiated and submitted to Congress, would, on balance, improve the lot of America’s current and future workers, as hoped — well, at that point, those same labor leaders should come on  board and urge its passage.

My two cents.

FUN

Where would we be without my friend Mel to pass along three-minute gems like this?  (Viewers are counseled:  Be Sure To Watch The Dog’s Expression When The Plate is Removed.”)

CISG

Closing at $11 Friday, CISG has doubled in the 16 months since suggested here.  I’d like to think it may double again over the next few years, but this would be an obvious time to sell half and, with house money, see what happens with the rest.

GOLD

To fund that CISG purchase, I suggested selling GLD at $117.  (Today, $113.)  I don’t know much about gold, but this juxtoposition gives me an excuse to tell you a story.

In the 1930s, according to a numismatist friend of mine, the United States Mint had a loose relationship with collectors and dealers.  It maintained a “Collector’s Window.”  You could go up to the window and exchange circulating coins for newly minted ones, even if they’d not yet been officially released.  This was never a problem until Roosevelt decided not to release the $20 gold coins they had just minted — over 400,000 of them! — in early 1933.  (He wanted to limit ownership of gold to keep it from draining demand for paper money.)  So, apart from two specimins sent to the U.S. Assay Commission, now in the Smithsonian, the handful that had been exchanged at the Collector’s Window — perhaps by a single dealer — were the only ones that survived. And as to those, the guys at the Collector’s Window all adopted a “who, me?” air of ignorance — and, really, why not?  Where was the harm?  Since old $20 gold coins had been exchanged for new $20 gold coins, Uncle Sam hadn’t lost even a gram of gold.

But word got out that the dealer had sold 15 of the coins. These the government eventually tracked down, confiscated, and melted.  Which was basically the end of the story . . . apart from occasional speculation (fueled by the dealer himself with a wink and a nod) that he had actually exchanged more than 15 coins at the Collector’s Window.  Like maybe 25.  Everyone always assumed he was making this up to enhance his own importance among collectors — he was apparently a bit of a loudnmouth and a braggart.

Well, guess what?  Cleaning out an old safe in 2004, the dealer’s family found a roll of coins wrapped in paper that they had assumed to be silver dollars, which still circulated in 1933. They freaked out when they finally undid the roll and found the “missing” ten extra 1933 $20 gold coins the guy had always claimed to have had.

The family sought out the lawyer that had successfully negotiated the settlement of the Farouk coin in 2001. His counsel was to send the coins to Washington for “authentication,” explaining the circumstances under which they were found, so as not to incur criminal charges. He predicted that the government would confiscate the coins but not accuse the family of wrongdoing — which is exactly what happened. He said the family would then have to sue for recovery — which is also what happened. They lost the first round, but just last week won on appeal.

Reuters:

By a 2-1 vote, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia said Joan Langbord and her sons Roy and David are the rightful owners of the double eagle $20 gold pieces, after the government ignored their claim to the coins and missed a deadline to seek their forfeiture.

That is where it stands now. My coin dealer friend suggests the Obama administration could score “major points” with the numismatic community — along with some cash — if it eschewed further appeal.  Rather than fight to keep ten ounces of gold — $11,300 worth — Uncle Sam could save all those legal fees even as it reeled in millions in inheritance and/or capital gains taxes once the coins were sold.

Coin collectors around the world are waiting to see whether the U.S. Attorney will drop the case (as it clearly should — no?) and what the coins will fetch if he does.  The King Farouk example apparently went for $7.6 million.

Isn’t this fun?

Tomorrow: Why Elizabeth Warren and a lot of other very well-intended progressives whom I admire no end are on the wrong in the controvery over the TransPacific Partnership trade agreement.

Vive La France!

My esteemed friend Mel, who seems to attract good stuff floating around the Internet the way I attract no-see-ums, passed on these cautionary tales.  Personally, I plan never again to leave my house.

1. LONG-TERM PARKING:

A family left their car in the long-term parking at San Jose while away, and someone broke into the car. Using the information on the car’s registration in the glove compartment, they drove the car to their home in Pebble Beach and robbed it. So I guess if we are going to leave the car in long-term parking, we should NOT leave the registration/insurance cards in it, nor your remote garage door opener.

2. GPS:

Someone had their car broken into while they were at a football game. Their car was parked on the green which was adjacent to the football stadium and specially allotted to football fans. Things stolen from the car included a garage door remote control, some money and a GPS which had been prominently mounted on the dashboard. When the victims got home, they found that their house had been ransacked and just about everything worth anything had been stolen. The thieves had used the GPS to guide them to the house. They then used the garage remote control to open the garage door and gain entry to the house. The thieves knew the owners were at the football game, they knew what time the game was scheduled to finish and so they knew how much time they had to clean out the house. It would appear that they had brought a truck to empty the house of its contents. Something to consider if you have a GPS – don’t put your home address in it… Put a nearby address (like a store or gas station) so you can still find your way home if you need to, but no one else would know where you live if your GPS were stolen.

3. CELL PHONES:

A woman had her handbag stolen. It contained her cell phone, credit cards, wallet — the works. Twenty minutes later when she called her hubby from a pay phone telling him what had happened, hubby says, “I got your text asking about our PIN number and replied a little while ago.” When they rushed down to the bank, the bank staff told them all the money was already withdrawn. The thief had actually used the stolen cell phone to text “hubby” in the contact list and got hold of the PIN number.  Morals of the story: (a) Do not disclose the relationship between you and the people in your contact list. Avoid using names like Home, Honey, Hubby, Sweetheart, Dad, Mom, etc.  (b) When sensitive info is being asked through texts, CONFIRM first by calling back.  (c) When texted by friends or family to meet them somewhere, be sure to call back to confirm the message came from them. If you don’t reach them, be very careful about going places to meet “family and friends” who text you.

4. PURSE IN THE GROCERY CART SCAM:

A woman shopping at a local mall left her purse in the children’s seat of the shopping cart while she reached for something off a shelf. Her wallet was stolen, and she reported it to the store personnel. After returning home, she received a phone call from Mall Security to say that they had her wallet and that although there was no money in it, it did still hold her personal papers. She immediately went to pick up her wallet, only to be told by Mall Security that they had not called her. By the time she got home again, her house had been burglarized. The thieves knew that by calling and saying they were Mall Security, they could lure her out of her house long enough for them to burglarize it.

Or you could be hit by lightning.  But these certainly are cautionary tales.  (One recalls the scene early in “Casablanca” — “I beg of you, Monsieur,” says the pick-pocket as he does his work, “be on guard — this place is full of vultures, vultures everywhere!”  — 30 classic seconds — or, oh, what the heck: what could you possibly have to do today more important or enjoyable than  watching the whole movie right now, for free?)