Month: February 2020
*** Note: This story of the building of Prince’s Court first appeared in the Winter 1998 edition of the Alumni Horae, the alumni magazine of St. Paul’s School. I chose not to update any of the information to more accurately reflect the last 22 years. There are several anachronistic references, like “sport of kings” that […]
Frazer Rice and I tackled some of the bigger issues in the Democratic Primary in our most recent podcast. If an elected official (helpful if it’s a Democrat) like Mayor Pete, Vice President Biden, Senator Klobuchar or Senator Warren wins fair and square, establishment Democrats don’t have a problem. Shrug their shoulders and hope their […]
A few weeks ago, Frazer Rice and I recorded a podcast that built off the fascinating work of Bruce Mehlman, a political consultant and strategist who founded Mehlman Castagnetti Rosen & Thomas. Mehlman produces a quarterly update on political trends that I always find to be thought provoking. Here is a link to De-Global Ten […]
Pretty much everyone knows what a bell pepper is and the same goes for skiing (even though some might not think of it as an industry) so let’s begin with reverse engineering. It is a process of examining an existing product, or in this case a service, to figure out how it was made and […]
Presidents Day weekend and the ensuing week are important to the ski industry. The third week in February ranks with Christmas/New Year’s and spring vacation in volume of skiers, especially coming from afar. It is axiomatic that skiing is not cheap. According to the former CEO of a major resort, only 10% of Americans has […]
On Long Island in the early 1950s, skating and hockey took place on ponds. There were two kinds. The first was local and small, where a few families might gather on a weekend afternoon. Then there was Beaver Dam, the Yankee Stadium of ponds. Or so it seemed to a four-year old. It was about […]
Earlier in the week (Neighbor, how stands the Union?), my attempt to answer a question on “gloom and doom” about politics grew to almost 2500 words. I thought they were excellent words – verging on splendid – but there were too many of them. The problem of too many words has two solutions. “Throw some […]
Questions get tricky when there is only one acceptable answer and they get even trickier when they are asked by Daniel Webster, especially from the grave. The Devil and Daniel Webster by Steven Vincent Benet is “a story they tell in border country, where Massachusetts joins Vermont and New Hampshire.” It is also a story […]
As much as I am looking forward to ski season, which begins next week, it does signal the end of hockey season. Hockey is pretty much entirely an outdoor activity for me and, by the time I get back, the ice will be gone. The rink will again be a parking lot for golfers. This […]