Who would banker Alan Levan be in scifi/comics?

Alan Levan pulled off a galactic-sized deal today. The chairman and CEO of BankAtlantic Bancorp (BBX) agreed to sell the good assets of his bank to BB&T while leaving the more problematic assets and the corporate debt with the holding company. You can read the serious part of my story at the South Florida Business Journal. But, here I will ask the bigger question from the perspective of a novelist:

If Alan Levan was a scifi or comic book character, who would he be?

The deal came after many people were betting for shares of BBX to plummet. One stock analyst told me that he wouldn’t cover the company because he doubted it would survive. I got calls from stock traders who told me its shares were worthless.

And yet, it’s last laughs for Levan.

To accomplish all this, Levan raised capital from shareholders and his BFC Financial holding company at a time when few banks could do so. He endured a nasty class action securities fraud trial and got the judge to toss out the verdict against him. He had regulators all over the bank, including a “cease and desist” order, an SEC investigation and an overdraft fee investigation. And he swung a deal to sell the bank that avoided the immediate repayment of a ton of corporate debt. 

That’s sort of like dodging a speeding train, leaping over a pit of alligators and then climbing up a wet chain with fire at your heels. So is Levan the elusive Flash? 

Hmm, BankAtlantic is all about red outfits. But it’ hard to call banking flashy. 

It’s not fair to call Levan a runner. If anything, he doesn’t shy from confronting critics. He took on banking analyst Dick Bove and ABC News in court. He won a motion for sanctions against the class action securities attorneys that dragged him to trial – and then he appealed because he wanted MORE damages for the sanctions. He has waged public battles as a shareholder of restaurant chain Benihana and (briefly) Office Depot. 

And if you don’t pay your mortgage to the bank, well, just ask developer Dan Catalfumo what happens.

The bottom line: don’t mess with Alan Levan.

Maybe a more appropriate character for Levan would be Nightcrawler from X-Men. Not only can he teleport to escape danger, but he is an expert swordsman. If you can somehow catch Nightcrawler, he will make you pay.

Of course, Levan isn’t blue and nor does he have a tail. Moreover, Nightcrawler prefers to hide in the shadows and he rarely takes a leadership role with the X-Men. Levan is almost always the top guy at his companies and he certainly doesn’t hide.  

So who is a leader, evasive from danger and tough in a fight? Let’s travel to Star Wars and pick Han Solo.

Imperial Star Destroyer (federal regulators) on his tail? Light speed, Millennium Falcon! Leading the rescue of a princess (or his shareholders)? Blaster ready! Frozen in carbonite (wrong side of a jury verdict)? Friends and lawyers set him free. 

And remember that Han Solo was able to fend off Jabba the Hut, who wanted to collect on his debt. Levan has confronted issues with debt on soured real estate deals at Levitt & Sons and Core Communities but he exited those properties without the creditors coming after him.  

So there you have it: Alan Levan is the Han Solo of banking.

What does that make his son Jarett Levan, the president/CEO of the BankAtlantic subsidiary? I’m torn between the child prodigies of Children of Dune and Ender’s Game. Is running a bank at a young age more comparable to riding a giant sand worm or piloting a spaceship against an alien horde?

Latest Read: Think of a Number

I just finished reading John Verdon's murder mystery thriller Think of a Number, which I picked up from Books & Books in Coral Gables. This was his debut from 2010 and it left me impressed.

The story follows "retired" New York police officer Dave Gurney as he tracks a serial killer who intentionally leaves evidence meant to torment his victims, and the cops. I like how Verdon makes it seem like the killer is impossibly far ahead of Gurney every step of the way and that any evidence he discovers is what he's meant to see. It's a solid detective story that relies on evidence, logic and psychological profiles instead of car chases and flying bullets.

Verdon gave Gurney a great back story with equal parts accomplishment in his professional life and heartbreak/shortcoming in his personal life. Of the other characters, a few more are developed in depth but the other officers are there for amusement or to get in Gurney's way.

