Maverick Money

Personal Writings
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Miami I was in Washington last week and I had shanghaied Brenda Muniz, ACORN’s Legislative Director, with me to meet with the top staff members of the Homeland Security Committee of the House of Representatives. Now that Bennie Thompson from Mississippi was head of the committee, I was hopeful that there would finally be someone who might be willing to listen and learn the lessons of Katrina and help us in doing the kind of preparation that was necessary to protect our members from the next disaster in the making.

We were slogging away in the meeting and as it became time to go, I stood up to give Craig Sharman, the chief staffer of the subcommittee my car, my card, and we had a funny problem….

None of which would be surprising if you were a fan of the great television show from the early 60’s, Maverick, starring James Garner, who ended up with quite a career over the years, but I digress. Anyway Bart and his brother, Bret, were professional gamblers in the West. Their mother (or maybe their father?) had taught them that in this line of work, you needed a back up. Like a small derringer. Like sewing a $100 dollar gold piece in your clothes, so that you were never totally busted. This is a lesson that frankly I have taken to heart and carried with me to this day. So, I hide a $100 bill in a secret space behind my cards….

And, as I gave Sharman my card, my maverick money game falling out on the table with my card, and Sharman, looked up without dropping a stitch and looked at me and said with a smile, “We don’t do business that way up here any more!”

Smooth…..

And, hilarious!

How does one hide a $100 bill?….He folds it.
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