This Side of Fifty

January 2012: Health & Fitness Letter

2012-01-29T19:33:00.003-06:00

January 24: Blogger, the host of my This Side of Fiftyblog, provides statistics on the number of hits by day, week, month, and alltime. It provides the top pages views ineach of those categories. I learned justthere were over fifty hits to my few of my past Health and Fitnessletters. While this is not even close tobeing viral, I do not recall seeing the Annual Health and Fitness postings evergetting any hits. It made me wonderwhy? It made me wonder why now? Being that we are nearing the end of January,this could be because people are struggling with keeping to their dietaryresolutions and looking for inspiration and tips on how to stick to theirregimen.

No matter whatthe reason, seeing hits to these postings made me realize I have not written aHealth and Fitness letter since July of 2010. I basically skipped 2011. Thereis a good reason for that. I was nothappy with either my health or fitness. The back-slide that I reported in 2010 continued through 2011. In fact,it continued until just this month. Iwas not happy that I had only logged 1,000 outdoor miles last year. That was the lowest mileage I had loggedsince 2003. I was not happy that I grewa pant size or two since the last Health and Fitness letter. I was really down on myself. As there was nothing good to report, I didnot want to write a preaching but not practicing letter. I did not particularly want to pen a whinyletter. So, I just skipped it.

Yet, I amwriting a Health and Fitness letter now. Why? What will I writeabout? Stasis? That would be equally boring.

I decided towrite a Health and Fitness letter because I am recommitting to the quest Ibegan in 2006. It was a resolution, adecision basically, I made late last year. I am a month into it and I feel better for sticking to it for 24 daysfor two reasons. First, I am just happyto have kept to it for 24 days and thus it was not a false start. Most false starts last about a day. Second, I physically feel better for eatingright and exercising every day. I knewthis to be true, it was simply difficult to get out of my own way to, as Nikesays, "Just Do It!" ThisHealth and Fitness letter is about getting started and launching theinitiative.

The words ofMark Twain always come to me when I think about false starts. He said, "Quitting smoking is easy. I've done it a thousand times." There are a lot of people who suffer silentlyfrom the string of false starts. Whenthe string gets longer, we tend to beat ourselves up. We see others that seem to be above thesekinds of tribulations and we wonder what is wrong with us. The longer the string becomes, the morelikely we are to give up and accept that being overweight, addicted to smoking,and any other habit we are trying to break is simply our lot in life.

My belief is tonever ever give up. It is the mandate ofWinston Churchill and was the motto of my late father in-law, HaroldMardoian. Here are some quotes on why weshould never give up on what we want:

Never, never, nevergive up! ~ Winston Churchill
Our greatest glory isnot in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
Don't be discouraged. It's often the last key in the bunch that opens the lock. ~ Anonymous
Never give up on whatyou really want to do. The person with big dreams is more powerful than onewith all the facts. ~ Anonymous

January 26: There are many tips, tricks, methods,activities, and mindsets one could take to initiate and achieve a lifestylechange. There is no right way. The right way is the way that works. The right way is the way that works foryou. Look at them all. Try them all. Pick the ones that resonate bestand ride it for as long as you can. Maybe the "never give up" quotes listed above are all youneed. Perhaps it is the advice from Dr. Mehmet Oz. He provides the following bits ofadvice:

Don't beat yourself up
Write it down
Declare it publicly
Arrange yourenvironment to help
Track your progress
You are not planning tofail, you are failing to plan. It is keyto find an eating style that is both healthy and something you can follow.
Eating in reverse iskey (see the triangle figures). Eat yourbiggest meal for breakfast. Lunch shouldbe smaller than breakfast. Dinner shouldbe smaller than lunch.
Snacking is good if itis healthy and in controlled portions.
Never give up on whatyou really want to do. The person with big dreams is more powerful than onewith all the facts.

I really believein "eating in reverse comment." I heard it once from a Colgate colleague from France that I met onlyonce. You need the fuel to work and get throughthe day, not to sleep. Also, I amthoroughly convinced that the lighter your dinner and not eating after 8 pmmakes for a much better night's sleep.

I also believein tracking progress. I only do wellwhen I am recording my weight every morning and evening. The scale tells the truth. I am real good at justifying veering off thedietary path with any number of inane rationalizations. The scale demolishes those myths by reportingthe reality of what happens when I take in many more calories than Iexpend. For me the scale takes all theBS out of the equation.

I am not so hoton the good Doctor's advice to plan better. But, this is just me. It may beperfect advice for others. There reasonI say this because I am great at planning. My problem is that I am a much better at planning than implementing andexecuting the plan. I know what todo. I have known what to do for a verylong time that "Knowing never equals doing."

January 27: I clearly am making this too difficult. It really does not have to be verycomplicated. All you have to do is watchTV. I just saw a commercial on TV. It began with a simple question, "Whereexactly is your road to happiness?" It continued with "On a Beach? On a mountain? Or wherever youare." It had my curiosity. What were they selling? A path to self-fulfillment? I wanted to know. I had to know. Given I was working on this letter, it seemedto fit right in. "The first step onthat road may well be..." Pleasetell me. If have to know. I have to incorporate it into my letter. The answer? "The first step on that road may well be... a bowl ofsoup." Of course, what else did Iexpect in a television advertisement? Thiswas an advertisement for Campbell’s Soup. The first step on that road may well have been... a bright yellowCamaro, a membership to Bally Fitness, or perhaps a new suit from Men'sWarehouse ("you're going to like the way you look"). Actually, all you have to do is by a roll ofMentos and you can make yourself and everyone around you happy.

All kiddingaside, there was not a first step on this particular version of my road tohappiness. There were, in fact, severalsteps or motivations.

First andforemost is health. I want to live aquality life and be as self-sufficient as possible as long as possible. I do not want to be a burden on others. I do not want to ever have to live in anykind of assisted living or full care facility, if I can help it. The only way to do that is to take care ofmyself right now. This means eatingright and exercising. Eating right isfollowing the Dr. Dean Ornish plan of eating whole grains, fruits, andvegetables until you are full. Otherfoods like non-fat dairy should be consumed in moderation. Sugars, alcohol, and meats should be avoided. A very good synopsis of the Ornish dietis found on this Web-MDlink.

Exercising is all about getting myself back onthe bike. I biked so little last yearbecause I had a little knee issue from August to December of last year. I was convinced that I would needsurgery. I was actually limping aroundand very tentative on stairs. My sister Nancy said that if I did need to dosurgery, the best thing I could was to prepare for a quicker recovery by losingweight and strengthening the muscles around the knee. The best exercise for that is the sameexercise that doctors prescribe post surgery: bicycling.

I was tentativeto get back on the bike. But, this monthI figured I will try it. The worst thatcould happen is my knee could hurt worse and that would hasten my trip to an orthopedicspecialist. Beginning January 1, Istarted up again on the stationary bicycle in the basement. I began with a very light level ofresistance. Guess what? My knee feels much better. The creaks and aches are not entirely gone,but it is much better. There is nodiscernable limp most days and I am not tentative on stairs. Cool. I am even back to the resistance levels I had been using before thisinjury. I recently went for an annualcheck-up. My physician, Dr. MarkRudberg, said to continue the bicycling and does not recommend seeing anorthopedic specialist at this time. Double cool.

The second stepor motivation might sound vain (heck this whole letter probably soundsvain). For me getting lean is matter ofself-esteem. I have been one unhappy SOBthese past two years. I have beatenmyself up pretty good for this back-slide and the subsequent inability to getit back under control. That unhappinesswas impossible to keep inside. Ittranslated into a surliness that was not pleasant to be around. My wife commented just this morning I am muchhappier because I am back on the right road to health and fitness. Eating right and exercising has led to a tenpound weight reduction but the weight off of my mind is probably ten timesthat. This is a very strong motivationto continue.

Related to thisself-esteem motivation is how others perceive me. As a management consultant, I have to sell toget business. I have to sell mycapabilities and my personality. I haveto feel good about myself to put my most positive foot forward. The better I like what I see in the mirror,the better I feel about myself. Also,there is the reality of first impressions. Do I really want my first impression to be old and fat? That is hardly a first positive first step ina sales process. I cannot do much aboutmy age (don't even think of suggesting that I dye my hair). In fact, I have no problem selling age andexperience. But, if I do not appearactive and energetic, looking instead overweight and lethargic, I am no oneanybody would want to hire. I cancertainly do something about the looking lean and energetic... get lean and beenergetic. That is my intention.

I often refer toand even make fun of my good friend and fellow musician Ara Topouzian. I have to give Ara some inspirational creditfor this latest re-start of my quest for health, fitness, and longevity. Ara shares some of the same challenges I dowith regard to the battle of rotundity.

In November, Arawas here for a gig. We were to play aconcert of Armenian folk and classical music for a 50^th birthdayparty in Chicago. We had a singer withus with whom we had not worked playing a repertoire that was a bit outside ournormal dance music. We had a lot ofpracticing to do. Ara came early and wespent some time. I was impressed that hehad started a healthier eating habit. Iwas double impressed at how dedicated he was to it. This also motivated me.

Ara and I sharesomething else in this regard. His twobrothers and his father are lean and lead very healthy active lifestyles. My Dad, my Uncle Buddy, Cousin David, and myson Aram are in that same boat. I amalways talking about, at least to myself, “letting my inner Gavoor out.” By this I mean, emulating the health andfitness lifestyle of the other Gavoor men I know. I am sure Ara feels he is letting his innerTopouzian out.

January 29: I just saw a quote via Twitter. It was from Jim Rohn. It is the perfect quote to finish thisletter with. It reminded me of a quotethat I used in my January 2008 letter, so I am including that as well.

Discipline is thebridge between goals and accomplishment. ~ Jim Rohn
Goals are dreams with deadlines.~ Barbara Scharf Hunt

Yes, this iswhat anyone embarking on such a journey needs: Dreams with deadlines and the discipline to make the dream happen. I would love to get back to writing theAnnual Health and Fitness letter again in either June or July. I would love to have good things to report.

Wish me luck!

Hrant Dink: Five Years Later

2012-01-20T21:21:00.000-06:00

There were marches in Turkey today. Thousands of people took to the streets to commemorate the five year anniversary of the assassination of the renowned Turkish Armenian journalist Hrant Dink. The turnout was impressively large for more than just the passing of five years. Just this past week or so, the verdicts were handed down in the trials on those accused of killing Dink. It was largely known, or strongly assumed, that the assassination of the Dink was a conspiracy of ultra nationalists. Turkey is the kind of country where the distinction between ultra-nationalists and government is fuzzy.

The young man, Ogun Samast, who gunned down Dink on the streets outside of the offices of Dink's Agos newspaper was sentenced to 22 years in prison. The fellow who incited Samast to commit the crime got life in prison. Two other men each received sentences of 12 years. Sixteen others received light to no sentences. What has caused most of the outrage is that all 19 of accused were acquitted of being a part of a conspiracy.

“Issuing verdicts when the judicial investigation has established so little was already unacceptable but the court’s decisions are absolutely scandalous,” said Reporters Without Borders. “By portraying this murder as the work of a small group of fanatics, the judicial authorities have reflexively protected the state, whose role in this murder has nonetheless been demonstrated by all the independent investigations."

With this verdict, the Turkish state continues its policy of hatred against Armenians. They continue deny the Genocide of 1915, their discrimination of the few Armenians who have lived in Turkey since, and, of course, the murder of Hrant Dink and the trial of those accused of conspiring his assassination. They are a paranoid obstinate lot that believes the time is their only ally in settling "the Armenian question."

It is heartening, though, to see the number of Turks who are also outraged by this. The outrage shown in Istanbul today may be beyond my own outrage. It does my heart good to see this. All Turks do not hate Armenians. Many, like those who protested today look, as I do, to the similarities between Turks and Armenians not the difference. The government, their actions and policies regarding Armenians and other minorities, has been the problem since at least 1890.

There have always been Turks that feel as I do that we are more like cousins then enemies. The culture, the foods, the music, and even some of the language overlap. But, we cannot celebrate these things on a large scale until the Turkish Government just gets out its own way and acknowledges exactly what happened. In my one and only trip to Istanbul, half the people looked Armenian to me.

In 1915, a million and a half Armenians were killed in the Genocide. Yet, the killing of one more, Hrant Dink, has done as much to bring the topic to the forefront in Turkey than anything we may have done in the diaspora. A few days ago I referred to Hrant Dink as the Martin Luther King of Turkey in my previous blog posting. I was hesitant to do it because I was not sure if it was the right comparison. I pondered and did it anyway. After today's demonstrations in Turkey, I believe I am absolutely correct. I hope Hrant Dink's death brings about the transformation in Turkey he had so strongly advocated for in this life.

Reflections: Martin Luther King Day

2012-01-17T01:08:00.000-06:00

It is the closing hour of Martin Luther King Day. I have not had a chance to reflect on the life, work, message, and importance of Dr. King until now. I thought I would listen to his most famous speech and reflect on the great man in my daily writing.

I like to listen to his "I Have a Dream" speech on this day. It is not long. It is only about sixteen minutes long but one of the most significant speeches that I have ever heard. It is something I encourage everyone to listen to on this day. It helps us realize why we have a national holiday in this country to honor this man who never held public office. In a time when we no longer honor Washington and Lincoln’s birthdays, but rather lump them all together in President’s Day, we have a national holiday to honor this man who made us realize the injustices and prejudices that were and to a degree still are an embarrassment to this great nation.

The speech was given on August 28, 1963. It was the keynote speech of the March on Washington, DC. I was only ten at the time. It was almost three months before the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. I do not remember the speech at all from that time but more after April 4, 1968 when Dr. King was assassinated in Memphis when, at fifteen, I could better understand the impact and meaning of the words.

In school, back in 1963, we learned that Lincoln freed the slaves. In my early naivete, I assumed that they were free and that was it. End of story. Slavery was evil but with the Emancipation Proclamation, everything was then set right and everyone lived happily ever after. I learned, however, that history is rarely that simple. It is way more complicated. My views changed gradually as I learned about carpetbaggers, sharecropping, the Ku Klax Klan, and the Jim Crow laws. At first, when I learned about “separate but equal,” I focused on the equal part more than the separate part. I liked to believe in our country and the noble values extolled in The Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. The glass was always half full for me back then. As I grew older, I learned that the separate part was quite definitive. The separate part was ruled with an iron fist. I came to learn that the equal part was anything but.

I remember a lot of the adults around me not thinking much of the civil rights movement and the leaders of this movement. Regarding Dr. King, most did not care for him. They believed what we now know is the propaganda clandestinely put forth by J. Edgar Hoover. Most were sons and daughters of immigrants whose parents escaped hardships, discrimination, and worse to come to this country because of all the noble ideas that enamored me as a school boy. By 1968, their views of Dr. King made no sense to me especially since no one else stated those noble and admirable American ideals as well as Martin Luther King did on that August day in Washington.

I filter all of this through my Armenian soul as well. I do it for a few reasons. First, I cannot help it. It is who I am. Second, we are people who suffered in another country and can relate to the movement led by and the message of Martin Luther King. My cousin Jason Ohanian sent me a tweet earlier today:

Not sure about you, but today always makes me think about our Armenian ancestors' struggles.

I do believe this is the second time in one week that cousin Jason provided a blog topic for me. Thanks again cuz!

Third, Hrant Dink was assassinated on the streets of Istanbul on January 19, 2007. He was gunned down because he was a beacon, leader, and voice as a citizen of Turkey who advocated that Turkey acknowledge their past injustices and embrace the Armenians still in Turkey and treat them as full equals. Hrant Dink indeed had a dream. He had the same dream as Martin Luther King. Martin Luther King Day was January 15th in 2007. When Hrant Dink was killed four days later, I remember thinking he is and should be viewed as a Martin Luther King of Turkey. Maybe they will have a national holiday in Turkey one day in honor for Hrant Dink.

I think I will listen to Dr. King’s speech one more time...

Stop Being Your Own Worst Enemy

2012-01-13T20:32:00.001-06:00

Yesterday, I set out to write a piece about it being mid-January and how unhappy I was with my progress against my various New Year’s resolutions. I tend get quite ambitious when it comes to resolutions. Let me rephrase that, I am quite ambitious and optimistic in the setting of the resolutions. This year was no different. I could sum up all my resolutions in one resolution: Significantly improve in every aspect of my life. Yes, this includes weight, health, music, writing, business, teaching, etc.

I do not know if most people are so naively ambitious. My guess is not. I think people pick one resolution. As I have blogged on New Year's resolutions before, losing weight and quitting smoking is what most folks focus on. We are quite excited to set and pronounce our resolutions. Around this time in the New Year, we get frustrated as we realized “Dang, it is hard to keep true to these resolutions.” Around this time is when people lose their initial exuberance, the temptations to behave habitually becomes quite strong, and the resolutions lose their resolve.

I was writing about this yesterday. I fully intended to have posted on the subject. I did not. My frustration with not making enough progress was multiplied by my frustration with the whiny drivel I had written. Yuck. No one wants to read a pile of wimpy pathetic lamentations. Heck, Ara Topouzian is amazed anyone ever reads my blogs. If I had posted that pile of dung, he would have had a field day. I dropped the topic figuring I just could not get the right perspective from which to write the piece.

Yesterday evening, I was doing some other work. On a break, I checked my twitter and saw a post from my cousin Jason Ohanian:

Ever feel like you are your own worst enemy? I know I am, but try to work through it and stay positive anyway.

