Fiddling Away His Retirement

Book editors play a “mysterious” but incredibly important role in the book industry’s value-chain, so the notice this morning, in The New York Times, that Random House’s executive editor Daniel Menaker was leaving the company attracted my attention. What was particularly interesting, and inspiring, however, was the information that Menaker, 65, mentioned that “he wanted to spend time … learning to play the fiddle, “something that [he] always wanted to do.”” Being totally without musical skills, myself, I had always regretted those piano lessons that I sluffed-off in my youth as I pursued my dreams of a major-league baseball career with the Brooklyn Dodgers [another career opportunity missed]. Meanker has given me renewed hope. What an uncommonly good reason to retire!