Victor Makourin

The Ecstasy of Gold

I was in a bar one night when this guy sat at my table and asked me if I minded. I had been stood up earlier that evening – thirty years later I ran into the lady in a bar and mentally high-fived my then twenty-year-old self – and was dying for human company, so I said I didn’t mind. Right away you could tell two things about him – he liked his drink and he was a compulsive talker, albeit not without a certain charm. In any case, who would you rather listen to over a drink – an insurance broker or a wino?