Jason’s words resonated. Here was my angle! Besides the angle, it was also a diagnosis of why I was unhappy and frustrated. Everyone is their own worst enemy. They are hardest on themselves. I did not realize how pervasive this was until I managed people. Most companies have a performance review process where people rate themselves against their objectives for the past year. I found that most people, like 85% or more, were very tough in rating themselves. The other 15% were simply delusional. Until I saw this, I did not realize how tough I was on myself.

I responded to Jason. Here is the remainder of the twitter exchange.

me Dang... it might be a cousin thing. I was feeling exactly this earlier today!
Jason: Maybe its an Armenian thing? I also think most folks are their own worst enemies.
me: you are absolutely correct... most people are way too hard on themselves.

The nature of resolutions is to change a habit that is well entrenched. The habit or pattern of behaviors did not develop overnight or in the blink of an eye. Yet, we believe that they can be overcome quickly and forthrightly. I made a decision. I flipped the switch. I am resolved. Problem solved. Of course, we learn from experience that it is not that easy or we were not serious enough in making the decision. This causes frustration. Frustration makes you waiver and backslide. You become even harder on yourself and voila... you are your own worst enemy.

New Year’s resolutions, at least the way I make them, are big and broad. They are to rid ourselves of longstanding habits and patterns of behavior. These patterns are well trenched. While making a firm resolution is good, that is the easiest part. How many times did I flick away a cigarette and say “That is my last cigarette” until I finally was able to quit. In my earlier posting on this subject, I quoted Mark Twain who said “Quitting smoking is easy. I've done it a thousand times.” They say is easy. The doing is the harder longer haul part of this.

We are a society of instant gratification. We want everything and we want it quickly. We want our resolutions to happen in the span of time it takes a CSI team to solve a crime. It is why people are looking for the miracle weight loss or quite smoking method, pill, or magic wand. There are no magic wands.

I was in a Barnes and Noble today and downloaded a freebee that they called “Advice to Go.” It was a short essay by Allyson Lewis, a time management and productivity guru and author. The download was to entice me to buy her latest book: The 7 Minute Solution. I read her little essay. It was good but I did not buy the book. She offered seven (she likes that prime number) things one could do to better manage their time. Two of them applied to the topic at hand here and are worth mentioning:

Good Habits are formed like cow paths: The habits we are trying to break are, a mentioned above, well worn and well entrenched. They are like cow paths which are made by the consistent behavior of cows. If we want to change such a habit, we have to create a new cow path for ourselves. This means we have to learn a new behavior and consistently repeat that behavior until we have ourselves a new cow path and grass has grown over and hidden the old one.

Micro-actions: The way we make a new cow path is by the hundreds, maybe thousands, of decisions we make each day. Take the stairs or the elevator? Eat a candy bar or an orange? Smoke a cigarette or chew a piece of gum? These are the micro-actions Lewis speaks of. Each one is either a step on the new cow path or the old cow path.

Happy Up: To quote Allyson Lewis. “Life is better when you are happy.” This is so obvious that most of us do not get it. Life is a journey. Why not be happy and enjoy it while striving and stretching ourselves to improve. Are we going happily toward a goal of improved health, improved quality of life, and longevity? Or, are we fighting all the way lamenting and feeling low that we are denying ourselves the cigarettes or high calorie low nutrition foods? If we choose the latter, we are bound to fail.

The frustration I have been talking magnifies the unhappiness and together they drive us to fail. It is about attitude and Jason said that he was trying to stay positive. Sure we will have our little setbacks. Let’s be determined and happy about the change we are trying to realize. Stop being your own worst enemy. Let’s create that new cow path one positive step at a time.

Thanks Jason! Thanks Allyson! I am feeling much less frustrated.

December 2011: On Leadership

2011-12-30T19:58:00.000-06:00

One of the key things in making this world work better is leadership.

Everyone knows a great leader when they see one in action. Great leaders are inspiring and charismatic.

People all have an opinion of what it takes to be a great leader. The prescription is neither universal nor foolproof. There are countless books, articles, and seminars on leadership and improving ones leadership skills. Everyone has an opinion about what it takes but far fewer ever become a memorable leader. There are many of us in leadership positions in varying capacities. Just being in a position is no guarantee that the person in that position will be a good and effective leader. There are countless examples of people who believe they are great leaders but no one in their organizations would agree.

What then makes a good leader? Is it an innate trait? Or, can the skill be developed and honed? While there are countless other attempts to answer these questions, I will attempt to answer these questions from my own perspective. I am sure the attempt will be incomplete. I am pretty certain because of the incompleteness that I will address it again in the future.

The Republican Candidates: This month’s letter was motivated from thinking about the slate of Republican candidates for President of these United States. There have been a lot of twists and turns in who is in the lead of this race since the summer. As in the past several elections, I found myself asking "Is this the best we can do?" I actually thought about making this letter about the dearth of leadership in this country. But the more I wrote, it became an essay on leadership in general.

Before I get too deeply into this question, allow me to provide some background.

I am not an avid follower of current events and politics. The internet affords keeping up with breaking news in real time, so I kind of know what is going on. I read a bit of op-ed here and there. That is about it. I am not addicted to CNN or Fox News. I do not read every issue of any newspaper, magazine, or political blogs.

This being said, I am fascinated with the topsy-turvy state of the constantly changing front runner. In early December, it was reported that Newt Gingrich had a double digit lead over the field. Now, at the end of December, it is being reported that Mr. Gingrich’s lead is waning. It seems just a short few months ago, before the reports of sexual harassment, that Herman Cain was the front runner and a shoe in for the nomination. Before Herman Cain, there was a whole lot of buzz when Rick Perry, the Governor of Texas, entered the race until we found out he could not debate very well. Michele Bachmann seemed to be the second coming of Sarah Palin for all the plusses and minuses that implies. Ron Paul could also make a move as the primaries begin in January.

The odd thing about Gingrich is that he was one of the first to enter the race. He had some early buzz and then his entire staff quite en masse in early June. The sixteen in total that left claimed that the former Speaker of the House could not be convinced to run a focused, committed, and intense campaign. At that point, Gingrich was left for dead and was more of joke than a serious candidate. Look at him now.

Are the candidates fickle or is it the public? I understand that the debates, the campaigning, and the primaries are for the public to get to know the candidates. It is a time for the candidates to demonstrate that they can possibly function at the next level.

Mitt Romney perseveres. He is the Steady Eddie in all of this. He has been number one or number two to the revolving door of the other number ones for a day. His fortunes rise and fall as the others cycle through this revolving door. Perhaps he will be the nominee. Perhaps, he will be the candidate because he will be the last man standing. He certainly has poise and polish. He is well spoken. He is not an extremist candidate. He is a centrist. This can either help him or hurt him. Perhaps, this is why the Tea Party Republicans are not enthusiastic supporters. Mitt Romney is also Mormon. While a man of faith, it is not the same as the "having accepted Jesus Christ as my personal savior" majority of the party.

Part of the problem is that the front runner is in the cross hairs of the media and opponent strategists. They will scour the front runner’s background for any newsworthy item. The more controversial their findings, the bigger the headlines will be. This is part of the vetting process. I heard a talking head on NPR when Cain's alleged improprieties first came to light. This expert on political campaigns basically said that the worst day on the campaign trail is like the best day of being President. It was good for the public to see how our potential next Presidents react to the pressure and heat. It weeds out those who can take it from those who can't. It also helps us see who has good character and who lack this trait.

What amazes me is that people think they can run for President and sincerely believe that anything and everything they have ever done or even simply been accused of will not come to light. Such people are either ridiculously naive or incredible ego maniacs to be so deluded. Either way, I would not vote for such people for President.

I kind of liked Cain's candidacy and sort of hoped he got the nomination. He had a fresh, tell it like it is, candor. His 9-9-9 plan was clever and well crafted from a marketing point of view. Whether it was the magic bullet to solve the woes of this country is entirely another matter. But, the major reason I liked Herman Cain and was hoping he would be the nominee would be to see how America would react to two black candidates. It would have been pretty good theater. How would they have played or not played the race card? Would the race card just be irrelevant? Would there have been a third party white candidate?

Early on in this section I posed a question: Is this the best we can do? I ask this in this Republican primary and I have asked in many of the past presidential elections. Is this really the best we can do? Where is the intelligence, the charisma, the game plan, and the track record of success? Barack Obama is often referred to as the smartest guy in the room. He has charisma. Yet, many people do not like him for a complicated variety of reasons. Does he get credit for not allowing the Great Recession to have become the Greatest Depression? Or, rather, is he a socialist goat for blocking our path to full recovery?

The Leadership Conundrum: Reagan and Clinton are now looked back at as great presidents. They were both intelligent and had charisma. They both presided over periods of emerging and growing prosperity. That may be the necessary criteria to be a great president: govern during a period of economic growth and staying out of the way. Gee... maybe I am a TEA party guy after all if not an outright Libertarian.

I have asked this question, "Is this the best we can do," in several recent Presidential elections. Great effective leaders are not commodities. They are not necessarily even the best and brightest even though being bright is certainly an asset. There are countless books written on leadership, what makes a good leader, and how to become one.

The main problem is that it is impossible to predict who will be a good and effective leader. Consider one of the great business leaders of the past twenty years: Jack Welch. He was obviously effective enough to be named CEO of General Electric but no one expected him to be so dynamic and as effective as he was. Akio Morita was a great leader of Sony. Steve Jobs was a great leader of Apple.

It is hard to predict who will become a good leader. The skills and determination that served one to progress up the ladder do not necessarily translate to success at the top. Great number twos may or may not make fantastic number ones. It does not matter if the people are voting for the number one or if the outgoing number one gets to choose his successor.

Think of football quarterbacks. It is the single hardest position in football to predict success at the pro-level. Great success at the college level is neither a necessary nor sufficient to guarantee success at the pro-level. Why is that? Even though there are numerous measures such as 40 yard dash time, throwing accuracy, interceptions, fumbles, yards offense, and so on, it is very hard to predict who will become a great pro quarterback. Think Ryan Leaf. Think of Tom Brady. Ryan Leaf was predicted to be a great quarterback in the pros and Brady... not so much. Circa the same incoming class was Peyton Manning. He was great in college and he was able to transition that greatness to the NFL.

I have read that the biggest unknown factor in moving from college to the pros is the pace of the game. The pro game is just that much faster. A quarterback has to be able to make decisions faster while keeping his calm. He has to be able to read defenses, adapt, and release the ball faster than he ever had to in college. There is no way to measure this until the quarterback is confronted with it. Will he be Ryan Leaf or Tom Brady?

The same thing applies to politics and business. The loneliness at the top, the gravity of decision making, the pace of decision making, and the ability to hold it all together are traits a President of the US and the President of GE both need. It is hard to predict who will succeed, who will fail, and who will be so-so when they are first elected or promoted. Much like the quarterback example, the speed of the game changes dramatically and not everyone can make the transition.

Hidden Agendas, Consistency, Constancy of Purpose and Authenticity: One of the key set of attributes of being a great leader, at least to me, is what W. Edwards Deming called Constancy of Purpose. What is the agenda of the leader? What are his or her goals? Are the goals clearly and consistently communicated to every that wants to or needs to know? These are the cornerstones on which great leadership is built.

Part of this is not having any hidden agendas. Hidden agendas are rarely one-off errors in judgment. The leaders who have hidden agendas do so habitually. Organizations with a culture of hidden agendas reward those potential leaders who are best at executing their hidden agendas. Hidden agendas usually create an atmosphere of angst, rumors, intrigue, suspiciousness, and paranoia. People sense something but they do not know what or where this is all coming from. It can fill the organization with a sense of foreboding.

Another part of this is the consistency with which the leader acts and reacts to the same kinds of situations. This even applies to a bad leader. In the negative case, the people working with or for the leader can reliably adapt their behavior and navigate around the leader if need be. The worst possible scenario is inconsistency. This tends to paralyze the organization with fear.

Both foreboding and fear are brought about by poor leadership. They cripple the effectiveness and potential of an organization. It all begins with the tone and example set by the leader and the lieutenants he places around him. If the leader is inconsistent or operating with hidden agendas these become the behaviors that will rise up and flourish in the organization be it industry or government.

A great leader has a consistency and forthright constancy of purpose that excites everyone and creates a positive organizational tension. That organizational tension brings the alignment and sense of urgency that makes people do more than they ever thought they were capable of. This is what great leadership can do. These are the memorable leaders who make a mark in our lives. These are the leaders for which people with go above and beyond to get execute the strategies and tactics set forth by the leader.

There is best summed up in a word I learned from Clyde Lowstuter the principal of Robertson Lowstuter. He calls it authenticity. Here is a definition from their website section on Core Beliefs:

Authenticity is the single most important determinant for individual and leadership success.

Leaders are authentic when they

1) have consistent alignment of their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors;

2) take complete responsibility for the unintended impact their behavior and words have on others;

3) have the confidence and boldness to ‘walk the talk’ and

4) live their lives serving the greater organizational good.

Constancy of Purpose and Consistency are both in this definition of Authenticity. It is most definitely a necessary condition for great leadership.

Can a President get us to Go Above and Beyond?: This is an interesting question. The only context I have for this is Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He was President of the United States during the Great Depression and most of World War II. It was a dark and gloomy time in this country from what I have read and what I have been told. During his term of leadership, he got us to pull together in way that is mythic from my perspective. People were in a bad way from the Great Depression when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. The US was instantly in World War II and the country was in dire straits. Roosevelt set a tone that the country followed. He had us rationing. He had us mobilized and volunteering to fight.

It might easily be argued that it is easy to lead in a time of crisis. The Great Depression and World War II provided a crisis severe enough for the President to provide that Constancy of Purpose and generate the creative tension to pull us through, to persevere, and to win. People were thirsting for leadership and he provided it.

We did not have the same unanimity during the recent Great Recession. We needed and wanted leadership. Either there was none or the leader we have was not able to convince of the sacrifices we collectively needed to make to right our ship. We had that special unanimity after 9-11-01 but it did not last. Crisis made George W. Bush a pretty good leader at that moment. As the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan stalled and the economy began to crumble, it did not last. We have yet to see Barack Obama provide much in this regard. I am not sure any of the Republicans running will be any better.

Answering the questions: I posed a few questions at the beginning of this meandering piece:

1. What then makes a good leader?

2. Is it an innate trait?

3. Or, can the skill be developed and honed?

I kind of answered the first. As for the second, I truly believe that leadership has a significant innate core. We have seen people that are just born with a natural charisma and the ability to get others to listen to and follow them. We have seen people that simply command authority.

This being said, I also believe that leadership skills can be learned and improved upon. I know several men and women who have nurtured their skills. Leadership is definitely part art form and style. Like most endeavors it is honed through practice and a desire for continuous improvement.

Some Great Leaders I have reported to: In thinking about my career, there are maybe three impressive bosses I have had: Bob Adams, Bob Martin, Dale Dvorak, Mike Corbo, and Howard Heckes. I reported to Bob Adams at Rockwell International. The other Bob, Dale, and Mike were all from Colgate-Palmolive. Howard Heckes was our division President I reported to at Newell Rubbermaid. I wanted to acknowledge them in this letter On Leadership.

Christmas 2011

2011-12-25T09:49:00.002-06:00

Good morning. Good Christmas morning to you and yours.

This is the second year I am writing this Christmas morning letter. I used to email my work colleagues for several years, simply wishing them well. Last year I began a more formal and extensive greeting to a larger base of friends, family, and colleagues.

Christmas is a festive and family time. In these northern climes, it is cold outside and warm in our homes and hearts. It can be a solemn time which is why I choose pre-dawn on Christmas morning to write and share these reflections. I like starting the holiday this way with a hot cup of coffee in front of my laptop. Well, having a hot cup of coffee and sitting in front of my laptop is something I do most everyday, today is different. Today is different because I have nothing else on my mind except writing this greeting to all of you.

Christmas can also be a stressful and hectic time. That stress and pace is due to two factors. First, in order to have the twinkling lights inside and out and the festive foods that define and fuel the familial warmth, there is a lot of preparation. I once had a boss that said, “I am not exactly sure of what I am in charge of at work, but at home I am clearly not in command.” That statement resonated. At this time of year, I am a reluctant decorator, a dutiful taxi driver, and upon occasions a maid. It has to be done and we are busy with our work lives at full blast until we seem to enter holiday mode at full blast.

This year, my niece and Goddaughter, Melanie Mardoian married Kevork Chavoush Mesrobian on Thanksgiving Weekend. It was a great wedding and a truly wonderful time. The bride and groom glowed and the families and guests were full of joy that emanated from the bride and groom. It was one of those five days of celebration events that will standout in our memories. We used to read about Armenian weddings in days of yore that lasted for several days, it is still the way we do it in our family.

For all that fun, it put us behind in Christmas planning. Immediately after, Judy had to focus on writing a major paper for a masters degree she is working on. I had to prepare and grade exams, projects, and final exams for the three courses I was teaching. Holiday planning took a back seat until, well, a week before the big day. We are usually rolling in this regard by the first week of December. This just was not the case this year. Hence the hectic feeling. We did get it all together and the house looked great for last night’s Christmas Eve gathering.

Second, in case you have not noticed, there is a distinct commercial aspect to this holiday season. With each passing year, and this may be the part of the holiday that offends me the most, we are bombarded around these parts with Christmas or holiday decorations, muzak, sales, discounts, free shipping, extended store hours, black friday, cyber monday, this, that, and the other thing for a full two months. It really can be irritating. I cannot imagine working in a retail establishment that is pumping out Holiday jingles, carols, hymns, and pop songs sung by every imaginable artist in every imaginable style. It would drive me crazy after a few days.

