On Tuesday night October 21, 18 Gothamites who are also members of the Friars Club will meet for drinks in the Club's Lucille Ball Bar to discuss important issues of the day. On the agenda is expanding Friars Club membership in the Tribe. At present, the following Gothamites are fellow Friars: Bruce Swicker, Daniel Hochler, Danny Mizrahi, David Stein, Yours truly, John Hess, Joan Rothermel, Judy Mauer, Mel Lazar, Michael Appell, Norm Spizz, Raj Goel, Scott Bloom, Tom Gallin, Ben Jamron, Jason Bonus, Miguel Freire and Friars applicant Seraray Basarir.

It was a large group -- about forty people -- invited to cocktails in the penthouse apartment on the sixteenth floor with a nice view of the city (not New York).   The sole elevator came down to the lobby to carry a second group to the penthouse. We watched as the elevator loaded. It looked a little too crowded. We weren't going to make it on for this trip and would wait. The doors closed but the elevator did not move. The doors wouldn't open.  

If you haven't been watching the Major League Baseball Playoffs, something incredible is happening.  The Kansas City Royals, perennial impoverished bottom-dwellers, made the playoffs for the first time since 1984.  They finally built a team that was young and fast with great defense and pitching.  Those are all things that people knew about heading into the playoffs, but they didn't expect this.    

A full page in the Times on Friday advertised a coming auction at Sotheby's of  a Mark Rothko painting.  It is called No. 21 (Red, Brown, Black and Orange).  Here is a picture of it.  

Malala Yousafzai became the youngest winner of the Nobel Peace Prize ever at 17 years old. If you remember, she was shot in an attempted assination because she was going to school. At that time she was 11 years old and rebelling against the Taliban's orders for all girls to wear burqas and stay home.   The Nobel committee also awarded the Peace Prize to Kailash Satyarthi from India who has been devoted to end child slavery and credited with helping free tens of thousands of children from forced labor.  

In addition to this weekly creative outlet I also utilize Facebook daily. Last week I posted the above photo along with the words "Until one has loved an animal part of their soul remains unawakened".Truth be told, they are not my words, but the tag line of our Pet Insurance company. Whatever their origin, these words muster up and describe an inner emotion that I did not know I harbored.   As many know our female Schnoodle (Schnowser-Poodle) "Charcoal" came into our lives a year and a half ago and she has enriched us immensely.