Category: Uncategorized

In case you were wondering, this post’s title is an Archer reference.

Fabio travelled a lot, and had a tradition of posting photos to Facebook from his airplane seat.

My high school classmate Fabio Sementilli left a year early to chase his dream of becoming a hairstylist under his older sister’s mentorship and opening his own salon.

He ended up doing much more than that — over the next 30 years, his skills, work ethic, and love for people who take him from Toronto to Los Angeles where he became the internationally-famous go-to guy for hair, trained thousands of stylists, and become the Vice President of Education for Wella, which was absorbed by Coty (in other words, a brand evangelist for the beauty giant). He was killed outside his home in Los Angeles’ Woodland Hills neighborhood on Monday evening.

Young Fabio. Hey, it was the ’80’s, we all had silly hair. But he had great silly hair.

Fabio and I both went to the same high school: De La Salle College “Oaklands”. Though we moved in different circles — me with the nerds, student council, and the theatre crowd, him with the “Gino Patrol” (“Gino” is the Toronto area equivalent of “Guido”) — we were friendly with each other. He “friended” me on Facebook about six years ago, and we’ve messaged each other back and forth ever since. We’d trade “I’m flying for bidniss” photos, but if it were a contest of how often, he’d win; where I was on a flight once a month, it seemed as if he was on a flight once every week. He sent me some nice congratulatory messages when I got engaged to Anitra, and again when I married her.

He was supposed to come to our 30th high school reunion in October but was unavailable. He sent us a video where he sent his greetings, wished us the best, and reminded us that the Gino Patrol was still alive and kicking.

Modern Salon wrote a lovely tribute, which included their favorite Fabio quotes:

• ON HAPPINESS: “To be truly happy, you must be ready to give 100% and expect nothing in return.”
• ON LEADERSHIP: “Leadership is not about a title. It’s about attitude…the right attitude.”
• ON ATTITUDE: “You must have a positive attitude. Surround yourself with people who add to your life who are positive and have a great attitude.”
• ON INTEGRITY: “You need to make sure you have integrity. Make sure it’s with your clients, friends and co-workers.”
• ON MENTORSHIP: “There are so many great hairdressers out there, and the best way to be successful is to give it away and pass on to the next generation.”
• ON VISION: “It’s more than just having an idea. It’s not enough. It’s taking that vision and making it come to life…following through.”
• PAYING IT FORWARD: “The next level of greatness is about being a human. We are all in the same business – we must pay it forward.”

Fabio had a wife and kids, and to them, I send my deepest condolences. Our high school class is already working out a way to send something nice to his family. Requiescat in pace, Fabio, and I hope that justice is served on your behalf.

I’ll close with this video by American Salon Stories, which should give you a sense of the kind of guy Fabio was:

“You can’t bring your accordion into the museum,” said the security guard at The Cloisters, the museum in way-Upper Manhattan that houses an impressive collection of medieval art.

“I’m not planning on playing it here,” I replied. “I’m catching up with friends later.”

“Well, you still can’t bring it in, and there’s no place to check it in, either.”

I decided to fall back on a line that every person in Florida has mastered, thanks to the number of retirees who live there and use it every day: “I’d like to speak to your manager.”

That failed. Somehow, sometime in the past, someone brought a musical instrument to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and wreaked so much havoc that it’s actually one of their written policies: no musical instruments.

Anitra was beginning to look concerned that my usually-beneficial affection of carrying the accordion around was going to upend our afternoon plans, and after we’d travelled a long way (in New York terms).

“I’ll take care of it,” I told her.

There’s a tiny alcove near the museum’s front door for group check-ins. It’s out of the line of sight of the main desk, and was unoccupied that afternoon. I could’ve easily slipped the accordion behind that desk and retrieved it later, but I had no idea whether someone would be at that desk later, or if there were any security cameras watching.

I decided to try the next-best option: outside.

There’s an accordion in this picture. See if you can spot it.

The Cloisters is north of 190th Street, and it’s easy to forget in you’re in New York City. It’s surrounded by a large park with many wooded areas. It hadn’t rained or snowed in a couple of days, and there was no rain forecast for that day. I found a spot not too far from the entrance, tucked my accordion behind a tree and buried it with dry leaves. The photo above shows the accordion in its hiding place.

I went back to the museum, did a little twist to assure the guard that I no longer had my musical instrument with me (he replied with a confused nod), and we went on the tour.

A couple of hours later, we went to the spot where I’d hidden the accordion.

“Where’d you put it?” Anitra asked, looking around.

“Over here,” I said, and after a quick search dug it out.

“It’s not the first time I’ve had to stash an accordion in the woods,” I said, and we headed to our next destination.

In the hullabaloo about the recent allegations of Donald Trump’s wet and wild activities in Russia and whether the reports can be verified or not, we’re in danger of missing a couple of things — firstly, the opportunity to refer to him using an amazing pun: “The Micturian Candidate”.

It’s a play on words, borrowing from:

• The Manchurian Candidate: From the book and films (the first in 1962, and the 2004 remake) of the same name, which are about a presidential candidate who is unknowingly being programmed and installed by adversarial governments, and
• micturate: Another word for “urinate”. (See? I just added another word to your vocabulary!)

More importantly, the thing we should be really worried about is that the reports are about a cache of memos circulated about the intlleigence community that appear to show communications between officials in Vladimir Putin’s government and Trump’s campaign, the Russian government’s possession of “highly compromising” material on Trump, and Trump having been “cultivated” by Russian intelligence. The “golden showers” thing is just silly; if true, the signs that a capricious, narcissistic president-elect and his team are too chummy with, and possibly beholden to, a very aggressive, authoritarian, anti-democratic, and unfriendly regime are the real problem.

There’s another problem: If false, any reports of real wrongdoings by Trump and company — which are quite likely, given his connections and track record — could be all-too-easily dismissed.

Worth reading

I’m with Lawfare on this one: before reacting to the story — aside from taking advantage of an opportunity to come up with clever puns — slow down and take a deep breath.

As put in their blog:

We shouldn’t assume either that this is simply a “fake news” episode directed at discrediting Trump or that the dam has now broken and the truth is coming out at last. We don’t know what the reality is here, and the better part of valor is not to get ahead ahead of the facts—a matter on which, incidentally, the press deserves a lot of credit.

I recommend checking these out:

• Lawfare — About that Explosive Trump Story: Take a Deep Breath
• The Intercept — The Deep State Goes to War with President-Elect, Using Unverified Claims, as Democrats Cheer

Trump report could all be false. But notion that Kremlin doesn’t engage in collecting compromising info does not, um, hold water. https://t.co/UxBbhxalWs

— ian bremmer (@ianbremmer) January 11, 2017

This comic may have been written with school group projects in mind, but I’ve been in similar situations where paychecks were involved. Most of the time, I was the firefighter…