Sure, I understand the commercial aspects of the holidays. I do not begrudge anyone a living or the need to turn a profit. I just do not like the “scope” or “schedule” creep of the whole thing. It dilutes the beauty and warmth of the season and holiday in particular.

But, I write this Christmas morning not to complain about household chores and the commercialization of the season. I get up early because it is a beautifully quiet time to reflect on friends and family I will not be seeing today. I will think about all of you, who I will not be able to knock on your door or ring your door bell and come in and give you Christmas hug and share a cup of Christmas cheer. It is as quiet as it gets around here. There is a slight whir of the laptop fan, the noise the furnace makes kicking on and off, the chiming of the clocks every fifteen minutes, and that is it. I do not even play any music.

It would be great if I could magically be in Wilton, CT, Buenos Aires, Yerevan, Detroit, Mexico City, Los Angeles, Montevideo, Istanbul, Cali, New York, Fresno, Caracas, Ocala, and many other places. It would be great to see you all. It would be Santa Claus like magic if that were possible. Yet, in this modern world, this Internet age, I am kind of doing just that but in a more figurative way. I am knocking on all your doors, I am sending a card to all of you, simultaneously. It feels good to do so. It feels right.

This year my daughter, Armené, and her husband Michael are with us in Lake Forest. My son, Aram, and his wife Anoush are with her parents in New York. We were all together a month ago at Melanie’s wedding. This is as it should be when not everyone lives in the same city where we could have our entire clan with us. That would be one heck of a gathering. We would probably have to rent a space.

My sister, Ani, and her husband, Jeff, have hosted Thanksgiving for the past several years. The host my Mother’s side of the family who live mostly in Michigan and Jeff’s entire family. That comes to 40-50 people. They have a nice sized house but, as built, there was no where for everyone to sit together. Jeff is a “car guy” and has been his whole life. He has a body shop business and is always buying and selling cars. His passion is Ford Mustangs and specifically the Shelby version there of. So, he added on to his existing garage and built another to house his cars. The addition is heated, dry walled, and has a lovely floor. It is more showroom than garage. At Thanksgiving, he empties it of vehicles and sets up tables. All the food is put on a buffet and we all sit down together in one room. It is very nice and a great holiday memory. Everyone brings something and it is a great festive feast.

Years ago on one of our Christmas visits to Lake Forest, we went to visit family friends: the Derderians. George Derderian was a life long friend of my Father In-Law, Harold. George was a self made man. He started, built-up, and sold at least two local banks. He was always buying, renovating, and selling houses. Houses is not quite accurate, I would call them mansions. The time we went to visit him, he owned one of the primo estates on Lake Avenue over looking Lake Michigan. He gave us a tour of what I am guessing was an 8,000+ square foot home. I do not remember much of the house except for the third floor. The entire third floor of this home was a ballroom. Wow. For some reason, this impressed me. I would love to have my own ballroom; to have the luxury of having a home where a third of it existed solely to entertain on a large scale. I thought about and think about still not hosting large dinners but serious music parties in such a space. What a Christmas party we could have in such a space!

Our gathering on Christmas Eve was quite nice. It is the traditional gathering of my wife’s Father’s family: the Mardoians. With the passing years, the group changes. There is ebb and flow as to who can come and last night was no different. We missed Judy’s cousins John, Dawn, and Dawn’s husband Doug. They were in their home in La Quinta, California. We missed John because for years he gave his own unique read of the “The Night Before Christmas.” While the kids are mostly adults now, they would still beg him to read this. We would have missed that tradition this year. So, I bought one of read it and record it books of “The Night Before Christmas” and John recorded it a few months ago. Everyone applauded when it was done and we called John to thank him!

Our parish priest Der Zareh, his wife, son, and daughter in-law joined us. We were at his son, Levon, and their daughter in-law, Tina’s, wedding this past October in New York City. It was very nice. The Armenian tradition is for the parish priest to bless one’s home on Christmas Eve or shortly thereafter. It is a tradition, like many, that has waned in this modern era. We keep it alive. He did the short service last night before we sat down to eat. It was very nice and thus I am writing you all this morning from a freshly blessed house. .

Early in the evening, my friend Andres called from Colonia, Uruguay. He is such a good fellow. I really appreciate his reaching out. I knew who it was when the phone rang. I had called my family in Detroit as well as my son and daughter in-law in New York earlier. We will be on the phone with family in Boston and Los Angeles later today.

Der Zareh had served as the parish priest for several years in Buenos Aires before coming to Chicago. He and his family loved it there. We spent part of the evening reminiscing about about the warmth we felt with the most Latin Americans. We decided it was because Armenians and Latin Americans, look at family and friends in the same way. We are simpatico in this regard. That is probably why I started emailing my friends and work colleagues when most of them were in the various countries of Latin America. That is why when I write a broader letter these days, my Latin friends are at the core of it all. They are also the gang I am least likely to see over the holiday season.

This is a longer letter than I had intended to write. I must have gotten up even earlier and the coffee must be even tastier than last year. Perhaps, I miss you all a bit more. I close this letter the same way I did last year. The sentiment is exactly the same with only the year updated.. I am delighted to reach out this very quiet moment to friends and family all over the United States and all over the world to convey our warm Christmas wishes to you and yours. Even more so, I hope that 2012 is a year of health, happiness, and prosperity for you and yours..

Old Westerns

2011-12-17T08:05:00.001-06:00

In the past couple of days I have watched a few western themed movies. I am not sure why. It started when I was on my exercise bike. It is in the basement in front of a TV and while I was scrolling through the movie channels, I noticed that Encore Westerns was airing John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara's classic McLintock (1963). I remembered this movie from years back because of the on-screen magic of John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara. Because of this and the fact there was nothing else really on the other several hundred channels, I started watching it. I enjoyed it and as a result watched a few others.

The last Western I had watched in a theater was the 2010 remake of True Grit starring Jeff Bridges. It was one of the best films I have ever seen. I can not attest to the accuracy but felt it to be very much so. I felt like I got a real glimpse into the hard lives of those times. I thought it was a great improvement over the 1969 John Wayne original. I had recollected that the John Wayne version was fluffier. That was until I saw it a few days ago. I was surprised and found the original truer and grittier then I had been thinking.

My first recollections of Westerns was from my maternal grandfather, Levon Merian. We called him Babo, our own or his own version of the Armenian Baba. He loved Westerns. He watched them in black and white for most of his life. He like Gene Autry, the Cisco Kid, and Roy Rogers. He loved Gunsmoke and Bonanza. But, he liked any kind of Western made in the classic tradition.

It was easy and pleasant as a youngster to join Babo in watching these shows. He liked the company. When I knew him, he was a very simple and calm man. He was a man of few words. He would never say much but would chuckle when the good guys got the comeuppance on the bad guys. I do believe he liked the genre because it was quite clear who was good and who was bad. The best part was that the good guys always won. Given all the turmoil and tragedy in his early life having experienced at the hand of the Turk, this was just the prescription for my grandfather.

I am sure this recent interest in Westerns has something to do with the memory of joining my Babo on the couch and watching those old movies with him. It was amazing, there were only four channels on his TV. Yet, there always seemed to be a cowboy movie or show on the TV. Now there is an entire channel, the aforementioned Encore Westerns, dedicated to the genre.

I would have certainly enjoyed watching McClintock or maybe Destry Rides Again with my Babo.

Mis-Matched Shoes

2011-12-12T23:34:00.002-06:00

This afternoon I arrived at The College of Lake County at about 1:30. My plan was to print off and duplicate the fourteen page final exam I was giving to my Elementary Statistics class later in the afternoon. I had emailed the exam to myself so I could retrieve it on campus. I have done this over a hundred times with no issue, until today. The exam document was nowhere to be found on either of the two email addresses I use for such. I was perplexed as I was absolutely certain that I had emailed it on Saturday. Sadly, I must not have.

What had been plenty of time suddenly became a tight time frame as I had to return home to retrieve the exam and get back to campus and duplicate the exam. So, I jumped in my car took off. En route, I took a phone call from a good friend. She called to tell me that I could not imagine what she had done. I could not imagine at all especially since I was preoccupied with my own idiocy. She related that she got to her workplace this morning and realized that she had two different shoes on. They were both black. One was zippered and the other was laced. We laughed. I told her of my predicament and we laughed some more. I joked and told her that she had a matching pair of mis-matches waiting for her at home.

Having done what seems like more than my fair share of bone headed boo-boos. I cannot recall ever having worn two different shoes. I like to think that I somehow picked up two different shoes, I would probably notice as I put them on. If not, I would for sure have noticed after taking a step or three. The feel or thickness of the soles should be detectable. The key to prevent wearing two different style shoes is to store the shoes in pairs.

Then I began to think, always a scary proposition, why it was that mis-matching shoes never became a fashion statement. The avant-garde and the youth are always looking for the new new. They want to be the first on the block to blaze a new trend. Amazing matches and mis-matches of colors, plaids atop of stripes, really expensive jeans with holes in them, body piercings to the extreme, and tattoos have all come and gone and come into fashion again over my lifetime. Hair has gone from WWII neat and trim to Brylcreamed slick, from duck tails to mullets, from Beatles to shaggy dog to shaved bald. Women have dyed their hair henna color you can imagine including purple and pink. Anything you can imagine has had its moment in the sun or maybe longer.

Amid all the whirlwind of fashion, shoes have always matched in color and style. The only difference tolerated was that mirror image between left and right. They could be outrageous platforms, sequined high top basketball shoes, ultra-spiked stilettos, and even wearing flip-flops in a blizzard. Yet, no matter the extremes in design and fashion, shoes have always matched. Why has this not happened? It cannot possibly be that I am the first to dream up this fashion innovation. Can it?

If mis-matched shoes becomes all the rage in the next few years, remember you heard it hear first.

November 2011: The Internet Makes it All Easier

2011-11-28T11:12:00.000-06:00

Technology, namely the Personal Computer and the Internet, have made me more organized, competent, and rigorous than I ever was. I write more. I write more effectively. I maintain three blogs and am a heavy contributor to our business blog. It is cool and a lot of fun.

Truth be told, however, I am not the most organized person. Also, I have had a major gap or disconnect between my ambition and my track record of realizing those ambitions. For example, up until recently (recent being 2002), I hated to write. I hated to do research. I wanted to do both but they were tedious. They were not just tedious; they were incredibly and ridiculously tedious. When I was coming of age, writing meant pen and paper, editing drafts and then typing it into a typewriter, onto paper. Simple changes to almost final drafts were unbearable. It was boring. Writing and re-writing drafts, typing and re-typing drafts and final products, was a major pain. Therefore, I rarely did it.

Research was the same way. It involved going to the library. Sometimes it involved going to specialty libraries at a university as the journals I was searching for were not available at the local libraries nor were they available at the main university libraries. Then, I would have to pore over telephone book sized tomes of journal summaries taking copious notes. The next step was to take those notes and go find the journals in the library either on the shelves, on microfilm, or perhaps having to order the journal from another library and wait weeks for it to come in. For me, this was mega-complicated and, I am not sure if I have used this word to describe it, tedious. Therefore, I rarely did it.

There is an inherent laziness at work here. I know and admit this. The laziness is greater than the ambition when the path to realizing the ambition is overly tedious. Overly tedious is essentially boring and thus anything else is more interesting. I have always wanted to get things done quickly. Even as a kid, I tired of anything that did not be done in one sitting. All my model airplanes and cars were horribly done because I could barely wait for the glue, paint or decals to dry. Any long term project in elementary school? The same thing.

In junior high, we were taught how to use 3x5 index cards to do proper research for a term paper. Then we were taught how to create an outline while amassing more and more cards. Then after all this, we could sit down and type the rough draft of the paper. Upon editing and reviewing with the teacher, we would type the next draft. Upon another edit, we could finally type the final paper. Mind you, all of this was done on a typewriter... multiple times. Oh my! This was not for me. It was not for anyone. I waited until the last minute. I typed up the only draft of the paper with books and magazines all about it. It was chaos but essentially done in real time. Then, and only because the teacher required it, did I also type an outline and hand wrote enough 3x5 cards to give the appearance that I actually followed directions.

The PC and the Internet has made this all easier. Case in point, take an example form a few paragraphs ago. I wrote “I would have to pore over telephone book sized tomes...” I was not sure if pore, pour, or maybe a third word, poar, was correct. In days of yore, I would have opted for pour and let the teacher or professor decide. Sure, I could have looked it up in a dictionary or style and grammar book but then I would have had to get up, find the book, the research my question. Blame it on attention span, but if I were to do that, the chances of coming back to my writing would be minimal. As I pondered the question tonight, I simply typing “pour over” into Google and quickly found ample instruction that led me to use the proper word, pore, and also realized there is no word poar. It was easy, though there is still a risk that I could have been diverted by what a friend of mine calls “shiny things” that always seems to pop-up in my Internet searches.

For me and certainly many others, technology has helped. I love the ability to research almost anything from my easy chair or desk via laptop or iPad. I was talking with another friend on the phone a few weeks ago. Somehow, don’t ask me how, we got to talking about a game that was played way back when by children. It was a basic, simple, and seemingly boring game. It involved a wheel and a stick. The stick was used to keep the wheel rolling. That’s it. Sure it was an odd thing to talk about but we had somehow gotten there. The next question was, “I wonder what that game was called?” Who cares? Who knows? In the pre-internet days I would have simply let it go. It is a small matter. That day in front of my laptop, I simply typed in “wheel and stick game” and voila, sever listing for hoop rolling, hoop trundling, simply trundling. Trundling? Yes, trundling.I am trying to fathom youngsters who could be amused, for who knows how many hours, with a hoop and a stick. I wonder about the trundling youngsters of yore the same way young people playing the amazing graphic video games of today wonder how my generation could have been so fascinated with Pong.

My first realization of how liberating this technology would be for me was back in the early days of the Internet. I had arranged for Senator Joe Liberman to visit our church: The Armenian Church of the Holy Ascension in Trumbull, CT. We were very excited as it was the highest US Government official to ever visit our church. Our priest, Father Untzag Nalbandian, asked me to be the emcee for the event for being the driving force behind this auspicious event. In truth all I did was contact the Senator’s office. It was more do to the Senator’s very good policy of engaging the community. We tried to do the same thing a few years later with Senator Chris Dodd. We did not even get a reply from his office.

But I digress. I was travelling to Argentina the week before Senator Lieberman was to visit our church. I returned late Saturday evening. I was expecting mail from the Senator’s office that was to include his biography. There was no such mail. It was 10 pm and I was wondering what I was going to do. I did not want to embarrass the Senator, our church, or myself by not having a proper introduction for such a distinguished guest. I then thought that perhaps they emailed me. So, I checked my first email address, the kind that came with whatever dismally slow dial-up Internet service I had. Again there was nothing.

What to do? The public library did not open early enough for me to get there and get to chruch on time. What to do? I then thought of using that new thing I had just got... what was it... ah yes... Netscape. It came with what was then a new computer. I typed the Senator’s name into the search box and hit enter. Soon, I was at the Senator’s website. He had a bio tab. Wow. This was amazing. It was like midnight. I was able to get and print his bio that I could read verbatim if I had to. How cool!

It was incredibly cool. I realized the power of where technology was going and what it would allow me to do. The information world was literally at my fingertips. From that moment on, the availability of information and the speed of retrieval has only gotten better, broader, and faster. It is easy to learn about almost anything and everything really quick. If you have any rights at a university library, the entire world of journals and papers are on-line. The most classic papers in almost any field are available in pdf form on-line, this includes the Harvard Business Review which is probably the best in the world at trying not to provide free content.

I wanted to learn about alternative oud tunings. A short internet search and voila:

http://www.oudcafe.com/stringing_and_tuning.htm - This site provides alternative Turkish and Arabic tunings.
http://www.arabinstruments.com/112730/Tuning-the-Oud - which is actually an on-line tuner.

People with any passion share their knowledge and lore on-line with, basically, the world. I am amazed with the volumes of people who read my blogs and which pieces are most read. The ones most read are not necessarily my favorites.

There is a negative side of all this freedom. I can do easily get lost for hours. The Internet is full of shiny and distracting things that can lead to hours of not doing what I originally intended. Case in point, consider November 16 and 17th of this month:

On November 16th, I learned that Karl Slover passed away in Georgia at the age of 93. Karl who? Karl Slover was one of the last surviving Munchkins from the Wizard of Oz. Karl Slover played the lead trumpeter in that classic film. Karl Slover NYTimes
The distracting bit for November 17th was just as obscure. Yahoo News informed me that the composer of A Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka-Dot Bikini, Lee Pockriss, also died. Besides the bikini song he also composed the music for Johnny Angel and Catch a Falling Star.

I am not even sure what I had set out to do when I ran across these stories and veered well off my intended path. Apparently some degree of focus is still needed. Yeah, I just searched on “maintaining focus” and then clicked on the sub-choice of “maintaining focus to achieve goals.” There is a lot of sites in this topic many of which point out in their abstract that maintaining focus is important in helping one achieve ones goals. Yes, the Internet certainly can hammer home the obvious. It does, however, seem like the kind of topic I may want to blog about at some later date.

