Falcon found at sea

The New York Times is reporting corporate scandal at Hewlett Packard, as board member Thomas J. Perkins quits over a controversial leak investigation. But here's the bit I liked in Damon Darlin's article:

"Mr. Perkins, who was briefly married to the best-selling author Danielle Steel and recently wrote a racy novel titled Sex and the Single Zillionaire, did not respond to requests for comment. A representative said Mr. Perkins was in the Mediterranean on his new $100 million 287-foot yacht, the Maltese Falcon, and did not want to be disturbed."

Leaving aside the quickie marriage and book, seemingly exhumed from an episode of Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous circa 1987, there's the name of the boat. Perkins clearly likes crime fiction, in book and movie form, and I'm sure when he welcomes his moneyed friends aboard and they ask him about the name, he says, quoting the last line of the 65-year-old film classic, "Don't you remember...it's the stuff that dreams are made of."

But, Tom--surely you get the irony? The Maltese Falcon, when finally revealed, is lead...a fake, a phony. An illusion. A phantom. Ever-elusive, and not to be had for any price, not even $100 million. [Except as a book or a DVD; Warner Bros. is releasing a three-disc version of the movie this fall.]

I wouldn't trust a guy who didn't grasp this. Cute, Mr. Perkins, but shallow. What's next for your fleet: The Treasure of the Sierra Madre?