Yesterday was my first time at IHOP, a 24-hour breakfast franchise. There is one a few miles down the road, my mother and I used to pass this place every now and then. Each time she'd claim it's I-HOPE and I'd have to explain why it isn't. I'm always weary of franchises like these, they all taste the same to me - kind of like middle-of-nowhere diners. Yesterday I was starving and craving breakfast food, so I stepped inside an IHOP for the very first time.



Breakfast is not complete without the daily soduko!






 


My tea and the pitcher of decaf coffee. Can you tell I like honey? Unfortunately it was just a so-so generic kind.




A pancake house is not complete without an array of syrups! I didn't dare try any since they appear to have been at the table forever. My waiter gave me hot syrup instead.



Sorry folks I totally forgot to take photos of the food once it arrived. My stomach was already growling and I devoured most of it the minute it came. I ordered the spinach & mushroom omlet (large enough for three - or one hungry gal!). When it came it was accompanied with pancakes and hash brown. Holy cow! LOTS of food! For two seconds "Super Size Me" came to mind and I surveyed the room. Sure enough, that morning the restaurant was full of folks susceptible to sleep apnea (as my friend would say). The omlet reminded me of days at Barlett where I'd order an omlet every morning. I made sure ketchup and/or hot sauce was within reach - couldn't finish one w/o my sauce! I'm pretty sure I passed out from food coma, but somehow I made my way home. Believe it or not, the guys next to me ordered dessert after the meal....

The experience didn't change my thoughts on the place: cheap, large portions, check it out when you're dying of hunger.

Ran into some b-school stereotypes, SO funny yet SO true! I love it.


1.) Harvard

Pros: The best academic brand in the world, people from East Timor will know where you went to school. Graduates are extremely polished and dynamic leaders. its no coincidence that so many politicians these days are HBS grads.

Cons: Students are about as pompous and pretentious as possible. Polish is a fancy way of saying full of s**t. its no coincidence that so many politicians these days are HBS grads.

Office Space Character: Lumbergh (Peter's hated boss). He's a quintessential Harvard grad; in charge and full of platitudes that sound great but on further inspection don't make any sense. He also drives a nice car and makes a lot of money while being universally loathed. Kind of sums up every HBS grad you've ever met, right?

2.) Stanford

Pros: Small class size and focus on do-gooders leads to an incredible array of backgrounds and accomplishments of students, who thrive in tight knit community. Haven for the really interesting superstars out there. Tremendous brand. Beautiful weather.

Cons: It may be interesting to be classmates with a Buddhist monk-fighter pilot, but its also hard to relate to anyone ("So, did that vow of peace make it hard to take out bogeys?"). For super accomplished business students with the world at their fingertips, it sure doesn't seem like any of them actually like business.

Office Space Character: Peter (main character). He seems like the most level headed, likable and down to earth of any of the characters, but for all his talents, he ends up as a damn construction worker. He's also a major league flake, showing up to work only when he feels like it. Can you say entitled?

3.) Wharton

Pros: Arguably the best technical business education in the world. Great brand name, and the job placements are second only to H/S.

Cons: Not sure if it's the ultra rigorous curriculum, the competitive culture, or the fact that they have to live in Philly for two years, but Whartonites are paranoid bordering on psychotic. The odds of having a nervous breakdown in your life triple after going here. Double that if you actually ask anyone at Wharton to calculate those odds.

Office Space Character: Tom Smykowski (Co-worker that invents "jumping to conclusions mat"). I'm assuming that Tom was actually an excellent technical employee, but that his constant fear of losing his job made him batsh*t crazy. Most fitting quote "I'm a People Person!!!!!!" when yelling at the consultants.

4.) Northwestern

Pros: Strong team culture and arguably the best marketing program in the country. Incredibly collaborative for such a large school. Great location next to major financial center (Chicago).

Cons: Very soft curriculum, these guys are poets. I'm pretty sure that Kellogg finance classes are prerecorded cartoons taught by Disney characters. Is it really worth it to pay $10000+ to drink every night? I mean, couldn't you just do that without the degree?

Office Space Character: Joanna (Peter's girlfriend). Like Peter, she's very likable, level headed and likes to get around. Unfortunately she's also vastly less skilled than many of her fellow characters. Thank God she's hot.

5.) Chicago

Pros: Finance education is second only to Wharton globally (and even that's debatable). Probably the best facilities of all the top business schools. Fantastic job placements and close proximity to Chicago. Academic horsepower of profs is untouchable.

Cons: Socially awkward is an understatement. Unlike Whartonites who are just high strung, Chicago GSBers either never learned or quickly forgot how to communicate with peers. Make sure to wear a face mask if they're talking to you 'cause spits going to fly.

Office Space Character: Milton (Co-worker that loves red swingline stapler). Milton seems like a nice enough guy, and he might be the smartest guy in the office (he pulls off the grand caper in the end). It's just that he's about as charismatic as a toilet bowl. Hire 'em, just make sure to get GSBers an office in the basement.

When I read about Leona Helmsley's death, I couldn't help but wonder how she would be remembered. Although she was one of the Grand Dames of New York, her reputation as the "Queen of Mean" has overshadowed many of her philanthropic work. The column below sums up her life and legacy. Lesson learned - always be humble and be respectful of those who make you who you are today.

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Leona's Large Legacy
Peter Slatin, Forbes/Slatin Real Estate Report 08.21.07, 4:24 PM ET

 

When somebody of note passes on to the next world (or simply dies) those of us who remain behind reach deep to measure our own life against that of the departed, to find meaning in the life gone by or simply to think of something nice to say.

