The Wolves of Wall Street

This morning I read an excellent essay in The New Yorker by Rachel Syme, titled "The Great Fratsby."

Read it yourself here:

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/culture/2013/12/wolf-of-wall-street-great-gatsby-dicaprio.html

A few months ago (June 2013) I posted a brief essay about The Great Gatsby as the ultimate high school reunion fantasy.  (Scroll down this page.)   And a few months prior to that (May, 2012) I posted another essay here titled "If it Walks like a Duck...Run the other Way."

I will confess I have no plans to see the Scorsese ode to excess.  It offends me in ways I cannot describe in polite society.  Not the excess per se, but the means used to achieve it.  And the complete disregard for the sacrificial lambs who financed the excess with hard earned savings squandered by a hedonist.  It is the ultimate example of getting screwed without a kiss.

I'm not going to belabor the point, except to quote a Polish proverb from the 1972-1974 tv series Banacek:

"A wolf that takes a peasant to supper probably won't need any breakfast."

Wolves beware: this peasant is packing pepper spray.

Penny Pincher

P.S. Here's another article worth reading, by the daughter of one of the wolves:

http://blogs.laweekly.com/informer/2013/12/wolf_of_wall_street_prousalis.php

and another article:

http://blogs.laweekly.com/informer/2013/12/jordan_belfort_real.php

and yet one more:

http://blogs.laweekly.com/informer/2013/12/jordan_belfort_victims.php

Before you waste your hard earned money on a ticket to see this movie, remember: CAVEAT EMPTOR