Wagamama Boy is Back

Jonathan arrived back from his three-week European vacation, so we treated him to a dinner at an East Bay Korean restaurant to get him "reacclimated". After my last trip across the pond, I brought back several gifts including a t-shirt for Jonathan from Wagamama, a trendy noodle house in London. Well, he returned the favor by bringing us back the same shirts. This has been a running joke between us; "Wagamama" is a Japanese term for loud, impetuous child (or something close to that meaning). More about his (mis)adventures in Europe to follow.

Breakfast at Picante's

As a reward for making it through a long week, we made our pilgrimage to a favorite eatery of ours in the industrial section of North Berkeley. I first "discovered" Picante's while interning for Tom Bates, who at the time was representing the Berkeley campus and much of the East Bay in the California State Assembly (and is now serving as the mayor of Berkeley) and whose local offices were not far from what was then a dive taco and burrito hangout. Much has changed since college. Picante's is now a haven for fresh, authentic Mexican dishes in a transformed space, now a plush and voluminous setting - the outdoor patio complete with a tile fountain and Mexican greenery is especially nice on a sunny day. The new Picante's is owned by members of the Alice Waters family, who also run another local favorite of ours, Cafe Fanny, the casual cousin of the venerable Chez Panisse. As usual, I had my favorite breakfast dish, huevos rancheros, along with a cup of cafe de olla, a fragrant, spiced Mexican coffee. Huevos rancheros is a dish with its origins in the Mexican/Native American communities of southern New Mexico. I can attest to this as our family used to travel from Dallas to Ruidoso, New Mexico during the winter months to ski at the "southern most ski resort in the U.S.", Sierra Blanca. We would stop and have the special huevos rancheros every morning on our drive up the mountain, and the memory of it stays with me more than sixteen years later. Ever since then, I have been on the lookout for a comparable experience; the one at Picante's is probably the closest I will ever get outside of New Mexico.

The "Photo Ratio" is Slipping Even Further

Jeannie and James emailed the photos from this past weekend and there were some remarkable shots, including some amazing background photos against the Golden Gate Bridge. Apparently, the time of day is arguably the most important factor in the quality of outdoor photos. Of the seven to eight photos I was in, I would say that only one would be deemed "passable", i.e., worth preserving... and that's being quite generous. Over the years, my self-defined "photo ratio" has slipped markedly. During my twenties, the ratio hovered reliably around 1:3, meaning one in every three photos taken of me, either solely or within a group, was "a keeper". Now that I've put on a few pounds, in my thirties, the ratio has plunged to below 1:20. And if it's a bad hair day, closer to 1:50. Thank God for digital photography... a yield of 1:100 is no longer a problem as long as the memory card is intact and as long as the delete button works. As usual, T looked great in all of her shots.

Business Law, an Oxymoron? Issues of Corporate Governance

For a paper in my business law course, I selected an interesting article in Business Ethics about a proposed remedy for improving corporate governance and ultimately, corporate behavior. Enron, Worldcom, and Tyco demonstrated the damage that could be done by a highly imbalanced corporate governance structure, i.e., a strong management, a weak board of directors, and the resulting lack of oversight. While Sarbannes-Oxley attempts to address this problem by increasing the personal liability of both management and the board, the author of this particular article proposes a more fundamental remedy. Attack the problem at its very source by federalizing the corporate charter process. More than half of all Fortune 500 corporations charter or recharter in the small state of Delaware. Nearly all of those corporations have little or no real business interests in the state. They are merely forum shopping for the state that provides the most management-friendly laws for corporations and in that regard, Delaware is understood to be the haven. Delaware laws are structured in a way that permits management to install a weak board of directors, who in turn rubber-stamp management decisions and approve overblown management pay and compensation. In fact, under Delaware laws, companies are permitted to include provisions in their charters that limit directors’ liability if they fail to take their responsibilities seriously; in other words, management can handpick their directors and shelter them from liability for not doing what they should be doing, i.e., oversight of management and its decisions on behalf of shareholders. By federalizing the charter process and doing away with forum shopping, the author feels there will be greater accountability in the process since Congress will be responsible for one uniform body of corporate law and will be inclined to strengthen corporate governance on behalf of both shareholders and the public in general. Management will have less sway... or so the theory goes. Sounds good, but my study of politics tells me that if you concentrate decisionmaking and power in far fewer hands, the potential for abuse and politicization of the process is substantially greater. One need only look at the actions of companies that are highly regulated by the federal bureaucracy... oil and energy, defense, telecommunications, pharmaceuticals... all have the strongest lobbies on Capitol Hill and throw enormous sums into political fundraising. Their influence on policy and legislation is undeniable. In the end, federalizing the chartering process may only codify the Delaware laws at the federal level and exclude companies from choosing to charter in shareholder-friendly states... the cure becoming worse than the disease.

Dos Paella

T and I somehow managed to dine at two different Spanish eateries on two consecutive evenings this past weekend. On Friday, we found our way to Esperpento down in the Mission and enjoyed a number of authentic tapas including a tasty grilled mushroom dish while we patiently awaited the sizzling signature pan of seafood paella. When it arrived, all was right with the world. The saffron rice was divine. Must come back to this place more often. There were six other parties in the restaurant, all Spaniards... a definite endorsement of the quality and authenticity of the food. The next evening, we took the group out to Thirsty Bear near downtown. While the Bear is a tapas place, the food and the crowd are a stark contrast to those at Esperpento. Think Ivy-League frat guys drinking microbrews, watching the game, and enjoying some "exotic" fare in between gulps. I have to admit the beer is great and the crowd is lively. But the tapas is less Basque and more Chili's. T did enjoy the paella though.

Our Weekend Trek from Sonoma to San Jose

Spent the entire weekend with T's side of the wedding party. While we had a slew of errands on our agenda, it was also an opportunity for us to meet and get to know Jeannie's newer half, James. Happy to report, he's a good guy -- reaffirms my earlier hunch that Jeannie is a good judge of character. Now if we could just get him to leave the digital camera at home. Well, on Saturday, we headed up to Sonoma County to run a couple of errands for the wedding, including a visit with yet another wine country vendor. This particular florist, who came highly recommended, works from a large studio in a home that is gated and situated off a long stretch of a two lane country road in the sparse woodlands of the Russian River valley near Sebastopol. Like the photographer we interviewed a couple of weeks before in Petaluma, she too was a native of France and spoke with a hint of a French accent. There was a striking similarity in that both the photographer and the florist fit into a very narrow category which I will characterize as "French hippie bohemian artist expats raising their children in the wilds of the Sonoma countryside and earning a modest living commercializing a portion of their artistic talents." In both cases, it was clear that they were "artistes" with a rare mix of raw talent and a love of their craft. The portfolio of her floral arrangements was amazing. Later that day, we headed down to the City via the Golden Gate Bridge. We stopped briefly at the very summit of the Marin headlands, on what was a picture perfect day in the Bay. Breathing in the crisp ocean air, we stood on the grassy ledge below Hawk Hill looking out onto the vast canvas of the bay with the intense bright orange of the bridge framing the trademark outlines of the San Francisco skyline. Sailboats dotted the deep blue-green waters beneath us. Sunbathers were out in force along Baker Beach. Cyclists whizzed past on the road behind us. Nearby German tourists snapped away on their cameras in audible awe of the scenery. This was definitely the highlight of the day (and possibly the entire weekend).