Technology is not standing still. Voice recognition will one day rule the way we input into our various electronic devices. Of course, that is only until we develop an interface for brain waves. Right now, voice recognition it is mostly on cell phones. It can be very useful when driving to either text someone or have the phone retrieve a phone number from the web or one’s directory and then make the call. It is useful for activating the GPS on one’s phone to provide guidance to a destination. It is quite useful and much easier to use then in the recent past.

Almost every phone I have had has been equipped with voice activated calling. In the early days, it was simply a matter of luck when it worked. I would activate the system and speak the name into the phone, such as Jim Davis. It was a surprise if it dialed Jim Davis instead of Jim Clayborn or perhaps Jerry Danville. I used to get quite frustrated with it. I would try to speak more clearly on the next few iterations. When that didn’t work, I would speak more forcefully a few times as if that would have any impact on the software. Often, I would give up and just look up the number using the keypad. One time in the car with my daughter, Armene’, I was trying to call home to inform Judy of our whereabouts. I said, “home.” Nothing. I said, “home” again yielding the same results. After a few more times, I began to speak more clearly and also more forcefully resulting in the following chide from my daughter that she still brings up frequently, “Dad, if saying ‘home’ didn’t work, what makes you think constantly repeating ‘homa’ is going to help.” She was absolutely correct.

Someone told me that my first edition Droid phone had voice recognition. I thought I would give it a try. So, with out glasses, I dictated a short text message to Armene’ and hit send. She wrote back saying, “what are you trying to say.” I was trying to say, “hey look, I am using voice recognition to text you.” That was not anywhere near what the voice recognition system interpreted and filled into the text box. Only the word ‘look’ was correct.

I let voice recognition go for a while. A few months ago, I tried it again on a whim. It is working much better. I am convinced they have made a software upgrade unbeknownst to me. I use it all the time now and am quite happy with it. It is only a matter of time before we will be giving voice commands to our home appliances, entertainment systems, cars, and even computers. It is inevitable and possibly the last minor information before the systems that help us self-realize and maybe self-actualize. Well... the latter may still be on each of us individually.

I appreciate what technology has done for me. I look forward to future innovations to enhance my ability to more easily research and communicate.

Leaves not Falling

2011-11-13T16:43:00.000-06:00

Tree by my house 11-13-11

I do think about global warming now and then. I write about it less frequently than I think about it. Thoughts of global warming are usually triggered by crazy extremes. It might be an exceptional cold spell in the summer or the extreme flooding that has suspend both business and daily activities in Thailand. Another example could be the October blizzards in New York and New England that shut down everything and left millions without power for over a week.

Sometimes I think about global warming because of trend that I think that I see. This year the leaves seemed reluctant to fall. It is November 10 and I am sitting in a Starbucks at dawn awaiting a meeting with a prospective client. As I look out the window, it seems like half of the trees still have leaves on them. This seems is late. The trees with leaves still on them are the maples and oaks: the hardwoods. These are usually the last trees to drop their leaves. The softer woods, the aspens and ashes, are the first.

My recollection is that by the first of November, be it Detroit, Connecticut, or now Chicago, the leaves were usually gone. The weather also takes decided turn toward the colder. As far as the weather, that actually happened a week ago. There is definitely a mid-fall chill going. The heavier coats are out. But, there are still too many leaves still on the trees.

I am a Professor of Statistics so I know that there is good chance this year is just part of the ebb and flow, the natural year to year variation, of how fall transforms summer into winter. This could be at the long end of that variation. It might be a sign that the globe is warming. I would have had to have kept better records to actually have drawn an actual statistical conclusion. I would have to see a trend that is established over a period of years. That, of course, would have taken initiative, planning, and dedication. I am more of a casual observer than even an amateur climate scientist.

I think back to the shamans, medicine men, and wise elders of native peoples. It was a time before all of the modern diversions. There were no TV or internet. There was not even electricity. Smart people noticed the natural world and the yearly cycles. They had a practical knowledge that was passed on orally. They may have not had official months or written calendars, but they could measure the number of moons from when the leaves budded and sprouted until they turned color and began to drop. They would know by lore and necessity when the weather is expected to change.

Late or not, global or warming or not, I am not sure. Will it still a cold, snowy, and long winter? Or are we a few years away from the leaves never falling? I cannot answer any of those questions. All I can say is that I think the leaves are taking noticeably longer to fall this year.

Hey, it is just something I think I noticed.

Car Wars

2011-11-08T22:45:00.002-06:00

I was watching college football on Saturday, October 29th. I watched my favorite team, Michigan, beat Purdue 36-14. I also watched Nebraska methodically beat Michigan State and Illinois snatch defeat from the jaws of victory versus Penn State. As night set in, I switched between two epic battles: Ohio St vs. Wisconsin and USC vs Stanford. But, this bloggy bit is not about football. It is, of course, about automobiles. It is specifically about Honda and Toyota.

As good as a channel surfer that I am, I do end up watching a few commercials. Perhaps it is just for nostalgic feelings for the days when one had to get up and walk across the room to change the channel. Amongst the commercials I watched were two for Honda and Toyota. Seeing car company commercials during a football game is nothing special. These ads, however, stood out. Both companies were offering 0% financing on their cars and SUVs. This made me raise both eyebrows and wonder why.

I recall when my daughter Armene’ was buying her first car, we had looked at a variety of makes including Honda and Toyota. Back then in late 2008 and early 2009, in the pit of the recession, Toyota and Honda were not really dealing. Their dealerships were alive with shoppers whereas we were usually the only potential customers in any other dealership we visited. It was very apparent. As a result, Honda and Toyota simply were not dealing. The salesmen at both Honda and Toyota basically said the same thing, “if you do not buy this car, someone else will soon.” Well OK then, we went to Jeep, the SUV my daughter wanted anyway, and got a tremendous deal.

Toyota and Honda rarely given 0% financing. I wondered what was up. I simply assumed the entire automotive market had to be soft if Toyota and Honda was doing this. With the power of the Internet at my fingertips, I can easily answer such questions. So, I investigated. A quick Google and a click took me to http://online.wsj.com/mdc/public/page/2_3022-autosales.html which is the Wall Street Journal’s Market Center - What’s Moving: US Auto Sales.

The site was graphs and tables. I first saw that all segments were selling more than 2010 with the exception of large cars which is tracking 9.8% below last year. Mid-Sized SUVs were a whopping 48.7% at the max end with Large SUVs up only 1.9% on the minimum end. I was more perplexed why Honda and Toyota were offering 0% financing.

I scrolled more and found the section that told the story: The Top 20 selling in the US were in this chart. Everything was showing positive growth year over year except for five vehicles

Toyota Camry - 8.5%
Honda Accord -15.7%
Toyota Corolla -10.7%
Honda Civic -15.6%
Nissan Versa - 6.7%

Wow. The top selling vehicles from these storied auto makers were down compared to last year.

I am guessing this has to do with the all the turmoil in Japan due to the earthquakes and tsunamis. Was supply constrained? Or were consumers simply leery of buying cars they might be able to service so easy? Given that both Toyota and Nissan are providing incentives, I have to conclude that if supply was a constraint, it is not now.

Seven Billion

2011-11-04T08:33:00.000-05:00

The world population surpassed 7 billion on Halloween. It is an incredible milestone. People around the world are celebrating this historic threshold. Both India and the Philippines had picked a child born that day and dubbed that baby the ceremonial 7 billionth person. It is impossible to find precisely the birth that took us over the 7 billion threshold. I have a friend, Bill Connelly, who told me his fourth grandchild was just born. I told him that his granddaughter could easily be the 7 billionth person. He and his family should simply declare that as they did in those two Asian countries.

It is an achievement for sure but it worries me more than it pleases me. I worry about the world population growing so fast that we outstrip our food and natural resource supplies. Growing beyond the food supply will be simply catastrophic. I remember from biology class in high school what happens when a bacterial culture grows. The growth is exponential while the food supply is ample. As soon as the population is larger than the food supply, the drop in population is abrupt and significant. There is a school of thought that basically believes the Earth is a petri dish and we are a bacteria growing in this dish at an exponential rate. It is a scary school to be an alumnus of..

Here are some basic facts of human population growth:

Human population reached 1 billion in approximately 1804. That is not all that long ago.
It took 123 years to reach 2 billion in 1927.
We achieved 3 billion just 33 years later in 1960
I remember I was in college in 1974 when the global population reached 4 billion. The Chinese were 1 billion at the time - a quarter of the world’s population. It was only 14 years to add this next billion.
In another 13 years we hit the 5 billion mark in 1987.
12 years later, in 1999, the human population on Earth hit 6 billion.
Another 12 years later, bringing us to today, we crested 7 billion.
In 207 years, humans have grown 7 fold.

There are any number of world population counters available on the internet. The only one I looked at is http://www.7billionactions.org/. Their population counter as on 9:53:45 CST October 31st was 7,000,153,407... 408... 409... Yes, apparently we have blown past the 7 billion by, oh my just a few minutes later, by 155,650! It is an amazing counter to watch. We have added the equivalent of Eugene, Oregon in less than 24 hours. It is a little scary to think that we are adding the equivalent of Eugene, Oregon each and every day. The numbers boggle my mind. I had heard on NPR in the morning that 51 babies born just in India every minute.

It may be easy to dismiss the Occupy Wall Street movement as a “bunch of kooks.” But, there is something at the core of their movement that should ring true today. We cannot keep growing and consuming without end. The impact that has on the environment and our ability to sustain life in any modicum of quality is severely strained. We have to bring some rationality to the way we live, work, and operate in this world. It begins with the way capitalism, the profit motive, and the distribution of wealth works and extends to all areas of governance and planning.

I freaked out when we hit 4 billion in the early 1970s. There were predictions of gloom and doom. It was in my sophomore year of college when we read a book, Limits to Growth, in a Social Philosophy course. I was young, impressionable, concerned, and really took the book to heart. The book was an everyman synopsis of an MIT study conducted on population growth and the consuming of natural resources. The population growth and the consumption of resources from water and food to metals and fuels all were growing exponentially. The study and book predicted a grim future unless mankind began to act differently. In our Social Philosophy course, we took that “acting differently” to mean acting more proactively for the welfare of the entire earth to ensure a sustainable place for generations upon generations of humans to live harmoniously with each other, with the natural world, and capping our population at that 4 billion number. We surmised that capitalism and communism needed to find some common middle ground.

We also realized despite our sophomoric naivete and sincere intentions... the vision we had laid out was far fetched and had little chance of coming to fruition. I became resolved that we would be the generation that would see a catastrophic decline in population due to us outstripping our food supply which would probably result in the US and USSR unleashing the nuclear arsenals. The world would emerge as depicted in the lyrics of the rock ballad “Wooden Ships” written by Stephen Stills, David Crosby, and Paul Kantner and recorded by two of my favorite bands Crosby, Stills, and Nash and The Jefferson Airplane.

Something funny happened on the way to the scorched and barren earth. Beyond the rise and fall of disco and the go-go 1980s and 1990s, the world population grew to 5 billion, 6 billion, and now 7 billion. We are still here and thriving.

Literacy rates continue to climb. 38% of the world was illiterate in 1970. Today, 15% or so are illiterate. Some 5 billion of have cell phones. While there some issues with food, there is not any kinds of shortages that keep us having hit the 5, 6, and now 7 billion thresholds. There are more cars than ever and apparently enough oil being pumped, refined, distributed, and sold to keep things going.

We read about global warming, the sooner than we think end of oil, and, of course, the food and water catastrophe looming. We hear about the demise of whales, big cats, and whatever is in the Amazon. We hear about super bugs that will make the plagues from the middle ages look like a common cold. We have seen the ebola virus, mad cow, and even AIDS come and go. We hear about medicine resistant TB, staph bacteria, and who knows what else.

We hear to predictions of what appear to be very smart scientists and concerned global citizens. In 2004, a thirty year anniversary update of Limits to Growth was published. The model was refined but the message was the same forecast of gloom with a glimmer of hope if we act soon. We hear the naysayer politicos and talk show hosts naysaying what the aforementioned are saying. Remember “drill baby drill?” I remember reading that there is enough shale oil in the US to sustain the world for centuries. Who is right? Is the die cast and the humans are dead men walking? Or will capitalism, free trade, and human innovation figure out some way to thrive at human populations of 10, 50, and even 100 billion? Will God teach us a lesson or provide us an answer?

Does it matter if I am approaching 60 and I now kind of believe that none of these doomy and gloomy things will happen in my lifetime? I could easily join the vast majority of the 7 billion earthlings who do not give any of this much thought. They are more concerned with what they have to do today and tomorrow than worry about g obal issues. They know they cannot do anything about the global issues. I suppose they believe that our leaders will somehow guide us through this.

Humans can comprehend broad sweeping issues. But, as a species, we act in the short term and somehow believe that will yield optimal results. That however is simply not the case. Short term optimization does not necessarily lead to optimization especially if long term strategies are the only thing that will work. Systems analysts (not the IT type) and operations research professionals understand this very clearly.

I still am inclined to believe our population cannot keep growing at this rate. There are limits to the resources of our planet. The only question is when that will happen. But, the when it will happen assumes nothing will change. It assumes there will not be some miraculous scientific breakthrough that allows us to transform the mountain of refuge with which we have polluted the Earth into a material plasma that can then be easily transformed into fuels, food, metals, plastics, and fibers to satisfy our every need. It is possible, I have seen it in the movies.

Steve Jobs: 1955 - 2011

2011-10-24T15:32:00.002-05:00

Steve Jobs passed away on October 5,2011

He was only 56 years old.

The impact he had on the world was substantial.

He was the heart, soul, creative cheerleader, guru, CEO, showman, innovator, and genius that ran Apple. He and his company, for they are in a sense inseparable, brought the world the personal computer, the iPod, the iPhone, and lately the iPad (on which for obvious reasons this letter was composed). Each of these products either created a new business space or revolutionized the ones they competed in.

The personal computer, and all the enhancements that have followed since, were offshoots of the first Apple that Jobs and Wozniak built in Job's parents' garage. It created a new marketplace. It was revolutionary. People were able to much more on their own from word processing to various analyses. One of the first software programs, Visicalc, allowed for so much more to be done in accounting and business planning than people imagined. When the internet and email were added to the mix, people were unshackled from their desks, secretaries became obsolete, and productivity began to soar. All the while, Jobs and Apple continued to refine and re-define their product. Apple became the company and their PC line innovated into the brand name Macintosh then simply Mac to the current iMac series. Their machines and operating systems distinguished themselves by being more reliable, not susceptible to viruses, and most importantly providing a superior more intuitive and easier to use user interface than their competition.

PCs and windows took over the business world. Macs were relegated to the art departments, education, and other specialty aficionados. The people that wanted them, liked them, and needed them were happy to pay the premium that these PCs commanded. They commanded premium prices from the beginning and that has lasted to today. One can pay twice as much for a comparably equipment iMac than the cheapest Windows based PCs. It seems that people in increasing numbers are doing just that.

Steve Jobs was genius and an innovator. He could see ahead of everyone else. He was not an inventor in the style of Edison (who may have indeed been the last solo inventor). Jobs did not invent anything himself but guided new product conceptualization, new product development, and marketing. His genius was seeing what technological innovations were making possible. He saw this before anyone else. He not only saw it but had created an organization that could bring the concept to market faster than anyone.

Apple was more innovative in the early years of personal computing than most of us probably give them credit for. They had the first networking capability for PCs. They had the first real laptop computer. They were the first to use much of the technology developed at Xerox's Research Park in Palo Alto including the mouse. Apple did not just borrow or steal this technology. They, under Jobs guidance, acquired the rights to and innovated beyond the bulky high cost yet groundbreaking Xerox prototypes and brought them to the mass market.

The created an operating system that really truly made the PC the useful tool we all rely upon today. They made the operating system work intuitively using icons, windows, point, click, and drag to really free people to create written work, spreadsheets, and artistic displays. Their work was the underlying example for the highly successful Microsoft Windows and Office software that is so ubiquitous today.

But, this was only half of his genius. He had another, perhaps even rarer, gift. He could create simple, elegant, intuitive, and superior user machine interfaces. Once one had one of his products in ones possession, this superiority in ease of use and navigation became crystal clear. No one else could do this, not even close. He had a gift for seeing how emerging technologies could be used to make innovative ground breaking game changing products that changed entire industries and marketplaces. He had a gift for marshaling the resources and people of Apple to make this all happen. There is no question that Jobs was the mastermind and leader of all of this.

This was all there in the PCs but that was only the beginning. The new century became the Apple century, at least thus far.

On October 23, 2001, they released the iPod. This product revolutionized the music business immediately and across the board. This miraculous device the size of a deck of playing cards allowed one to access all of their music all of the time anywhere they were. They stole the portable music business from Sony that had invented the transistor radio, the Walkman cassette player, and their whole line of CD based products. Sony never recovered from this and was never able to launch anything in their proprietary format that could remotely compete with the iPad.

There is definitely a case that Napster, the creation of Sean Parker, is more responsible for the demise of the record stores and changing the industry. Parker and Napster might have been the catalyst but he did not create anything sustainable. It was Jobs and Apple that created an integrated channel that replaced stores, distribution, and physical products i.e. CDs with the iTunes and iPads. Plus, what Jobs and Apple did was legal and has been generating revenue since its inception.

Jobs took over from Sony's Akio Morita as the innovator in portable music devices practically without a fight. Without Morita, Sony was not the same when the innovative dynamo was no longer running things. This makes one wonder how Apple will fare without Jobs.

