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I Was Never Cool by Joseph Musso Jr.

I Was Never Cool by Joseph Musso, Jr. tells the story of a young man’s struggle to find his own identity & fit in.

You can read this book in one sitting, or slowly savor it story by story day by day…as long as you read this book.

Author Joseph Musso Jr. opens a vein and bleeds out his stories and soul onto the pages. The words flow like poetry.

From family relationships, to not being invited to birthday parties, odd roommates and romantic relationships, you GET him in so many ways.

He shows how seemingly random events can have an influence on our nature, ideas and thoughts.

This is the brilliant mind of Joseph Musso Jr. sharing why he drinks wine now and how his trumpet playing made a dog fold its ears and a woman wince.

He shares uncool things in life that make the reader realize that even if you aren’t cool, (at least in the manner “society” likes to deem), you can still lead a satisfying and fulfilling life.

Intelligent and witty this is…

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Madame Stephanie St Clair: 40 Thieves Street Gang

stephanie-300x300 — Stephanie “Madame” St Clair

Stephanie St Clair aka Queenie aka Madame St Clair was a French immigrant who moved to New York City in 1912. She was born in 1886, originally in Martinique, an island in the Lesser Antilles of the Caribbean.

St Clair was a tough and fearless lady of the streets and even by modern day standards considered a force to be reckoned with.

In 1922 she invested $10k of her own money into a numbers bank in Harlem. Her numbers game was so profitable that the Jewish and Italian gangs wanted in on her hustle. She refused and battled not only other gangs but the local authorities. When the cops came knocking she took on the NYPD, testifying about kickbacks that she had paid to them in order to let her operate her illegal rackets. Her testimony resulted in the firing of more than a dozen New York police officers.

FACTS ABOUT STEPHANIE ST CLAIR

The first black Godmother

Affiliated with the infamous New York extortion gang, the 40 Thieves

Recruiter and mentor of Harlem’s first black Godfather, Ellsworth “Bumpy” Johnson

Ran a lucrative numbers operation which, unlike many of her male counterparts, never came under the control of the Italian mafia

Died in 1969 in Harlem –still very rich from the profits of her illegal numbers rackets

Stay tuned for my exclusive story on Madame St Clair. I am absolutely fascinated by this woman and the power she held. She was a true gangster and the time period of history in which she operated makes her a street legend.

It’s difficult to imagine women like her existed 100 years ago when ladies most certainly did not dominate in a man’s world –especially within the underworld.

Stephanie St Clair was a well protected and well respected BOSS. She single-handedly changed the game and she did it all with numbers.

When I think of Madame St Clair’s bold, striking femininity the Marilyn Monroe quote comes to mind…..

“I don’t mind living in a man’s world, as long as I can be a woman in it”

FEATURED POST: You Define Your Success a Writer

Unsuitable Girls

The old me reared its fearful head just by reading the title of Dave McClure’s blog, “Late Bloomer, Not a Failure,” because that is how I had labelled myself. Success, and a very specific image of it, was an obsession and secretly I feared I was a failure who had made regrettable life choices. I knew I wasn’t and have been on a journey to have my mind meet my heart with that knowledge but it didn’t really change until a little over a year ago.

My other hoody is Tom Ford. (this executive hoody is for sale by Betabrand. Really.)

I live between two worlds which both have heavily skewed versions of reality: Hollywood and Silicon Valley. Both are in love with youth and with bling. Don’t let the hoodies of Palo Alto fool you. What this creates is also a false sense of success, since it is…

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