Confirmed!

My buddy Jon Neuhaus confirmed the bit in my blog (July 9th) about Stanford economics Professor Marcelo Clerici-Arias, who told his students my last novel, The Trust Company (TTC), was in the top 30 books to read about finance and economics. Thanks Professor (and Jon for relaying the story). TTC is still in the top 100 financial thrillers in the Kindle store. Thanks very much to all of you for liking my Facebook page, Paul N. Stam. Please keep the suggested names for the spy character coming. My intrepid publicist Janine Martin Schunk, and I will go over the list in the coming weeks and get down to a few names and then pick a winner, likely over some alcohol (which admittedly impairs judgment but we'll be picking from the short list by then so it should be ok).

Speaking of alcohol, and under the heading "every man has his price," I noted that I found my price point for bad beer over the weekend. I was at a bar (yes, surprise surprise) that had Happy Hour, as bars are wont to do. I ordered a Coors Light (my light beer of choice) when the bartendress (I believe that is the correct gender-specific title) said that a pint of Bud Light was $1 during Happy Hour. Now, I get that taste is a matter of . . .taste. That is, it is a subjective and personal thing. That disclaimer aside, I think that all persons of experience, logic and reason can agree that Bud Light tastes like crap. Of the major light beers, it's just awful. But like Ted, the bear in the eponymous movie, said about the horrible, unwatchable Adam Sandler vehicle Jack & Jill which he viewed with four prostitutes he had hired for the night: "They're hookers, so it's ok." That is, if you're willing to give me 16 ounces of crappy beer for only $1, I'm gonna take that deal. All things being relative, if the Coors Light was $2, I'd probably have taken the Coors Light. But it was $3.50. So there we are. My price for selling out: $1.