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Frequently asked questions.

What is Trees?

It's my 37-year-long passion project to find, interview, and host gatherings for people who remind me of my journalist dad's many extraordinary friends.

Dad, in Central Park, near his Upper West Side New York City apartment, 2001.

Why do you call it Trees?

In 1980, 11-year-old me decided dad's friends needed a codename: 'trees'. Eventually, it became my word for people who reminded me of them. Somehow, it still is.

What makes trees extraordinary?

Dad's answer would be, 'above-average word smarts and self-awareness; below-average performativeness and overconfidence.’

Phyllis Méras, the quintessential tree.

Trees do share those four tendencies. But they also share a fifth I've never been able to define in words. You can only grasp it after spending time listening to trees talk out loud.

Below are a handful of trees talking out loud, telling 'If not for...' stories about the people who helped make them who they are.

Note: The first story is short.

https://trees-audio.s3.us-west-004.backblazeb2.com/Robert.mp3

Media consultant and photographer Robert Ouimet.

Recorded at his studio in Vancouver.

https://trees-audio.s3.us-west-004.backblazeb2.com/arlene_240.mp4

Author, photographer, and symphonic clarinetist Arlene Alda.

Recorded at her and her husband Alan's New York City apartment.

https://trees-audio.s3.us-west-004.backblazeb2.com/christoph_240.mp4

Artist, illustrator, author, and New Yorker cover maker Christoph Niemann.

Recorded at his studio in Berlin.

https://trees-audio.s3.us-west-004.backblazeb2.com/Ep3+-+David_Plotz_full_v3_No_Music.mp3

Host of the Slate Political Gabfest and CEO of CityCast David Plotz.

Recorded at his home in Washington, D.C.

What kinds of gatherings do you organize?

Everything from 2-tree neighborhood lunches...

Susan and Suzanne, both first-time novelists, after a hot dog lunch at Biker Jim's in Denver.

...to 3-day, 20-tree, private-chef-equipped destination retreats...

Katie, a set designer, and Eugene, a comedian and actor; knight in tarnished armor and Peggy, a bookseller; vegetarian pigs; and chef Cali; together to discuss their passion projects, at Temple Guiting Manor in the English Cotswolds.

...to 3-tree, topical telephone conversations.

https://trees-audio.s3.us-west-004.backblazeb2.com/joel-jonathan-paul_240.mp3

Joel Newton, Jonathan Bernstein, and Paul Carlon , three artists curious about the philosophical aspects of creativity, tackling two questions: 'What makes something elegant?' and 'Is it important to you to make things that are elegant?'

Recorded over the air.

Where do you organize in-person gatherings?

In New York City; Washington, DC; Denver; and the occasional spot requiring air travel.

What does it cost to participate?

If a gathering has associated costs (a restaurant bill or museum exhibit tickets, for example), the attendees cover them. Otherwise, gatherings are free.

Why free?

This is my hobby.

Note: Since the pandemic subsided, the number of gatherings has grown quite a bit. And I'll likely need to hire a few people. To pay for their salaries and benefits, I'll eventually have to implement a membership fee. That said, anyone who attends a gathering before the fee goes into effect will never be asked to pay it.

In England's Peak District.

How do you put together invitation lists for gatherings?

I look for trees who —

1) have matching internalized identities (Chicagophiles, Phở nuts, one-person graphic design agency owners, outdoorsy septugenarians, learners of Castillian Spanish, night owls), and

2) are at similar waypoints along their respective paths.

Dad after his graduation from Columbia University Journalism School, 1960.

What's the story behind all of this?

My dad hosted big dim sum brunches, 2,546 Saturdays in a row, between 1966 and 2015.

He and my mom split up in 1980, when I was eleven, and dad got custody on the weekends. So he started bringing me with him to the brunches. I loved them. I'd never spent time around grown-ups who got along that well or laughed that much. Also, pork buns.

Nom Wah, where I first tagged along. Dad's favorite venue during the late seventies and early eighties.

When I arrived at college for my freshman year, in 1986, I started trying to organize gatherings for people who reminded me of them. I've been at it ever since.

My first gatherings were simple dinners in the cellar dining room of Cornell's Sage Hall.

Who are you?

I'm Ted Pearlman.

With my dad and his brother, Boris, a radiologist. At Glen Wild Lake, New Jersey, 2004.

I’m married to Allison, an architect. We live in Denver, Colorado, with our ridiculous twelfth-grader, Oscar, and our couch potato Newfoundland dog, Mabel.

