PERSONAL STUFF

My story in one page or less: I live in San Francisco, which is pretty lucky because I think it's the most beautiful city in the world. I'm not a native -- I used to think that California was just another hot place with palm trees where people went on vacation. I grew up in the polyester belt of Upstate New York (in the historic and very small town of Ticonderoga on Lake Champlain, later on in an even smaller town near Utica).

When I was 15, I had a formative experience at an incredible boy's camp called Camp Rising Sun in the Hudson Valley.

AND LATER

I went to Williams College , where I learned that natural fibers are essential to a happy life and social acceptance,

and after that, to law school at the University of Michigan, where I learned that you could pay your utility bills by selling your Notre Dame and Ohio State football tickets. Then, after a brief epiphany of mental clarity, I moved to San Francisco , and started watching cult movies and planting trees and stuff. The rest pretty much follows.

MIKE'S TOP FIVE LISTS

One of quickest ways to learn about someone is to ask them to name their favorite . . . anything. So here are some of mine:

FAVORITE PEOPLE

• Thomas Jefferson
  
• Abraham Lincoln
  
• Henry David Thoreau
• Bette Midler or Agnes Morehead (can't decide)
• George Jonas

FAVORITE MOVIES

• Harold and Maude
• Thelma and Louise
• Cabaret
• Manhattan
• Being There

FAVORITE BOOKS

• The Gospel According to Jesus -- Stephen Mitchell
• West With The Night -- Beryl Markham
• A Confederacy of Dunces -- John Kennedy Toole
• Walden -- Henry David Thoreau
• The Passion of The Western Mind -- Richard Tarnas

FAVORITE QUOTES

• "Moderation in all things, including moderation." -- Mike Sullivan
• "Never let the truth get in the way of a good story." -- Scott Smith
• "When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him" -- Jonathan Swift
• "There is something bigger and more worthwhile than the things we see about us, the things we live by and strive for. There is an undiscovered beauty, a divine excellence, just beyond us. Let us stand on tiptoe, forgetting the nearer things and grasp what we may." -- Bernard Maybeck

 
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