Lessons in Networking

A funny thing happened on the way to the pharmacy.
Saturday morning I was waiting in line (or "on line" as they say in this foreign land) at CVS when an older man (mid-60s I'd say), whom I'd incidentally just seen emerging from the mansion on Pierrepont and Henry (around the corner from CVS), started chatting to me about the weather. He had an air of skeeze*, so I reservedly commented about the drop in humidity. He persisted: "What do you do?"
I told him I was a science writer.
"Oh? Who do you write for?"
"Psychology Today."
He perked up at this, even more. "Oh I know Hara, she's an editor over there, right?"
Okay, so he knows Hara, and Hara's great (we had coffee in the park and she interviewed me for an article she's writing; we're tight, and neighbors too--she also lives in Brooklyn Heights), so maybe he's harmless, at least to talk to in the CVS line.
"I'm a psychologist myself. I have a private practice, and I also do research on the criminal justice system and drug addiction, and I advise Governor Schwarzenegger on reforming the California prison system."
This following my conversation with the professor at Duke, I thought that was cool.
"So if I were looking for, say, a ghostwriter for a book I want to write, I'd go to someone like you, right?"
I nodded.
He introduced himself as Harry Wexler, and more getting-to-know-you conversation ensued. (At one point, Harry referred to himself as a "bachelor," per skeeze linguistics.)
Harry gave me his contact information and we agreed to meet and discuss project ideas.
Something else worth mentioning: I'd just read Malcolm Gladwell's article "Six Degrees of Lois Weisberg"--Lois Weisberg knows everyone in the world apparently, and Gladwell discusses how new contacts breed new contacts (ooh, maybe "breed" isn't the right word here...). I figured, isn't this networking? Potential professional opportunities?
Something else worth mentioning, but more to myself: Beware of skeezy "bachelors" in the CVS line.
Our meeting yesterday lasted an hour and a half. He talked a lot about himself, highlighting how "famous" and "smart" and "successful" he is, and how he works for the Governator. He volunteered inappropriate details about his personal life, like how he'd gotten his girlfriend knocked up at age 18 and how he thinks Hara** is attracted to him but he's not attracted to her. He talked about being offered a guest professorship at Dartmouth, and how his writing endeavors (which I presumed was where I came in) would somehow prepare him for that. I don't think he had any concrete plans for a project, just that I would somehow be involved.***
So after he talked about himself and his motorcycle and the bad choices he'd made in life, he said, "What do you think? Free associate."
I hesitated, then said, "Your life sounds really interesting."
He then suggested that we sit down and write a "concept paper" about the importance of prison reform, that would come from more interviewing/brainstorming sessions (again, so vague). Then we would pitch it to PT as a story idea. My next step was to research the demographics of the readership and see whether this sort of story would be something PT would want to publish.
He sent me an email 30 min. after we parted ways: "I think we have chemistry."
This morning, after the editorial meeting, I told Hara about my experience, and she launched into her history of knowing Harry. Hara knew Harry's wife Ellen, whom she worked with on a column. But Hara was unaware of their marital problems until she saw Harry's profile on JDate (an online dating service for Jews)--apparently they'd divorced and not a week later "BigDoc" was on the prowl. (Hara: "How much closer can you get to "BigDick"?) Hara made the mistake of looking at his profile; on these dating websites you can see who's viewed you, so I'm guessing this is why he thinks Hara is interested in him.
She told me about the pictures he has of himself on his JDate profile. One is of him with a do rag on his massive Harley (again, with the endowment reference), which was the laughing stock of the PT office for a while, apparently.
Also, he lied about his age on his profile. (He's 65 in real life.) Also, he has a 45-year-old daughter.
The gab fest ended with the affirmation that A) Harry is indeed a skeeze, through and through, and B) that I need to disengage myself from any association with him.

Hara's trying to locate the Harley pic for me, and if she does, I promise to post it.


*Skeeze + Geezer = Skeezer. As in, "This old dude who was hitting on me in the CVS line was such a skeezer!"
**Hara is a widow in her 60s, btw.
***I ran into Kaja, another PT editor who also lives in Brooklyn Heights, in the bathroom and we had a little laugh about BigDoc. She said "I think you ARE the project." Hlumph (*vomiting*).