Ben Stein and I: Unindictable Watergate Co-Conspirators

Shave & Haircut: Two Bits.
Less N.P.V. if I let it grow another three weeks and then pay Two Bits...

Walking into the Watergate Office complex for a meeting at The Atlantic on a fall day in 2002, I looked up to see Ben Stein exiting the ground-floor retail area, where he'd just stepped from the Watergate Barbershop with a sharp new trim.

"Hi, Ben!" I ventured.  "Hello Sir!" came the reply.  The full extent of our friendship, to date.

We know Ben Stein for his iconic turn in Ferris Bueller, his Comcast spots with Shaquille "the Real Deal" O'Neill, and "his Money."  Nevertheless, I think of Ben foremost as an economist with lucid good advice.  He's usually got a clear head.  But he had his hair in his eyes on the sub-prime lending and foreclosure debacle....

 I've said to my wife repeatedly, I just want on my gravestone, 'He loved dogs' and 'Bueller, Bueller.'

Ben Stein, 2006