For new friends: Hi! I'm glad to meet you, and get acquainted. My various areas of interest are grouped below, so you can quickly find what is interesting to you.
NEW:
A History of Western Magick 
Empire of the Sea 
Mr. Tubbs Garden 
Santa Claus: A Guidebook for Grown-Ups 
EASTON:
Easton PA: A History 
Easton PA: The Lower Bushkill Mills 
New in 2011: Easton PA: A Civil War Walk 
Easton PA: Historic Tours 
For more in-depth research: Easton PA: Special Projects 
and Easton PA: Concordance of Original Town Lot Owners Sources 
INTERNATIONAL COMMERCIAL LAW:
Practical Principles of International/Multinational Commercial Law 
Mail to me at RHope5@iCloud.com.
For snail mail: 438 Independence Circle
Nazareth, PA 18064
Phone: +1-610-258-7417
Interests -- The Details:
History 
My interest as a student in history, has now re-emerged as a series of books.
SANTA CLAUS: A GUIDEBOOK FOR GROWN-UPS is a compact
summary includes a historical review of the Christian bishop in the time of the Roman
Empire who became St. Nicholas. It follows with the Saint's tradition as it grew through
the Byzantine era, was exported to Europe during the Crusades; was suppressed by the
Protestant Reformation, and was finally reborn in the New World There is also an extensive
review of "Santa Claus" and similar customs around the world. But perhaps most
distinctively, the HANDBOOK will include a consideration of what "Santa Claus" actually is,
in adult terms. NEVER tell the kids that Santa Claus doesn't exist -- because that
wouldn't be true! "He" is, in fact, a franchise belonging to the entire community,
complete with trademarks, business procedures, and enforcement of "quality" by the owners
(that is, by the community, especially the kids!). Every year, "Santa Claus" causes a
huge number of children to receive gifts at about Christmastime, and truly does accomplish
it "in one night" (although that night is St. Nikolas Eve, or other days, in various
places). The very practical magic of "Santa" is quite real, as any retail merchant can
affirm. "He" just isn't a human person -- but any five-year-old child could tell you that!
A series of local histories began with EASTON PA: A HISTORY, published in 2006.
This readable introduction to Easton’s history draws together material from many
piecemeal sources, and includes pictures of many of Easton’s historical buildings as
they exist today. It also includes an Appendix listing historical sites, to assist
walking or driving tours of the town. The series of Easton books has grown to include tours
of downtown Easton, research projects and guides, and (most recently)
EASTON PA: THE LOWER BUSHKILL MILLS. This latest book provides the historical
background of the mills on Bushkill Creek from Easton to Stockertown, which were important to
the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in America. The Easton books (and links to their
publishers) are all listed in the book ordering links on this website.
A website -- www.WalkingEaston.com -- is also available with extensive historical
information (with source references) on over 200 buildings in the Easton Historic District.
"Drill down" through the maps and indices on the website to reach fully footnoted, MSWord-formatted
documents. These are works in progress, updated periodically with additional information. Some of
the more complete ones have been printed in the Easton Irregular as part of the "Walking Tour"
series of articles.
The Easton Main Street Alliance has been helpful
from time to time in promoting some of these Easton history projects.
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Law and Corporate Consulting 
I retired in 2001 from a career as a lawyer for major corporations. Since then,
I have consulted consulting on issues of corporate compliance, ethics, and risk assessment
and also taught college courses in business law and international business. My revised
textbook, PRACTICAL PRINCIPLES OF INTERNATIONAL/MULTINATIONAL COMMERCIAL LAW, has now been published,
and is available for purchase in paperback or as a computer download. (Click Here). This text
emphasizes the practical basics that business people, and their everyday corporate
counsel, should know if they have international responsibilities. It it intended to help
people with international business responsibilities ask the right questions to avoid making
some of the costly mistakes that so often plague international deals. These mistakes can include
unexpectedly binding oral or letter contracts, on unfavorable terms regarding deliveries, Customs,
service, and other international issues. In practice, these mistakes can get "locked in" long before any
international legal specialists ever become involved.
