Peter’s Mercedes

Peter Avalone was, at least on paper, the kind of guy I generally don’t like much. We met when we joined the same golf club in the late-90’s. Peter’s slightly doughy, but never-rumpled body was always wrapped in the perfect clothes. I don’t know what he paid for a haircut, but every hair was always the perfect length – like it had been cut that morning no matter how often I saw him. It was silvery white, which added authority to an already formidable presence.

Peter was a Princeton grad and had served as an aid to New York Senator Jacob Javits before going to Wall Street, where he became a managing director at Drexel Burnham. He lived in a multi-million dollar home in one of Westchester’s nicest neighborhoods and had a wife and two kids – all with last names for first names. To top it off, Peter had a deep need to be the center of attention and “the big man” in every situation. By the time I met him he was in his late 40’s, semi-retired, and playing a lot of golf. This combination of traits would normally be all it takes to make me slide to the farthest bar stool from their owner. And yet, Peter was a very hard guy to dislike.

“Charming” is the only word I know for it; he had lots of funny stories, and often made himself the butt of his own jokes. He could put anyone at ease. He knew more people at the club after a year than I know now, more than 10 years later, and he loved to gossip –not the mean-spirited kind of gossip that characterizes club culture, but a harmless “the-king-has-no-clothes” kind that always made the most pompous, imperious members its slightly-bruised victims.

Every year the club brought in a couple young pros straight out of college. They made very little money and lived in a small apartment over the pro shop. Peter took a couple lessons a week and played almost every day, but could never get much below a 30 handicap. One summer he took one of the pros out for a playing lesson once a week and always bet him on the match. It didn’t matter how many strokes he got, he lost every time. I can’t even remember what Peter would have theoretically won had he ever beaten the pro, but I’ll never forget what he lost. The young pro had a girlfriend but no car. Every time he beat Peter he won the use of Peter’s car that Saturday night – a Mercedes SL500 of very recent vintage.

Peter began to suffer serious economic reversals around 2001, and over the course of a couple of years they caused him to first drop his club membership, and then sell his beautiful home near the Hudson. Several of us tried to stay in touch, inviting him for drinks or dinners, but he refused all invitations. After a few months he stopped returning calls and emails.

As the years went by his wife divorced him and he became estranged from his children, even missing his daughter’s wedding a year or so ago. There were stories of several found, and lost, jobs over the past couple of years, but I don’t know if they are true. He recently had a trial as the real estate authority on Fox Business Network, but it apparently did not go well enough to win a regular gig.

Last Wednesday a motorist reported seeing a man run across several lanes of traffic on the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge which carries I-84 over the Hudson River. The man was Peter. He leapt over the rail to the river 160 feet below. Dead and alone at 59. He’d been living in a hotel in Fishkill, a run-down, up-state river town for several months.

On one hand it wasn’t a great surprise, but on the other, it was an enormous shock. I’m having a very hard time connecting the dots from the person I knew to the man running across that bridge. I went to the Fox site and viewed Peter’s segment. I’m not sure I would have recognized him. He’d lost 20-30 pounds and his hair was thinner, but the real difference was that the light was out. The big personality and stupendous self-confidence had been replaced by a nervous, tentative man I didn’t know.

Several of us are trying to find out if there will be be services, but no one seems to know. I’m sorry I couldn’t help my friend. I’m sorry he died so alone and desperate. I wanted to share a little of the good and happy man I knew before fate took its unfortunate turn.

Woodstock

This Saturday marks the 40th anniversary of Woodstock - a festival of peace love and understanding. I was working in the 35" mill at Cooperweld Steel that summer, throwing chains around red hot ingots of steel after they immerged from the furnace. There was very little of any of the aforementioned qualities to be found at the 'weld, but, after hours, it was very possible to find some combination of sex, drugs and rock & roll. So while I wasn't there, I felt very much like a participant in the event.

I’m going to be gone much of August so this might be my last post this month. I’d be interested to hear what the rest of you were doing in August 1969. Please share your stories.

Bill & Kim

This photo was easily my favorite of the week. Say whatever you want about Bill Clinton, but nobody plays the role of ex-president better than him. In the photo, Bill is Snow White with Kim as Grumpy; the two of them and the other six dwarves seem to be posed in front of the evil witch’s mirror gone hi-def. Or is that a scene from Fantasia behind them? Sorry to mix my movie metaphors.

I don’t understand what all the fuss was about. Bill will go to the opening of a car wash if the money is right, so in this case he got paid in his favorite currency – attention – and he brought home the bacon. Speaking of the bacon, why has no one asked, “what were those women doing strolling along (or over) the border of North Koreas?” Hadn’t they heard it was dangerous there? I’m glad they got home, and I’m glad we made the effort to get them, but isn’t the appropriateness of their own behavior worth examining here?

I’d call the response to last week’s post “general agreement” with the premise that Congress is corrupt, but it fell short of an outcry to light the torches and grab the closest pitchfork. In the meantime, Billy Tauzin, who was formerly a US Congressman who oversaw the drug industry, and is now the $3 million a year hear of PhRMA, the drug industry lobby group, took President Obama to the cleaners. Billy is the guy who got Congress to insert a provision into the Medicare part D legislation enacted under Bush II, which prohibited the government from negotiating for the best price with prescription drug manufacturers.

Last week, in closed-door meetings with administration officials, he got them to agree to prevent Congress from rescinding that law in gratitude for the $80 billion in savings Billy’s group already offered to cut from drug expenses over the next 10 years. Never mind that independent audits say the provision is costing the government $20 billion a year in foregone savings. Another case of democracy in auction.

Because of his former position in Congress, BT isn’t even supposed to engage in lobbying but what’s a minor detail like that to important people like him?

If you want more examples, read Frank Rich’s column from last Sunday to see who big pharma and the insurance industry is paying off now. According to the Congressional Quarterly, in the first half of 2009 the 18 members of Congress overseeing health care reform got an average of $100,000 each – including Nancy Pelosi. But I’m sure that won’t effect their decisions.

True or false?

Our national infrastructure is crumbling, our education system is second rate, we have 40 million people with no health care, over 30,000 people were killed by guns last year, jobs are disappearing by the millions and the middle along with them, Social Security and Medicare are going broke, along with a dozen or so states, and if it weren’t for China, the federal government would be broke too. Not to mention that the Browns have not won it all since ’64.

It’s tough to solve any problem unless you know the root cause, so I’m taking a shot at articulating the root of all our problems in one simple (but hopefully not simplistic) statement:

“Congress is unable to solve any important problem facing the nation because they are not working on behalf of American citizens -- the largest single interest group in the country.

They don’t work for us because their number one priority is staying in office, which requires so much money that most Congressmen become captives of special interest groups, and the enormous sums of money that they provide.

The success of each legislative initiative is measured by how many, and how well, the relevant interest groups are rewarded or protected. The overall efficacy of the legislation is secondary at best.

This problem is limited to neither Republicans nor Democrats; it is systemic. By any reasonable definition, the system and the players are corrupt and ineffective.”

I realize there are members of Congress who are exceptions, but they are too few and too weak to be effective; most “reformers” and “insider-change-agents” are eventually co-opted or seduced by the money and power of the system, or just give up and enjoy the retirement benefits.

I’d love to know everyone's response to the question, “is the above statement true or false?” You may disagree that this is the root of all our problems, but still believe the statement is true. Feel free to elaborate.