Whatever Happened to... ?
From mortuaries to Mylo, an update on all things Wells Street.
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I’m humbled by the interest you’ve expressed in several stories I’ve written, so I’m taking a moment to update a few.
Liquid “Cremation”
I brought you the crazy story about “aquamation” in July. It’s a new and greener form of cremation that uses alkaline water to gently dissolve a body. It takes longer than traditional flame cremation, but it’s supposed to be much better for the environment.
I found out about aquamation through a guy who’s made a fortune selling testicular implants for dogs called Neuticles. Because those are the people I know. By the way, the latest on Neuticles:
Anyhow, aquamation has been approved for pets in all 50 states, and it’s increasingly being approved for humans. Except in the one state which prides itself on being green: California.
David Perfito of White Rose Aqua Cremation
In the story, I profiled David Perfito, who’s invested a million dollars to build and open White Rose Aqua Cremation in Escondido, the first aquamation mortuary in California. He and his business partner self-funded the endeavor after California passed a law approving the technology for humans in 2017. The law was supposed to take effect over a year ago.
David is still waiting to flip the switch on his $250,000 machine.
Two years after White Rose submitted its application to the California Department of Public Health, the agency is still deciding whether to greenlight this green technology, never mind that the law’s been on the books for years. (UCLA’s medical school has long used aquamation to dispose of donor bodies.)
I reached out to the department while reporting the original story, and I checked in with David last week for an update.
“We are still in a holding pattern,” he tells me. “They seem to be more motivated these past three months.” I wonder what happened three months ago? Oh yeah, I emailed the state. David says California health authorities are speaking to the machine’s manufacturers to get more information needed for approval.
Meantime, David continues to drive bodies to Las Vegas to use the only aquamation machine approved for humans in Nevada. “We are excited to serve, even in this way.”
He’s hired two women to help grieving families through the process in California, and he’s looking forward to a formal “grand opening gala” when White Rose is fully licensed.
Let’s hope we live long enough to see that.
Did they ever go back to work?
My story from August, “Who’s Not Working?,” has been widely read and shared. It hit a nerve.
In the story, I looked at the historic and bizarre tension right now in the job market. We still have a record number of job openings, yet many people aren’t going back to work.
Here are three people I profiled:
Maggie from St. Louis
Maggie Mundwiller lost her job when the pandemic hit. She became a TikTok sensation when she took her toddler, Mylo, with her on a job interview. She represents many parents with young children who are searching for the right job, one that makes going back to work worth it.
These days? “Mylo is 19 months old, trying to say every word, and has officially grown out of his infamous blue seersucker suit,” she wrote me in an update.
In my original story, Maggie told me she began earning a little money during Covid making handcrafted gifts and apparel. This week she’s opening a small boutique in Ballwin, Missouri, called 314 Handcrafted. She’s also a part-time consultant for a printer manufacturer, helping them produce TikToks and instructional videos.
Maggie says she’s using her own social media platform to focus on parents' and women’s rights, as well as “mom hacks.” She’s also advocating for universal pre-K and higher wages for teachers, and she supports limiting childcare costs to no more than 7% of a parent’s income.
“I continue to post on my TikTok daily, and I am having fun creating content and interacting with my followers and other creators,” she says.
Jason from Wisconsin
Jason, 42, quit his golf course job during Covid when he says safety protocols were ignored (he asked me not to use his last name). He was also furious with management because, he says, the owners accepted a government loan meant to pay employees, but they used the money to pay themselves instead.
“I have taken advantage of — and I will say ‘advantage of’ — unemployment benefits,” Jason said at the time. He decided to invest all of those benefits, while the family lived on his wife’s income.
Three months later, Jason says the money he’s making on stock dividends alone is close to what his golf course salary was. “I have basically created a personal wealth management team of three — my wife, my four-year-old, and myself.” He says they run their life like a business. “Our dollars are our employees, and it’s the dollars’ job to make more employees through investments.”
I like it!
Jason says he’s also saving money on childcare costs because he works from home. “Less gas, no daycare expenses, more time to analyze stocks and the portfolio, more time to feel human again,” he tells me.
If he and his wife can continue to earn enough to cover expenses and grow their investment portfolio, “I do not see myself actively looking to work for someone else ever again.”
Ron, the trucking company CEO
Ron Nuckles is still hiring. Help this guy out!
We’ve all heard there is a trucking shortage, but Ron’s two companies focus on a particular segment of trucking, transporting petroleum. “We're continuously recruiting for Class A California Driver’s License with tanker and hazmat endorsements,” he says.
On the plus side, he finally found an excellent diesel mechanic. Yay!!
One lingering challenge has been finding a dispatcher. Ron hired someone shortly after we first spoke last summer. “I thought I had finally found the right one.” But then the new-hire didn’t show up for a shift. Ron says that’s like the quarterback not showing up for a game. “A few days later [she] wanted her job back, but at that point, even though we were desperate, we passed on her offer to return.”
Ron went back to the drawing board advertising for the job, and he’s finally found another candidate who seems to be working out. “It takes a special breed to do dispatching.”
The Soup Nazi — More Money for You!
I had so much fun interviewing actor Larry Thomas, aka “The Soup Nazi,” for a story on “Seinfeld” residuals. Back in the late ’90s, Larry was a bail bondsman taking acting classes at night, and his acting teacher had threatened to kick him out of the class if he didn’t land a role. It is such a great Hollywood story.
I posted our interview on YouTube in two parts, and they did okay for a while.
Then something happened. For reasons that aren’t clear, the videos have suddenly become very popular. As of this writing, the video where Larry explains how he landed the role on “Seinfeld” has 60,000 views, but the one where we discuss how little he made in salary and residuals from the show has over 800,000 views.
I asked Larry if he knew why the videos suddenly took off, but he has no idea. “That’s why I am getting a bunch of new subscribers I guess,” he laughed.
Even though he didn’t make more than $13,000 playing the most famous bit part in “Seinfeld” history, he continues to make a decent living doing public appearances and saying, “No soup for you!” on Cameo (he recently shaved off his mustache!).
A Dumb and Dumber that’s even Dumberer than I thought.
In September, I wrote that Wells Fargo was being pressured to pony-up the money it owes customers for all those fake accounts the bank created for them without their knowledge.
Over the last decade, Wells (no relation) has gone from being Warren Buffett’s favorite bank to one where the news media regularly deposits bad headlines into its PR account.
In response to my column, I heard from reader Colleen Egan, who told me an incredible story. She’s been receiving checks from Wells Fargo since March, checks made out to strangers who are “living” at her address.
She is not a Wells Fargo customer.
“I called Wells Fargo, concerned that someone was using my home address to commit fraud or steal my identity.”
Colleen says it took months to get someone’s attention at the bank, only to be told she needed to provide the full account numbers on the checks in order to figure out the fraud. But she didn’t know the account numbers; the checks coming in the mail only showed the last four digits. What about searching based on her address? “They can’t search by address, so they can’t remove my address or stop sending to my address,” she told me.
The bank told Colleen to return the checks as they came in, which she did. For months.
Welp, after she wrote me, I reached out to Wells Fargo, and they reached out to Colleen, and things seemed to be moving along.
But not lately.
Every few weeks, Colleen receives an email which says, “Thank you for your patience as we continue to research your complaint.”
She also received another check…
Up next: It’s not just men going to prison for white-collar crimes. Plus, are we still spending money in Afghanistan? And how’s my application coming along to be judge and jury when you sue your broker?