funny wedding books novel amazon.com Wedding Chronicles Bob N. Boguslavski
Around the time of that mid September 2007 affair for Bob and Natasha, rumblings were emerging from the financial markets about all that global money crammed inside the US subprime mortgage market that was making financial institutions and hedge funds alike a fortune up until then. It was a massive feeding frenzy, and it was supposedly all bullet-proof safe, paying out high returns, and was endorsed by the brightest minds and leading lights in the industry. Yeah, sure.
Then we all saw what happened thereafter by the fall of 2008 when the crisis hit full on. Bob's chat over a drink with Tristan Alford, then at a purposely anonymous hedge fund, and a former colleague of Bob "The Banker," was tied to this. Tristan knew what was coming down the pike, and had the good sense to want to get out of Dodge while the getting was good to preserve some of his wealth, and keep that Mrs. of his happy with her high-end baubles, haute couture, and gal pal spa getaway weekends with her "Ladies Who Lunch" set, or LaWLu as Bob prefers. A great gig if you can get it!
Since that time, and the subsequent market meltdown, a lot of analysis, debate, and discussion has happened about the whole subprime crisis, and numerous books, TV shows and even movies have covered the topic 25 ways to Sunday.
This great little presentation is still one of Bob's favorites for explaining subprime to just about everybody and their dog in very simple terms. One can well forgive the couple of spelling errors with "traunche" (tranche) and Caymen (Cayman) Islands for the otherwise humorous insight.
This shorter animated piece is a little more serious, but also very good.
These two cats below, Bird and Fortune, also did a bang up job explaining it all with typical British flair and sophistication.
Alas, John Fortune passed away this past New Year's Eve, but he wasn't on the lads' DeathList 2013 roster.
When this single guy is out there hitting weddings all over the place, the topics of conversation aren't always just fluffy and funny. There's real other stuff going on out there that surfaces every now and again and is worth bringing to light.
Then we all saw what happened thereafter by the fall of 2008 when the crisis hit full on. Bob's chat over a drink with Tristan Alford, then at a purposely anonymous hedge fund, and a former colleague of Bob "The Banker," was tied to this. Tristan knew what was coming down the pike, and had the good sense to want to get out of Dodge while the getting was good to preserve some of his wealth, and keep that Mrs. of his happy with her high-end baubles, haute couture, and gal pal spa getaway weekends with her "Ladies Who Lunch" set, or LaWLu as Bob prefers. A great gig if you can get it!
Since that time, and the subsequent market meltdown, a lot of analysis, debate, and discussion has happened about the whole subprime crisis, and numerous books, TV shows and even movies have covered the topic 25 ways to Sunday.
This great little presentation is still one of Bob's favorites for explaining subprime to just about everybody and their dog in very simple terms. One can well forgive the couple of spelling errors with "traunche" (tranche) and Caymen (Cayman) Islands for the otherwise humorous insight.
This shorter animated piece is a little more serious, but also very good.
These two cats below, Bird and Fortune, also did a bang up job explaining it all with typical British flair and sophistication.
Alas, John Fortune passed away this past New Year's Eve, but he wasn't on the lads' DeathList 2013 roster.
When this single guy is out there hitting weddings all over the place, the topics of conversation aren't always just fluffy and funny. There's real other stuff going on out there that surfaces every now and again and is worth bringing to light.
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MAD Magazine was one of Bob's big favorites back when he was a kid, and its sense of humor has a longstanding impression on him to this day, and his writing style. The piece on 43-Man Squamish from MAD #095 (June 1965) was definitely one of the more memorable pieces for him, and you can see it all in gory detail right here as a scanned image from the original issue. It was that crazy college sport those two kooks George Woodbridge and Tom Koch dreamed up, and it was explained with absolute clarity and brilliance.
By the time you are done processing it all you'll be an expert on all the positions from Grouches, to Brooders, Wicket Men, Niblings, Frummerts, Over/Underblats, Finks, Leapers and the Dummy. You'll know how they all mesh together in dizzying formations on the flutney, and how it is all about the Pritz and controlling things with the Frullip.
You'll know your Snivels and Ogres, and the very important difference between a Woomink and a Durmish, and surprisingly, why imitations of Barry Goldwater (hello Tea Party!) also may play a part in turning the tide of a match, but only if you are a Fink.
Was Draja Druvnik really one of the best at the game, judging by his big endorsement deal back in the day? No idea this side, and you could probably debate that for hours on end with those in the know.
The rules of gameplay and interpretation therein are where the action is really at, and if it all makes complete sense to you, then you are ready for a job as a German rocket scientist (even if you haven't learned that language yet, and only speak Swahili, cuz, clearly you got it all going on upstairs).
If this all sounds too complicated, or you can't find enough palookaheadz in your college to field a full squad, you can always opt for the much simpler version, 2-Man Squamish, where the object is to lose.
But after all of that, Bob's biggest takeaway from the whole mess was that certain special "wise old Chilean proverb" as immortalized there, and which has haunted him for decades (and maybe still does), until he actually got to Chile for the first time as a single guy on some wedding adventure junket.
It would be uberkool to see it played in Squamish, British Columbia, just up the road a bit from Vancouver on the way to Whistler. There's probably some reason out there somebody created that shared naming kinship between the place and the sport. Maybe Woodbridge and Koch should have added that to the mix.
As Bob always says to folks traveling that highway, "Don't forget to stop in Squamish."
By the time you are done processing it all you'll be an expert on all the positions from Grouches, to Brooders, Wicket Men, Niblings, Frummerts, Over/Underblats, Finks, Leapers and the Dummy. You'll know how they all mesh together in dizzying formations on the flutney, and how it is all about the Pritz and controlling things with the Frullip.
You'll know your Snivels and Ogres, and the very important difference between a Woomink and a Durmish, and surprisingly, why imitations of Barry Goldwater (hello Tea Party!) also may play a part in turning the tide of a match, but only if you are a Fink.
Was Draja Druvnik really one of the best at the game, judging by his big endorsement deal back in the day? No idea this side, and you could probably debate that for hours on end with those in the know.
The rules of gameplay and interpretation therein are where the action is really at, and if it all makes complete sense to you, then you are ready for a job as a German rocket scientist (even if you haven't learned that language yet, and only speak Swahili, cuz, clearly you got it all going on upstairs).
If this all sounds too complicated, or you can't find enough palookaheadz in your college to field a full squad, you can always opt for the much simpler version, 2-Man Squamish, where the object is to lose.
But after all of that, Bob's biggest takeaway from the whole mess was that certain special "wise old Chilean proverb" as immortalized there, and which has haunted him for decades (and maybe still does), until he actually got to Chile for the first time as a single guy on some wedding adventure junket.
It would be uberkool to see it played in Squamish, British Columbia, just up the road a bit from Vancouver on the way to Whistler. There's probably some reason out there somebody created that shared naming kinship between the place and the sport. Maybe Woodbridge and Koch should have added that to the mix.
As Bob always says to folks traveling that highway, "Don't forget to stop in Squamish."
