18 hours in Phoenix

Noon Saturday, arrive at hotel. Lunch with friends. Hiked a nearby park mid afternoon. Watched football until 5. Changed to tux and left for benefit dinner at 6. Silent auction, lots of bids, no wins. Dinner outdoors, under the stars. great food, good company. Six colleagues, three clients. Back to hotel 10;55. Left for MSP at 6am. A great escape but should have made it last longer.

A day in the life

0300 - On the treadmill, Asia down, Europe mixed, US futures point to a flat open
0430 - shower, off to the airport
0500 - My shirt is the same color as that of the TSA police
0515 am - In the NWA World Club
0700 - On the plane. Sorry, no coffee, the first class waitress tells my with a smile
0900 - In a rental car. Sitting in the parking lot of the Shop N Save market in Des Plaines, IL. Preparing for a business meeting
1030 - I check voicemail and hear a good friend has died. I think about him for 15 minutes
1130 - At lunch with a client.... hang on.... My job is to bring them out of the valley and over to the other side.
1300 Chicago NWA World Club.
1500 My seat partner in first class works in HR at General Mills and tells me the economy is only going to get worse, much worse..... OOOOH i'm scared. She's also convinced that a bad economy is good for us, will teach us lessons. Good old American values, something about them that they just refuse to die.
1600 MSP never looked better. I think about my friend who is no longer here. Dow up 400.

The world is getting back to normal

The cubs were swept by the Dodgers in the NLDS over the weekend, complete with a little help from the Cardinals. With all the calamity in the financial markets, a victory by the cubs might have signaled that we really had something to worry about. The world is safe for one more year. Thank you Dodgers and (former St. Louis Cardinals) manager Joe Torre. Had Torre not spent time in St. Louis, he might have taken the cubs seriously and changed his game plan. Had the cubs played their last ten games of the year like the Cardinals (7-3) they would have been marching on.

The undefeated Missouri Tigers are ranked number 2 this week. Things are getting better all the time.

They're making fun of us....

My latest trip to the capitol of the United States leaves me less enamoured of democracy. Maybe we should keep it to ourselves for a few years until it is hammered back into a shape worth sharing.

This week world financial markets were perched on an abyss, steps away from grinding to a halt. United States congressman knew this but also could not resist picking up pennies in front of a steam roller and snagged pet projects for their backers in the home district. It's a game to them I think. The drug of personal glory and adulation has them hooked. They live in some alternative world where they are important people. Based on their actions, congressmen just don't like Americans much and must be laughing when the cameras are off.


It would have been nice if Congress had been able to debate a rescue program on its merits, or lack of them. Rather, they push America closer to the abyss, hold it by the shirt collar as it sways forward, and wrap us in pork and pet projects while they tell us how much they have helped us.


What congress has is a weird collective form of Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy. They inflict pain and suffering on the country by creating problems and then solving them, or making real problems worse. The purpose is to gain attention, recognition and personal satisfaction for themselves.

Those things that have the potential to do the most good have and equal potential to do the most harm. We need a congress that honors the citizens who do not need it.


I am ready for a good king. Now Wenceslas, that was a king