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Lazy me, taking off until Jan 5, 2009
By Tom Teicholz on December 24, 2008
I thought I would be blogging and working straight through the holidays — and trust me there’s stuff to write about:. I want to tell you about recent visits to the restaurants Sushi Zo, Michael Mina’s Louis XIV, Slumdog, the wrester, Joseph O’Neill’s Netherland, and Jim Harrison’s The English Major — but suddenly I’ve lost steam. I don’t feel like going in to the office, don’t feel like pushing the peanut up the hill with a pencil, as one of my editors used to say.
No, no, no. I’m just going to spend time with family and friends, read more novels that I’ve been wanting to read for pleasure — not work, and take a short trip up north.
Recharge the batteries. Put 2008 behind us. take a few days grace at the start of 2009.
See you after Jan 5—-
Being Bernie: A theory
By Tom Teicholz on December 22, 2008
Last night at a dinner party, the talk was about Madoff, as I’m sure it is at Hannukah parties and Holiday get-togethers everywhere.
One attendee who had a long and storied career in finance told me that he knew Madoff and was shocked — “Madoff was a pillar,” he said, “He was head of Nasdaq!” But all those years of returns, didn’t that make you suspicious? I asked. “I never thought it was a Ponzi scheme,” he said, “What I thought was going on was that he was front-running…, that’s how I thought he got those returns” (”front running is a form of trading, which is illegal, and consists of making trades ahead of a large order, in order to get a better price and make a profit. In Madof’s case, since he controlled such large investments, he had the power to make make large trades and to know those large trades were about to happen).
Another guest, who works in the literary and difital world had a more charitable take on things: “Madoff did what he did, not because he wanted to do bad and defraud clients, but because he wanted to do good and couldn’t deliver and then fell behind…..”
And as he said it, a lightbulb of sorts went off in my head. Madoff liked being the guy who delivered 10% returns come hell or high water. Madoff liked being “Uncle Bernie,” the so-called “Jewish T-Bill.” Madoff like being the philanthropist who gave to Jewish charities, who helped people,. who made a difference.
And in order to maintain being Bernie Madoff, Madoff needed cash, Madoff needed new investors. Madoff built a giant Ponzi scheme.
In the end Madoff was no different than Whitey Ford who cut his ball, and greased his hair to rub it on the ball, to insure that he could deliver the strikes he was famous for. Even Bernie Madoff could not support being Bernie Madoff.
A beautiful story of Tzedaka (even if they don’t mention the word)
By Tom Teicholz on December 22, 2008
On today’s New York Times Op_Ed page there is a beautiful story by Ted Gup about a pseudonymous donor in 1933 Depression era Canton Ohio, who took out an ad in the local newspaper and gave money to those in need in five and ten dollar increments to a total of 75 townsmen and families in need to a total of $50, and the writer who found out 75 years later that his grandfather was the mysterious donor. The writer explains that his grandfather who a Jewish immigrant from Eastern Europe who made and lost money and was now back on his feet and wanted to share with his fellow citizens in need.
Gup writes of his grandfathers “yuletide” gift and his values but what he doesn’t say and is evident is that his father had been instilled with the virtue — nay the compulsion, of Tzedakah, charity to others.
Where’s Geffen?
By Tom Teicholz on December 22, 2008
Is it my imagination or has David Geffen been extremely silent as of late?
No mention of Geffen in any of the Save MOCA Discussion, despite one of the MOCA outposts being called The Geffen contemporary.
No mention of Geffen in the LA Times imploding. Remember when he wanted to buy the paper?
No mention of Geffen in the Madoff fraud — Spielberg, yes; Katzenberg, yes; but no Geffen.
And no mention of Geffen in all the Dreamworks financing issues. Spielberg is going into his own pocket to buy out the slate from Paramount, and keep the company afloat until the bridge loans kick in. But no Geffen.
Strange, no?
Add Alexandra Penney of Self to the list of Madoff victims
By Tom Teicholz on December 22, 2008
As she writes in The Daily Beast, Alexandra Penney, self help author and former editor of Self magazine lost all her savings in the Madoff fraud. Read it here.
Krugman tells it like it is: Madoff & The Investment biz
By Tom Teicholz on December 19, 2008
Today’s Paul Krugman column in the New York times is one of the most damning indictments of the Wall Steet/hedge fund fiancial cutlure of the recent era — showing that when people ask how could Madoff have gotten away with it, why didn’t anyone notice? that there’s a reason why.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/19/opinion/19krugman.html?ref=opinion
Mamet cracks wise on Piven’s departure
By Tom Teicholz on December 18, 2008
Jeremy Piven, the actor best known for playing Ari Gold on Entourage, is leaving the cast of the revival of David Mamet’s “Speed the Plow.” In interviews Piven claimed he had to leave for medical reasons: that he had a high Mercury coun. A what?
Mamet’s response to Variety was as follows, “My understanding is that he is leaving show business to pursue a career as a thermomenter.”
Madoff: Bad for the Jews; Good for The Jewish Journal
By Tom Teicholz on December 18, 2008
Since the first rumblings of the Madoff scandal, the Jewish Journal has been on top of the reporting on the subject. They have even launched a blog called, Swindler’s List, which has been written up all over the web and even in Variety among other publications. Hits at the website have never been so high.
George Being George
By Tom Teicholz on December 17, 2008
Finally finished reading the George Plimpton Oral history/biography and I have to say it gave the full measure of the man — and gave a sense of his strengths his weaknesses, his triumphs and accomplishments, his insecurites and failings but mostly his embrace of being George Plimpton.
One of the interesting comments in the book was from Michael Pollan talking about how much his own work was inspired by Plimpton’s Paper Lion — and I’d never thought about it that way but Pollan (who is an old friend) really found a way to put himself at the center of his journalistics inquiries, in a way that makes the narrative more personal and draws the reader in. Plimpton was more the average man proving he could do superhuman feats; Pollan is more the average person participating, exploring and explaining the source of things he takes for granted, such as how his home was built and how the food he eats gets on his plate. To Pollna’s credit, and why perhaps his books have sold better than many of Plimpton’s is that Pollan adds an element of self-help to his work — so for example his last work was almost perceived by some as a diet book, or as a book with a program for self-betterment. Self improvement being a category that sells better than literary non-fiction. But like Plimpton, Pollan has transformed himself into a speaker and a media celebrity of sorts.
Anyhow back to George, I do miss those Paris Review parties and George being George had the ability to recall that and Plimpton’s curiosity and engagement with life.
Angels among us
By Tom Teicholz on December 15, 2008
Last night I was at a Christmas party. There were drinks and good food, and even a few celebrities. There were carolers, and children running around, and old friends greeting one another.
And I saw a few angels. One was a former studio executive now an independent producer who told me about how a chidlhood friend who lived in a rural home in the Northeast had called him and said that he could no longer pay his heating bill. We talked about how difficult it must have been for his friend to make that call. But he called the oil company, and although they wanted an extra fee to go out there and turn on the heat immediately, this person paid, and they did so.
In another corner I saw a woman a successful writer. A few years ago, when another friend was in financial trouble and in danger of losing his health care she had appealed to the producer of the show she worked on and got her friend an assignment by which he retained his health care.
At this time of year, and in this year in particular, it’s a powerful reminder that there are angels amongs us, making miracles happen, making a difference in people’s lives, and that we mere mortals can be angels too.