Dear Frank,

You know, for over twenty years I’d experienced absolutely no interest whatsoever in watching the Oliver Stone film Wall Street — until, of course, you asked me to tell you what happened in it. I don’t know why I was so disinterested; perhaps my vague phobia of shoulder pads was a factor. But let me just say that having now seen it, I don’t really feel like I was missing out on anything.

This is a movie about baby-faced Charlie Sheen and how he wants to have lots of money because of his blue collar roots. Right now, he’s working the phones at a brokerage on (you bet) Wall Street, but he has big-time ambitions to play with the big boys — and the biggest boy appears to be Gordon Gekko, a deal-maker and stock-buyer and business duder. Read the rest of this entry →