Who is Jordan Bleznick?

Hopefully that is a more important question than Where is Waldo?

I just turned 70 years old (the new 67)

I am a straight, white, Jewish male and a [Democrat].

As you can see, I have absolutely nothing going for me in today’s environment.

I have been divorced for 25 years and have never remarried. My ex-wife dated a woman and married her. Yes, I turned my ex-wife gay.

I’ve had a Chinese girlfriend for 7 years. Even though she has been In the US for 20 years, her English isn’t very good and my Chinese is even worse.  We argue a lot but most of the time we don’t know what we’re arguing about.

I have 3 adult sons in their 30’s. They’re still single; they ask me for dating advice. I tell them to talk to their mother since she’s the one with a wife. They all live in Las Vegas and are looking for a professional woman. My sons are certainly in the right spot for that.

I have no grandchildren or none that I know of.

Now for my background. I was born in Bellefonte, PA in 1955 and lived in State College until I was 12.  My father was a Spanish Literature professor at Penn State.  We moved to Cincinnati, Ohio in 1967 where my father became a department head at the University of Cincinnati (“UC”).  I attended Walnut Hills High School and then undergrad at UC. I attended law school at The Ohio State graduating in 1979. At 20, I was the second youngest student in my law school class. At the urging of my father’s friend, I went to the NYU Law school and received a Master’s degree in Tax law.

In 1980, I started practicing law in Columbus Ohio. I joined a 25-lawyer firm as a tax lawyer which back then was considered a full-service firm.  Their main client was a 40-year old Les Wexner. Les was opening Limited Stores at a furious pace and my firm did all of the leasing work.  Les was single and Jewish. He never invited me to his house for Passover or any other occasion.  I never met Jeffrey Epstein who spent a lot of time with Les in those days. Come to think of it, my firm never did any estate or tax planning for Les.

In November 1982, I moved to New York City and got married in a synagogue in Valley Stream, Long Island. The synagogue burned down a few weeks after the wedding.  I wish it had burned down before.

In 1983, I joined a small law firm in Manhattan that did “tax shelters”.  Its motto was the firm’s name “Mintz and Fraade”.  I left the firm in early 1984 to join a 35-lawyer  firm in Manhattan.  At the firm Holiday Party in 1985, the Senior Tax partner introduced me to a new client: Carl Icahn.  From 1985 until the demise of the firm in 2000, Carl and his companies were major clients of the firm.  From 2000 to 2002, I was a tax partner at DLA Piper. In early 2002, Carl asked me to be the tax lawyer for him and his firm. That gig lasted for 21 years (a total of 38 years with Icahn) until I retired in April 2023. I was one of the only  Icahn employees who ever voluntarily retired from Icahn. Carl and his wife threw me a wonderful party at their country club and gave me and a guest a golf trip to Scotland. But he warned me not to take business class.

I have been mostly retired since 2023 except for some board and consulting work. I have residences in NY (Long Island and Manhattan) and Boynton Beach.  I live in over 55 community although most people are over 70 except for my Chinese girlfriend. In my spare time (which is most of my time), I have traveled a lot.  First, I finished going to all 50 states. I saved the “best” for last: North Dakota. Now I’m visiting all seven continents.  Early in 2025, I took a cruise to Antarctica.  I have plans to go to Australia in early 2026 which will be my seventh continent.  I guess planets are next.

Besides a little work, I participate a few other activities. I have tried pickleball and golf. But  I’ve been sidelined because various injuries like drop-foot, golf and tennis elbow, breaking a finger falling backward on a train and crashing into a fence playing pickleball.  I don’t belong to a gym; I just go to physical therapy.

I also enjoy sporting events.  My last big game was seeing Ohio State winning the national football championship in Atlanta.

I’ve done a few stand-up comedy performances at Gotham Comedy Club in New York City.

A few months ago, I started taking a Chinese language course. I probably won’t learn much (especially the characters). But I can now figure out why my ex says certain things (everybody is a shi).

I also do some pro bono legal work for some friends and family.  I even helped the owner of the comedy club renegotiate a loan.  His (and my) best defense was that he is a deadbeat  ready to file for bankruptcy. Sometimes it pays to be poor.

Now that you know more about me, what interests you? [YouTube videos]

I’m considering the following proposed topics (nuggets):

1. What is the holding company structure and comparison to private equity funds and hedge funds?
2. Comparison of public and private companies
   1. C Corp vs. S Corp vs. LLC vs partnership
3. Discussion of deals I worked on with Icahn (TWA, Texaco, Casinos, XO, AutoPlus etc.)
4. Cash taxes vs book taxes and why does it matter
5. Buffett and Taxes
6. What is a tax shelter. Do they work?
7. Debt financing including sale leasebacks.
8. Corporate bankruptcies.
9. What is a short sale
10. The importance of present value
11. Financial guidance for retired people
12. Practical approach to personal investing.
13. My uneducated view of AI.
14. How to round numbers
15. The theory of offsetting errors when using excel.

The proposed topics don’t have to be business topics.  They could include further explanation of the personal history of Jordan Bleznick.

1. Dating and marriage. Should you marry your girlfriend
2.  
3. Children
4. Charitable donations
5. How easy is it to get a Chinese visa