So, I'm reading Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point last night and I come across this: "worked the distressed downtown streets of Jamestown. His name was Nushawn Williams, although he also went by the names of 'Face, 'Sly,' and 'Shyteek.' Williams juggled dozens of girls, maintaining three or four different apartments around the city, and all the while supporting himself by smuggling drugs up from the Bronx. (As one epidemiologist familiar with the case told me flatly, 'The man was a genius. If I could get away with what Williams did, I'd never have to work a day again in my life.')"
First off, what's an epidemiologist? Someone who studies the incidence, distribution, and control of disease in a population - according to Webster's. So this guy is presumably fairly educated and he obviously admired Nushawn quite a bit. In Nushawn's case, I guess he had some of the charming, Billie the Kid/outlaw appeal to him. But, what does he mean, he'd "never have to work a day again in his life?" Does he think he could have run Nushawn's op better than he did? If so, why'd he call him a genius? The fact is that drug smuggling is not a good long-term business plan and Nushawn's lifestyle was destined to go up in smoke sooner or later. I don't know why that guy's statement bugged me so much, but it just did, and since Gladwell made no effort to challenge him, I felt obliged to.
Anyways, it was nice to see Nushawn get some credit at least...
Speaking of Nushawn, I guess I should assume that that's my buddy Chris Pentz that got busted out there in North East running the meth lab. What's up with that? What drives one to set up a Meth lab? Well, addiction I guess. (I haven't seen Chris recently, so maybe.) I can't believe anyone else would want to mess with that stuff.
Ralph
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In today's paper, Pentz is at least claiming his innocence and sounds fairly convincing - so that's a good sign.
Along the line of your thoughts is the book "Freakonomics." There is a chapter titled "Why Drug Dealers Live with Their Moms" or something like that. The writing is some kind of investigative economic study of the business of street level drug dealing. I think that you would find it to be an very interesting read.
Thanks for the heads up on Freakonomics. I found the Web site at www.freakonomics.com. Looks like a fairly intrepid book. And yes, I am of the school of thought that Tony Montana is the exception and not the rule...
Ralph
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