Area Man Really Sticks It To Evil Bankers


This may be something you don't want to hear but needs to be said: god bless Eliot Spitzer. Yes, the disgraced former governor has no power of any kind anymore, or the ability to persecute Wall Streets wrongdoers (the thing he used to get off most on, even more so than illicit tail). That much is obvious. He's got every reason to hide under the covers or, on good days, make it to the couch and tuck in for a full day of trashy programming and yelling at whoever's appearing on Maury. And nobody would begrudge him for feeling bad for himself, because wouldn't you, if you'd fallen so far? And yet. He will not give you the satisfaction of seeing his tears, or how much this is killing him. That's right-- the noted hooker fucker is not only putting on his black socks, but his brave face too. Because who needs the governorship, or a bid for the presidency, when you've got not only a gig with Slate, but sassy quips as well?

THE making of New Year's resolutions is, at once, the most optimistic and cynical of acts. The vow to change posits a continuing faith in human improvement ("I'll lose 30 pounds this year"), but the format, a checkable mental list, is so tyrannical and skeptical of success that it often leads to failure ("Yeah, well, maybe 20.") [...] So we asked some prominent New Yorkers to muse aloud not on their own ambitions for the year ahead but on our collective objectives. What might knit New York together in 2010? What should be its goals, its boundaries, its promises to improve, and change, and grow?

Eliot Spitzer, 50
Former governor, attorney general
I would love to see investment bankers actually do God's work.

New York's Resolutions [NYT]


Area Man Recounts Brush With Greatness

In this case, greatness being Lloyd Blankfein's glistening, stark-naked body. Mr. Smith outlines moments when he came into close contact with Goldman’s chairman and chief executive, according to pages reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. Mr. Smith tells of one near-encounter when he saw Mr. Blankfein, sans clothes, after taking a shower at the gym. Mr. Blankfein was “air-drying,” Mr. Smith writes, something Mr. Smith took not as a display of power but as something men of an older generation tend to do. Another up-close-and-personal moment with the big boss came when Mr. Blankfein and Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Chief Executive Warren Buffett walked through the Goldman trading floor the day after Mr. Buffett’s $5 billion investment as Goldman was reeling in 2008. In the book, Mr. Smith says he had a co-worker snap a photo as he stood near Mr. Buffett. Greg Smith: I Saw Blankfein Naked [Deal Journal]