Her face became flushed as she declared "Not ALL women are goldiggers.. and youve got gay men who do that too.."

Hello. I didnt say that. Apparently I had struck a rich nerve (so to speak.. heheheh) when I mentioned I'd been reading up on hacking techniques, and said the techniques used to infiltrate firewalls, web sites and networks seemed AWFULLY similiar to techniques used by women (okay some women.. and some men too) to identify if someone had money, and ways to get at it.

Yeah, I keep finding its an AWFULLY touchy subject in general.

While reading, it had brought to mind the day when the dot-com wealthy founders of a former client came to New York for a meeting with us.

The place was abuzz as all the women were in a dither in anticipation of meeting real honest-to-goodness dot-com millionaires. Near billionaires, really. (This was before The Crash.. they are mere multi-millionaires now...).

I swear, you wouldve thought these were actually royalty by the way folk in the studio were dressed and primped for the day. Not obviously dressy, but definitely not casual.

To get it out of the way, the guys themselves turned out to look like ordinary schlubs, rumpled dress shirt and a hawaiian shirt, both wearing jeans, but The Beau way back when in Chicago had taught me a sure fire technique on how to sniff out quiet money.

As Spike Lee put it in those Nike commercials ...."Its the shoes, Its gotta be the shoes."

Their shoes were hand-made, well buffed and of soft leather. And because I was looking for it, knew they cost more than Ive blown on a wardrobe in the last 3, no FIVE years.

But Im an amateur. The PROFESSIONALS who swept in as the guys entourage, the PR flacks and sales were themselves royalty.

Manhattan Royalty.

Royalty of manhattan lunching legend, the NY Post gossip columns and Hamptons Polo get togethers.

I swear, my jaw was on the floor as these denizens of the Upper East Side, Connecticut and the Hamptons had descended from up on high, kissing ass. This meant these guys were IMPORTANT.

Wow.

You dont miss A Lunch, A Facial or A Society Do for just anybody.

These Manhattan femmes of cyn's NY wet dreams (JOKE JOKE, heheheh), had long identified the exact worth of these guys and were expertly buffing them, forming a phalanx and controlling everything happening.

These guys thought they were in charge.

They had been lunched, schmoozed and hacked so expertly, I doubt they even felt it.

I think I stared at these expensively dressed, expensively made up and expensively smelling creatures all during the meeting.

They hardly noticed me, black and sloppily dressed, even though I was the one who had to make everything hook together.

No, strike that - they turned their laser-like attention to me when the guys were talking to me during the meeting and joking with me afterward.

It sure felt like a firewall port scan.

Heh. as I was only wearing Shoes from Payless, they quickly ignored me when the spotlight fell away. :-)

The memory of that day was still sharp in my mind as she continued about a rich guy who had been wining and dining her ..."..and he said 'You were just leading me on'... Can you BELIEVE that??"

I kept my thoughts to myself, as Ive learned recently its a touchy subject that many dont want to admit to.

When my time comes, there shall be no convertibles and Im gonna have my shoes made at Payless.....

Ok, mebbe at the Prada outlet store in Milan.