My family has an Ellis Island story and it goes like this. Our family name was Jablonsky. When my great grandfather came through Ellis Island, he wanted a nice American sounding name that had no ethnicity attached. The one that came to his mind was Levine – my maiden name. Bill’s family name was Pschesslofsky – yes, with a “P”. Much too long …
We ordered lunch into the office on Friday. Without even looking at the menu for the deli we were ordering from I placed my order with my secretary, “Greek salad with grilled chicken, no dressing; diet iced tea. Snapple diet half iced tea half lemonade if they have it.” My secretary laughed and encouraged me to look at the menu. To appease her, I …
I have written a few times about my office toys, which include a yo-yo, a baseball, a rubber ball, and a few other assorted diversions. My partner has a little putting green but he must not like it because he keeps it in a box. My favorite is the little beach ball. It is in the picture. An appellate printer sent it to me as a holiday gift a …
It has been front page news since Wednesday and has France in a state of shock and fear. Al-Qaida's branch in Yemen has said they directed the attack. That "branch" had two earlier failures, the underwear bombler plot and in 2010 tried to send bombs in packages to targets in the US. What you may not know is that French authorities had both Kouach …
We are addicted to two Showtime shows. They are Homeland and The Affair. Both of which had their season finales just before Christmas. Homeland is our number one following its best season yet. The two episodes prior to the finale were explosive and captivating while the finale was a strong bridge to next season with Quinn as the endangered love in …
As I brushed the snow off the car the other morning, I thought of family and friends who have left New York for warmer parts. I am fond of kidding my Mother -- who spends the winter in Florida -- that the happiness of New Yorkers in Florida is inversely related to the weather: the poorer the weather in New York, the happier they are. (As any mot …
Let's start with some disclaimers: If you are actually interested in seeing this movie, I would recommend you save yourselves. But if you must, then beware that there might be a minor spoiler or two in here, nothing big though. I'm not going to pretend that I was dragged into this kicking and screaming. On the contrary, this debacle was actua …
January 5, 1996. My oldest child was born and now she has turned 19. I vividly remember leaving our apartment in Manhattan to head to the hospital on January 4, 1996. I stood in the doorway for a moment thinking that life would never be the same. So true. I vividly remember her first birthday party. It was at the Marriott in Uniondale. Mickey …
As I have written in previous blogs, according to my kids, I am old fashioned about a lot of things. Lately, their perception of my old fashioned propensities has extended to my habit of hailing cabs. I do not mind, at all, standing on a city block and raising my hand to hail a cab. In fact, in the real old days when I first began working, a certa …
Throughout history there have been periods when facial hair was in, and times when it was out. More recently, in the late 19th century, long beards were the thing. Then the beards were shaved and during the turn of the century a mustache was the fad. Now it seems that a one week growth is popular among some. I have my own cycles. Typically …
As my yearly tradition continues, it's time for my predictions for 2015. Let's look at my sterling track record. 2007 - 1 for 7. (my rookie year:)2008 - 1 for 1 (gutsy picking one but it was spot on)2009 - 3 for 5 2010 - 2 for 32011 - 3 for 3!!! 2012 - 3 for 3!!!2013 I took a break, the launch of the new website took all my attention2014 - 2 …
College Basketball Hall of Fame coach John Wooden said "Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while reputation is merely what others think of you."Food for thought in this time of New Year's resolution. We often hear one is reputed to be thus and such, but what lies at the core …
I have a date stamp on my desk in the office. The old- fashioned kind. You change the date, month and year with plastic wheels. Changing the date is part of my morning ritual. I’ve had such a stamp on my desk for many years. I use it to stamp mail. I don't use it as much now as I used to. Yesterday morning I checked to make sure that the stamp h …
At the risk of attacking anyone or breaking the no partisan politics rule here at the Gotham blog, how on Earth could this have happened. After a couple of weeks of built up anti-North Korean sentiment pusling through the veins of the American people, we now find out that there is a possibility than they were not responsibe for the data hack i …
This is not an original blog idea, with credit going to my law partner, Jane Jacobs. But, it got me thinking – well, really singing. Jane was in the process recently of creating a dance playlist and asked for recommendations from her friends. Let’s help Jane fill out that playlist. I’ll start. The first three that came to my mind: 1. Sweet …
