The young grass of climbing out terrace and drilling out the top shed a whole winter tired and stretched the body cheerily.

A few years ago, we started this kind of "favor war" where one of us would do something kind for the other, such as cleaning up the driveway or building a shed, and next time the other would try to top it with another favor.

When he was appointed to the top job four years earlier, o 'neal, the first African-American to run a Wall Street firm, had pledged to shed the bank's conservative image.