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Throughout the book, Charlie reveals his intellect, wit, values, and no end of rhetorical flair. His encyclopedic knowledge allows him to cite references from classical orators to eighteenth- and nineteenth-century European literati to pop culture icons of the moment. Where else would you find Demosthenes and Cicero juxtaposed against Johnny Carson, or today’s investment managers set against Nietzsche, Galileo and a “one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest”? Or how about Ben Franklin versus Bernie Cornfeld in a battle of worldly wisdom? Using self-deprecation and imagination to great effect, Charlie cheerfully compares himself to a counting horse, proposes “Glotz’s sugared, caffeinated water” as a marketing-bereft label for Coca-Cola, and attests, “at least when I was young I wasn’t a total klutz.”