The Metropolitan Diary is the part of the New York Times where readers write in cloyingly cute stories about daily life in New York City. If your mother had a favorite section of the Times, this would be it.
When we found ourselves with little to read on the train back to New York City yesterday, we actually found ourselves reading the page. The very first story we came across got our attention: it was about Bear Stearns. Kathy Enders worked at Bear before the merger with JP Morgan Chase. She was let go when the firms merged. Packing up her office belongings was “backbreaking and heartbreaking,” she writes. But fortunately New York City rode to her rescue, literally.
After my final bags were packed, I headed to Third Avenue, the past five years of my work life in tow. An eagle-eyed cabdriver spotted me at the 47th Street bus stop and yelled out his window, asking if I wanted to take a cab instead of waiting for a bus. I held up one of my bags imprinted with the Bear Stearns logo, and shook my head no.
The cabdriver, not skipping a beat, yelled out, “It’s on me.”
Metropolitan Diary [New York Times]
Jimmy Cayne was driving the cab.
jimmy cayne got the raw dea. He was smoking mother nature out of a hellman’ Mayonnaise Bong.
Saw that article too.
Cool move by the cabbie. Brings up the human/community side of NYC.
@1 Actually it was Rev. Jim (What a great role).
“Brings up the human/community side of NYC”
Which fairyland NYC do you live in? Are you fucking kidding me? Sure, if a hot broad was standing looking distraught then no cabbie would have any trouble picking her up. Just imagine the possibilities running through the dude’s mind!
Cabbies are amongst the lowest forms of life I have seen anywhere. This chick sounds like one of those who goes out with some sexual predator and later on claims she does not know why she was molested. Human side my fucking ass.
Ahhhhh everyone’s so happy this Monday morning.
There’s a real prickish bent to you, Carney.You relish in misery, especially if there’s a connection to Bear Stearns.
#6, you fail at life.
9:44 Hey asshole, did she write that she got a mercy fuck from the cab driver?
You seem to know what happened why don’t you finish her fucking story?
1 is a funny post.
like all nyt fair, the article starts out sickeningly, unrealistically melodramatic and undoubtedly goes downhill from there.
Touching story.
That’s a sweet story esp since I can say I’ve encountered 3 nice cabbies ever, but honestly, getting a little tired of hearing about the poor fate of BSC employees. Yes it’s awful and they got shafted big time. But enough already. Plenty of people have lost their jobs while their companies have stayed afloat (with varying degrees of success of course) by no fault of their own. Plenty of people at JPM got let go to make room for some of the BSC employees but you don’t hear anyone singing the swan song for them.
My heart goes out to the hard-working plebes at Bear Stearns. It reminds me of my early days in the business and my misplaced loyalty. I tried to be the ‘perfect” employee. But nobody gave a crap. So I learned not to care…
I was so ridiculously cost-conscious in the early years, that during business trips, I never opened the hotel mini-bar, instead walking down the street to buy my soda at the 7-11. I ate breakfast at Starbucks and tediously entered the digits from a calling card into the hotel phone for international calls.
I remember the day my approach to costs changed. I was in Europe on business and one of the senior managers invited me to join him at the hotel’s French restaurant for dinner. I told him I wasn’t hungry — I had already grabbed a bite in the food court of the adjoining shopping mall. Still, he suggested I at least join him for a drink. So, I sat down with him just as he was finishing his escargots with garlic butter. I gave him a rundown on my presentation as he cut into roasted pheasant with seared foie gras. I fielded questions as he swallowed chocolate ginger truffle tart with camelized mango and sipped his double espresso. But the coup d’etat was his after-dinner drink. I could barely utter a word after I saw him order a hundred dollar glass of 1968 Bowmore Islay Single Malt. And here I was, washing my underwear in the hotel sink.
http://truthortalk.wordpress.com/
@14,
Enjoyed your bit, your blog looks interesting. I especially liked your description of dinner.
One nit (deal lawyer–can’t help it):
coup d’etat = overthrowing a soverign government.
coup de grace = a mercy blow (no, not that kind) given to end the suffering of a mortally wounded person (originally someone broken on a wheel for punishment).
I think I’d go with the second one.
#14 — while your senior manager’s actions on the company dime are reprehensible, I have a hard time being sympathetic to someone who was not aware of their company’s travel policies.
Most have a per diem rate, which you are clearly entitled to. While they probably aren’t enough to splurge on foie gras, you certainly don’t have to dine at Applebee’s, either.
Just a guess here … were you scrimping to pocket the money you didn’t use?
Also, it occurs to me that while your economic ways can be applauded (to a point), perhaps it raised the question whether you would skimp in entertaining clients and that has held you back in your career. There is a fine line to be sure, but why anyone would resort to the measures you described are just stupid.
On Aug 25, 2008, 8:45am you wrote “When we found ourselves with little to read on the train back to New York City yesterday..”
Since this is on page B2 of today’s NYT, how did you read this yesterday?
That was one of my first global roadshows. I was just a kid, an early-stage analyst, so I didn’t know much better. The funny thing, it was my boss who told me how he always ate at Starbucks/avoided the mini-bat so I was trying to follow by example. I didn’t pocket any per diems.
But I learned very quickly to spend like the best of them…
Truth or Talk
http://truthortalk.wordpress.com/
Has anyone considered that the cabbie may have been an ex-Bear Stearns employee? I know one of their employees was training to be one.
I know this former Bear Stearns employee Kathy Enders–she was one of the nurses in the Medical Dept. (Saved my life by diagnosing an appendicitis and getting me to NYU’s ER)
A true asset to Bear Stearns. Apparently JP Morgan Chase didn’t have the smarts to keep such a valuable employee–their loss.
Good Luck Kathy!