Little Oscar and his first Newfoundland, Tatou, were a bit famous on Youtube for entertaining each other.

I have a BA in Music (Cornell University ’90). Until 2012, I worked at technology companies, including Sony and IBM. From 2012 to 2020, I helped a small cadre of technology CEOs find specialists to tackle acute business challenges.

One of my clients, CEO Phil Caravaggio, collaborating with Rodrigo Corral on the book design for Ray Dalio's New York Times bestseller, 'Principles.'

I think I know a tree. Can I send them your way?

Please do!

A corkscrew willow in Amstelpark, a short walk from Wan Shun, dad's favorite place to gather folks for Chinese food in Amsterdam.

Does Trees have a social media component?

No.

Who created the illustration at the top of the page, under the logo?

The crazy-talented Howell Golson.

Can you tell me more about your dad?

See the section below.

On his shoulders in Berlin's Grunewald, 1969.

Sy Pearlman, 1930–2015.

My dad, Sy, and his dad, Ted, had the same sense of humor. During the weekend and after school, working together in the family’s Brooklyn candy store, dad and Ted spent much of the time trying to make each other laugh. In the evening, they’d listen to radio comedy variety shows like Texaco Star Theater.

Dad, Washington, 1961.

When Sy was 14, Ted died of leukemia.

Instead of turning inward or rebelling, Dad coped with the loss by becoming doubly obsessed with making people laugh. He started writing comedy skits with his high school friends, modeled on the ones he heard on the radio.

Samuel J. Tilden High School, Brooklyn.

In 1949, a year after high school, dad’s favorite comedian, Sid Caesar, got his first television show, the Admiral Broadway Review. By the time the first episode ended, dad had figured out what he wanted to do with his life. He was going to be a television comedy writer.

The next day, while working alongside his mom at the store, dad announced his plan —

“I’m going to be a comedy writer for Sid Caesar’s Admiral Broadway Review.”

She was not amused.

Anna, dad’s mom. Date and circumstances unknown.

Dad, however, was dead serious. He began to ply his craft by writing stand-up bits during the week and heading to the Catskills on the weekends (four hours each way, via subway, bus, and hitchhike) to hawk them to Borscht Belt comedians.

Fort Lee High School, next to the New Jersey side of the George Washington Bridge. Dad hitched rides to the Catskills from the sidewalk out front. Weirdly, in 1986, I ended up graduating from there.

He was well on his way to a career as a television comedy writer. But the Korean War and the draft derailed him. Dad wanted to avoid combat at all costs, so he put his aspirations on hold and enlisted. With a plan.

Growing up in the rough, ethnically divided neighborhoods of post-Depression Brooklyn, and being the man of the house from age 14, he became exceptionally street smart. He could quickly assess people and their motivations, avoid pickpockets, trade favors, and talk himself out of any pickle.

Looking south over the Upper West Side of Manhattan, 1951.

He was also conversant in Russian, which his parents had spoken at home when he was small.

All of this gave dad the idea to apply to the US Army Language School (now called the Defense Language Institute) in Monterey, California. This, he schemed, would enable him to finally become fluent in Russian, meet cute girls on the beach, and groom himself for a commission as an Army intelligence officer, based in Europe, in charge of recruiting and handling Soviet spies, a safe 4000+ miles from armed combat.

13 years later, after his stint in the Army, a masters degree in Russian studies from NYU, another in journalism from Columbia, and a bunch of positions at small city papers, he landed his dream job as an editor for The New York Times.

New York Times building, 1909.

Right after he got to The Times, however, an old friend from his days inside the Borscht Belt got hired to write for Get Smart, a TV comedy about a bumbling secret agent.

It seemed like some kind of omen to dad, and, for a few weeks, he contemplated sacrificing his career as a journalist to follow his friend out to Hollywood. For various reasons, it didn't happen.

Created by Mel Brooks, arguably Sid Caesar’s most important writer, and Buck Henry.

Funny enough, dad did eventually become a bonafide TV comedy writer (while still somehow remaining a serious journalist) when Reuven Frank, the President of NBC News, recruited him to join Weekend.

It was the first sardonic, long-form news show on network television, running once a month, in Saturday Night Live’s time slot, when SNL was taking the week off.

An article about the show (and dad) from TV Guide.

Below is an excerpt from an episode. Dad co-wrote the script. Still great (including the advertisements), despite the pops, clicks, and jitters.

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https://trees-audio.s3.us-west-004.backblazeb2.com/joel-jonathan-paul_240.mp3

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