I very distinctly remember where I was on 9/11. I was on my way into the city merrily sleeping through my everyday ordinary commute on what was not an ordinary day. From the moment I arrived at Penn Station, I knew something had gone terribly wrong. But it took me some time to piece it together. People were talking but there was no real information. I remember taking the bus across town (the subway had been shut down). I was anxious for information and so I didn't finish the ...

  What’s in a name? that which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet.   -William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet   Recently, I attended a networking gig in Newtown, PA with my friend Laura Queen. A small group of new acquaintances sat around a pub table and performed the art of getting to know one another. Cleverly, one of the gentlemen said “I know a quick way to get to know someone, would you like to know my secret?” I was willing to play the game and sheepis...

  I look forward to our golf outing every year. Anyone who knows me for any length of time has just burst out in a big thunderous belly laugh. For me to say I look forward to anything even tangentially sports related is a feat. Of course, our golf outing also comes with day long great food so maybe that explains it. (The chilled lobster tails and shrimp with never ending rounds of lamb chops were a great start to the cocktail party. Sorry, I couldn’t resist.) But seriou...

  For most of my adult life, I loved to sleep late on the weekends. Even when my children were young, when they would wake up earlier than me on weekends, I would pull them into my bed and let them watch television while I dozed.     Several months ago, all that changed. A friend wanted to attend Weight Watchers with me but was only available very early on Saturday mornings. So, in order to encourage her to go, I agreed to change my weekly Weight Watcher meeting to a very e...

With the start of summer, Gotham initiates a Season of Giving. At last’s Thursday’s meeting of Gotham Queens (which I nicknamed “GQ” when it rebooted under new leadership a few years back), we circulated an envelope. The idea is fives, tens and twenties much the way grass-roots on line fundraising is the craze in politics. The difference: instead of a candidate, you insert your business card with the name of your preferred charity on it. At the Gotham Holiday/ Winter Cocktail...

Yesterday was the longest day of the year. A fitting day for Fred's blog.   Now we lose a minute of sunlight every day till the winter soltice even though we are entering the blazing days of summer. I don't know about you but I really don't notice it.   Life seemingly is a little like sipping tea. In general, changes occur subtley, over time with no notice until one morning you wake up and it's dark outside or the cup is empty.   Sipping seems to be more enjoyable than taki...

If you knew today was your last day on earth what would you do?Who would you be with?Who would you reach out to talk to?What would you say that you haven’t said?What credit or praise would give that you haven’t given. What wrongs would you try to right?What debts would you pay?What gifts would you give?Who would you tell of your love?What self indulgences would you allow?What would you do that you haven’t done?...

Gothamite Carol Schiro Greenwald visited Gotham’s Long Island Dinner Group on Tuesday evening and presented eye-opening insight, and vibrant discussion, of Referral Etiquette and the interplay of the Connector, the Referrer, and the Referred. The takeaway is straightforward. (And if it requires clarification, Carol will provide.) “Please”, “Thank you”, and “Would you” are the words to be used. However, the most salient for me is Carol's encouragement to use the word “beca...

  How well do you know your colleagues? What we do for a living, might not explain who we are as an individual.   I’m proposing for membership at The Union League and it is no easy feat. The proposal process requires work, connection, commitment and persistence. Characteristic of the American people. The process is ensuring that prospective members are the type of member The League is looking to admit. I am very hopeful I make the grade and that they let me in the front door...

  Dads spend twice as much time now with their kids than they did in 1989 and triple the time they spent in 1965. I saw this statistic reported as Father’s Day was coming around last week. With all of the social and economic issues wrapped around these statistics, they made me think generally about their impact. Putting aside a discussion of the reasons why, this statistic says that today’s generation has the benefit of more active involvement of their fathers. In my es...

  Like most of us, I have a professional email address and a personal email. Unlike everyone else, however, I am a pushover for a discount pitch wherein I get a percentage off on a purchase when I give my email address. You know the ploy, you get an extra 15% off when you provide an email address.     So now my personal email is flooded with sale notifications, discount offers, and the like. I find myself constantly deleting these spam emails. I have considered creating ano...

I shared many times since I scored this Sunday blog "gig" (Some who covet one of the days might call it an ("honor.") how I look forward to blogging on days such as these; I get to post on the actual day.  No different here.  Keeping with tradition, I offer this wonderful song for this special day by current Poco bassist and vocalist Jack Sundrud. Last year we broke with the BBQ tradition to visit a landmark before it closed.   I look forward to a simple one this year.  Over...

Tomorrow is Father's Day and I will be thinking about my Dad. Although I think about him everyday, I'm sure I'll be a bit more reflective.     I recently found this picture of him three weeks ago and spent some time staring at it wondering what he was thinking. He was a brilliant man, a true gentleman and I miss him.   Every year on Father's day we would play golf including Uncle Norm and his stepson Austin. When Jake was old enough, he was added to tradition. I'm happy to s...

Preface: This story is written from the perspective of our dog Charcoal who was visited upon for a week by Lucy, our son’s vacationing family’s fellow Schnoodle:I’m Charcoal in color and fellow female Lucy is White .  Lucy is a year or two older than me and when I came on the scene as a hyperactive puppy my recollection is that she was not too welcomingand I’ve spent 6 years making it up to her.  Challenging her, nipping at her heels, eating out of her dog dish, sleeping in h...

We recently attended a destination wedding. It was extended family. As with many destination weddings, the “events” often consist of more than the actual wedding ceremony and reception. Due to restrictions and/or limitations on the hosts that we were not privy to, we weren’t included in the welcome dinner. Not sure where the line was drawn; but for whatever reasons, we “didn’t make the cut”. (Yes, that was actually said to us.) We were determined to enjoy our weekend...