Most of my work as Corporate Counsel for several years prior to retirement
involved international commercial matters. When I was first assigned to that area,
I searched (without success) for a basic manual outlining the laws in the area. The
new text, PRACTICAL PRINCIPLES OF INTERNATIONAL/MULTINATIONAL COMMERCIAL LAW, is specifically
designed to fill that need. In additional to international law, I spent various periods
as a Corporate Counsel working on general business issues, satellites, mobile phones,
and telecommunications regulatory issues. Overall, I spent some 18 years working for
AT&T Corp. and its spin-off corporations Lucent Technologies Inc. and Avaya Inc.
All of this is some distance, professionally, from where I started in the law.
My law degree is from the Harvard Law School, where I was elected an editor of the Harvard
Law Review, but spent more time directing the Law School Show. After getting my degree,
I was a Law Clerk for Alaska Supreme Court Justice Connor in Anchorage for a year, and then
became a litigation associate at a large New York law firm specializing in corporate takeovers,
especially tender offers and proxy fights. That was an exciting (but stressful) time!
I left it for the quieter life at AT&T Corp. in 1983. I thereafter followed the AT&T spin-offs:
Lucent Technologies Inc., and then Avaya Inc.
For further details, my law resume and teaching resume are attached.
Music and Theater 
Trained as a classical pianist in my boyhood in the U.S., Germany and England,
and in voice as an adult, my adult career started with a choice of two offers: to sing
opera in California, or to practice law in New York. Although I chose the law career
to make a living, I have since enjoyed occasional excursions on stage as a performer,
musical director, composer, and even sometime stage carpenter. Roles have ranged
from traditional "character" parts (such as "Captain Hook" and "Santa Claus"), to classical
comedy (Shakespeare) and straight drama, and singing opportunities (without the "drama").
The advent of the Internet makes voice-overs an interesting option today, which I
hope to investigate in the next year.
On occasion, I have also picked up the "pencil" (usually a computer, actually)
as a composer, mostly for musical theater scores, and also a book of piano music.
I'd be interested in working on a score for "Heidi", if any playwrights and lyricists
are similarly interested.
Commercializing Space 
As an member of the old L-5 Society -- later (sadly) merged into the National
Space Society -- and a Senior Associate of the Space Studies Institute
in Princeton (NJ), I have maintained an interest in the commercial development of low
earth orbit and the moon for a considerable time. An early effort was my article
proposing a Draft Model Employment Contract for Space Employees, published in
5 Northrop U.L.J. 51 (1984).
Meanwhile, it has become increasingly clear that if we are to accomplish the dream of
large numbers of people living and working in space, then the future lies with
commercial development through private companies. Modern space commercialization
efforts such as PERMANENT, The Artemis
Project, and SpaceDev Corporation, represent some first steps, even though
their proposals may still require a lot of refinement. I remain convinced that until
there is an economic rationale for space, our hold upon the dream will be tenuous.
To keep the dream alive -- think business and commerce!
Bibliophilia 
I maintain a collection of good books, especially classics, in fine
bindings (preferably leather). Some are one or two centuries old, but I have not yet
graduated to collecting incunabula (other than a few framed pages). I also collect
books on the history of St. Nicholas, a/k/a Santa Claus: both the historical person
and the "franchised" tradition, through modern times. [This aids research on one of
my long-term writing projects.] I attended the July 1996 Rare Book
School of the University of Virginia, and I can sincerely recommend both the
courses and the contacts there. Return to Main Listing
Politics 
Can we return to a non-socialist tradition of limited government, free
citizens, and "laissez faire" marketplace capitalism in the United States? We cannot
keep confiscating more and more of the wealth of productive citizens, to fund every
cause that the politicians manage to log-roll a majority of fellow-"pols" into
supporting.
A truly FREE citizen should be free to support -- or reject -- whatever
"worthy causes" he or she wants. Government projects always mean somebody is being
coerced -- otherwise, a voluntary charity or business would fund the venture. To be
truly free, our government's insatiable appetite to control every aspect of our
lives and choices must not only stopped in its tracks, but severely rolled back.
Americans must once again become free to pursue happiness in their own way, without
requiring approval from -- or a kick-back to -- our politicians and bureaucrats.
