Another Crazy-Busy Month for Me 

January for me was no less jam-packed with writing deadlines, business meetings, projects, plans, and urgencies – including personal, social, and family events – than December was.

I’m not complaining. These are obligations I freely chose and do enjoy. Apparently, this is how I want to live this stage of my life.

Nevertheless, I am aware, and am often reminded, that I spend 10 to 16 hours each day by myself. I’m also aware that this troubles some friends and family members. Where are my priorities? Don’t I realize that according to actuarial tables I have fewer than 10 years left? Have I considered the fact that I’m acting selfishly? How can I excuse myself?

I can’t excuse myself. I can only explain what I’ve been doing and let those who feel entitled to judge me, judge me.

Looking back at my calendar, I see that I was busy during the whole of the first week with hosting 15 or 20 members of the Ford and Fitzgerald clans who had traveled to Delray Beach to renew connections and enjoy the (relatively) good weather. That and a half-dozen lab and doctor appointments to assess the status of my recoveries from a carotid artery surgery, a complete knee replacement, and, more recently, a bout of super-high blood pressure, along with various other less serious health concerns. All while I was continuing my experiment with losing weight via weekly semaglutide injections.

You didn’t ask, and I see no reason you should care, but I was given good to very good reports on all counts.

I did have several business meetings that were important to me – one involving a merger, one involving a de-acquisition, and two intense but rewarding half-day conversations about restructuring publishing companies whose profits were on a downward slope.

During the next three weeks, unbridled by visiting family, I was able to get 12 new chapters written for nearly as many almost-finished books, including Wealth Culture, The Challenge of Charity, The 7 Natural Laws of Wealth Building, and one on the 25-year history of finding and developing Rancho Santana from a cow farm to a world-class resort. I also had two virtual meetings with my partners and colleagues in Japan. One was about marketing strategies for 2025. Another was a critique of advertising copy written by several of their copywriters, which I very much enjoyed – probably because it felt like my critiques and suggestions were spot-on and could result in bigger monthly ROIs, just as a similar meeting the month before had resulted in, in one case, an 800% higher response rate.

I had several good planning calls with the senior executives running Rancho Santana, FunLimón, and Paradise Palms Botanical & Sculpture Gardens. Those calls are almost always good because the people running them are very good at what they do.

I read four good books and skimmed two not-so-good ones, and I watched six movies nominated for Academy Awards (two of which were very good).

And all the while, I enjoyed writing my weekly blog posts, which I hope you enjoyed reading.

Enough about my busy-ness. Let’s talk about other things. First, about bourbon, and then about the future of the United States over the next four years.
Eat, drink, and be chary… about value! 

At my cigar club across from the tracks, guests eat, drink, and smoke for free. The cost of admission is courtesy, conviviality, and appreciation. Guests of good will understand the implications of those three rules. With one exception: Inexperienced drinkers and smokers might occasionally mistreat the best booze and cigars in stock out of ignorance.

I’m talking about painful and almost unforgivable offenses such as a Ron Zacapa XO rum with Coke or grinding out a half-finished Padron Family Reserve in an ashtray.

After years of unsuccessful efforts to prevent such atrocities from happening, I had to subdue my egalitarian prejudices and create a VIP Room.

Newcomers are welcome to order whatever type of booze they prefer from Frank, the club’s resident bartender. And as you can see, there are plenty of good and reasonably priced brands to choose from.

Likewise, inexperienced cigar smokers can broaden and deepen their appreciation of cigars by selecting from several humidors outside the VIP room containing more than a dozen highly rated sticks that are well priced – i.e., less than $8 per.

Although the VIP room is always unlocked, I’ve found that it has solved the problem of mistaken assaults by simply being there. Guests tend to ask for permission to enter. And when they do, I ask them about their knowledge and preferences. If they are neophytes, I help them choose from the beginner boxes outside the room. If they are experienced smokers, I walk them into the room to help them select a fine (and relatively expensive) cigar that they haven’t yet tasted.

One problem solved. Another arose. How do I decide what brands of what types of alcohol to put outside and inside the VIP room?

In the case of scotches, I have delegated the task to SS, my partner in the art business, who is a connoisseur.

As a long-time tequila drinker, I can make tequila-stocking decisions based on my own experience.

But for rums and bourbons and ryes and the rest, I have to resort to going online and comparing a half-dozen or so “Best” rankings.

I revise all of my selections once a year, and just completed my research on bourbons. In the “Living Rich” section below, you can see the choices I made for 2025.

A new kind of Trump derangement syndrome? Like… is he deranged? 

Trump has been so busy disrupting government as usual that I can’t keep up. And since his “deal” strategy is closer to threatening and bullying than diplomacy, it’s hard to know what he means when he makes public statements about his intentions.

Perhaps the craziest from my perspective is suggesting that the US should take over Gaza and deport 1.5 million Palestinians. Alex Berenson responds:

So what’s really happening here?

There are a few possibilities.

1: Trump is serious. He is tired of hearing about Gaza and wants to make it the world’s problem, and he believes that Israel will be safer if it doesn’t have to deal with Palestinians in Gaza (and possibly the West Bank too).

2: Trump is semi-serious. He wants to light a fire under the Arab world to do something about Gaza, and he thinks this proposal will do so. He views this idea as a negotiating tactic.

3: Trump did it to distract the world from the fact that he’s going to let Israel do whatever it wants in Gaza. By the way, I am fine with letting Israel do what it wants in Gaza. (I know many of you disagree, but I think Israelis have the right to live without fear of mass terror attacks.) But that’s Israel’s problem, not ours.

4: Trump likes attention, and he hadn’t gotten enough Tuesday.

Click here for more.

 

Another coveted award for Rancho Santana, and… 
Another proud moment for the Rancho Santana team!

Rancho Santana made it to the NYT’s prestigious “52 Places to Go in 2025” list, where it was recommended for, among other things, its ecotourism attractions, including “vast stretches” of preserved woodlands, five beaches, riding stables, and a turtle sanctuary.

You can get a look at Rancho Santana here.