GARGOZO MANUSCRIPT

I spent 2 years working for a world-class scam artist while employed at the Executive Life Insurance Company in west Los Angeles in 1986.  The company was run by Fred Carr who had taken it over in 1974 and brought it back from the edge of oblivion.  He had managed to turn things around with an influx of cash from his close friend Michael Milken and by offering investors a series of annuity products that guaranteed an annual return of 12 to 14 percent.  Typical returns at that time for similar products from other companies ranged from 1 to 3 percent.  In addition, Carr paid commissions and provided perks to insurance brokers and sales people that were unmatched by any other company.  In 10 years the company's net assets had gone from bankruptcy to $19 billion and it became the largest insurance company in California. Fred Carr created unique products that violated the spirit of insurance industry regulatory constraints but technically were stil...

How did the local news coverage on television become so totally insulting, irritating and useless?  I had to stop watching it a few years ago for mental health reasons.  At  the time, I had moved beyond mere fantasizing and was actually making plans to take a machete to the channel 7 news staff.  It's fortunate I abandoned my plans as I recently discovered that Al Primo was the real culprit. KABC-TV Eyewitness News airs on channel 7 in the Los Angeles area.  The "Eyewitness" tag was attached to the show in 1969.  The term originated 10 years earlier in Cleveland where KYW-TV kicked off the nation's first 90 minutes local newscast.  The tag was adopted by Westinghouse's other stations over the following years. The term was the brainchild of Al Primo who, believe it or not, is referred to as "The Father of Eyewitness News."   Al introduced a format with a faster pace and reporters in the field as eyewitnesses to news ev...

Imagine if you will, the producer, the director and a few writers are engaged in the initial plot development session for Elementary.  This cop drama is now in its 3 rd season and has enjoyed a great deal of critical acclaim. Director:  "We need our Sherlock character to be as unique as possible to separate us from the Sherlock in the BBC series that just aired.  Obviously our guy has to possess unrealistic super-human powers of deduction, but he's going to need something special beyond that." Writer no. 1:  "Well, cocaine abuse has been part of every Sherlock rip-off since Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.  Maybe our Sherlock can be fresh out of rehab – that's not been done before." Producer:  "Yeah and Dr. Watson can be there to hold his hand and keep him on the straight and narrow." Writer no. 2:  "And our Watson can be a broad!" Director:  "That'd be good but it's more critical to make our Sherlock un...

Am I the only person who is annoyed by the barrage of over-blown sentiment for 9/11 first responders?  Don't misunderstand me, 9/11 was indeed tragic for all of the victims and their families.  I expect that the police and fire department employees that died were hard working and conscientious folks, but this effort to anoint them with sainthood is a sham.  The parroting of their virtue has become nothing more than a tool for movers and shakers to generate a sympathetic response from the public for products, charities, political aims and TV shows.   This first responder bandwagon reminds me of the red menace of the 1950s.  They both are an unabashed, in-your-face, old-fashioned form of arm twisting that's been  wrapped in the American flag.  The first responders were not the first and only American workers that lost their lives while on the job.  In 2010, 29 miners perished in an explosion at the Upper Big Branch Mine in West V...

How weird is it to wear a surgical mask?  Not all the time mind you, just when I am cleaning the house, sticking my head behind the refrigerator, or playing with my grandkids on the floor.  All it takes as I'm doing these things is one normal breath to suck in the dust and I can feel it hit the back of my throat.  The instant that I feel it I know that there is nothing I can do to avoid a week of misery.  In exactly 24 hours I will begin to experience severe cold symptoms that will need to run their course.   I do this to myself at least once a year because I never remember to keep some surgical masks around.  Last Sunday I was at my daughter-in-law's house playing on the floor with my grand kids and inhaled some dust.  Today, Friday, 6 days later, I am at last beginning to feel almost human as the sneezing, runny nose and coughing has finally worn down.   I will attempt to make up for my first mistake by going to Wal-Mart today and purchasing a gro...

