Experience you can trust

The expanded philanthropy press has been busy this last week tracking the activities of our newest power couple, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, better known as Biffett. Several headlines reported on the impending environmental crackdown in Washington that may end Biffett Jr.'s semi-legal Porsche supercar 959 midnight jaunts. According to one close associate, "What he really wants is his own racing track, but I'm not sure Melinda would go for that."

Out from behind the wheel, Biffett Jr. got a multi-lingual work out recently "in a promotional film produced by [Israel's] Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor. In the film, Gates praises 'Israel's unique human capital' in four languages -- English, French, Chinese and Spanish." Too soon to say whether such international outreach will have an influence on the "nearly two-thirds of Americans [who] believe that the next Bill Gates will come from China, Japan or India."

Back in Iowa, reports have begun to surface that in the fall of 2005 Biffett donated $1 million to introduce bridge to the nation's schools. John Gustafason, a retired doctor who occasionally plays against Biffett Sr., is not surprised that successful people like Biffett are bridge fanatics. "It's a good mental challenge, and it's a competitive outlet. [Plus] you always have a partner, so you can blame all the errors on that person."

With the recent closure of the magazine FHM, many are asking "Could it be that the [men's] magazine genre is keeling over on its way to middle age?" In an apparent attempt to woe older readers, the January cover of industry-leading Maxim features Biffett Sr.'s "ways to become mega-rich.” Elsewhere, the recently published Tao of Warren Buffett features collection of Biffett Sr. truisms like, "you can't produce a baby in one month by getting nine women pregnant."

Unfortunately, not everybody seems to love Biffett. Some conservatives are decrying Biffett Sr.'s pledge of $6 billion to the foundations of his late wife and children as "destined to promote radical environmentalism and population control, abortion, embryonic stem cell research and perhaps other causes." And while a few others may grumble Biffett is old news, most Americans still turn to them for trusted advice on how to turn one dollar into one billion dollars.

Water cooler fun fact: Biffett Sr. "bought a small farm at age 14 with savings from delivering newspapers."