Yes, I know I'm late to read -- but I just read Mitch's blog from Saturday.   And, I get it -- really I do. [Thanks for the shout out, Mitch.]As anyone who spends more than five minutes with me knows, my adult children both currently live very far away.  Far -- planes and trains away.  Like Mitch's (rockstar) daughter, mine lives in northern California .  My son is in southern Virginia.  They, and we, really enjoy each other's company. But simple geography means that we don't have enough time together.  

While travelling in Southeast Asia, we experienced their expression of greeting. Rather than shake hands, their tradition is to place their hands together and shortly bow. I learned that the depth and length of the bow can even reflect the level of respect being offered. While people in the United States say hello with a handshake, bowing carries the same meaning of courtesy and recognition in other cultures. In fact, our guides in Bali and Thailand told us that they rarely, if ever, shake hands.  

When the mood arises, a playlist results.  Sometime ago on that platform I wish would still be known as twitter and follow its pre-Musk ‘sensibilities,” I responded to a list asking for songs with “dance” or “dancing” in the title.  Past asks often enabled me to respond with a playlist.  An example is my “The Eyes Have It,” playlist which arose following a Gotham Friday Happy hour chat; I posted the list to a query seeking songs with “Eyes” in the title.

I’m writing this from a Delta flight to San Francisco, somewhere high above the heartland, moving about 450 miles per hour in a machine that still feels impossible to me.Below me, the land is laid out in neat checkerboard squares. Farms, fields, roads, and towns pass quietly beneath us. I wonder what they’re planting down there. I wonder who is working those fields. I wonder how many people on this plane are also heading somewhere that matters.

Back in the day, I was a member of the fabled New York City Friars Club Executive Committee and my father was a Friar before me. As such, I bore witness to countless Friars Roasts for over 50 years. Many times sitting on the Dais. 

Maybe today. Just maybe, theMets will end their losing streak. I’ve been saying (hoping) those words for so long that it’s hard to remember when it started.Twelve games as I write on Wednesday. It’s hard to look at the statistics. Has a team ever recovered from this? Is the season over in April?I’m a fan and I dream of the “Amazins” and the thrills ahead.I’m a fan and anything is possible. 

I think this tarm is used to justify being out of the office for an extended period. In my ccase, this period is 28 days. I am fortunate enough that I can do this, from a financial standpoint, but more importantly, from the standpoint of having a stellar staff of dedicated people around me..Happy work werk, wherever you are!

The words we use to aassuage the guilt of being out of the office for more than 2 days For me, I am fortunate to be on this 28 day working vacation because I have a fabulous staff to see to things wwhile I play in Italy.I wish each and everyone of you a fantastic extended working vacay!Ciao!