Wednesday, December 29, 2010

The Odd Couple

An undated memory: I worked at the law firm of Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld as a paralegal from 1988-1991.  Two of the partners at the firm were individuals named Joel Cohn and Bruce Mendelsohn.  On one  occasion -- I don't remember when -- Cohn and Mendelsohn were talking in one of the elevator areas of the firm's office.  Cohn was doing all the talking and Mendelsohn was nodding his head.  Call me paranoid, but the interaction seemed staged -- staged for my benefit.  Why they would do that is not at all clear.  Both men seemed like actors doing an improv -- pretending to carry on a conversation.  Yea, it looked like they were in a real conversation over there!

I didn't pick up a good vibe from either individual.  On one occasion in late January 1991, Cohn asked me about my broken arm while I was getting coffee on the ninth floor.  I thought: "Why is he talking to me?  He never talks to me."  On Saturday April 6, 1991 Cohn and I were on the elevator and Cohn said, commenting on the unusually warm weather, "I'm melting."  I thought at that moment, "I wonder if that's a sexual double-entendre."  But hey, that's me.

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