Thursday, November 17, 2005



And so now the PHOENIXNYC "Love, Learning and Money" 2005/06 tour continues.

After opening the tour in Minneapolis, and making stops in St. Louis, Kansas City and Las Vegas the tour heads south to MIAMI. That's right, just as the temperature dropped from 67 to 40 overnight here in New York, we are heading to 85 and sunny Miami for four days. I'm going for a wedding, but its also a much needed beach and fun respite.

As usual, pictures, commentary and the unique tour perspective of the rolling road show will be posted.

A few things to share before I leave.

A great headline on Yahoo yesterday.

"Reality TV writers demand more pay."

Also, I am reading an AMAZING book right now. "TEAM OF RIVALS. The political genius of Abraham Lincoln" by Doris Kearns Goodwin. Halfway through this 900 page tome I can confidently say it is the best work on Lincoln I have ever read.

What makes it unique is that it also follows the life stories and political lives of the three men would who would be his challengers for the 1860 Republican nomination for President, Salmon P. Chase, Edward Bates and William Seward. What makes the story even more amazing is that all three men would go on to fill the most important cabinet positions in the Lincoln White House.

You get four biographies for the price of one (without any one of them suffering), a deeper look at Lincoln, and an astoundingly detailed and human portrait of the twenty years in the lives of the men and the country leading up to the civil war.

It's a masterpiece.

On a side note, reading about the lives and loved ones of these four men I am reminded of how difficult life could be at that time, and how ever present death at an early age was and how differently we view death today, only 150 years later.

Edwin M. Stanton who would become Lincoln's Secretary of War and most beloved admirer had an incredible amount of sorrow before joining Lincoln.

His young daughter died of Scarlett Fever, three years later his wife died of fever at 29, a short time later his brother developed a fever that left him partially brain damaged; depressed, he stuck a knife in his throat and bled to death in front of Stanton.

From all this Stanton went on to play one of the most crucial roles in winning the Civil War and saving the Union.

Salmon P. Chase had three wives die on him in ten years.