“Wine is the answer. What was the Question?” – Anon
In the beginning was the word, and the word was wine! Wine, wein, vino, vin, Not to be confused with plonk, Dago Red, or any other derogatory term.
Wine is food. Throughout its entire process from the planting, to the ripening on the vine, to the pruning, to the picking, to the fermenting, to the aging, to the drinking. Ah, yes, the drinking…a marvelous and remarkable end product. It soothes, encourages conversation, and leaves fond memories of an evening or a meal with good friends. What’s not to like?
Having started my love affair with wine 62 years ago…I was 8! My dad was pouring the wine at Christmas dinner and a glass was set before me. It originally had about an ounce in it to introduce me to it – sensibly. My dad, however didn’t realize it was mine and poured me another glass which I apparently appreciated. The next thing I knew I was being walked around the block by my uncle. He had surreptitiously led me away from the table when he say my eyes rolling in their sockets. It was quite a Christmas, the day before my eighth birthday.
I didn’t imbibe further until I was a teenager and then only at said family functions. We usually had Louis Martini Pinot Noir (although my grandmother insisted on her Manischewitz, perhaps just to tick him off).
When I was working in San Francisco at the last firm before starting my own investment advisory firm (TBD Capital LLC), to call attention to breaking news, I would send out an email, and after calling attention to the story would give ‘my’ take on it. Always starting out with: “…Trader Bill saiz…”. It worked. Thus when I left people were telling me I should name my firm Trader Bill Capital – which I knew would not be good for bringing in business, hence the name shown above.
Ah, but why ‘Trader’ Bill? Because I always liked ‘Trader Vic’ Bergeron for his creativity, a restaurant with a unique theme, the drinks he invented (Mai Tai, Gun Club Special, etc.), his insistence that his bartenders mix them exactly as he did, no ‘if’s and’s or but’s’. I had the pleasure of getting to know him and he was a nice, funny, man with a big smile.
So for a nom de plume, I settled on that as we had similar interests…now if TB can be as creative as TV!
Why did it take until you were 70 to do this? Perhaps this quote from F. Scott Fitzgerald will help explain:
For what it’s worth: it’s never too late or, in my case, too early to be whoever you want to be. There’s no time limit, stop whenever you want. You can change or stay the same, there are no rules to this thing. We can make the best or the worst of it. I hope you make the best of it. And I hope you see things that startle you. I hope you feel things you never felt before. I hope you meet people with a different point of view. I hope you live a life you’re proud of. If you find that you’re not, I hope you have the courage to start all over again.
Lastly, there is the use of the ‘ellipsis’ (…). I do this in tribute to the late Herb Caen, the renowned column writer for the San Francisco Examiner and Tribune. He used them to separate thoughts so he could segue from one topic to another without breaking the train of thought…stream of consciousness style.
There you have it. TB is most excited…by the way he usually writes in the third person, a habit that began in order to take the ‘ego’ out of his reporting…to be beginning a new era in his life. Hope you enjoy it.
Since I just created this site on Friday, January 2nd, it is a work in progress, so please be patient. Your feedback, both pro and con is greatly appreciated.
Trader Bill on Wine 