Pervasive governmental involvement is not only obnoxious, but it is also
horribly unsuccessful. It couldn't be otherwise. The political process provides
token funding to all politically important projects, without much regard to any
likelihood of success. And since resources are always scarce and aportioned based
on political "pull", a promising project can never be given enough funding to truly
succeed, by ruthlessly killing off four or five other "pet projects".
Of course, success or failure for most of these "pet projects" is irrelevant:
they are merely spin-doctored rationales for government forcing the public to buy
the project sponsors products or services. There is truly nothing "kind" or "gentle"
about Washington's wild feeding frenzy, involving contractors, unions, subsidized
industries, and government employees. If the proponents of these programs had truely
charitable intentions, they could donate their services and goods to the cause
without government coercion; instead, they merely use government to force the rest
of us to pay them handsomely for all that they do, beyond the levels that we would
choose voluntarily.
In the final analysis, our forefathers came to America for a new start, to
avoid the invasive government regulation, taxes, and authority that impeded them in
Europe or Asia. Those governments, like our own, claimed to have good intentions, but
good intentions don't guarantee freedom. Our government was to be different: limited
in its powers, and republican in executing those few powers it did possess. Both of
these principles are almost invisible today, as hireling politicians use mass ballots
and conspicuous public pay-offs to give their clients virtually unlimited power over a
public treasury confiscated from a smaller and smaller proportion of the citizenry
who are truly productive. Democratic mob-rule is easily manipulated by demagogic
politicians -- that is why the Founding Fathers wisely sought to avoid it!
If the American government fails to clean up its act, there are remedies.
Our forefathers voted individually -- with their feet, not with ballots --
against the governmental Leviathans of their day. We (or our children and
grandchildren) will ultimately do the same. Political complaints against some
current corporate practices suggest that the migration has already begun. There are
other places on the planet that have begun to allow adult people more freedom from
government interference and taxes. Perhaps, in time, there will be such places
off-planet, as well. Atlas can shrug in may ways.
Let me know if you have a libertarian political candidate you
think I should support, whether or not they are a member of the official Libertarian Party.
Or, if you care to discuss the position papers from organizations such as the Cato
Institute, I'd be delighted to correspond: drop me an email! In 2002 I worked as a speech
writer for Liz Macron, the New Jersey Libertarian Party candidate for
U.S. Senator: that organization would welcome your support in future campaigns.
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Cross-Cultural Matters 
Cross-cultural problems are of particular interest to me, on many levels.
I was born in Germany to an American father and a British mother who had, originally,
met in India. My schooling was in the U.S., Germany and Britain. Add to that a
study of European and Japanese history; some international friendships; and "day job"
work in recent years that involved international commercial problems. Accordingly,
I have some views on better ways for Americans to work with citizens of other nations,
especially in culturally-charged areas such as business relations, corporate
ethics, legal compliance, and (yes) even "terrorism".
Ich kann auch Deutsch schreiben, wenn Sie wollen. Ik lez ook een beetje
Nederlands; leo un poquito español; je comprendre un petit peu francaise.
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Computers and InterNet 
Since the days of FORTRAN classes in college, and my old Apple IIe in the
1980s, it has been clear that computing is the technology to learn. Now the world is
all Windows and HTML; tomorrow it will probably be something else. I try to stay
afloat, although safely behind the cusp of the curve. What's next?
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Home and Garden 
My wife (a trained Master Gardener) and I
are landscaping our new property in Easton, around a boulder wall and staircase,
wraparound rear rock gardens, and landscaped paths and beds near the house for more
"exotic" perrenials for our area. We always welcome conversation with people who have
appealing ideas.
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Investment 
Like any good "laissez faire capitalist", I am interested in investing for
retirement, etc. Despite many years working as a lawyer with Wall Street types, my
real education in personal investment was obtained more recently. One good (if dry)
source of such learning is the NAIC Organization, which provides
education and low-cost start-up opportunities for both individual investors
and investment clubs. NAIC principles show how to augment or replace mutual fund
investments with DRIPs and No-Loads, that is, company stock ownership
plans that usually allow you to purchase shares without paying any significant brokers'
commissions, and also let you invest just a little money at a time. Through these devices,
anyone in America with $25 a month to invest can have their own investment portfolio!
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