Serenaded by Former Big Wigs

Last night my beloved husband and I got a good laugh when he was reading the Financial Times. There on the front page of one of the sections was a big color photo of Thomas Middelhoff. Who? Exactly. Middelhoff is the former CEO of Bertelsmann/BMG. Why did the photo bring us such chuckles? Thus the story...For my birthday dinner in 2002, my beloved husband and I went to Nobu. There sitiing next to us was this Thomas Middelhoff with an unknown female companion. We don't remember how but, somehow, we started talking and when Middelhoff was told that it was my birthday, he serenaded me with his rendition of the well known American classic "Happy Birthday." It was funny, yet embarrassing all at the same time. Middelhoff then pointed out Tommy Motola across the restaurant and proclaimed that we should get Tommy to come over and sing as well. Thankfully, my protestation of such an idea worked. The kicker to this whole vignette is that the next day Middelhoff was fired as CEO of Bertelsmann. Ah such fun! Anywho, apparently he is now the head of a German retail chain called Karstadt and he is desperately trying to reverse the companies debt situation. He's firing German retail employees all over the place. Good job Middelhoff, good job.