After selling industrial metals for some years, I went to work for my father-in-law at his company called Selfix on the south side of Chicago.
Artist Notes: Gene, the plant manager pictured here with the coffee cup, was a Polish Catholic and a member of Opus Dei. John, the product designer with the halo, had a Mormon wife though he himself was also a Catholic. John was dyslexic and color coded the numbers on his push button phone and once kissed my wife by mistake. As part of my job in product development, my father-in-law asked me to negotiate with Ming Kwong, a Hong Kong manufacturer of refrigerator magnets. Kwong had sent us a container (portable railcar) of polyvinylchloride refrigerator magnets that looked like realistic fruit, but if you bent them the magnets popped out and one could imagine American children swallowing them. I went to Hong Kong thinking this was some kind of test. While there, I met with our Taiwanese vendor BT Wu and his stylish wife (who my mother-in-law called The Dragon Lady) who were also in the doghouse for copying our design for a shower caddy. They took me out for sushi and then to a disco where I danced with a Chinese woman to the song, "I think I'm turning Japanese." Using tactics I learned while negotiating industrial metals contracts, I came to what I thought was a fair settlement with Ming Kwong, but my father-in-law was furious with me for being too nice and said: "Don't think like a goy!"
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After selling industrial metals for some years, I went to work for my father-in-law at his company called Selfix on the south side of Chicago.
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