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Posted January 29, 2010 Every year at toy fair, two floors down from me at the Gramercy Park Hotel, was my agent and dear friend A. A wizened, bearded old communist (that is, I believe, one who lives on a commune), an afficianado of whiskey, women, cigarettes, and scuba diving, A was and likely still is a Man’s Man. For years I would look forward to ending a day of meetings down in A’s room smoking cigarettes, sipping whiskey, and secretly admiring the exotic beauty of his daughter. My friend got his start as a heavy equipment mover, and during the 6-day war he pillaged and plundered on behalf of the Israeli army, in the tradition of conquering armies that dates back thousands of years, no doubt. Once he moved an 80-ton crane from a defeated enemy city to the port of Haifa where it is in use still. This crane is a monument to persistence, perspiration, and ingenuity - which are the sources of all great things.  It was a bit tricky for A to get that crane across the sands of the Sahara, but even trickier to cross the Suez canal. The problem: All they had to get across the canal were the sectioned, floating bridges favored by armies on the move, the kind that bend and flex at the hinges as one crosses. If the flex at the hinge were to move just a bit too far, this 80-ton behemoth, even taken apart into halves, would have gotten stuck and have to be dynamited, bridge and all, into the bottom of the Suez. That would block ship traffic until it could be removed - a most undesireable outcome.  So my friend, an expert in his element, sharpened his pencil, fired up his slide rule, or perhaps he had a primitive military calculator back then, and did all the necessary calculations. Yes, they could get it across. The bridge bent and flexed, hinged and groaned, sections sinking as the massive crane inched across. The bridge sections came within less than two inches of bending too far and jamming and forcing the destruction of their spoils of war. After all that A got into the toy business, I'm not quite sure how. He is now retired to a life of scuba diving and appreciating the fairer sex.
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