Of the current flurry of cop shows on TV, I can only sit through Blue Bloods and Elementary .  Even these I find difficult to tolerate and usually when I do watch them it is because I am too lazy to do something worthwhile.  Below I will take on Blue Bloods and save Elementary for another day. Blue Bloods is a weekly series about the Reagan family who for generations has been part of the New York City Police Department.  Tom Selleck is the Police Commissioner as was his father before him.  Nepotism seems a non-issue as Selleck has 2 sons on the force and a daughter working for the DA's office. Selleck portrays a one-dimensional old school character who maintains a permanent scowl throughout every frame of every episode.  A good 5 minutes of every show has his face filling the screen with an implacable the-troubles-I've-seen expression.  He has either gained a lot of weight or has volunteered for some sort of experimental botox pro...

Students in Munson's English class received extra credit for destroying his Porsche's convertible top.  This came about when Munson deviated from the scheduled lesson plan and focused on vocabulary.  Students were required to correctly spell each word and use it in a complete sentence.  The list of vocabulary words included the following: Automobile Insurance Policy Comprehensive Coverage Vandalism Claim Police Report Quid pro quo Anonymity Munson encouraged everyone to string the sentences together to tell a story.  To clarify what he meant by this he told the class a story about an imaginary medieval kingdom far away and long ago.  In the kingdom lived an imaginary teacher who taught at an imaginary school, and whose convertible's canvass top was badly soiled and frayed.  The Heights brothers were students in the imaginary school and wanted to help out the imaginary teacher.  The brothers knew the comprehensive c...

When Michael was 12 and Marc was 8, I took them to see the pyramids outside of Mexico City in September 1986.  It seemed like a good idea since they had a good time at the 600-room pueblo at Chaco Canyon in New Mexico and the cliff dwellings in Arizona.  Michael even spent time on an archeological dig one summer.  We flew on Mexicana Airlines which was just fine until we got to Mexico City and the pilot had to make a 90 degree banked turn to line up with the runway.     It had been only a year since an 8.1 earthquake had hit Mexico City on 9/19/1985 and was felt as far north as Houston and Los Angeles.  We could see many of the 2,000 plus damaged buildings on the way from the airport into the city.  The epicenter had been off the Mexican Pacific Coast and the quake had lasted over 3 minutes.  The Mexico City population was 18 million in 1986 and death toll estimates ranged from 10,000 per the Mexican Government to a c...

My first exposure to a fraternity party came in 1968 when Jerry Wilson asked me to help him with bartender duties.  The party was held at Doug O'Keefe's parent's house in San Marino.  Late Saturday afternoon, I helped Jerry load his car and we headed east a little over 7 miles from the fraternity to the house.  We found the place, followed the driveway to the back of the house and began to set up the bar. O'Keefe was the O'Keefe of O'Keefe & Merritt, a well known appliance brand offering mainly kitchen stoves at the time.  The house was adjacent to Huntington Drive on a small side street lined with huge oak trees that formed a canopy over the road.  Although it was not as immense as some of the San Marino properties it was still quite impressive.  This was not the first party held at the house so Jerry knew where to put everything.  Once we had things laid out I wandered off in search of the kitchen.  I was curious ...

I was sitting on the toilet waiting to be sworn in by the judge.  I was about to participate in what would surely be a historic moment for the American legal system.  I couldn't take all the credit for being in this position since it would never have been possible without the help of the Affordable Care Act.   Eight months earlier I had gone to the Covered California website soon after it had been launched in support of the roll out of ObamaCare.  The website took me through a 6-step application process.  One of the preliminary questions seemed innocuous but proved to be the catalyst for an insane series of events.  The question was: "When do you expect coverage to begin?"  I keyed in January 1, 2014.  The 6th step presented plan options from which to choose.  I wanted to check with our family physicians before I selected a plan so I pended the application and logged off.   I spent the next few months checking with various office managers to...