On January 29, 2007, Steve Jobs unveiled the IPhone at MacWorld 2007. At the time the cell phone was dominated by Nokia and Blackberry with the occasional success from Motorola and the up and coming Samsung. Jobs and Apple took it to a new level. It was the phone everyone has had to have since its launch. It is the product which all other phones are measured against.

One would think that having innovated, invented, or coordinated the innovation and invention of the personal computer, the most intuitive operating system for personal computers, the iPad, and iPhone would be more than enough. Anyone of these products would have made for an amazing achievement and spectacular lifetime achievement. This was not enough for Steve Jobs and Apple. He may have saved his best for last. On January 26, 2010, the man introduced the iPad. The iPad (again the device upon which I am writing this tribute letter) is something new and and also something in-between. It is neither a smart phone nor is it a PC. Yet, it does some of what each of these devices do and it does more. It is something new and in-between.

The iPad runs on apps just like the iPhone. The bigger screen makes it a superior device for watching video, reading books, playing games, and other diversions. The smaller size, instant on, and quick response makes it more convenient and easier to use than a laptop. It is a revolutionary and evolutionary product that is taking the world by storm. It is amazing to see how people that owns them use them is such unique ways to serve their own interests and passions.

Why might the iPad be the best product Jobs ever shepherded into the market? The competition, simply, does not come close. While many looked at it as something evolutionary and inevitable, Apple surprised everyone and caught the competition a little flat footed and unprepared.

There was lots of press when the iPad was launched about how they market was about to be flooded with pad devices. Samsung, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, and Dell soon came out with their own products. They were all lackluster, despite the advertising campaigns, by comparison. Hewlett-Packard's product had such unimpressive results that they decided to pull it off of the market after just a few months. They reneged on the decision when their small but avid user base complained and decided simply to lower price. The only strategy that these competitors can possibly use is to drop their prices. The press is now rife with predictions of the next wave of newer cheaper pad devices with Amazon leading the way. We shall see.

When he introduced the iPad, he reported that in three short years since the introduction of the iPhone, Apple had become, in terms of revenue, the largest mobile device company in the world. It had become bigger than Sony, Samsung, and Nokia.

His genius was not just in the hardware. He has created an integrated the hardware, software, and how software is bought and managed. Apple under his tutelage created a integrated business supply system. There are Apple Stores for browsing, touching, trying, drooling, and buying devices and machines. Software, music, books, and other media flow from iTunes to the various Apple devices.

People that never owned an Apple product, save for perhaps the iPod, bought iPads and love them. They love them so much, they are moving to iPhones and MacPros when it is time for them to upgrade their other devices. iPhone, iPad, and MacBook Pro are the must have trio of business devices.

The world is expecting Apple to take this integration to the next level. The only thing missing from the suite of devices: interconnectivity and Apple launched their iCloud based file sharing this month. This allows the sharing of files between all of one’s Apple and Windows devices. This would include photos, music, books/magazines, and office suite files. It might also include apps. iCloud would allow one the ability to read one's books or listen to one's music on any of one's Apple devices.

Beyond the market share numbers and everything written above, there is a very visual way to see and understand the popularity of Apple and Apple products. Go to an Apple Store. Sit outside the store and take note of the traffic going into and out of the store. Notice how many people are leaving with purchases. If the store is in a mall, take note of the traffic going into and out the stores around the Apple Store. The traffic and comparisons will have as big an impact on how well Apple is doing as anything you might read in the business press. It would be interesting if we could see the traffic in and out of the iTunes store.

He was impressive in life. But, immediately upon his passing, it was as if the world as a whole truly realized how incredible this man was and how big a loss this has become for all of us.

· Top Ten Quotes of Steve Jobs

http://www.shockya.com/news/2011/10/08/top-10-steve-jobs-quotes/

· Steve Jobs - June 2005 Commencement Address Stanford University

http://news.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/jobs-061505.html

This Stanford University website contains both the text of Jobs famous speech and an embedded Youtube video. It is well worth the 15 minutes it takes to listen to this speech. Another website that I found, http://t.co/fOUH63PL, has summarized Steve’s seven rules of success:

1. Do what you love

2. Put a dent in the universe

3. Make connections

4. Say no to 1,000 things

5. Create insanely different experiences

6. Master the message

7. Sell dreams, not products

Not everyone, however, is enamored with the man or his memory. Someone in a discussion group I belonged to posted the following: “I predict that when the glitter settles, he will be largely remembered as a clever, obsessed guy, who made an enormous amount of money paying workers very little while getting top dollar from middle class consumers for prettier, slightly more reliable toys.” Another person in the same group provided a link to the darker side of Steve Jobs with “There is blood in those gadgets” and referred us to a blog posting: http://gawker.com/5847344/what-everyone-is-too-polite-to-say-about-steve-jobs

I started to respond to those postings in that discussion but it was running out of steam, so I thought I would respond to it here.

This whole debate in that discussion group took place with people around the world via... semaphore? smoke signals? Ah yes, we are using the www, the internet, using devices from a variety of manufacturers including servers, wires, chips of all kinds, bloody devices that have sped up the mining and dissemination of data, information, thoughts, and wisdom to practically the speed of light. We love the convenience. We are mostly blind to slimy underbelly of it all:

· Pollution: there is a huge issue in this silicon chipped device world we love. Obsolete batteries and devices in landfills are a pollution bomb of toxic materials and heavy metals we bequeath to future generations. The amount of electricity server farms suck up and the heat they generate is an issue that has been expounded upon in the press. We should worry about this every time we put finger to keyboard, cell phone, or tablet screen: toys many of us use all the time.

· Conditions in factories: All companies chase cheap labor around the world. The more fast paced and competitive the industry; the more this is true. We should think about this when we buy any new device made in any third world country. Even if the factory is well run respecting people. The workers are often displaced. Yet, they somehow take the jobs. Why? Simply it betters their lives even if it is the result of factories closing in the west.

Why just beat up on Steve Jobs? We all drive cars, wear clothes, eat meat, and enjoy electricity.

· Do we think of the pollution that cars spew out? The natural resources they consume? No we enjoy the convenience and freedom of conveyance.

· Do we think of the conditions in clothing factories when we buy a shirt made, undoubtedly in a sweatshop in some third world place? No... we need clothes and appreciate the low prices.

· Do we think of the conditions for animals and workers that produce meat in feed lots? Factories that hatch 250,000+ chickens a day and slaughter the same number 20 some days later? No, we appreciate the "everyday low prices" and seeming abundance of it all.

· Do we think about the amount of electricity we use to run every gizmo we own and light our house? Where does the coal come from that is used to fuel the power points? Who works in those coal mines anyway? No... we take electric light and the ability to make ourselves sleep deprived as some kind of basic human right.

We want all the conveniences of a modern life. Collectively, we want to have them at the lowest cost possible. Companies that provide these goods and services want to make as much money as they can in providing these goods and services to us. Very few companies and leaders can constantly innovate and hit more than their share of home runs. Akio Morita and Steve Jobs are from the same cut of cloth in my opinion. They are very rare and special business leaders.

Are we collectively willing to do with less and pay more for what we do get simply in order to make the world a little better for everyone? Versus making it a whole lot better for just me? Or just you? The answer from the majority is a very loud NO WAY.

Lastly, I imagine Steve Jobs was driven, ambitious, and very hard on people at times. I imagine as that he could be one offensive SOB. Good coaches and motivators from the ranks of business, warfare, and government are often that way. They have to be in order to get their troops to be aligned with and act on their vision. To do great things, organizations have to be yanked in the direction the visionary leader sees as the direction to go. The organizational inertia wants to do what is known and comfortable. It will never stumble in the direction the visionary wants it to go in the same way consumers will never tell companies what the next innovative breakthrough product should be.

Addendum: I wanted to keep this part separate from the above tribute to Steve Jobs. Again, upon his passing emails were sent in Armenian circles with the subject: Steve Jobs spoke fluent Armenian.

My first reaction while waiting for the email to open was "Huh??" If that were true, why hadn't I heard about it. This is definitely something the Armenian community would want to tout and be proud of: Steve Jobs is Armenian. Who woulda thunk.

I had made an extrapolation on the subject that Steve Jobs spoke Armenian. He is not Armenian per se. He was adopted by John and Clara Jobs who raised him. His adoptive mother is Armenian. Her maiden name is Hagopian. http://www.tert.am/en/news/2011/10/06/jobsarmenian/

Even the Turkish Newspaper, Today's Zaman, carried a similar story with the headline, "Steve Jobs adoptive Armenian mother has Anatolian roots. Clara Hagopian Jobs family were from Malatya and immigrated to United States following the "1915 incidents.”

His birth father was a Syrian Muslim. I am sure that both Arabs and Muslims are noting this positively for the same reasons both Armenians and Turks are doing so: some part of his genius must be due to his (...fill in the blank...) background.

Muammar Khaddafi

2011-10-21T12:28:00.001-05:00

Yesterday, Muamar Khaddafi was killed in his hometown of Sirte. He was wounded in the final battle of the liberation of Libya. He was found hiding in a drainage pipe by the vanquishing combatants. Their hatred for him was so intense that instead of getting him medical attention, they opted to humiliate the dying dictator dragging him through the streets from the back of a pick-up truck.

That was the story yesterday. Today, there are conflicting reports. He is still dead. It is just the circumstances. He may have been in better health upon capture than first reported. Now there are reports that someone shot him in the gut when he was captured and that is the wound that killed him.

Khaddafi was as the LA Tiimes obituary called him in their opening lines. "In the modern pantheon of the world's dictators, Moammar Khaddafi stood apart. Far apart." He was ambitious, ruthless, flamboyant, tough, congenial, calculating, self-serving, charming, and what the LA Times also called "cartoonish."

From afar dictators like Khaddafi, Hussein, Chavez, and Castro can look comical. They rant. They rave. They wear ridiculous uniforms. Some of these characters routinely orate to captive audiences for 4 or more hours. They write little black, red, yellow, or green books of their vision and "insights" that they make everyone in the country read. From afar they look comical and perhaps even harmless. In their countries, however, it is quite the opposite. People are deathly afraid of their ego driven cruelty designed to create loyal cowering subjects. You can be in one minute and being tortured the next. You can be arrested for no apparent reason and perhaps never seen again. Sometimes, the world gets a taste of their mania firsthand like when Khaddafi had that nightclub in Berlin bombed or when he brought down Pan Am 103 blown out of the sky.

Khaddafi was more flamboyant than any of them. Google his name and click on images. His costumes over the years are really something to see. The one pictured here is for some reason my favorite though they are all colorful and comical. He may have been a cartoon character to the world, but to his people, he was as tough, cruel, and ruthless as any of the dictators. He clamped down viciously fighting to his own death when the Arab Spring came to Libya. The world was horrified at his reaction and level of violence he brought to his own people. He was not about to lose power. He was not about to be told by anyone how he should govern or that he needed to make reforms.

Yet, like many others he could be charming. He decided to change and be more of international player especially after the US bombed his country. Khaddafi did convince, until this Libyan Spring, that he was a better global citizen. Once his true colors re-emerged in the past several months, it seems like the entire world turned against him. It seemed like it was what the European NATO countries needed to take the action they had long wanted to take against him. Everyone seemed happy to see him killed today. It is reminiscent of the killing of Bin Laden earlier this year.

He challenged the US a few times over the 40 years he ruled Libya. In the 1980s we challenged him twice. After he bombed the nightclub in Berlin killing and wounding US soldiers, President Reagan authorized an air strike on Libya, targeting Khaddafi’s living quarters. People were killed in this raid including an adopted daughter of Khaddafi. A US government spokesperson was asked if the goal was to kill Khaddafi. I will never forget the answer, “If you bomb someone’s home at 2 in the morning… presumably.”

In the same decade, the United Nations agreed that a country’s territorial extendted to twelve miles from the shoreline. Khaddafi decided to defy this and extend Libya’s to something more. This led to a US – Libya confrontation. The US began flying sorties from Mediterranean based aircraft carriers into the airspace between the UN and Libyan territorial water borders. We did it to challenge and taunt the Libyans i.e. Khaddafi. Two Libyan fighter jets, of Soviet vintage if memory serves me correct, fired on two US fighters. The US jets were beyond the range of the Libyan missiles. The missiles fell into the sea. The funny part to me at the time was that the Libyan jets were within the range of the missiles the US jets were carrying. The US pilots were given the OK to engage. They did. Splash. Splash. Both Libyan fighters were destroyed.

The video that I saw yesterday morning was on the New York Post website was taken with someone’s cell phone and was jumpy and erratic. It should a bloody Khaddafi being manhandled by his captors. He passively waved his hands which was all the resistance he could muster in his weakened state. All the while someone was shouting “Allah Akbar.” He was held by the shoulders at the edge of a pick-up truck. His feet were the only things to be dragging in the street. They were jostling him around and pulling on his hair. They did this instead of getting him medical help. They denied him any kind of show a trial might have afforded.

This morning there were photos of a dead Khaddafi lying in the street. It did not look like the same person as in the video yesterday. So who knows?

Glad he is out of power. Best of luck to the Libyans. May they create a new government that allows the people to live freely and prosper.

Michigan State 24 - Michigan 14

2011-10-16T22:47:00.000-05:00

This is my third football posting in as many weeks. I must be a frustrated sportswriter...

October 14: I left Illinois this afternoon at 3 pm and headed east on 1-94. I was going to Detroit. I am visiting my parents and attending the Michigan - Michigan State Game which will take place in E. Lansing tomorrow at noon. I am going with my good friend Jack Hachigian, his family, and friends. He gives me a ticket when the game is at Spartan Stadium. I reciprocate when the game is in Ann Arbor.

It should be a good game tomorrow. Michigan, somehow, is rated in the top ten and Michigan State is in the high teens. I am not sure how Michigan is rated above Michigan State especially given that the Spartans are favored by three over the Wolverines!? But such is the dichotomies of college football subjective rankings.

This will be the best game in the past few years. The Spartans have won the last three games. If they win tomorrow, it will be the first time MSU won four in a row over Michigan since the 1950s. I sure hope that doesn't happen.

There are lots of such instate rivalries: Iowa - Iowa State, USC - UCLA, Auburn - Alabama, Florida - Florida State, and Washington - Washington State to name a few. Around here, where I grew up in Detroit, there is no other in state rivalry that matches Michigan vs. Michigan State. But, I bet they say the same thing in Alabama, Florida, Oklahoma, and Iowa. The announcers will always say it is for in state bragging rights not only of the players but for the fans as well.

I am a different kind of fan. I fully understand that you cannot have a rivalry without the rival. I also understand that for a rivalry has to be close to 50-50 in victories. If one team dominates the other year after year, the passion dissipates. The rivalry becomes lame. It has to be evenly matched to maintain the intensity. Not everyone sees it like me. Most want to pound the other team into a pulp every year winning 63-0. These folks do not understand the dynamics of a good rivalry.

When it comes to Michigan State, I generally like the Spartans. I tell anyone and everyone that the Spartans are my second favorite team in any college sport. I want them only to lose to Michigan, but I want them to beat everyone else. It is that simple. If they beat Michigan in football or basketball, I want them to win the Big Ten and a National Championship. I enjoyed the basketball success of the school since Magic Johnson was there. I am glad that their football program is reborn and competitive under the tutelage of Coach Dantonio. He has done a great job.

There is an exception, actually two exceptions: Ohio State and Southern Cal. I like seeing these teams lose as many games as possible. I am not sure why? It may be their obnoxious attitudes. I do believe Ohio State and their fans are actually poor winners (you heard that term coined here first). Something is wrong when collectively the team and fans are poor winners. If you ask me who my favorite team is, I am likely to answer Michigan and then Michigan State. I am equally likely to answer, Michigan and whoever is playing Ohio State. When Ohio State and Southern Cal play, I wonder if it is possible for both teams to lose.

Having said this, and had my little hissy fit, I cannot really hate Ohio State. As I said, there is no rivalry without the rival. Furthermore, the series has to kind of be 50-50. It was great fun, but not a great rivalry when we beat them 10 out of 12 times in the late 1980s and 1990s. It has been out right dismal and also not a great rivalry in this century when Ohio State has turned the tables on us and won like 8-9 games in a row. The Ohio State and Michigan rivalry has not been that great in the past 20 years. It has been lopsided. Now, in the famed ten year war between Woody and Bo, the record was 5-4-1 in favor of Bo. It was crazy intense and really took the game to another level.

That is what I want for Michigan State and Michigan. I want Hoke and Dantonio to commence a ten year war tomorrow. It would be a blessing to both schools and their fans. I am totally OK with us winning the first round.

October 15: Well for all the hype and all the excitement, Michigan is not yet ready to resume this rivalry. We lost today, 28-14.

The Spartan defense was just too good for the Michigan offense. We were held to just 250 yards which is the lowest production of the year for our high powered offense. Michigan relies on the running game, specifically the running game of quarterback Denard Robinson. The MSU defense was aggressive, tough, and quite skilled. They held the Wolverines to a mere 82 yards rushing. Coming into this game, Denard Robinson was the leading rusher in the Big Ten. Today, I am sure he is nursing his banged and bruised body from the punishment doled out by the Spartans. The Spartan defense put pressure on the Michigan quarterbacks the entire game. In the second half, they seemed to sack our QB with increasing frequency. Their defensive front are monsters... very fast and agile monsters.

