Phil freaks out! December 17, 1985

 


Phil’s shrill voice hinted of impending disaster.

Two weeks before Christmas and Pepsi Cola sent notification terminating his contract. Phil acted like a young child who’d not received the toy he’d requested from Santa.

The contract had sentimental value to Phil since he had used that end of the business as foundation for his small business empire.

Cold blooded, Phil aches for importance, making up for his lack of smarts with extreme shrewdness and luck, always managing to locate himself in the right place at the right time.

A few years ago, Phil’s boss in a soda distribution company screwed up in delaying his bid; Phil, second in command at the time, slipped in his own bid and stole the contract.

Later, when Yacenda, owner of the Willowbrook Dunkin, ran afoul of federal monopoly laws, Phil brought the franchise at bargain basement price.

Still later when Gene, the owner of a Dunkin out in far Rockaway came looking for a second franchise, Phil sold him the Willowbrook store at a hefty price, financing it himself so that if Gene could not make the payments or pay Phill his cut of the sales, Phil would get the business back.

At this point, Phil made his own good fortune by spreading rumors among the staff – through his cousin who Gene mistakenly kept on as assistant manager, ultimately resulting in the store’s failure and the business ownership reverting to Phil.

Perhaps some hope lies in the old saying that the enemies you make on the way up are waiting for you on your way down again.

Few people actually make it to that elite position such as the Rockefellers, JP Morgan or Donald Trump, where they rise so high, they never come down.

Most rise and fall, expending all their energy in the climb as to make their fall in a controllable crash.

These would-be capitalists use up their magic and have nothing left to cushion them later.

Yacenda had a whole series of reversed. While they failed to break him, these limited his ability to grow.

First, he sold the Dunkin a quick sale, then came revelations of bad conduct involving the mall manager.

Yacenda even got beat up in Newark, forced to hire bodyguards. Recently his manipulations with town officials came to light, making him political enemies as well.

People like these seem to climb to a point of incompetence, and then self-destruct. If they constructed their empires soundly enough, they survive with some acceptable level of wealth; if not, they tumble back into misfortune, one bad thing coming after another – each manipulation they attempt to halt their slide making their crash all the worse.

For Phil, the Pepsi contract served as foundation for the empire he envisioned. His Dunkin franchises won’t bear the financial weight of what he hopes to accomplish. He’s made too many mistakes his cleverness can’t cure, such as hiring incompetent people at key position, and he’s made enemies who may be waiting for him when his financial fortunes fade, waiting to help him reach the bottom faster.

 1985 Menu 


email to Al Sullivan

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

An old nemesis December 11, 1985

Image
    Surisky hated me from early on in grammar school, although “hate” may be too strong a word to describe his reaction to me. I was simply available to him for abuse, Third grade was pivotal for both of us. Prior to that, we were simply feeling our way through Catholic School routine, emerging eventually as whole personalities from the muck of early childhood. He came across as a thug, trying to convey the image of a tough guy. He wore a leather jacket and spiked boots, and snuck into see James Dean movies. Third grade was tough on everybody, including the teachers, who considered us the worst class in the history of the school – even in the safe grades of Kindergarten, First and Second. Two of the three nuns retired after passing us on. But it was in the third grade that we began to work our magic, driving even the stout-hearted nuns crazy. Later, the nuns tried to break our spirit. But we fully represented our age and had the full impact of the 1960s behin...
Read more

The clock is ticking July 18, 1985

Image
  We’re talking love here – silly fictional love with all the connotations of disaster. I seem to be on the meat chopping block with Safire looking for qualities in me that are lacking in her husband. The fact that there is a husband in the first place greatly disturbs me. All this said, I’m uncertain as to why I haven’t ended this already, except to know she is too much like my ex-wife to pass up without a closer examination. Even the way she thinks: slow, methodical, going from point A to point B. It has only been a week since she blurted out drunk that she wanted me in bed. It seems like much longer. And she hints of something more permanent, suggesting that I might fill in for her husband for a much longer duration. The night before last she suggested I come see her in her trailer, as if she is legally separated from her husband, when in fact she is supposed to be biding time until he finds them both a place to live in Baltimore. This is the same kind of smoke and...
Read more

Pauly leaves Passaic for the final time July 24, 1985

Image
    Pauly is leaving Passaic again. This comes after two years of us rubbing shoulders after he had been cast out of paradise in Towaco, after his goddess, Jane, went and married that man Pauly calls “a bum.” This has been a tough two years, filled with Pauly’s typical manipulation, his usual shaping of reality to his own needs often at other people’s (mine) expense. When Pauly first came I had Fran’s cultist brother as a temporary guest and Pauly spent most of his time trying to push me into getting that guest out. A few months later – in November – Fran got the ax from her ex and changed her mind about moving in with me after I had committed the spare room to Pauly. He assumed she meant more to me than he did and was already packing when I told Fran no. She had no place to go except for her father’s house, a father she had a love/hate relationship with, and she held it against me, even though we continued to see each other romantically. Pauly being Pauly drove ...
Read more