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Paul Burri: Larry Crandell, An Instant Old Friend
There are thousands of people in Santa Barbara who speak very highly of Larry Crandell.
Unfortunately, I’m not one of them.
Sorry, I just couldn’t resist. Larry has pulled this one on me hundreds of times, and this was my opportunity to finally get him back.
There are a few events that should be noted as once-in-a-lifetime occasions. One of those events was when I accidentally met a man who is locally famous. Or is it infamous? I can never get it straight. It happened about a year ago, and I now wish that I had recorded the exact date, although I’m not sure why.
Anyway, I was looking for the men’s room when I wandered into his cluttered office and we started talking. It was about two hours later that I left — still needing the men’s room — but knowing that I had met a new friend.
Since then, Larry and I have met and talked over breakfast and lunch many times. Well, that’s not exactly correct either. Larry talks; I listen (except, of course, when he is saying hello to his many friends who pass by our table, which happens frequently). No matter, it’s always a pleasure to be with him because he always has an interesting story to tell. And he never lets the truth ruin a good story.
So there we are — two old guys telling each other outrageous and preposterous lies about our past triumphs, successes, conquests and achievements, and trying to convince the other that they’re true. We both know that the other guy is on the verge of senility and can’t really remember what he had for breakfast that day.
I was pleased to hear and will always remember what he said to me that first day as I was leaving his office. He said, “I consider you to be an ‘instant old friend.’”
Right after that he asked to borrow some money.
— Paul Burri is an entrepreneur, inventor, columnist, engineer and iconoclast. He is not in the advertising business, but he is a small-business counselor with the Santa Barbara chapter of Counselors to America’s Small Business-SCORE. He can be reached at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
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» on 11.02.09 @ 08:57 AM
Paul
I have been loving your recent columns and I got a big kick out of this one…
and I have a feeling larry would heartily approve
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» on 11.02.09 @ 01:08 PM
So several months ago I was standing in line at the first check out at the Goleta Trader Joes. I noticed in front of me a prominent and local master of ceremonies. Nothing better to do while waiting so I just observed. The M.C. pushed his shopping cart up to the checkout and unloaded several drinks onto the slide out table and then proceeded to push his shopping cart in a u-turn back into the store by the interior orchid stand. I just watched as the M.C. paid for his drinks with a wad of cash and overheard a casual quip with the checker about his take being somewhere in the neighborhood of about 10%. Hardy har har, I guess, except the M.C. abandoned his shopping cart containing raw meat products. I think it was chicken. The M.C. made no mention of it to anyone before walking out of the store. Regardless of what was left behind to spoil, it is going to be difficult to get back to these Bob Hope optimally positive special moments when the upper crust of that generation behaves so badly.
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» on 11.02.09 @ 06:46 PM
Hey, a good story absolutely doesn’t have to be true..but would you agree it isn’t really good without the truth winning the day? Come on, I just did a book, “Not In My Wildest Dreams” with my hero insisting on telling the truth and Todd Earnword wound up in tons of trouble for doing it. But at the end of the day, the truth paid him back every time.
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