Dramatis Personae

Please note that characters are added as they reveal themselves and become part of the story. 

The Melancholy Korean is a writer and former derivatives trader living in New York.  He loves Dante, James Joyce and Flaubert.  He loves Henry James, Anton Chekhov, Edith Wharton, Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, Cavafy, Ezra Pound, Nabokov, Leopardi, Chesterton, Hazlitt, De Quincey, Capote, Anthony Powell.  He knows Greek, Latin, and Italian.  He has studied French, German, Japanese, Sanskrit, and Hebrew, but of these languages, he remembers only, "avez-vous un cendrier?"  Yes, he smokes.  No, he doesn't know Korean.

Leon Badges is a painter, illustrator, draftsman, and cartoonist.  A visual artist extraordinaire, lover of women, and all-around madman, he is Melancholy's oldest friend.  They met in fourth grade and have been accomplices ever since.

Felicity

Barbara, Felicity's Mother

Harry Best

Prune

Dr. Ken Coffin

Broker Bill and his wife Kate

Nicky, the Greek

Blue Stocking

Rev Hezekiah Bartholomew Smith

Kitty

Marco

The Critic

Sybil

Schedule

Melancholy takes approximately 16 weeks of vacation each year.

Vacation Status:  at work, in New York.

Comments Archive
« Trieste - Part 2 | Main | Trieste »
Friday
16May

Pick 'em

"What do you think?"

"Euro's still overvalued against the dollar."

"Jesus, Mell. You got a one track mind."

"You know I'm right, captain."

"I don't know. Trichet's been talking tough. I don't think you're getting a cut from him."

"I could give a shit about those frogs and their faggoty Euro pals. The differential is going to tighten. Bernanke will have to start raising rates if this keeps up."

"You see wheat, though? Getting wacked the last few weeks. Your bagels are gonna be cheaper soon."

"I seriously doubt it."

"So you're telling me, any trade you could do, no capital constraints, let's say you're running ten billion, you're still short the euro against the dollar?"

"Well, captain, in that world, my trade is to get Felicity back."

(silence)

"That bad?"

"Pretty horrible."

(silence)

"How about you, Mr. Big Shot. What's your trade?"

"That's easy."

"I can't wait for this."

"Land."

"Land?"

"You heard me, Mell. I'd buy up tons of land."

"Have you lost your mind? Who's on the phone? Sure doesn't sound like that guy I know who is one of the greatest traders on the Street talking."

"Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas."

"You got it all wrong, captain. San Diego. Florida. I'll bet there are a ton of banks that would love to sell you some houses there."

"No way, Mell. Oklahoma."

"What the hell have you been smoking this morning?"

"I'm telling you. Oklahoma. The Texas panhandle."

"Have you even been to Oklahoma, captain? Do you even know where the Texas panhandle is?"

"Whatever, Mell. That doesn't matter. T Boone is buying land out there for wind farms. That's gonna be huge."

"Not if oil gets back to seventy dollars."

"It's going to two hundred."

"What happens after that, captain? A couple years of two hundred dollar oil... ah, I get it now. OK. You win both ways."

"Exactly."

"You're not the moron my friends tell me you are."

"Cut it out, Mell. You have no other friends."