The Spartans came out of the tunnel on fire. They were pretty jacked up. That intensity and excitement was not contained. They were penalized 13 times for 124 yards. Something like six of these penalties were for late hits, roughing the passer, and unnecessary roughness. Late in the 4th Quarter they knocked Denard out of the game by slamming him to the turf after he had already passed the ball. That resulted in a roughing the passer penalty. I have to believe beating our guys up was part of their strategy.

Before the game I thought we would score some points and the game would be settled by our defense versus their offense. Their offense scored 21 points on our defense. I had assumed our potent offense would finally rack up some points on MSU. I was wrong. Our first down productivity was not very good. We seemed to be facing 2nd and 10 or 8 on every series. Our second down productivity was not much better.

I knew we were mis-matched most of the game. We were clearly a better team than the last few years, but still not ready for the prime time. We were clearly not deserving of our high ranking in the poll. We will no doubt move down and the Spartans should definitely move up.

While I knew we were mis-matched as the game progressed into the 2nd Quarter. I began to get upset and angry. I did not realize how much or why until about twenty minutes after the game ended. Now, there is no reason to get upset at a football game simply because they represent a school I graduated from in 1974 and 1978. I should not really be upset because of the main fact that I had no control or influence on the outcome of the game... no matter how much I yelled or cheered. I probably have very little in common with most of the so called students playing for either team. Most of them could not have gotten into either school if they had to rely on their academics alone. Yet, I am not alone in this living and dying with our teams.

I knew my being upset and angry was due, simply, to the fact that I had drunk the Kool-Aid that my team was back and competitive. I was mostly upset and angry with myself for not being more rational and objective about our status. The State fans were proud and happy as well they should be. The Sparty fans did not lord their victory over us either. They were gracious. Most of them thought that the game was in question until Denard was intercepted in the 4th Quarter that was run back for the final score of the game. I realized that my being upset and angry was exactly how the Spartan fans felt for many years between the Duffy Dougherty glory years of the 1950s-1960s until Mark Dantanio won the first of this current run of four in a row.

People in the same row were I was sitting unfurled a banner that read "Who is arrogant now??? 4-0." They were referring to a term, Arrogant Asses, that a former MSU coach used when referencing the University of Michigan and their fans. It was said in frustration with the lopsided record and, truly, our arrogant attitude in that regard. We had a superiority complex and they had a serious inferiority complex. I looked at the sign and did not like it. But, the truth is the truth. I had to rely on the philosophical belief that we are improving and the last haven of the recently beaten... wait until next year.

I have seen the look of how I was feeling and no doubt was easily discerned from my visage. I have seen that feeling in the eyes and body language of my good friend and host for the day, Jack Hachigian, several times when Michigan beat MSU. I remember when he stood next to me at the famous triple overtime game when Michigan, who was pushed around most of the game, came back to tie the game and then win it in dynamic fashion in three overtimes. It was one of the great victories for Michigan in the series. It was one of the most bitter defeats for MSU and their fans. This loss for us was nowhere near as bitter. In fact, if we had taken the game to multiple OTs, I would have felt we were on equal footing again with our in-state rivals.

We shall see what next year brings...

Wall Street Protests

2011-10-12T21:30:00.000-05:00

There are protests on Wall Street. Hundreds of these protesters were arrested a few Sundays on the Brooklyn Bridge and more recently in Boston. What is going on? Who are these people? What are they protesting about?

I am not sure if I am an average Joe or not. But, I suspect neither Joe, Mrs. Joe, nor anyone of the little Joe’s understand what this protest is all about. I for sure do not have a clue what this whole thing is about. But, that is one of the beauties of blogging. I can decide to write a piece about something that I do not know enough about and thus am forced to research it. The research is quite easy in this internet age. Twenty years ago? I would have probably just dropped this whole thing as simply being too much trouble.

My cousin Lindsay had just texted me in Google Chat. So, I decided to begin my ad hoc, unscientific poll, beginning with her. To read more on Lindsay, check out my blog posting of how we met Cousin Lindsay Blog

me: do you have any idea what these wall street protests are about

Lindsay: i was just reading another article now. i agree with many of their claims and its a peaceful protest. i think what's been going on with the arab spring/summer finally came full circle and [my generation] is fed up and stepping up

me: so you have some clue? can you send an article with a list

Lindsay: though the thing is, corporate america only gets away with it for one reason. our government. washington is as corrupt (if not more)

me: so it is a generational thing?

Lindsay: just emailed you the "declaration." i think most protesters are younger....considering boomers have more at stake to rise against the status quo (we don't even have jobs to be fired from!!!)

me: is there a website where the declaration came from
(sorry for all these questions. I am totally fascinated)

Lindsay: i got it from this article: Article from The Raw Story

She clearly is in tune and sympathetic with this movement. I soon will be in tune with it... sympathy may or may not follow.

I followed the link to the article which in turn had a link to the

#OCCUPYWALLSTREET is a people powered movement for democracy that began in America on September 17 with an encampment in the financial district of New York City. Inspired by the Egyptian Tahrir Square uprising and the Spanish acampadas, we vow to end the monied corruption of our democracy … join us! We're now in DAY 19. http://www.adbusters.org/campaigns/occupywallstreet

The New York Times calls this “a noble but fractured and airy movement of rightly frustrated young people.” NYT Bellafonte 9-23-11. This simply was not on my radar screen. I really did not know about this until that weekend of 9-23. We were in New York for a wedding. We were staying near LaGuardia Airport as the church and catering hall were in Queens. I awoke Sunday to news that protesters were arrested in mass crossing the Brooklyn Bridge. I was totally unaware.

I do not blame this movement of mostly young people. The American Dream has been taken from them, hijacked, by the loss of our manufacturing base. They see that multinationals just do not think very much in our National interest, so they blame Wall Street. Are they not getting the coverage they deserve because they do not deserve any coverage or is it because what we used to call “the man” is not covering it on purpose.

Nicolas Kristof, the esteemed New York Times Op-Ed columnist, has likened this movement to those in the Arab Spring. He specifically channeled Tahrir Square. This raised a lot of eyebrows. But, I can see it. A generation not only seems but are disenfranchised from the American Dream. They are raring to go... but there are no jobs. Corporations are doing better and making money again but it is a jobless recovery. Efficiencies and globalization include the American consumer as part of the recovery but not the American workforce. I believe this is at the heart of this nascent movement.

People in my generation are not relating to the frustration of the generation that relates to and is driving this protest. Kristof took heat for likening this to the Egyptian Tahrir Square protests.

There is plenty of frustration to go around. We are in a state of flux in this country. We are experienced the global economic equilibrium being reset. The reset is not necessarily in our favor. Our being on the losing end of things makes the reset painful for us. The pain is felt by my generation that cannot retire as early as we had hoped. For a great number of us the idea of any kind of retirement at all seems to have evaporated. While this is tough sledding for us, we grin and bear it. Well, maybe we scowl and bear it. The bottom line is we bear it. There is not much we can do. We know we way closer to the end of our careers, the end of our working and producing days, so we endure and make the best of things. We try to make ends meet and hold on to whatever employment we have.

For the generation of my cousin Lindsay, it is a whole different matter. They are at the very beginning of their work life. They are freshly minted adults. They are ready to get going. They want to get going. They have gone to school, selected fields of studies, and worked hard to graduate. They are raring to go. For way too many of them, there is just no place to go. There are not nearly enough entry level career type jobs for them to go into.

This does not stop that generation. They go and get a part time job, maybe two, perhaps three. They do what they have to do to be as independent as they can be. They nanny, work at Starbucks, work in retail, whatever it takes. They return to school for advanced degrees. The return to school for a more marketable bachelors degree or certifications. What I like about the young people I have seen is that they do not give up and they realize the new normal better than any of their elders. Perhaps it is because this is the only normal they have ever known.

I can see their frustration with the Wall Street. I can see where they are fed up and want to do something, anything, about it. They see it is time for a new paradigm. Perhaps it is.

If anyone is to buck the status-quo it is young people. My generation did so in the late 1960s and early 1970s for civil rights and against the war in Vietnam. We were full of hope that we would change the world. That is not quite right. We believed we would change the world. Until this recent protest, the youth of this country has not been too awfully rebellious since the days of Woodstock.

The big twist in all of this is that the protestors against Wall Street are kind of blaming us. To them we are now “the man.”

The Detroit Lions

2011-10-10T23:33:00.004-05:00

Who are these guys?

There is 7:30 left in the game and the Lions are leading the Chicago Bears 21-10. They look dominant.

Dominant? The Detroit Lions? Are you kidding me? They have had the worst record in the NFL for the past ten years.

I am watching Monday Night Football. The Detroit Lions are playing the Chicago Bears. The Lions are 4-0 and there has been a lot of buzz around and about this team. This is their best start since the early 1980s. If they win tonight, 5-0 will be their best start since 1956. 1956! They are on the cover of magazines. This is the first time they are on Monday Night Football since 2001.

I am not fully sold on the buzz and hype. Why not?

Why not indeed? I am very leery of buying in too deeply. The Detroit Lions and I have a dismal and agonizing history of me buying in, wanting them to do well, and them letting me down... horribly. Every year, hope sprung eternal in August as the NFL season was about to start only to be crushed and ground into the dirt almost as soon as the season began.

It is like Honolulu Blue and Silver were cursed colors. To me they were. I got all my football joy from the Michigan Wolverines. They were winners; the Lions were losers... every year after agonizing year.

There were moments of hope. They had recruited Nick Eddy, a Heisman Trophy Winner from Notre Dame in the 1960's. There was a lot of hype about Nick joining the Lions. I do believe that Nick Eddy twisted his knee getting off the bus in Detroit. Maybe it happened in the preseason of his rookie year. He was never what they had recruited him to be after the injury. Nick Eddy never panned out. He was the first in a long line of Lion personnel disappointments. In his first game on his first play as a Lion quarterback, Chuck Long, the famed Iowa star, threw a bomb for a touchdown. Yes! We finally have a quarterback (go ahead name a famous Lion quarterback since Bobby Layne? I dare you). That was the highlight of Long's career with the Lions.

They recruited the famous Barry Sanders in 1989. He was one of the most explosive, artistic, and entertaining runners in NFL history. I bought in, again. Who wouldn't have?. Barry Sanders did not let me or anyone else down. He was brilliant. He was electrifying. I was so sure the Lions would build a team around him and go to a Super Bowl just like the Chicago Bears did around Walter Payton. They sadly, painfully, agonizingly (why do I keep using this word to describe my relationship with this team) did not. It was the curse of the Honolulu Blue and Silver.

When I moved to New York in 1990, the New York Giants had a great season. The won the Super Bowl. For me, it was like... cool beans. I had no problem becoming a Giant fan. I did not leave the Lions behind, well maybe a little; I just added the Giants. Then in 2006 when I moved to Chicago, the Bears went to the Super Bowl. Double cool. I added the Bears to my favorites. Heck, I thought I had some kind of special mojo that by simply moving to a town, their football team would go to the Super Bowl. I even thought about moving back to Detroit just to help out the hapless Lions.

Lions: what a great name for a team. Lions are powerful, majestic, and if I am not mistaken often referred to as the King of the Beasts. The Detroit Lions? Not so much.

I grew up following the Lions, Pistons, and Red Wings. The Tigers won few World Series for me, they were more than OK with me. The Pistons finally won a few championships in the 1990s. The Red Wings followed suit and have taken a few Stanley Cups in the 1990s and 2000s. Only the Lions continued to disappoint.

The game just ended and the Lions won 24-13. The headline on an ESPN website was "Roaring Lions." Finally. I hope it lasts.

There are only two undefeated teams in the NFL: The Detroit Lions and The Green Bay Packers. Wow. Five games into the season and the Detroit Lions are one of two undefeated teams. Go figure. I sure hope it continues. The D could sure use it.

I am in Michigan this coming weekend to go to the Michigan vs. Michigan State game on Saturday. I just may have to invest in a Lions t-shirt and hat.

I might look good in Honolulu Blue and Silver.

September 2011: Michigan vs. Notre Dame and 9-11

2011-09-27T20:50:00.001-05:00

It is the 23^rd of September. It is the first day of autumn which is myfavorite season. It is the 23^rdof September and it is a cool Chicago day, breezy, with billowy clouds. When the sun did pour through, it was theglorious gold color that makes this many people’s favorite season.

We are in week four of the college football season. Michigan is again 3-0. The Wolverines beat Notre Dame two weeks agofor the third year in a row. It was aspectacular game and an amazing spectacle. It was the first night game at Michigan Stadium. They had installed lights last year.

Michigan was lucky to win the game. Notre Dame had jumped out to an earlylead. Their offense was, for the secondyear in a row, cutting through the Michigan offense like that veritable knifethrough butter. This was the second yearin which Notre Dame did this in the first quarter. Notre Dame looked invincible on offense anddefense. Michigan’s statistics weredismal. They had only one first down inthe entire first quarter.

Not only that, Michigan was behind the entire game. They underperformed Notre Dame in everystatistic, at least through the first threequarters. Notre Dame was leading 24-7and it appeared like they would cruise on to their first win of the season. It looked like they would hand Michigan theirfirst loss under their new head coach Brady Hoke.

But, as I said, Michigan was lucky and won the game. For Michigan, luck had long dreadlocked hair, wore number16, and played quarterback. Luck had a name: DenardRobinson. For the second year in a row,he was the difference in this classic rivalry.

In the fourth quarter, Denard ran and passed. Heevaded tackles making the Notre Dame Defenders look hoodwinked and slow. They were hoodwinked by the most artful dodgerplaying the college game today. Theywere all slower than Demard but then everyoneis slower than Denard.

Michigan scored 28 points in the fourth quarter to win thisgame. That is four touchdowns. Wow. They did not take their first lead until there was only 1:12 left in thegame: 28-24. The crowd was insane. We looked like we were going to three peatagainst Notre Dame. Unbelievable. Un-called for. Crazy. Lucky.

All the Wolverines had to do was hold the Fighting Irish for theremaining one minute and change left in the game. They could do this. The defense really lookedbetter than the past few years. Even though they started slow ineach game. The difference between thisyear and last year is that the defense stayed lackluster throughout each andevery game last year. This year in thethree games thus far, under the tutelage of Coach Greg Mattison the biggestdifference is that the defense adjusts. They get run over early in the game and then they adapt and get better.

So, the entire Michigan part of the record breaking crowd had someconfidence that our beloved team could hold Notre Dame and win the game.

We were all wrong.

They got the ball on their own 39 yard line. Tommy Reese, their own talented sophomore QB,had a little magic of his own to display. The Lake Forest High School grad drove the Irish to a touchdown on fourpasses. Bam! Notre Dame regained the lead 31-24.

There was only 30 seconds left on the clock. Things pretty much looked over for like the second or third time in this game. Michigan fans began to trudge out of thestadium. The few Notre Dame fans werefeeling pretty good about things. Therewere, after all, only thirty seconds left.

Denard Robinson, however, was still our quarterback.

Notre Dame kicked off and Michigan began on their own 20 yardline. On the first play, Jeremy Gilliam,a Michigan receiver found himself all alone in the right flat and Denardcompleted a pass to him. Gilliamscampered for a net gain of 64 yards. Wow… again! Michigan now foundthemselves on the Notre Dame 16 yard line with like 10 seconds left. On the next play, Denard hit Roy Roundtreefor a touchdown. Thank you. Easy work. Well, amazing work that looked easy. Voila. In two plays, Michigan hadthe lead again 35-31.

There was only 2 seconds left in the game.

At this point, it really seemed like this one was in the bag. Yet, in this game, who knows? They could run back the kick-off andwin. They did not. On the kick-off, Notre Dame fumbled, the ballwent out of the Notre Dame end zone, and the game ended. The Michigan fans were ecstatic and the NotreDame fans were stunned.

Here is a YouTube of the last 1:41 of the game captures the last21 points of the game. Scoring 21 pointsin the last two minutes of the game is completely wild. You see the jubliant Wolverines when theyscored with 1:12 left in the game to take a 28-24 lead. Then watch Notre Dame turn the tables andretake the lead 31-28 with just 30 seconds left in the game. It seemed over, but oh no. Michigan scored again. No matter how, oranyone, writes it up, you get the full magnitude of what these two teams didthat night. It is the final 1:41 of thegame, but it is 13:33 minutes long. http://www.youtube.com/watch?y=ZsHbCfgPA1c&feature=related

Win or lose, it was a great game. Someone had to win though both teams played valiantly. It is easier for the winning side to say thatfor sure but I saw it in the Notre Dame fans I talked to as they left thestadium. We all felt the same. We were lucky to win. It is a win nonetheless.

I have been on the other side of games like that where my team hasbeat the other team on almost every statistic except the score. No matter what, it is the final score thatcounts. So, I had empathy for the NotreDame fans.

Just upon entering the stadium, we got maize colored pom-poms(sticks with streamers on them). Ialmost did not take one, thinking that I would never use it. But I did take one and was amazed, or perhapsamaized, that I was waving it around every time something exciting happened andevery time they played the Michigan Fight Song. Here is a YouTube of the student sectionwith everyone waving their pom-poms. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0j2UNqVSKjo

When the game ended we sat in the stands just letting everyoneelse clear out and to give the traffic a head start. It was midnight and the band did their postgame show. My cousin’s son, hence mysecond cousin Avo, and his buddy James were sitting in the section next toours. I texted him and he was still in the stadium, so they walked over and we debriefed the game. It was a very special night.

