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Ode to Joy
A local equivalent of Murphy’s law in Communist Romania stated that, if you had been waiting long enough for a bus to come and decided to light a cigarette, the bus would come before you even had the...
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Insult Without Injury
Apparently the only thing worse than getting a DUI (driving under the influence) in California is getting a CUI (cycling under the influence) at Stanford, which adds insult to the financial, legal and...
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Grass Not Dead
“Yep, it’s artificial. Very expensive, probably, but artificial”, a colleague, who wishes to remain anonymous, told me last week about the beautiful lawn in front of my sumptuous residence the Munger...
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Borges’ Paradise
Why is there more work in b-school than in law school?, a dual-degree colleague wondered on his Facebook wall a few days ago. I think most of my colleagues would agree that the schedule of the first...
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Beauty and the Beast
I’m not particularly attached to objects so, when I left Romania, I gave away most of stuff. I stopped short of parting with my Nespresso machine and my Tivoli table radio mainly because I wanted to...
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All We Really Have in Life Are Choices
What Saturday night should have looked like: expand to a cheerful market of beer consumers, gain a first-mover advantage with a pretty student, establish an aspirational brand through an unconventional...
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The Days of Awe
In my early twenties I used to hang out with this half-British-half-Spanish friend from the office. She was 12 years my senior. For a couple of years, we went clubbing together, becoming regulars of...
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A Touch of Style
GSB Courtyard, 14 February “So what was this little concerto about?” I asked one of the band members while they were packing their instruments. “We don’t know, they just asked us to play here during...
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A love for rituals
“Some people say you should pay your respects first. I like that idea.” Saying this, my friend José smells his Romeo y Julieta cigar and invites me do to the same with my Cohiba. There is something a...
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In the Tower of Song
Three years ago, on September 22, thousands of Romanians were singing “Happy birthday” to Leonard Cohen who was turning 74 in Bucharest. It was his first concert in Romania, a long awaited moment for...
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