Nooorm...serotonin, and the crooked E

Ah to be in New England! The home of the Patriots, the Bruins, and of course the Red Sox. The place where tea should be in fashion more than coffee, the place where not to own a boat, not to have gone to Harvard, and not to have a vacation home on Martha's vineyard all seem improbable. New England, the place that immortalised sitting on a stool in a dingy basement pub for hours upon hours drinking beer, and indulging a postman with his trivia instead of letting him, well, do his job and go postal.

By the way, I wonder what that Greek flag is doing in the background. Hmmm...

It's another rainy weekend here in Boston, imagine that! Funny how things work out, no? Relatively sunny and warm days during the week, only to have rain and cool winds over the weekend. I did manage to get in my 7-mile run along the Charles this morning though, before the rain came, and all that serotonin flowing through really made me feel better during the rest of this bleaky day.

A cup of coffee and reading for a bit at a cafe in the afternoon also made the trick. Except that I was reading The Smartest Guys In The Room - The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron, the most accurate account of what happened in that company. And how do I know that? Let's just say that I too fell for the illusion that was Enron, a carefully guarded, but not well constructed illusion. Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind have done what no other author who wrote about the despicable actions of those few individuals responsible for destroying the lives of so many have been able to do. I don't know if I can count myself in that same category as those guys. I would hope that I am smart, but I guess not that smart to really see the Enron culture for what it really was: an island of cut-throat, irresponsible competition amongst its own divisions, and even members of those divisions.

I picked up the book when it fist came out few years ago, and started reading it only to put it down in disgust as I was reminded of the ugliness that was prevalent there. Now, with the movie out, I felt compelled to finish it and put that sorry episode behind me once and for all.

The rest of the afternoon turned out better once I finished and put that book down. Virgin Radio helped a lot as well, while I continued to drink my coffee and finishing this post, especially as the DJ was playing Ultravox's "Vienna" and U2's "One".

Love and Respect