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Sunday, June 26, 2022

Writer's picture: Carol LiegeCarol Liege

Not doing well at the tables but otherwise doing very well. Had 8200 steps yesterday, down from 9400 the day before due to the fact that the restaurant at which we ate dinner was not as far.


Daughter Beth had to leave because today her daughter is off to camp. I go home tomorrow.


Marlins lost again.


Vegas is packed. The restaurants are jammed despite prices that are out of sight. Oysters are $6.00 each. Just a New York strip steak is between $75 and $95 and everything is a la carte. The total dinners, of course dependent on how much is spent on drinks, cost, I would estimate between $250 and $350 per person. Last night at 10:30, people were still in line at the S.W. Steakhouse at the Wynn.


I see a very bad trend here for our country. There are a lot of very rich people but way too many poor people. The disparity is growing and that is a major problem.

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I have been reflecting on my life and how lucky I have been. Yes, I worked really hard to be the best lawyer I could be, but I got a lot of help. I am not just talking about the normal type of help, such as having a Wife who encouraged that I work hard and understood I could not do it 9 to 5 with weekends off.


David and I were reminiscing yesterday about our careers and two little vignettes came to mind that illustrate how help from unexpected sources allowed me to succeed. They are, in a sense, unimportant but still illustrative..

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I hung out a shingle in August 1968 with no clients, and knowing very little about the practice of law. We had two children, one car, paid $155 per month rent, and were still receiving financial aid from our respective parents.


It was my Mother’s birthday and Barbara and I asked her to dinner as our guests. We took her to a wonderful restaurant in Dania, long gone, called La Normandie. At this point in my life, I knew absolutely nothing about wine and do not think I even owned a bottle of wine,

I did know that my Mother’s favorite wine was Chateau Yquem. I had no idea it was a sweet dessert wine or that it was enormously expensive. Without knowing the price, I ordered it for dinner. When the check came, the price of the wine was way more money than we had.


I went and asked for the owner, told him I did not have the money to pay that I had just opened my own law office and asked if I could pay him off. I remember giving him my new business card, but I do not remember the terms we worked out. I was scrupulous in paying off that debt as agreed, and until the restaurant closed, I was treated as a VIP. (Their onion soup was the best).

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Still open on Las Olas Boulevard is Maus & Hoffman. It has been for decades one of the best men’s clothing stores in the country. They have other stores, including on Worth Avenue in Palm Beach.


Maus & Hoffman only sold the best men’s suits. When I started practice, the top of the line was Oxford. These suits costs a fortune, far more than I could afford. Once a year, in April, they had a sale where these suits were sold at a really substantial discount, but even then I could not pay for the clothes I bought.


I was allowed to make monthly payments. Each time I paid, I received a thank you letter. I was never treated as a second class citizen. Many years later, when I had achieved some success, there was an article about me in”The Miami Herald” with a picture of me.


The next time I was in the store, I was taken in the back room and on the wall was a framed picture of that article with a note from Mr. Maus Sr. that said something like “I told you he would make it big”. When I became President of The Florida Bar, I received an unbelievably generous gift from the store. I still wear some of those Oxford clothes bought in the 1980’s. I know the dates of purchase because they are sewn into the inside pocket of each jacket.


It was the generosity of others that allowed me to always be well-dressed and give the appearance of doing better than I actually was doing. Even though I stopped buying suits and sport coats, I still take guests into Maus & Hoffman and often walk into the store to say hello. I will always be loyal to this store because they were unbelievably loyal to me.

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I end this post by saying the abortion issue must be front and center for the Democrats. The best single sentence I have read says, in substance, “The Supreme Court has not ended all abortions, but it has ended all safe abortions."

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Go Ukraine



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