Tag Archives: Arthur Dantchik

Your Eyes

I’m pretty tired. Pounding the pavement today. It actually went well. Walked from the Path train to 40 Wall Street, where I took the elevators to the Third and Fourth Floors.

It wasn’t the dank hole I expected it to be and I didn’t see any dank holes like I expected to see. I don’t know why the Susquehanna Investment Group has such a bad reputation.

You might think that a privately held global investment, trading and technology firm servicing securities markets worldwide would have their slack cut for them but apparently that’s not so.

Arthur Dantchik, Jeff Yass, Steve Bloom, Eric Brooks, Andrew Frost and Joel Greenberg all sent their warmest greetings and regards. Yass and Dantchik are a pair of regular jokers, with the knock knock jokes and other Pennsylvania humor.

They seemed like good guys though behind closed doors, the refrain of ‘watch the teeth, watch the teeth’ did raise some eyebrows. I didn’t stay too long, just long enough to make my presence known. Susquehanna Investment Group certainly gets it’s name in the news often enough, oddly though it doesn’t involve insider trading, at least not yet.

Soon I was on my way to Broad Street, to Barclay Rex. Nice situation, Wall Street area, good looking men in their suits and ties. I’d be happy to be one of them should the need arise. I had a good meeting with the manager and the assistant manager.

Never had a meeting before where I was offered a cigar. Of course I said yes and sat there smoking a cigar and answering questions. I answered honestly and truthfully and that seemed to be what they wanted to hear.

No trying to figure out what that might be, just saying it and them looking a bit amazed at my responses. After about an hour our meeting was over. They said I could sit there and finish the cigar so that’s what I did.

Walked over to the train and headed uptown. Saw David Allen Grier on the street as I made my way to see Bill. Also took a look at a spot where Tariq said he sometimes plays for the tourist dollar but the only people besides tourists were sketch artists.

It was good to see Bill. He’s so supportive, saying things about how good I looked and really happy to hear that the meeting went so well. I was certainly glad to be able to tell him some good news for a change, especially after me being a bit gloomy the past couple of days.

We walked over to Godiva where Bill bought a bag of dark chocolate truffles for me. They were almost as sweet as Bill. Walked over to Macy’s after that. They’re having a sale on eyeglasses so I checked them out. Of course the frames on sale were crap, and not my style.

I did see some nice ones that were more expensive and maybe the insurance will cover them somewhat. Despite all the care I put into the eyeglasses I have now, somehow they’ve wound up scratched. And I rarely used paper to clean the lenses, always used the special cloths that were recommended.

Maybe I’m paranoid but one of the last times I was at Cohen’s Optical and had them fix a screw, I could swear they were given back to me more scratched than they were originally. Another meeting is scheduled for next week and Bill suggests I wear the exact same thing for my ‘call back’. Seems like a novel idea.

In that case, I had better get the shirt and tie to the cleaners forthwith!

Forsooth!

That's my Bill

That's my Bill


Me, smoking 'their' cigar

Me, smoking 'their' cigar

Earthquake Weather

Let’s see. What’s new?

Not much actually.

Earthquake, a 6.0 off the coast of Northern California. Annemarie felt it while home for lunch. Bill knew about it before I did. I found out when I called him just to say hello. He was quite serious on the phone.

Apparently he had just sent me a text about it. I called Annemarie who was back at work and she told me about it. I guess it wasn’t so bad that she went back to work after the earthquake.

Today I spent a good couple of hours pounding the cyber pavement looking for work. Even went so far as to apply for a job that required a four year college diploma for doing the same bloody job that I’ve done for 10 years.

I mentioned that in the cover letter, just did not use those exact words. Would be bad form you see. I’m definitely aiming a bit higher than I did. No need to spit in the face of employers.

I had a somewhat busy day. After pounding the cyber pavement I was in the library, visited Jim Mastro at the Guitar Bar and wandered around Hoboken a bit today. No sightings of Stine and Alexander today. Did clean the apartment some.

Still more to be done.

Bill started cleaning a bit last night, then we watched The Dead Zone. The David Cronenberg movie, starring Christopher Walken and Martin Sheen, not the TV show starring Anthony Michael Hall. I read the book ages ago, enjoyed it quite a bit while I was in the midst of reading most everything Stephen King had written.

I remember seeing the movie when it released. It is one of the better versions of a Stephen King story. When The West Wing was on TV starring Martin Sheen as President Bartlett, I couldn’t help but think of him as Greg Stillson, who ran for Senate and eventually occupies the White House.

Too creepy, but the future was altered despite the name change and eventually Jimmy Smits occupied the Pennsylvania Avenue address and the word was safe.

Lot’s of 1970’s/80’s actors in the Dead Zone. Herbert Lom, Anthony Zerbe, and Brooke Adams who is now Mrs. Tony Shaloub. Colleen Dewhurst is in it for about 5 minutes as well. That actually stopped Bill from his cleaning routine.

The other night Bill and I watched 3 hours of Lost. First the recap before the two hour premiere. After 6 seasons, Bill is into watching the show. The recap helped Bill catch up and he was oddly silent for three hours, except for his Craig Ferguson impersonations. “I know!”

Time moves on and the unease I felt at the beginning of the week is dissipating.

I was invited to Otisville on Sunday for a Super Bowl party but I am sticking closer to home in case Greg Stevens rings that bell for some work on Monday. Other than that, I would be totally clueless with regards to the Super Bowl. I have no idea who is playing anyhow.

I do know it is not the Jets.

JOT RAY