 

The death of Leona Helmsley is no different. Interestingly, the people we spoke to seemed especially-- perhaps overly--intent on choosing the last option.

 

That people say nice things about her makes a certain perverse sense. Few characters provoked more of a bitter laugh from New York real estate people as well as the public at large than the Queen of Mean (we prefer to think of her as the Queen of Green), best known for being wild about her Harry (and his billions), vicious to her hotel employees and evasive of her taxes, for which she was sent to prison (leading to her famous quote: "Only the little people pay taxes").

With her infamously abrasive personality and gargantuan ambition, Leona Helmsley wielded enormous sway over the city that loved to hate her. Those attributes and the feelings they engendered were inextricable from her vast wealth and extreme visibility, embodied in hotels like the Park Lane on Central Park South or the Helmsley Palace on Madison Avenue.

 

But it was that personality, with its Medusa overtones, that overshadowed all else, including her significant accomplishments as a hotel-chain builder and manager of portfolio assets. The legacy of such a hard-charging persona similarly overshadows many women of power and wealth. Think Martha Stewart of prison and Martha Stewart Living Omnimediafame, another tough lady targeted and jailed by federal prosecutors.

It's not that these ladies didn't abuse their hard-won privileges. They clearly did. But it seemed that their celebrity and flinty independence drew the darts of American justice like a magnet.

Martha Stewart is still extant. But there is another recently departed New York woman with whom Leona Helmsley, according to her publicist of more than 30 years, Howard Rubenstein, had shared something very special. That something was a fierce philanthropic bent. The someone was Brooke Astor. (One wag described Leona to me as "the un-Mrs. Astor," manners and message-wise.)

 

Mrs. Astor and Mrs. Helmsley both married into money, and they expanded on their husbands' accomplishments. Mrs. Astor's triumphant efforts, her much admired devotion to causes of culture and poverty, were applauded because of her tenacity and the grace, effervescence and charm that she approached them with. Mrs. Helmsley's philanthropy was accomplished in spite of the perceived absence of those qualities (other than tenacity), which also meant that her acts were accompanied with much less fanfare and genuine appreciation. Were they any less heartfelt? Hard to say, but since their deliverer was widely viewed as heartless, her acts of generosity were consistently tainted with a career of mean combativeness and presumptive entitlement that preceded them.

 

Leona married Harry Helmsley in 1972, and helped him manage his huge collection of office and residential properties in New York, Florida and across the country; together, they built the hotel group that she became most associated with. Not long after Harry died in January 1997, Leona launched a sales onslaught to dispose of much of an estimated $4 billion in assets. She hired Eastdil to manage the sell-off, which brought properties such as 140 Broadway, 230 Park Ave. and the Starrett-Lehigh Building to market just as the commercial property market was coming into its own ahead of the dot-com boom. Within short order, she had sold some $2 billion in properties for cash. Still partly in her possession when she died: the Empire State Building, the Fisk Building, the Helmsley and Park Lane hotels. Executives at W&M Properties, the family enterprise that was a key business partner in some of these properties as a result of an association with Harry Helmsley that predated Leona's arrival on the scene, declined to comment on her passing.

 

Not everyone was silent. "She was an outspoken leader of the real estate industry," said Lawrence Fiedler, an investor who taught real estate finance at New York University for nearly three decades.

Stephen Spinola, president of the powerful Real Estate Board of New York, said that Leona's main contribution was that she "broke into an Old Boys' Club. For a woman coming into real estate, and being in charge, that was not an easy process. She opened the door a bit for women."

 

How she did that remains a sticking point in recalling this powerful personality. Howard Rubenstein addressed that difficult issue head on: "She always said, 'If I were a man, they would say I was a big, tough, strong leader.' " he recalled. "I'm hoping that people will remember the good things she did rather than the harshness." Ticking off her charitable efforts, he said that she had donated tens of millions to hospitals, Katrina victims and the 9/11 families. "And she built an enormously important hotel chain," he said. "She knew what she wanted and fought to get it."

Her company, Helmsley Enterprises, will remain in the hands of four people, Rubenstein said. These include her longtime adviser and companion, John Cody, as well as Harold Merriam, Abe Wolf and Sandy Frankel.

And how will she be remembered by the rest of us? That, says Steve Spinola, "depends on whether you were an admirer or friend or observer or enemy." In the end, she may not have cared, as long as she got her point across. After all, he says, "she gave everybody a chance to have strong feelings about her."

 

Personal Postscript: While lunching with friends at Leona's Park Lane Hotel just before Christmas 2003, I was surprised to hear a frenzied yip-yapping sound. "That's Leona's dog," said one of my companions. "And Leona's sitting over there."

 

Leona's tiny, snarling fuzzball was raging at my large black Labrador guide dog, Image, who for once behaved himself and sat placidly ignoring the creature. A red-jacketed waiter raced over, scooped up the dog and carried it away.

After lunch, I asked my friends to guide me over to Mrs. Helmsley; I had spent much time reporting on the sale of her empire and her numerous entanglements with her partners. It was time we met.

She was sitting with one of her attorneys. After we were introduced, I expressed regret that, because of my dog's presence, she had not been able to dine with her dog. In a flash, she revealed the fierce no-holds-barred competitor who saw the world however she wanted it to be. "Well, your big brute attacked my little Trouble," she barked, referring to her dog by name.

 

Her companion demurred, noting that Image was a seeing-eye dog that was trained not to react to other dogs and hadn't moved. (Of course, on this one occasion, he actually followed his training.)

Changing the subject, I told her that I had written a great deal about her in the New York Post and Barron's. "I hope you wrote good things about me," she said. "I did my best," I replied.