Publisher Description

Author Kurt Krauss considers himself one of the luckiest men on the face of the planet--and that luck has led him into numerous adventures and crazy times. In Let the Good Times Roll!, Krauss presents a series of funny situations he has found himself in over the past four decades. These thirty vignettes feature tales about his very successful business career, his beloved New York Yankees, and his assumption of the title "Imperial Potentate of New Year's Eve." He also describes various celebrity encounters he's had over the years with people such as Jack Nicholson, Lorne Michaels, John Belushi, James Taylor, Lou Rawls, Sir Paul McCartney, Warren Sapp, and Puff Daddy. Thanks to his family, friends, career, and retirement, Krauss has had lots of occasions to just let the good times roll--and now he wants to share them with the world. Entertaining and surprising, this memoir offers anecdotes from a good life well lived, telling stories of family, friends, and crazy times.

Excerpt from Book

One day during our honeymoon, we decided to visit Martha's Vineyard. It took about an hour to drive from Chatham to Woods Hole, and then another forty-five minutes for the ferry ride from Wood Hole to Martha's Vineyard. As I recall, it was a beautiful June day on the Cape: sunny, dry and temperatures in the 70s. We spent some time walking around in Edgartown and found an art gallery named Christina's. Inside we found some terrific art by an artist named Thomas Pradzynski, a Pole who studied and lived in Paris. He called himself an Urban Realist. We fell in love with his work and bought one piece on that first visit. Over the years, Pradzynski's reputation grew, as did his prices. But we continued to collect his work. Today, we have ten of his paintings. After the art gallery, we had lunch at a quaint little French restaurant. And after lunch, we decided to do what many Martha's Vineyard visitors do: rent Mopeds. We found a dealer and rented two scooters for the afternoon. What a time we had! We made a giant loop around the island and saw most all of the sights. The scenery was amazing and the ocean views were breathtaking. We rode for maybe two hours to the far western point of the island where we decided to take a rest. In the town of Aquinnah, there is a neat spot called the West Basin Boat Ramp. It's very quiet and secluded, so we decided to stop there for a mid-afternoon break. We parked the Mopeds, sat down on the retaining wall and dangled our feet in the water. Talk about heaven on earth. We sat there by ourselves for quite a while until our solitude was interrupted by the arrival of a noisy, old Willy's Jeep. There was no boat being trailed by the Jeep, but the driver backed straight down the boat ramp almost into the water. Then we got a big surprise. Who should climb out of the Jeep but John Belushi and James Taylor? This was at the Height of John Belushi's popularity: he'd been on Saturday Night Live for four years and Animal House had been released ten months earlier. Similarly, James Taylor was also at the peak of his popularity. He had released his hit single ?Up on the Roof? just one month earlier. We were impressed. We walked over to them and introduced ourselves. They tried to do the same, but we said ?Yeah. Yeah. We know who you are.' We asked them what they were doing at the boat ramp and JT said, ?We're getting salt water for a big clam bake party that we're hosting this evening.' They then proceeded to fill up three fifty-five gallon plastic garbage cans with salt water and manhandle them into the back of the Jeep. When they were through, they walked back over to us. ?James? John said, ?Have you ever ridden a Moped? ?No I never have; how about you? ?Nope? Then James said to us: ?Hey guys. Can we borrow your Mopeds and try them out for a while? Most of the time, I am sort of a ?throw caution to the wind? kinda guy. Seize the moment. Grab life by the throat and don't let go. But I also have exactly two risk-avoidance genes that exert themselves from time to time. This was one of those times. I looked Mr. Taylor right in the eyes and said, ?So what do we do if you don't bring them back? Without missing a beat, he looked me straight in the eyes and said, ?You take the fucking Jeep.' ?Right,? I said slapping myself on the forehead. ?I knew that!? Both John and James were looking at me like I was a mental cripple and waiting for a reply to their original question. ?OK guys,? I said, trying to muster as much dignity as I could, ?go ahead and take the Mopeds for a ride. As they were leaving, I became very confused. I knew for a fact that at that moment, I was the dumbest person on Martha's Vineyard and I was pretty sure that I was the dumbest person in not only Massachusetts but in all of New England. But the more I thought about my question, it began to dawn on me that this was much bigger than New England; even bigger than our country. I finally got to the point where I could picture myself as the dumbest man on the planet, and when offered the official title a few days later, I unflinchingly accepted it. I quietly held this title for many years, but was finally forced to relinquish it during the third 2016 Republican Presidential Debates. After John & James returned from their Moped ride they thanked us and said how much they appreciated our letting them try them out. I then said ?any chance we could get an invitation to the clam bake tonight? James Taylor responded by saying ?Uh, no!? Off they went with their salt water. Off we went with a life-long memory.

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