JACK BE NIMBLE: Over the years, I was lucky to share a few drinks with Jack Cohan. I wish now that I had shared a few more. It was the mid-1980s. More oil had just been discovered off our coast than anywhere in the United States except in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska. Exxon was eager to get in the game. As Santa Barbara’s senior deputy counsel for energy projects, it was Jack’s job to lead the county’s charge against Exxon.
And unlike many who have since worked in that office, Cohan was not averse to talking to reporters. In fact, he enjoyed it. To paraphrase a line from the Fat Man in The Maltese Falcon, people who don’t like to talkdon’t know when to shut up. Jack always knew when to shut up.
If you’re going to have a “Jack and the Beanstalk” moment, it’s a good idea to bring along someone actually named Jack.