The team wore throw back jerseys to the early days when Michiganand Notre Dame played. We bought them, Iwore the Michigan jersey and Judy wore the Notre Dame one. People called us a house divided. Some of the inebriated students were not sokind to Judy, but she would give them the “that is unacceptable young man” lookand most apologized.

It was a great evening of football. This is longest streak of wins for Michigansince they won the first eight games they played against Notre Dame from1887-1908. Notre Dame had a streak offour wins from 1987-1990.

This is certainly a classic rivalry.

9-11-11: Michigan and Notre Dame squared off on Saturday evening of September10. When we left the stadium it wasSunday, September 11^th. Therewere commemorations during the game for the 10^th Anniversary of9-11. While playing and singing GodBless America, the names of the eighteen University of Michigangraduates who lost their lives that day scrolled down the huge video scoreboard. It was a nice tribute.

During half-time, two Rangers parachuted into the stadium. That was something. They both had video cameras attached to theirharnesses. The video showed on thejumbotron. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0j2UNqVSKjo

I enjoyed the game. I washappy with the win. Looking at thevideos, I am just getting the full measure of how exciting the end of the gamewas. But, I was kind of reserved at the game. Why was I not ecstatic? It was partially due to fact that Michiganhad a lot of luck going to get that win. But, I believe it was also partially due to the 9-11 anniversary.

When driving from Lake Forest to Ann Arbor, I could not help butwonder and fear that this game would be a perfect stage for a terrorist attack. Thankfully, there was none. Thankfully, there were none anywhere in theUS. There was a threat in NYC butnothing happened with the arrest of a couple of suspects. I am sure my fears of terrorism at footballgames comes from the 1977 Black Sundaymovie and Tom Clancy’s The Sum of AllFears.

On September 9^th, I got an email from Luis Solana afriend and colleague from Colgate. Hewrote, “Ten years ago on Sunday, we were in Brazil. How to forget!” How to forget indeed?

It has been ten years since the 9-11-01 attacks that brought downthe World Trade Center towers in New York City, damaged the Pentagon inWashington, DC, and the crash of fourth plane in Pennsylvania when thepassengers fought and kept that plane from ever reaching its target in DC. It seems like ten years and it seems likejust a minute. These kinds of eventswhen you remember exactly where you were and what you were doing when ithappened are like that.

In my lifetime, this was the biggest. It overshadowed the murders of John F.Kennedy, Martin Luther King, and Robert Kennedy. It overshadows the death of Princess Diana,and our landing of a man on the moon. Idid not live through the Pearl Harbor attack by the Japanese that triggered ourinvolvement in WWII. That may have beenequivalent. I will have to ask myparents, who experienced both.

Ten years ago, I was living in Connecticut and working inManhattan. On that fateful Tuesday, Icould have easily been in the city at the Colgate-Palmolive offices on ParkAvenue. I wasn't. I was in Sao Paulo, Brazil. I was part of a task force that was there toreview the customer service and logistics operations of our subsidiarythere. Stan Brothers, Jim Davis, AlbertoCardona, and I left on Sunday evening. Luis Solana joined us but he travelled from Miami where he was living atthe time.

We spent Monday preparing for the activity with the Brazilianteam. We reviewed and revised the agendaand our roles and responsibilities. Weasked for and analyzed more data. Stanwas the supply chain finance person on the team. The rest of us were supply chainprofessionals. I had responsibility forLatin America, so I was very interested in the results of this task force.

We kicked off the meeting with the Brazil Team at 8:30 am onTuesday morning. We had the VPs ofFinance, Operations, and Customer Service and Logistics in the meeting alongtheir key directors and managers. Wewere going through the overview presentation, basically their standard businessreview slide deck, by the Brazilian team when Luciano Sieber came into theconference room and blurted out that a plane had just crashed into the WorldTrade Center. We were taken aback. We asked many questions but Luciano had no more information. We just assumed that it was an accident dueto poor air traffic control or a bad private pilot. We resumed the meeting.

What seemed like just a few minutes later, Luciano burst into theroom again. He was more agitated andshouted that another plane had crashed into the other tower of the World TradeCenter. This was clearly noaccident. While we sat there trying tomake sense of things with limited information, Charlie Catlett, the VP ofOperations, got a call on his cell phone from his wife. She told Charlie that New York andWashington, DC were under attack and that planes had crashed into the WhiteHouse, the Capital Dome, and the Pentagon. Under attack?? It sounded direand wide scale. Our meeting fellapart. We were done for that day.

We immediately hit the internet looking for information only torealize that the attacks were nearly not broad as Charlie's wife hadreported. We also realized the attackswere so unexpected, brazen, and shocking that the news machine was stunned andon its collective heels. There wasalmost no information the CNN, The New York Times, USA Today, and otherwebsites. The whole country and wholeworld was stunned. The lack of immediateinformation in the immediate information age was amazing.

The media did catch up. Once it got revved up, it was relentless, 24/7, and our eyes were gluedto the TV. We went back to our hotel andjust watched CNN International. Wecalled each other while watching the coverage. "Did you see that?" "Have you heard from your family?" There was a lot of "wows" and"OMGs!" One of us, got tiredof watching, the news and calling home, and suggested that we go grab a quickdinner. We all agreed. And what did we talk about at dinner? What had happened in New York, there was noother subject.

Then we went back to our rooms and watched more. We looked at the same footage over and overagain. The towers were forever engulfedin flame and smoke; people were jumping to their deaths; there were talkingheads of every imaginable leader and analyst. There was nothing new and yet we watched. We could not help but watch.

The next day we tried to get back to business. We actually worked and accomplished ourmission there. We worked to take ourminds off the multitude of thought and worries that were on all our minds. We worried about the same things everyoneelse worried about. Would there be otherattacks? How had these events changedour lives, our business, and our families? Did we know anyone that had perished in the attacks?

We also worried about something else. How and when were we going to head home? All travel was suspended. Indefinitely. I called our head of corporate security toget his take on things. There issomething in such a crisis that became quite clear. No one knew what was going on. People were giving advice and opinion withimperfect information. They were settingpolicy because they had to. Then thepolicy and advice would change as events unfolded or in this case didn't.

We were told not to fly US carriers home. OK, that kind of made sense. Then we heard, while watching CNN so much atnight, that if and when air travel resumed, it would resume internationallyonly for US airlines. We soughtclarification and realized that we were basically on our own. It was no problem, we were in good hands withour colleagues in Brazil. But, Wednesdayand Thursday, we had no clue how long we would be in Brazil.

On Friday, we heard the first flights to the US would beleaving. As fate would have it, we endedup on our scheduled return flight which was the first plane to leave Brazil forthe US.

It is hard to believe it has been ten years. I replied to Luis and copied Stan, Jim, andAlberto. We have a 9-11bond and emaileach other every year.

Watching Paint Dry

2011-09-19T21:31:00.002-05:00

There was a segment in the Beatles Yellow Submarine movie. It is the only segment that I remember. It was only a minute long but it seemed so much longer. It was watching a clock , animated in that psychedelic manner, tick off the seconds to one minute. There were trying to illustrate the line "Sixty-four years is 33661440 minutes, and one minute is a long time.” They were also trying to provide an enhanced experience to those watching the movie in an enhanced state of mind.

Basically, time is relative. A minutes can fly by if one is engaged and engrossed in work or an interesting task. I am amazed by how quickly time flies when I am surfing YouTube for new Armenian, Greek, and Turkish music videos. Waiting in line at a check-out can be an eternity.

When you are doing something you enjoy doing or are very interested in, time can fly by. When you are bored waiting and would rather be doing something else, one minute seems like a long time. It is like watching paint dry.

I first heard that phrase, watching paint dry, when my children were on the Wilton Wahoo Swim Team back in the early 1990s. Swim meets were day long events where it is hot and humid with chlorine scented atmosphere. Parents are there for the long haul, sitting, and waiting for the one minute out of every two hours that their kid is actually participating. No matter what you bring to read or do, boredom is inevitable. It is like watching paint dry.

To say that golf is popular in the US is an understatement. More men my age express their passion for the game than for any other pastime. Not only do people play it whenever they can, they watch it on TV in numbers that boggle my mind. Guys that I know will watch it, discuss it, and marvel over it like I would do for college football. I do not play golf much, but I do enjoy it when I do. It is good to be out with buddies. Plus, I get to smoke a cigar or two which is always a good thing. One thing I will not do, however, is watch golf on TV. It really is like watching paint dry.

Why write a little bloggy bit about watching paint dry? There is certainly a potential for cuteness as long as I keep it short and sweet. (I may have already exceeded that limit!)

I am writing this because of my buddy, my pal, Ara Topouzian. In either an email or text exchange, he got on about some of my recent blog topics. Tongue in cheek, he said “you’ll write about anything that comes to your mind won’t you, even if it is like watching paint dry. Hey there is a topic for you, Watching Paint Dry. Why don’t you write about that?”

So I have. Ara this one is for you.

Postal Woes

2011-09-08T07:30:00.003-05:00

The news has been abuzz with reports of the dire economic condition of the United States Postal Service. With the advent of e-mail practically eliminating the mailing of letters and the rise of first UPS and then FedEx for parcels and overnight documents, the USPS has lost volumes of business. Their business is the litany of junk mail we all get, magazines, the parcels people still send with the them, and whatever vestige of personal notes, cards, and letters people still send. The mass mail that they deliver to each address in the United States on a daily basis is mostly less than the First Class or Premium rates. Even at that the USPS rates seem more competitive than their for profit competitors.

While their volumes are down, they have until quite recently maintained the infrastructure of Post Offices in every Zip Code along with the mail carriers and the vehicles used to have the mail carriers make their rounds six days a week. There is a lot of overhead to carry and a lot of real estate and capital equipment to maintain. So, the USPS is saddled with a costly infrastructure, pricing that generates less revenue than their competitors, and a charter that does not allow them to operate as efficiently if they were a for profit business.

This past week, I need to mail two Michigan vs. Western Michigan Football tickets to my sister Ani in Michigan. I had Ani if she could use the tickets with ample time to simply put them in an envelope, put a stamp on it, and mail them. That would have cost 44¢. They were not sure if they could use the tickets until the last minute. When they gave me the thumbs up, I had to use an expedited service. I chose to go to a UPS store across from my client’s office rather than drive another 15 minutes to the closest Post Office. If I had gone to the Post Office, I would have filled out a form and maybe would have had to wait in line to send it Express Mail for overnight to second day for $18.30. At the UPS store, it was painless. I did not have to wait in line. I did not have to fill out any forms; the sales associate typed as I dictated. He put my envelope with the tickets into the mailer and affixed the label. Did I say painless? Well it was up until he took my charge card to collect $26.50 for this service. Ouch.

I could have paid 44¢ but I paid more than $26 more!

It made me think about the incredible value of the 44¢ option. I can hand-write a letter, note, or card to a friend or loved one. For this amazingly low price, a USPS carrier will pick it up from the mailbox at the end of my driveway and, in a few day, another carrier will place intended mailbox anywhere in the United States I wanted it to go. Let’s assume that the process once it gets to the Post Office is highly automated, there is still the personal pick-up and delivery for just 44¢. The break-even point on that has to be a lot more letters and cards than are currently being mailed.

The Postal Service has a long, storied, and important role in this county. On July 26, 1775, the Continental Congress established the United States Post Office. They appointed Benjamin Franklin the first Postmaster General of the United States for the salary of $1,000 per year. The US Post Office is the second oldest Department in the US Government (I am presuming either Continental Congress or the Militia being the first). In those days, the Postal Service was crucial to the communication among the loosely federated states. We easily forget in this age of instant communication by text, phone, or email that the post was the only way to communicate over any distance.

When I moved to Connecticut and travelled during our time there from Washington, DC to Maine, we often were on Route 1. It was always Route 1 but in different parts of that geography it was called The Post Road, Boston Post Road, or Washington Post Road. It was the artery, back then, that linked the country. It was the information superhighway of it’s time. Instead of bits and bytes being streaming all over in packets, it was letters, newspapers, and books.

An efficient and effective Post Office certainly has served this country very well until very recently in our history. Until the most recent military actions, it was the US Post Office that kept soldiers serving anywhere in the globe tethered to their families. I remember the volume of Christmas cards and packages was so great in the 1960s that they ran two deliveries per day for the ten days leading up to Christmas.

OK... email is free and even better it is instantaneous. I know and get this but it is not the same as sending or, even better, receiving a hand-written and heartfelt sentiment from someone. Email is great but there is a bit of magic in a letter, card, or even the lowly postcard. There is something special about opening the envelope and taking out the card or letter. Saving a letter is somehow different than archiving an email.

Change is inevitable and what I have just described may well fall by the wayside. No matter what, I think the days 44¢ door-to-door delivery will definitely go away. If it is all privatised or run by publicly traded companies, I am sure the trues cost per volume of mail for daily delivery to every address in the country will be reflected in substantially higher prices.

My love and fascination for the handwritten letter or note will probably start to fade as well when it costs $5 or $10 to get it from my door to yours.

It is what it is...

2011-09-01T14:19:00.000-05:00

People arealways saying "It is what it is." This phrase is used often in resolution or mild exasperation when one isexpressing acceptance of something that simply cannot be changed. "It is what it is..."

The popularityof this phrase may be waning. It wasused and overused during The Great Recession. Business went into the dumpster: "it is what it is." People were losing their jobs; "it iswhat it is." Houses were going intoforeclosure; "it is what it is." Horrible economic news festered an environment where this phrase becamea mantra; "it is what it is."

But, I believethat we have been saying it wrong all of this time. "It is what it is." Most certainly the first half of thestatement is correct: "Itis." No question about that. We utter this phrase because we are not happyabout "what is." We wouldrather have "what should be" or "what isn't." So, I have decided to use the phrase "itis what it isn't." I think thatwould much better convey my sense of being accepting of "what is" butactually really wishing it were not; "it is what it isn't."

Anotheralternative could be "it isn't what it oughta be." This however might be too subtle to becomewidely used. I like it however.

Back in the1970s, a phrase emerged from the Afro-Americian community (if not from theAfro-American community directly, it certainly came from the TV sitcom idea of how they thought peopletalked in that community). It was a kindof greeting; "what it is.""What it is" indeed. I wasalways fascinated by this and the number of white kids who used it trying to bea bit more inner-city or trying to adopt a bit of ghetto cool. I never used it, but loved to use variationsof when responding to such a greeting.

My friends wouldsay, "What it is?" I wouldrespond, "What it was." When Igot tired of that, I branched out to various tenses, "what it willbe." I used, "what it mighthave been" or "what it should be." My favorite was the past perfect "whatit should have been." Maybe, it isthe past future perfect or conditional perfect past, I never fully got thelabels thought I could sling the tenses around in a conversation with the bestof them. I like these variations, it islike the verbal equivalent of English or back-spin on tennis shot.

"It is whatit is" reminds me of "what it is." Maybe instead of the simple "it is whatit isn't," I think I will mix it up in terms of tense and potential... alot.

Hey, it is notwhat it might have been.

Neither is itwhat anyone ever promised it would be.

Slouching Toward Mediocrity

2011-08-25T22:57:00.003-05:00

In May, my monthly letter was dedicated to the notion that we need to do something different in the United States. This is a continuation of that letter. It is not something I do often, continuing a recently written letter, but this issue is vitally important to me and, I believe this country.

William Butler Yeats wrote a poem, The Second Coming, in which he ends with the following ominous lines:

And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,

Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

There may or may not be a rough beast slouching towards America. But, I do believe as a country, we are slouching. America is slouching towards mediocrity and this bothers me. In the past month, I felt this slouching toward mediocrity very profoundly when Congress was in paralysis regarding the debt crisis.

At the end of July, Congress and the President were dealing with a need to raise the debt limit lest the US begin defaulting on our massive debt and trigger a global recession or depression. The debate was painful to watch... it was incredibly painful to watch and that seemed to be the consensus of the entire country.

Why was it so painful?

In my opinion, our leaders were trying to solve a new problem in a new world using old thinking and old paradigms. The economic system has changed in a way that old thinking simply will not work. The easiest way for me to make my case here is by analogy. Let us suppose the US economy can be controlled to a degree by a large control room which our government sits on turns the dials to effect change. Think of an airplane cockpit except that in this control room the dials are taxes, interest rates, and countless other things that most of us cannot comprehend. Normally, like in every recession since the Great Depression of 1929 until the Great Recession of 2008-2009, the guys in the control pad would simply lower interest rates or taxes. After having done that banks would respond by making money freely available. Business would then borrow money and use it to invest in new products, plants, and equipment which increased employment and an improvement in the economy in general.

With The Great Recession, I have argued that things have changed beyond the range of these dials. Yet, our government still thinks that it is all about interest rates and taxes. But, my feeling is you can play with these dials in the control room all you want and not have much influence on the economy.

Here is my theory. Our blue collar middle class, once a strength, perhaps even the very strength, of this country, has shrunk considerably with the exportation of factory jobs. Any incentives, in the old fashioned tax and interest rate turning of the dials, will not bring back this socio-economic class and their buying power. Our major corporations have become so large and so multinational that while they might be based here, they will take their incentives and continue globalization rather than increase meaningful production facilities and jobs here.

August 21: Today, I was driving to music practice and listening to NPR. I caught a news talk show already in progress, so I did not know what the name of the program was or who the people talking were. They were discussing the state of the economy and the feeling of malaise that has swept over everyone in the past few weeks. The main discussion points were as follows:

Positives

Stocks, except for the past few weeks, seem to have rebounded since The Great Recession.
On a similar note, major companies and corporations have rebounded and doing well.

