The Free Lunch Bunch

About the Author

Bruce "Mr. Mellow" Brown grew up in ... shall we just say he grew up. For four years he proudly served our country during the Vietnam era as a Corpsman in the Navy where everyday was a holiday and every meal a feast. Then he got his BA in Economics. For a while, poker was his sole source of income, even working a few months as a cardroom, shill-like prop or "host."

Subsequently, he earned a fellowship to, and graduated from, USC's MBA program. Working in the stuff shirt and tie economy, he assisted small business owners with SBA loan applications, through HEW was a health center consultant and was a chief medical group administrator.

Eventually, he started his own businesses--a video games company, and he ended in real estate. Throughout his life he played poker a few times a week at night, and he had 41 years of profitably playing what he viewed as a side hustle. His other jobs were human test subject, strawberry farm, roadside sales, park maintenance worker, Dodgers' vendor and lab tech.

Happily divorced, his marriage produced two fine young men who by job diaspora are beyond their childhood home in Manhattan Beach, CA. End of story.