Monthly Archives: September 2015

While so many of our Luncheon Society gatherings address serious subjects, this one was a blast.  Philippe Petit had a new book out called “Why Knot,” a playful book on the creation of knots.   Petit might come out with the “Yellow Pages,”  but everybody still wants to talk about what happened during the summer of  1974, when Petit and his team of Frenchmen  climbed the tower and then he began his famous tightrope walk

However, when you think about it knots played an important role in keeping him alive.  The tightrope was shot from one tower to the other by bow-and-arrow and then carefully tied down to ensure that he would not fall 110 stories to his death.  His action added a special poignancy now that both towers were destroyed in the 9.11 attacks.

His book “Man on Wire” is a riot to read.  The book, which became an Academy Award winning documentary, detailed Petit’s extraordinary journey from a dental office in Paris to the chasm between both Towers.  It was capped off with a surprise by Petit himself at the Oscar telecast.

There is a new movie arriving in the fall of 2015, directed by Robert Zemeckis, which Joseph Gordon-Levitt as the title role.  It will be one of those “tent-pole movies that will hit the theaters this October.

One funny story.  On the day Petit walked, it was a foggy day and it was very hard to see him from the ground.  His girlfriend stood on the streets below “ginning” up interest by pointing into the sky to a very faint and blurry figure 110 stories up. Continue reading →

Okay, we are now catching up on our Luncheon Society gatherings.  I have nearly two years of Luncheon Society narratives that will be inserted, roughly 1-2 per day if things go according to plans.

David Stockman, a former congressman who served as Ronald Reagan’s polarizing OMD Director during his term, sat down with The Luncheon Society for a different kind of conversation about the direction of the American economy.

Special thanks for Tim Farley to moderate while I was overseas in Europe. To get a backgrounder on Stockman, please link on the following

• William Greider article in The Atlantic from 1981 http://theatln.tc/1Nxk5bq
• Stockman’s Wikipedia page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Stockman

Here is the book jacket blub on The Great Deformation from David Stockman. The Great Deformation is a searing look at Washington’s craven response to the recent myriad of financial crises and fiscal cliffs. It counters conventional wisdom with an eighty-year revisionist history of how the American state—especially the Federal Reserve—has fallen prey to the politics of crony capitalism and the ideologies of fiscal stimulus, monetary central planning, and financial bailouts. These forces have left the public sector teetering on the edge of political dysfunction and fiscal collapse and have caused America’s private enterprise foundation to morph into a speculative casino that swindles the masses and enriches the few.

Continue reading →

Okay, we are now catching up on our Luncheon Society gatherings.  I have nearly two years of Luncheon Society narratives that will be inserted, roughly 1-2 per day if things go according to plans.

This Luncheon Society gathering took place in 2013 with a very smart young man who –no doubt-will go very far.

A Millennial examines how his generation is profoundly impacting politics, business, media, and activism. They’ve been called, entitled, narcissistic, “the worst employees in history”, “trophy kids”, and even “the dumbest generation.” But, argues David D. Burstein, the Millennial Generation’s unique blend of civic idealism and savvy pragmatism, combined with their seamless ability to navigate the 21st century world – where constant and fast change is the new normal – will enable them to overcome the short-term challenges of a deeply divided nation and begin to address our world’s long-term challenges.

With eighty million Millennials (people who are today eighteen to thirty years old) coming of age and emerging as leaders in America alone, this is the largest generation in U.S. history, by 2020, its members will represent one out of every three adults in the country. They are more ethnically and racially diverse than their elders, they are the first generation to come of age in a truly global world, and the first to come of age in the new digital era. Millennials have begun their careers amidst a recession which has seen record youth unemployment levels, yet they remain optimistic about their future. Drawing on extensive interviews with his Millennial peers and compelling new research, Burstein illustrates how his generation is simultaneously shaping and being shaped by a fast-paced and fast-changing world. Part oral history, part social documentary, FAST FUTURE reveals the impact and story of the Millennial Generation – in their own words.

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