Based on this novel, I'm thinking about buying Verdon's follow-up Shut Your Eyes Tight. Although, next on my list is How Firm a Foundation, the fifth book in the Safehold series by scifi author David Weber.

Gearing up my novel Mute for release

My novel Mute has been making rapid progress towards its publication this fall. Believe me all is not quiet in my house.

Silver Leaf Books has my author page up. Thanks to South Florida Business Journal photographer Mark Freerks for my author photo.

http://www.silverleafbooks.com/Authors_Bandell.htm

I acquired an amazing photo from talented Australian artist El Cesana that will be used for the cover. Silver Leaf is in the process of finalizing the cover design, but you can view the photo here on my Authonomy page. The story on how I found El and her ironic connection to the story will be told at a later time. Let’s just say that it was worth it to reach across the globe to find her.

http://www.authonomy.com/books/17138/mute/

Meanwhile, I’ve been expanding my reach. For those of you on Linkedin, I encourage you to join the Science Fiction Group and the Crime Fiction Group. I have started and participated in some great discussions on there. For Facebook users, try the Mystery Reader Group.

I’m eagerly anticipating the moment that Mute will be available for download throughout the world. Many people want a print copy as well and that could happen on day, but I’m glad that the focus is on the ebook. Publishers Weekly reported that ebook sales at the largest publishers increased 160% in the first quarter while print edition sales fell 24%. In fact, ebook sales were greater than paperback sales – and it wasn’t even close.

My main focus isn’t to become rich off of this. If that was my goal in life, I wouldn’t be a print journalist, now would I? I want to give people a thrilling read and Mute will deliver.

And after that, I’ll introduce the shell shocked readers to my next project: Famous After Death.

Pay me in smiles or pay me in screams.

Job options for Anthomy Weiner

Poor Huma! Not only is hubby Anthony Weiner a twitter cheater and a pervert, he is unemployed now too. Barbara Walters said she is worried about Weiner getting a job because politics is all he knows. So I will help him and Huma out by offering some bold choices for Weiner's next career move.

- Weiner could join up with Miami city manager Tony Crapp Jr, who is ready to resign. They could form Weiner Crapp Consulting.

- Perhaps Weiner should be an image consultant for other celebs who want to improve their image through Twitter. What tweeting advice would Weiner give to LeBron James?

- Run for mayor of Cockeysville, Maryland.

- Reality TV could be in his future. How about a house with Weiner, Jesse James, John Gosslin and Scott Peterson? Call it Real Horrible Husbands.

- Another great TV fit for Weiner would be Israeli star Guy Penis (I'm not making that name up.) It would be the Weiner Penis Show. What would they talk about there?

- Weiner should be a male stripper. He loves taking his clothes off. He has studied the fine art, as shown by his emails to stripper/porn star Ginger Lee. What's the difference between a political fundraiser and getting dollar bills stuffed in your briefs?

- If Weiner wants to stay in public service, he should work for the post office. As he said in his emails to Ginger, Weiner's always concerned about his package.

Wake up! Worst professions to be caught sleeping at

In honor of the FAA and the air traffic controllers all across the country getting busted for sleeping on the job, I've compiled this list of the worst professions to be caught nodding off.

Middle school teacher: Imagine what the kids would do the the classroom, especially a science lab with chemicals and burners. 

Border security: Truck full of missiles, right on through.

Cameraman for live sports: The viewers would wonder why the camera continues focusing on the empty side of the court.

Firefighter: I know the house is burning, but the bed looks so comfy.

Public speaker: For once, I'd like to see a speaker fall asleep standing up and start snoring into the mic. That's what half the audience is doing anyway.

Bartender during a soccer match: Getting in between hooligans and their beer is a bad idea.

Surgeon: Can't you take a cat nap during that eight-hour surgery? It's not like the patient will notice. 

DJ: What happened to the music? This party sucks. - Extra points for at a wedding.

