Testing Leadership Blah

 recently took my 11-year-old daughter Lily to see the Harlem Globetrotters on their annual visit to the Mohegan Sun Arena in Wilkes-Barre. I was surprised and secretly delighted that she wanted to attend, as the Globetrotters have always held a storehouse of memories for me, some of which I’ll touch on in a few minutes.

In the meantime, Lily and I had a great time at the game, laughing at all the trick shots and gamesmanship that made fools out of their hapless opponents, the inappropriately named World All-Stars. And it’s worth noting that in the course of that enjoyment we consumed dinner and snacks (on top of what I thought was a relatively hefty ticket price) and excitedly bought a red, white and blue basketball as well as a Globetrotter branded Sharpie in anticipation of what we thought we be the capper to a great evening: A promised opportunity to go down on the hardwood floor and collect photos and signatures of the team’s thrilling players immediately following the game.

Needless to say, that’s not quite what happened. Shortly before the game ended, the court was roped off and, as the final horn sounded, most of the crowd attempted to find the undefined pathway to two unmarked openings to the court. Meanwhile, two of the players were led over to backdrops behind one of the hoops where makeshift lines began to form.

What Am I Reading? 

experience. Desperate to prove she is still relevant, the fiftysomething accepts a shady job offer from Pierre Barton, secretive billionaire owner of Barton Pharmaceuticals. Isolated in a facility outside London, she agrees to test a new top-secret product guaranteed to make her look thirty years younger. Anna is starting to look on the outside the way she feels on the inside: ageless. But she soon discovers that her predecessor died under mysterious circumstances, leading her to research just who stands to gain—and lose—with this miraculous product. When Pierre drops dead in front of her, she takes off on a dangerous journey across Europe hoping to stay alive long enough to uncover the truth.