Recently I met a young artist (photo above) at an Art Opening and while making conversation I bragged about a one mile open water swim I had just accomplished.  Her response was that she had swum around the island.  Taken aback, I asked her how long her swim was and she said 12 miles.  Nearly speechless, I came back with "That's nearly as far as the English Channel".  That's when she completely bowled me over, saying "I did that last year".

Its March 30th and I would be remiss to not take this opportunity to wish Fred a very happy birthday. So, Fred, my friend, my best wishes for a Happy Birthday. I still have that early memory--perhaps one of the first times we met -- of you running over the hill of the cross-country course in back of Schreiber High School. It was quite a while ago and yet "we all still look the same". There have been many uphills and downhills since then and the run has been great....and there are many, many miles to go.

That is really hard to believe.   Twenty years ago, Fred and I put ten people around a table having no idea what would happen. We knew that we wanted to bring people to our table who wanted to help others but we really didn’t have a plan to make that happen.   Gotham is the epitome of the “no plan plan”.  

Another Gotham member and I had a long discussion this week about a former colleague.  Several years ago, our former colleague had made a series of bad and, arguably, exceedingly unethical business decisions. As a result, she lost her job and paid a civil fine. To my knowledge, that was the extent of her “punishment.” I remember, at the time, being shocked at the intensity of the allegations levied against her.    

32.   Someone asked yesterday what I planned to blog on today. That person encouraged a blog about politics. I considered it and I might shared something on that when it muses me.

The police in the United Arab Emirates are now using unusual means to prevent speeding -- signs that look like police cars.     It's actually just a flat sign of a police car that appears from the front to be the side of a real three-dimensional car with its lights flashing at the side of a road.  

All my life I've thought about being a schlepper.   Schlepper?  It is a Yiddish word meaning someone so stupid or ill educated that he or she can only be employed to carry (schlep) things.  Really. To be precise, for my whole life I have wanted to be a schlepper for a famous artist and now my dream has come true as I schlepped my wife Joanne Klein's beautiful art (sample above) over to the wonderful Helen Harrison Gallery for an opening last week.