Politick

Roman Holiday

"When you come to a fork in the road, take it." - Yogi Berra

"Namo! Namo!" yelled our guide, speeding us along. He was so frenetic, he had to shorten the Italian "andiamo", let's go. We were on a tour to Hadrian's Villa, and when we just made it to one of the most picturesque spots - the Egyptian pool, complete with a stone crocodile - he commanded, "Take no more than seven German minutes to enjoy!" What had happened to the languid La Dolce Vita? Had the government fallen, and a new Il Duce taken over, determined to get the trains running on time? (We found out later that was not true!) Or, perhaps it had nothing more to do than the tour bus being 45 minutes late, and our guide determined to be back by 8 pm. Roma remains Roman-tic. In a short few days we experienced annoying rail strikes, treacherous taxis, two-bit hustlers, and high-class cheats. Every day an adventure, every corner a turning point. We were determined to see it all, walking in the steps of Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck in their Roman Holiday.

The Orange Revolution is Now In Fashion

On my last summer trip to Europe we saw shades of green in the stores - green was the new black. It hit the US in the fall. This summer orange is everywhere in Europe. Orange T, white pants. Orange polo, blue jacket. Blue polo, orange purse. Or just orange t, jeans or khakis. Maybe we are sensitized, since we recently went to our son's Princeton graduation? (Their colors are black - and orange). But we first saw this on the Dalmatian Coast (Croatia as the new Riviera?). Maybe it started in The Ukraine - but the Orange Revolution has broken out. Orange is the new black. At least this summer.

View From The Mount of Olives

The Mount of Olives overlooks the Old City of Jerusalem.  Prophets would come up from the desert and crest the Mount of Olives before walking into the Jerusalem.  The view is spectacular - but for prophets and pundits, there is no better place to cast a vision than from the Mount of Olives, and no better time than during Easter - especially this Easter, sandwiched between the release of the latest Gnostic Gospel, The Book of Judas, and the worldwide launch of The Da Vinci Code.  Both pose an enigma wrapped in a riddle inside a mystery: was the real message of Jesus co-opted when Christianity became the state religion of the Roman Empire? Our pilgrimage to answer that question sheds more light on the human condition than on the religious one. 

View From Phuket Thailand

Phuket (pronounced POO-Ket) is an island off Thailand that caught the jet set imagination in 1974 after the James Bond movie The Man With The Golden Gun. The movie showcased the white sandy beaches and one of the world's must-see spots, the sea caves at Phangh Nga. Phuket really took off in 1997 after the Thai Baht plummeted and set off the Asian Flu, making beachfront property remarkably cheap. Since then, it has been developed into a world-class destination. We visited there at the request of a friend who has been in the middle of developing the island. We had a remarkable week.

View From Palo Alto of Global Warming

It was quite a gathering. Most of the Silicon Valley Billionaires were there: Larry and Sergey (Google); Eric (Schmidt) and his remarkable wife Wendy, who organized the event with another wonderful person Amy Rao; Jerry (Yang), although not Dave (Filo), the Larry and Sergey of 10 years ago (Yahoo); Steve Jobs, but not his Larry (Ellison); Vinod; John Chambers (Cisco); John Doerr (Kleiner); Chuck Geschke (Adobe); Gary Lauder; and many more. Some have become celebrities, and some are so well known as to become known by their one iconic name only, like Madonna or Prince; although none has yet become so famous as to be a letter (W comes to mind).

What brought them together was being involved with Global Warming, and seeing the Man Who Invented Their Internet, Al Gore, who has achieved iconic status as Algore, one word that sounds as if he were star in the firmament above the hole in the ozone layer, named by a long forgotten Arab astronomer. Al Gore put in quite a performance and made a convincing case for Global Warming, but the night truly belonged to Silicon Valley. Can the Ethic of Innovation and Faith in the Future prevent a catastrophe in the making by using Science and Technology to overcome the Tyranny of Inertia and the Arrogance of Power? Can the Crusade of the Valley Boys recapture the Holy City (Washington) from the Jihad of Big Oil? Read on ...

View From The LA Coliseum During Football Season

After enjoying 111,000 of our closest friends at the Big House in Ann Arbor, we had the pleasure of the company of 90,000 screaming fans in the place you could drop the Big House into: The LA Coliseum, home of the USC Trojans. The Coliseum was build for USC football in the 1920s, and improved for the 1932 Olympics, and recently the 1984 Olympics (noteworthy for turning a profit). It has been used for pro football, pro baseball, and a variety of events in between. Sitting on the 50-yard line, with waitress service - ok, it is still only for hot dogs, popcorn and peanuts - is quite the experience.  It is a hall of champions, and a new one was borne on a Saturday in October. 

View From Ann Arbor During Football Season

Remember the Disney college movies from the '50s? The ones with a tweedy professor, a brainy hero, the milk-fed girl-next-door, the not-so-bad bad boy protagonist. These movies portrayed a bucolic college town, with elm-lined streets and a safe, small-town feel. One almost expected Beaver Cleaver to dash across the set. America, however, has outgrown that town. Where is the Starbucks? The Blockbuster store? The Thai restaurant? We expect our college towns to be small-town safe but big-city sophisticated.

Remarkably, you can find that college town: Ann Arbor, Michigan, home of the University of Michigan.

View From Vegas at the World Series of Poker

The World Series of Poker is being held in the Rio, a Brazilian-themed casino off the strip but on the freeway to LA. The preliminaries are over, and now the week-long tournament has started, with a sea of tables stretching across the Rio ballroom. The players are going through a series of contests, lasting well into the evening each night, to winnow the enormous school of poker sharks and their prey. The floor is packed, with spectators gawking near the tables. The area is lit with subdued lighting, but many players sport shades. Even more wear logoed shirts and hats - apparently they have been offered big bucks if they get to the finals and wear those shirts on TV. (Where winners used to be paid to say on TV, "I'm going to Disneyland!", now they are paid to imply, "I learned to fleece the sheep at PartyPoker.com!"). Among other predators are booth babes with flesh-eating mammaries behind tee-shirts that sport logos like "My pair is bigger!" Oddly, I saw a number of Boston Red Sox hats but no New York Yankee hats. A sign of rooting for yet another member of the poker zoo, the underdog?

I am here to root for Richard Harroch, true Renaissance Man and author of the best-seller, Poker For Dummies! Richard has been a lawyer, businessman, author, venture capitalist, gambler - but never a marketing maven, as he fails to have Poker For Dummies! tee-shirts or hats. With their bright yellow color, they would stand out against all the black hats and black shirts. Maybe next year. Fortunately, his table was right next to the aisle, so I was able to cheer him on. All in! All in!

View From A Hilltop Near Jerusalem

Looking down into a wooded valley and seeing a 1500 year old monastery led to some meditations on what they must have been contemplating all these centuries.  Jerusalem has that effect.  What does God want from us?  Moses in the Old Testament boiled it down to Ten Commandments.  The first half were about our relationship with God; the second about our relationship with each other.  Jesus in the New Testament simplified it down to two rules: Love God, and Love Thy Neighbor.  A bit hard to match these talents.  Best I could do was three rules, or maybe four:

View from Via Dolorosa - Musings on Easter

This is a sign along the Via Dolorosa, the walk that takes you to the fifteen Stations of the Cross. The events are graphically portrayed in the Mel Gibson movie, The Passion of the Christ. The walk is much more prosaic, but at the same time much more profound. It provides the occasion to ruminate not just on the meaning of the Passion, but the reality of it.