Greek geek - 0xi

Leafing thru glossy Odyssey mag, I note my lord Jeffrey of Bozosia showered with praise.

Ever precise and desirous of saving my scribbling brethren excess goofs, I fire off a letter to the editrice:

"I have just been presented with my first copy of your handsome "Odyssey" magazine and must compliment all concerned on the calibre of writing and excellent production values.

It will definitely become a regular fixture in my magazine rack.

We Greeks (Jan/Feb issue, page 22): My eye was caught by Alex Kairis' piece and the famous Time magazine cover of my old employer, Jeff Bezos.

I worked with Amazon for a number of years including the period described by Mr Kairis. I shall send a copy to Jeff who, I know, will be delighted to have been included, albeit being not even a wee bit Greek himself.

No matter, I shall seize this opportunity to once again badger him about setting up amazon.gr and allowing me to convert the cottage at the bottom of San Luca into a bustling call centre. There should be no difficulty luring Jeff over to Kerkira for regular site inspections!

"Collapsing dot coms": It makes for an heroic story, that Jeff and the rest of us struggled manfully to keep our 'digital empire afloat amid the debris from the collapsing dot-coms', but it wasn't actually like that. Jeff has always warned against seeing Amazon as an instant source of cash and we were robust and ready enough to ride that market correction.

As for Jeff's inclusion (and he will be thrilled to be pictured with George Michael), not only is Jeff himself not Greek but nor is Mike Bezos, his stepfather whom he has always proclaimed as his 'real' father, hence taking his name. By one of those flukes so typical of the shrinking world syndrome, I met Mike via a good pal who now lives on Paxos and was a colleague in the oil business.

Anyway, Alex might like to check out this handy bio, where he will see that the Bezos name comes from Cuba. As I say, wonderful magazine, excellent articles, and I wish I could be there when Jeff receives his copy and lets out his famous roaring laugh. He's such a chameleon, it'll come as no surprise to him to have been adopted by the cradle of Democracy."

Back from the editorial suprema came the exact precise courteous note expected:

"To be honest, I've never been one hundred percent certain about Mr Bezos's ancestral background, although he has been widely adopted by the Greek media as being of Greek descent--something that had not been disputed until your message.

I've asked Alex, a competent and quite genial Greek journalist, to go back to check this out. Of course--and I say this tongue-in-cheek, in Shelley's words, we are all Greeks.

Thank you for writing to Odyssey, and for saying how much you've enjoyed it."

Video: And here's a video that uncannily captures exactly how it was in those adventurous pioneering days.