August 21, 2012

Carpe Diem: the Smile

There are carpe diem moments.

And then there‘s the instant you didn’t realize might be a carpe diem moment.  And you drop the carp back into the river.

Scene:  Michael’s Pub in Manhattan, where Woody Allen played with his jazz band for years, circa 1974. Much more than a pub, it had fairly classy place settings, and offered a full menu, beyond my resources for a weekday night.
But I wanted a glimpse of the live Woody Allen: was he really quirky looking? How did he walk? Was he natural on stage?
So I glided unobstrusively into Michael’s at about 6 pm. and stood, awkward and invisible, by the bar at the back. Too shy to snag a waiter for a drink. Almost too shy to breathe.
Sure enough, a few minutes later he walked out in his marginally slouchy pants, carrying his clarinet and nodding happy greetings to the sprinkling of musicians. He proceeded to prepare the clarinet, clean it, test the reed, tune it and so forth.
Then he glanced up and smiled at someone sitting behind me at the bar. A big, broad, generous, humorous grin. I stared back. Then turned around to check who he was smiling at.

There was no one there…no one. He was smiling at me.

Was I a suave young Manhattanite who would offer Woody a glass of wine, or perhaps a ginger ale? Or laugh and wave back nonchalantly and change my dinner plans?
No way. I was out of there so fast I almost fell.
Shortly after that, Diane Keaton, an exact contemporary of mine, was doing all sorts of funny, silly, human, legendary roles.

No carp for me that day. 

August 10, 2012

Somalia has enormous social, economic and health problems.
Renu Chahil-Graf has been working on HIV in Somalia and reports on the acute HIV problems faced by the Somali people, highlighting an alarming ignorance about how it is acquired, prevented, much less treated. Renu has been working tirelessly in very challenging circumstances and wrote the article cited below.
 Photo credit UNAIDS

The 1949 Hudson

As a sequel to the vintage car blog, http://lexieintrator.blogspot.fr/2012/07/chrome-nostalgia-cars-i-have-known.html and http://lexieintrator.blogspot.fr/2012/07/puss-on-peugeot.html  I asked Steve to send some shots of his 1949 Hudson.

Two-toned and beautiful, she's still up and running in 2012. Treated with respect and a lot of work. Great to ride in and draws smiles bigger than a front grille all over Cape Cod. 











Boat launching with Dave                                                                 Tracey's first ride

at Ballston Beach


in Steve's garage...

Plus ça change, plus ça change......banks on a roll.....

I love browsing in both print and cyberspace.
My in-laws outside Paris still have a full set of the Encyclopedia Britannica (15th Edition 1973-1974),  a tradition which is becoming rare, even quaint. And while browsing.....
I couldn't resist retyping this delicious paragraph from p.707 in the section entitled (portentously?) "Industrial Finance".

Long-term and medium-term lending

            “Banks that do a great deal of long-term lending to industry must ensure their liquidity by maintaining relatively large capital funds and a relatively high proportion of time deposits, as well as valuing their investments very conservatively. Such banks, notably the French banques d’affaires and the West German commercial banks, have developed special means of reducing their degree of risk. Every investment is preceded by a thorough technical and financial investigation. The initial advance may be an interim credit, later converted into a participation. Only when market conditions are favourable is the original investment converted into marketable securities, and an issue of shares to the public is arranged. One function of these banks is to nurse an investment along until the venture is well established. Even assuming its ultimate success, a bank may be obliged to hold such shares for long periods before being able to liquidate them...”