Gimme some skin

The Enron trial reached its most dramatic phase today with the start of testimony of former Chief Financial Officer Andrew Fastow, who knows where all the bodies were buried because he buried them himself. The Post put the AP story up a while ago.

Which is weird, because the Post sent its own business columnist, Al Lewis, to Houston at the start of the trial, and was he ever excited. With a column that began, "I shook hands with Ken Lay and Jeffrey Skilling today," and a blog post headed, "Waiting in line for a chance at history" ("Today, I’m catching a 3 p.m. flight to Houston in hopes of catching a courtroom seat at the Enron trial"), Al was just starting to get his portentousness cranked up.

So why, at the most critical juncture of the trial, is he now cooling his heels in Denver? His column today, while interesting (it's about life insurance companies charging outrageous premiums to people who plan to visit Israel), is not exactly "a chance at history."

Oh, and I can't find anything in the News about the trial since a February 3 AP story.

Who cares?

Well, apparently not the News. But what really caught my eye (and dragged it 15 feet, to quote the sainted Emo) was a phrase in the AP's story today. Something Fastow said:

Enron's board, which included Skilling and Lay, approved his pay for the deals. Fastow said Skilling told the board that Fastow invested $1 million of his own, and "He should get profits because he's got skin in the game."

Wasn't hard to find the phrase "skin in the game" defined (obvious in context anyway), but how did Warren Buffett come up with it? Is it a particular hunk of skin? Is it a particular hunk of Warren's skin? Do I want to keep going with this?

No.