We went to a wedding of two old high school friends this past weekend...it was a terrific wedding and great to see old friends...it was held at a corporate conference center on Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park, which actually dressed up quite nicely.

For those who don't know about Sand Hill Road, it remains the epicenter of the venture capital industry. The lead VC's who backed Yahoo, Google, eBay, Amazon, Sun Microsystems and countless others, all have their headquarters there.

Back in the go-go years, office space on Sand Hill Road was literally the most expensive in the entire country (remember, these are "woody walk-ups--unremarkable plain vanilla low-rises, many 1970's vintage). I read that at the height of the boom, annual rent for these offices reached about $110 per square foot, which at the time exceeded the highest price for the premiere office space in the best buildings in New York City.

Whenever I drive down Sand Hill Road, I think of the countless times I saw it as a kid, and how little it has changed physically. I am also reminded of a good description of the road that I read at the height of the internet boom--a place where young entrepreneurs drove, flapping their business plans out the car windows, and VC's stood at the side of the road, dumping buckets of cash into the backseats of the cars as they drove by.

*****

I heard again from my friend who is a Marine in Iraq...he sent a picture of him and a young guy from India who is a cook at their compound. The guy from India makes $500 per month, and as a side job, teaches Marines the best cuss words in Hindi.

*****

You may have already seen this letter from Iraq that has been making the rounds, but I think it is very good. Thanks to the Thoughtful Hawk for sending me this link.