I’ve had the great joy of a closed-knit association with a couple of spectacular groups. The Fellas of Fiji, the Booz Allen Media Crew, myNYC poker/skiing fellas and my Founder’s Nest compatriots. Among the best is a group we called the “ROTH”, or the “Row of Total Hilarity”. This was a stellar group of humans from my early-90s days at American Express that included myself, Chuck Shorter, Melissa Shore, Ken Ruskin, and Luke Gebb. CorpDev was a typical 90s lifestyle beat-down-job, and even though we knew the late-night order menu from Au Mandarin by heart, we laughed our asses off at work. For almost five years as a group we went dined once a month at Grimaldi’s in Brooklyn (the Original Patsy was there). For another five years we hit Patsy’s four or five times a year. We also hit tons of music shows together, went drinking, and did some great professional work. After three or four years, many of us had left the physical confines of the ROTH, but the camaraderie remained strong. When I went to Japan for two years, I “bequeathed” my super-dope chair to another member. Membership was tight, but not locked. An occasional significant other could be brought (it had to be pretty serious), but potential new members had to be introduced and then voted on. Over the years I think we invited eight or nine different new members to join the Grimaldi’s crew, and only one person got a standing re-vite– Catherine Lovejoy missed the timing of the original ROTH, but exemplified its greatest qualities.
I started at Amex more than twenty-five years ago. In the past thirty days I’ve talked to three of the ROTH, and have talked to Chuck twice in the past two weeks. That’s some good life magic.
