Does a Second Career Necessitate a First One?
If you had asked me at 24 whether I would be teaching preschool at 44, the answer would have been "I certainly hope not." Actually, it would have been "fuck, no." Such is the folly and faux-foresight of the young, as here I am, an almost-old man in a world of mostly-young women. Be careful what you don't wish for. So twenty years of working among virtual children in the form of network executives has given way to spending my days with actual ones. I had had enough of going into every new gig with eyes wide open, free of guile and suspicion, only to find myself as the returning champion in another game of "Watch Your Back." ("With your Watchmaster, Jim Lange!") Twenty years of guys who needed it taken "to the next level," but who rigged the staircase that went there with explosives. Network execs who were self-described "aesthetes" and came bearing offbeat music choices, ironic eyewear and hilarious tales of being th