NASCAR driver: Many amateur drivers have trouble sleeping behind the wheel, but nodding off going 180 mph would be a little worse.

TV news anchor: I'd love to see the show return from a boring news segment to find the anchor completely out, drool running down the chin.

Fighter jet pilot: Worse than a commercial airline pilot, who has a co-pilot and crew for a wake up call. Plus, bombs on board.

Astronaut on a spacewalk: You're drifting away! Come in!

Zookeeper: Not a good idea to doze in the cage with the gorillas.

Of course, there are professions where I wish the people would go into a deep sleep. Telemarketers, for instance.

I would have mentioned the regulators at the Federal Reserve and the SEC, but it's already obvious they were asleep at the switch during the banking crisis.

NASA scientist's discovery of aliens sprouts amazing possibilities

Scientists and novelists have long dreamed of extraterrestrial life. Thanks to NASA scientist Richard Hoover, we now have good evidence that there is such a thing.

See the story in Reuters and looked up the Journal of Cosmology is you're a die-hard: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/06/meteorites-life-idUSN0627219120110306

Summing it up, Hoover examined meteorites and found fossils of bacteria that almost certainly aren't found on earth. I know this isn't exciting as ET flying a bicycle over the moon. Yet, it proves a point that could lead to greater possibilities. Earth isn't the only place that has life.

How advanced is extraterrestrial life? Should we be afraid of it? Those are themes you'll see explored in my novels, including The Centauri Generation and Mute. Samples available on www.authonomy.com.

There's a big difference between the aliens dreamed up by writers and what Hoover found. Bacteria is very resilient. It can live in acid, in Arctic ice, in sulfur deposits and in frozen soil. In fact, the bacteria that Hoover discovered were on meteorites that likely came from a comet. Seriously, comets are flying around with microscopic aliens hitching a ride. Think about that next time you see one streaking through the sky.

Bacteria is resilient, but animals are not. They are slower to adapt to extreme climate conditions, which can be found on many planets. Because they are larger, it's harder to live sheltered from the radiation in space. Animals need stable conditions to survive. We know there are millions upon millions of planets and moons out there, but it's hard to say which ones have conditions that would support not just life, but large, complex organisms.

As for intelligent life, it's an even bigger mystery why that forms. I say it's in God's hands. That's the only way I can explain why so many things about Earth are perfect for humans, like it was designed for us.

Evidence of extraterrestrial beings is a message. Life has few limitations. If life can exist on a comet looping from deep space to the sun, why can't we recognize how fortunate we are and make this big rock a more pleasurable ride?

When 'Journalists' Cross the Line

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has been catching flak in the media for his anti-union statements in a secretly recorded phone conversation with a man he thought was David Koch. The person who should be getting the most heat from this is Ian Murphy the self-proclaimed "journalist" for the Buffalo Beast who deceived the governor to get the story.

Murphy makes no effort to conceal that he called Governor Walker posing as businessman Koch, a supporter of his campaign. Regardless of what Walker said, where is the condemnation of Murphy's conduct by the media? Are we telling the public that we support lying to sources and airing their private conversations to the public? I hope that's not the message here because it's the wrong one.

The credibility of the media is near an all-time low. It's not that every journalist stoops to these tactics, but when we see misbehavior and fail to condemn it then we're guilty by association. I don't care that it's an online news site with an agenda. That's a growing segment of the new media. Professional journalists should draw a line in the sand and make it clear that we have a higher standard of conduct.

What Murphy did wasn't "going undercover" like the old days of muckraking. It was entrapment. There's a difference. Undercover means that a journalist is posing as an average citizen, such as a home buyer or a shopper, and that doesn't require assuming a false identity. But Murphy assumed the identity of a person that Governor Walker confided in and then asked him loaded questions. What's next - hacking into his mother's email and sending him fake messages to see how he responds?

We're headed to a dark place if we accept Murphy's conduct as journalism. I call on journalism organizations to stand up for honesty and integrity by condemning his actions.