Big Men/Little Men

 So Barry and Donna and Josh drove down from Pembroke Pines, and Paul and Patricia called and said they wished to come, too, and I fibbed to the person at Captain's Tavern. They take reservations for 8 and more, since they don't have many large tables, and I mistakenly counted us as 8 instead of 7. They forgave me.

We had a delightful night celebrating Barry's 63rd -- 2 martinis for me, one each for Josh and Barry -- and we talked of ships and shoes and sealing wax, of cabbages and kings.

And it occurred to me that I only ever got close with big men. Not size wise -- but men who take care of their families, take responsibility for their lives, and never make excuses.

Little men harangue their women. They have limitless capacities for saying why they ended up losers in life. They try to control women -- long after the women are no longer in their lives.

Turns out, I cannot abide little men -- just have to minimally deal with them, as needed, and keep my distance.

This am I was treated to a bunch of gorgeous photos from D2 -- she and Jonathan are having an amazing time in Portugal. Today they're headed for Comporta, which looks to be magnificent. D2 keeps asking after Betsy, her enormous puppy. Betsy is hilarious -- she used to love long walks, and now, approaching 7 insists on shorter ones. This am we got as far as her friend Jagger's house, who sadly wasn't home, and then, instead of continuing, Betsy went on strike -- plopping down her 105 lbs until we headed home.

Wifey and I have gotten used to watching for her dark bulk at night -- she now favors sleeping at the foot of our bed. And D2 loves her SO much -- we love watching her.

The IRS finally got around to sending me a refund I requested last November -- the result of an amended 2024 return which included an investment loss for my FINAL real estate limited partnership. Jonathan and  invested -- via someone he knew. We now agree real estate isn't for us -- Jonathan has plenty on his hands in the world of private equity, and I'm an old school stock and bond guy. I'll leave the more exotic investments for people who really know what they're doing.

I have one final K-1 thing out there -- a small stake in a soccer team owned by D1's bro in law. I thought it would be fun to be part of it, even though I truly LOATHE soccer -- I'd rather watch paint dry.

I fully expect this venture to go belly up as well, though it may take a few years, and I'll get my closeout K-1 which I can use for a tax deduction. Yeah - investing in operations based on someone's boyhood love of sports probably isn't the way to go -- unless you were boyhood friends with someone named Ross, or Arison, or Kraft...

So today we only have a good 'ole Sunday morning and day planned -- I shall complete my constitutional without Betsy. And tonight we get to watch a new episode of "The Westies," a new HBO series based on the actual small Irish gang in NY in the 70s and 80s. It stars the guy from the Farmer's Insurance commercials, who is excellent.

It's funny -- the story centers around the building of the Javits Center -- at the time the biggest project in NYC history, on territory controlled by the Irish guys -- and the Italians wanted in. I was at the Javits Center years ago -- it's pretty rough around the edges -- but when built, was state of the art.

Speaking of NYC -- I'm daily amazed that apparently 1/3 of NY Jewish voters voted for the Muslim guy. Survivors and families of the 911 attack are lobbying hard to keep him away from the service this September --25 years since Hamas/Al Queda (they're really all the same). Hey -- Mamdani is grieving, too -- his people lost 19 of their best guys!

Wow -- 1/4 century since that awful time. Paul and I had just closed a major fire case we handled with our old boss Ed. By noon, we had sent the staff home, and we all knew our families were fine. And as Ed always famously said "Ya gotta eat!"

So we decamped to Morton's on Brickell, sat in the bar, had celebratory martinis and steaks, and talked about these Islamic terrorists. We couldn't have dreamed that now they're seen by the Far Left as Freedom Fighters. What a world, what a world, as the Wicked Witch said as she was melting...

All we can do is raise our grandsons to be Big Men. It won't be easy -- they'll have the influence of Little Men along the way. But I like our chances...