Thousands of years ago, I was a young reporter for the New York World-Telegram & Sun, where they told this possibly true, possibly made up story:
A society page reporter (Charles van Renseleer, I suspect) was fed up. He marched militantly into the editor’s office, and made it quite plain that he thought he deserved a raise.
"We gave it to you, Charlie,:" said the editor. "It was about six, seven months ago."
Nonplussed, Charlie confided that he hadn’t opened his paychecks for a while, then beat his retreat.
That came to mind because of today’s story - Treasury Secretary John Snow, who used to occupy the top spot at CSX, the railroad conglomerate, just discovered he had $10 million worth of debt securities he’d forgotten to get rid of when he took the federal job. He’s sold them now at a big loss.
Not opening a paycheck for six months.
Misplacing a $10 million investment.
I’m jealous.