Negatives

While businesses are doing better, people are not consuming to the levels necessary to support a full and robust recovery
A vast majority of the people believe that the recession has not ended for them.

The dichotomy of these positives and negatives confused the participants on this program. They were very well spoken and I thus concluded that they were knowledgeable reporters, business analysts, or economists. I felt they were naive and were trapped by the same thinking that seemed to have paralyzed our Congress during the debt ceiling debate of late last month.

There was a lady on the program that summarized it best though I am not sure that she knew that she had. She expertly discussed how the middle class has been eroded and while businesses have recovered and the average Joe or Jane is feeling unrecovered and uncovered. Gas and food cost more. If Joe or Jane are not unemployed, they have a neighbor that probably is. Their home is worth less than it was in 2007. The prospect for retirement is dim. Basically, they feel The Great Recession never ended for them. Without missing a breath the lady then said, in almost an exasperated tone, "How can we get people to start consuming more?"

Really? This is the answer? Consume our way out of this? Buy our way out of this?

People need jobs to consume. We have exported the jobs that used to support the blue collar middle class, the backbone of this country. This is exactly the middle class we have eroded and put into, well, the lower class. Furthermore, the idea of buy buy buy is passé. It has to be passé. We cannot afford it. Plus, most of homes are already glutted with more stuff than we need.

We eroded the middle class by exporting factories and jobs (and we made fun of Ross Perot for his "giant sucking sound” comment). We then suckered people who couldn't afford it to buy homes they couldn't afford and got them into hock up to their eyeballs. This is what folks in my parents’ generation would call a "double whammy." It certainly was.

The bright articulate lady on the radio show recommending that all we have to do is figure out how to get people to consume more supports my case very well. She is trying to fix this problem using an old paradigm, not realizing that the underlying model has changed so much that, tweaking the economy in the old tried and true ways just will not work.

We are operating like the management of Ford and GM post 1970. They never really understood that the Japanese had changed the playing field. They had changed the operational system. They had changed the way the business was run and managed. They changed the relationship with and the expectations of the consumers. The executives at Ford and GM were still under the belief that they just needed a hit car or two to get back. They believed it was about styling and marketing. Sure, style was still an important factor, but they were getting crushed on quality and reliability. Ford eventually learned. GM had to go bankrupt in The Great Recession and hopefully have learned.

We are operating like Sears Roebuck and Company refusing to believe and accept that the upstart Wal-Mart had changed the rules of the game. They thought their department store model was still solid and that they knew what consumers wanted and needed better than Sam Walton and his cronies. The management of Sears was wrong and has stayed wrong for decades. Earlier this year it was predicted this storied enterprise might close its doors before year’s end.

Is our government behaving the same way? Our ship, our Titanic, has hit an iceberg. The actions we are taking are tantamount to rearranging the deck chairs. We are arguing about pure economic levers. Should we increase spending on incentives? Should we raise taxes? Should we lower taxes? Hey let's keep interest rates real low for another couple of years.

None of these actions will significantly impact the hole we are in.

This past few weeks shows our leaders do not believe that we are in the “new normal.” So, we try what always worked before and are as befuddled as the lady on the radio show as to why the lot of the average Joe and Jane has not improved. We have been re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Most everyone can see it, yet we do not know what to do differently. Our leaders all got where they are in the old model; the model where we were the economic power of the world and if we got a little cold we knew what to do to get better.

Things have changed and we had better change to operate more effectively in the new reality.

Sidebar: I have specifically used the pronoun we here. I could have used they. I didn't because using they puts the blame on someone else. They or them is what we used to refer to as "the man" or the establishment or that cabal of cigar smoking fat cats pulling the strings and making us mannequins dance to their music. That would be too easy. It would sound like a conspiracy. Maybe we are just victims of some intricate conspiracy and I am simply incredibly naive. No, I think not. We are all to blame here. We have to elect people that truly have new thinking.

August 23: How do we get people tied to one system, one way of thinking to change their paradigms? This has been a question that has baffled those of us working in Quality Management. We know that focusing on having quality products and services will lead to greater market share, yet it was unbelievably hard to convince senior management to adopt the philosophy and change the way they run their business. They got to the top by succeeding in the company culture of cost cutting, short term profit focus, and fire fighting. Their personalities are embedded in a management style that often is counter to

Another side of this problem is self-serving power and greed. We also see leaders of every ilk professing a true and reverent dedication to this religion or that only to learn that they have transgressed the basic tenets of that religion on a regular basis without blinking an eye. They profess one thing and act in a different way.

This is one of the dilemmas of the situation we are in. Deep down we know we have to change. Deep down we know we have to do something fundamentally different. Yet, we are paralyzed and do what we always have done hoping against hope that the results will turn out just like they did before.

I keep going back to the lady on the NPR program. I do not mean to pick on her. As I have mentioned above, she struck me as intelligent, well spoken, and genuinely concerned. I keep going back to her statement, "How can we get people to start consuming more?" She said more out of exasperation than anything.

Let's look at consumption. It is a cornerstone of capitalism and free markets. People choose with their pocketbooks buying goods and service that appeal to them more. Competition thus forces producers to improve their product and service offerings to appeal to consumers, stay in business, and make some money. This is in general a good thing. Look at all the wonderful conveniences we have today that save us labor, provide exceptional entertainment (OK... maybe not reality TV), and access to the more information instantly than our ancestors ever dreamed of. In this sense, we live in an amazing time.

How much can each person, each family, consume? There has to be some limit... doesn't there? Without limits, we would become a country where obesity is epidemic while people in other parts of the world starve. Without limits, we would have more clothes, cars, TVs, computers, telephones, and other gizmos than we possibly need while people in other parts of world, the same starving people, look at us with a combination of envy and hate.

There are limits. We may have reached them. They are now being imposed on us the hard way. We have run into a wall and, as a nation, we are stunned.

We are most likely experiencing the global economy adjusting to a new equilibrium. The blue collar middle class in this country is being crushed while there is an emerging middle class in China, Korea, and India. Corporations get their labor where they can and where they have to. If that cripples a customer base in this country, it will open markets in others. This is why our major companies are doing well. They have trimmed their domestic operations to operating efficiently in this new normal and looking to grow globally. So, companies are doing well, our citizens, what used to be the blue collar middle class, not so well.

We cannot consume our way out of this. We need to re-invent ourselves and re-dedicate ourselves as a matter of national policy. I wrote about this May suggesting we need something akin to the Space Race to forge our policies and align our actions so that we can be a strong economic power in the world moving forward.

What do we envision ourselves, this country, being known for in ten or twenty years? How will our people be viewed? We need to answer these questions and develop a strategic plan and put our efforts to it like it was the Space Race or, maybe even more apropos, World War II.

I know I am sounding very preachy here. But, we need passion around this. We need to not like where we are and get very excited about blazing a trail to a better future. We need to think about more collectively and not just about maximizing our own pocket books.

OK… now you are thinking that I am advocating a shrouded brand of communism. Nothing is further from the truth. I am advocating strategic national capitalism. By making the country better, we make everyone’s lives better. Cutting taxes or interests rates will not work. The union model is passé as well. We need everyone working together.

We need to make things. We need to be innovative. Sure, we need good competent financial people. We need excellent marketing people. But, we need scientists, mathematicians, and engineers even more.

Thanks for listening to me rant, rave, and ramble on about this once more. As, I do not think there is a quick fix coming, I am almost certain I will be compelled to write about it again. I will not, however, unless I have something new and meaningful to present.

What is going on with Flavors and Fragrances?

2011-08-10T22:26:00.000-05:00

We know the world changes. We know that the pace of change is accelerating. This means that things are changing faster and faster. It seems to happen at dizzying speeds. Some changes are for the good. Some changes are for the better but we might not actually realize it while it is happened. Other changes make us shake our and wonder why?

I am wondering why about a relatively minor and subtle change that has happened to flavors and fragrances in everyday consumer products.

This problem is much worse with fragrances. Consider the humble air freshener. Some time ago, in my youth, when I was growing up in Detroit the first aerosol air fresheners came out. The fragrances of these products had names that told me what to expect. The names were Rose, Evergreen, and Vanilla. Basically, you knew exactly what I was going to expect when I used the product. It made sense. It was easy.

Today? That has changed. One can still find Vanilla or Apple Cinnamon. But, there are air fresheners today that are called Desert Blossom, Mountain Breeze, Spring Meadow, Tropical Rain, and other colorful and descriptive names. They are lovely names but they evoke images more so than smells. Even if they evoke smells, they do not have the olfactory foundation of the older simpler names. What the heck is a Desert Breeze, er... Mountain Blossom, Tropical Thunder Breeze thing supposed to smell like. They all kind of smell the same to me. What if I liked one more than another, would I be able to remember it the next time I went to the store without writing it down. Evergreen, Vanilla, or Apple Cinnamon were much easier in this regard.

Speaking of Vanilla, It is very hard to find anything that is just plain old Vanilla. The word French seems to have wed itself to the lowly Vanilla. Every edible thing is called French Vanilla. Yet, it just tastes like Vanilla. What gives? Am I supposed to enjoy it more because it is called French Fricking Vanilla? Am I paying more because it is the more high brow French Vanilla than the proletariat run of the mill plain old Vanilla? What do I care? I do not really like Vanilla all that much.

The world is even more bizarre in the world of underarm fragrances. Old Spice has fragrances called Denali, Cyprus, Fiji, Komodo, Matterhorn, After Hours, Pure Sport, Aqua Reef, and Swagger. Huh? Mennen has Momentum, Game Time, Cool Fusion, and Fresh Rush. I have smelled these. They all smell the same.

Fragrances have always been different than flavors but even that is changing. Consider the new brands of gums like 5 from Wrigley. Consider some of these flavors and tell me what they are supposed to taste like: Cobalt, Rain, and Elixir. Cobalt sounds like it should be crunchy or radioactive or something. It does not sound all that appetizing. Rain does sound relaxing but what taste does it evoke? Elixir sounds mysterious and very promising. The word makes me think that perhaps the gum would do something magical and powerful if I were to chew it. No product named Elixir could ever live up to that expectation; no matter how slick and well funded the advertising is.

For 19 years I worked for two different consumer products company. One of them made a popular hand dish washing liquid called Palmolive. Earlier this century they came out with a line extension of products very brightly colored with names Mountain This, Desert That, and Meadow Something or Other. The colors of the liquid were mountain pinkish, desert kind of golden, and meadow greenesque. They all smelled “flowery” to me. I suspected consumers and shoppers would buy more on color than anything else as the colors were the most differentiating part of the variants.

But, I am not in marketing. What do I really know about such things? They claim to have done research. Have they really captured the voice of the consumer or more so the voice of the VP of Marketing who just inherently “knows” what consumers really want? I have been in meetings where Presidents, VPs, and COOs simply override research simply because they believe they are smarter than everyone else by virtue of their position. I have been in meetings were the marketing and science types got each other all hyped on whatever cool thing they were doing and pitching.

Another possibility as to why this all confuses and bothers me so is that I am just old. I am no longer with it or hip or hep or cool. (There are those that could make a good case that I was never any of these things but that would be a subject for another blog.) I just may be out of touch and Desert Dream or Mountain Mist should mean something to me and maybe means something to the teens and twenties who they are created for and marketed to. I am sure age is also has deteriorated my sense of smell and that may simply be why Rain Forest, Sky Thunder, and Tropical Breeze all smell “flowery” and indistinguishable to me.

That about sums it all up. I never have really understood or appreciated marketing. I am an old fogey who has a diminished sense of smell and taste. So, I should just stop worrying about what I don’t understand and cannot distinguish between. After all it is just deodorant, chewing gum, and dish washing liquid. Why worry about it?

And yet, on a whim I went to the Palmolive dish washing web site to see what the offerings of dish washing liquids were called these days 5-6 years after the fact. The have a line called Aroma Sensations with just two variants: Lavender and Fresh Green Apple. Gee... even I know what these should smell like. And guess what else? The Lavender liquid was Lavender colored and the Fresh Green Apple liquid was the color of, well, a Fresh Green Apple.

Maybe I ain’t so stupid after all...

Microsoft Office facing some Serious Competition

2011-08-09T15:09:00.001-05:00

As readers here know, on June 25, 2002 I began the habit of handwriting a page each day. I have maintained that regimen much to my own amazement. In February 2004, I I began e-mailing a monthly letter to friends and family. By January 2009, I decided to post everything on this blog, This Side of Fifty. All my daily writing had been handwritten until I began sending out the monthly e-letter. Even in the early days of the e-letter, I used the daily handwriting to draft the letter and using Microsoft Word to craft the finished version. There was no question about using MS Word. It was the word processor the 99.99% of the people used. It was on my work laptop and home computer.

Gradually, I began to type more of my daily writing. Again, whenever I did this, the only choice was the ubiquitous, popular, and essential MS Word. I mostly type my daily writing these days. The last handwritten journal entry was on June 30 of this year. Beginning last year, I began to stray from MS Word even for my typing.

For most of the first half of this year, I used the word processor in Google Docs. I was writing to the cloud. In July, I bought an iPad and since I did that, I have been using the Apples Pages word processor on the iPad first and foremost. The Google Docs word processor is a distant #2. Close behind Google Docs is MS word which I use mainly to final edit documents especially my monthly letter. Basically, this year I have been using MS Word less and less. A few years ago, I believed there would never be any competition to MS Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. They had a virtual monopoly. The problem with monopolies is well known and proven: complacency and inefficiency.

Microsoft has always provided a good products in their Office Suite. In the early days, there were complaints about the amount of memory the products took up. This became a non-issue as memory both RAM and hard drive became cheap and plentiful. The capabilities of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint were more than most users would ever need. I would guess that 90% of the users only tap into maybe 20% of the features available in these products. Microsoft had a good product but the Office Suite was not cheap and they were always updating the product. Users had to pay for the updates.

Google docs is free and offers the same basic capabilities as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. The emphasis is clearly on the word BASIC. Likewise for the Apple iPad suite of products Pages, Keynote, and Numbers. The Apple products call $10 a piece. Again, this suite offers the same basic capabilities as MS Office. With each passing day, Google Docs and Apple are adding more capabilities and closing the gap on MS Office. Furthermore, as Google Docs is cloud based and the Apple Suite are iPad applications, updates are free. When Apple launches their much anticipated cloud applications this fall, the world will have Google and Apple based alternatives that probably will match each other in capabilities. Microsoft

As mentioned above, Microsoft charges for updates. I do not know if Microsoft will be able to adapt. Even if they do, their monopoly is broken.

Before getting the iPad, I thought the cloud was my future. Now, I am not so sure. I think I will be using a blend of the iPad and Google Docs. I will still be using MS Word for preparing math exams for the courses I teach. Neither Google Docs or Apple Pages has a mathematical formula editor. The math editor on MS Word is very good. The same goes for the spreadsheets. I can and will use both Google Docs and Numbers for basic things. But, I will use MS Excel too for really heavy spreadsheet work because it’s superiority in terms of graphics, pivot tables, and statistical functions. The unknown factor is how long it will take Google and Apple to close these gaps.

Thus far, I have only used PowerPoint for presentations. I have a friend who uses an even cheaper suite on his iPad. He got word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation all for $10. He is quite happy with his choice and does all his presentations on his iPad with his $3.33 software. He pointed out that I overpaid and we had a great laugh.

Google Docs requires and active internet. Their office suite software resides in the cloud as does ones files. Without an internet connection, one can access neither the applications nor ones files. This is a bit limiting. When I first got my iPad, I thought I would be accessing Google Docs most of the time. I rarely do that because there is not a good app for that. With the iPad, I use the Apple suite which allows me to work on and save files locally like on a laptop but also easily email them or save them in a file sharing application like Dropbox. The internet is required for sharing only.

I have no clue if Microsoft is playing in this space or planning on moving into these kinds of product offerings at competitive prices. A Google search (yeah I did not use Bing), revealed a product called Microsoft 365 that is a pay as you go, access it anywhere, service. The basic trial price is $6/month per user. That is $72/year vs. Google Docs for $0 or a onetime charge of $30 for the Apple suite. Methinks that either they do not get it. Maybe, I do not get it.

Microsoft may be suffering the same malaise that infected General Motors, Kodak, and Sony: their business model weighs them down and because of arrogance caused by being the dominant market leader for so long, they just cannot see the world changing around them. By the time they adapt, they will have already lost significant share.

By the way, I am typed this posting in Pages on my iPad.

A Revolutionary New Approach to Walking?!?

2011-08-01T21:23:00.001-05:00

Like so many people, my e-mail box is cluttered with more junk mail than my snail mail box ever was. If I showed any interest in any company for any reason at any time, I am on their email list get weekly, daily, and even multiple daily updates on this offer or that. The number of lowest price ever and best deal ever mail I get from the same company is kind of surprising.

I am somehow, for some reason, on the mailing list of Prevention Magazine. It is no doubt a sister publication of some magazine I already subscribe to. Scrolling down to the bottom of the email revealed that Prevention is from Rodale Press the publisher of Bicycle Magazine of which I am an avid reader.

This email offered a method to lose 22.5 pounds in just 8 weeks by just walking it off. It sounded pretty cool so I read on, I mean who wouldn't want to lose 22.5 lbs in less than two months? I could use some of that for sure.

But the secret I discovered was NOT the ordinary kind of walking — it is a revolutionary NEW approach to walking from the editors of Prevention magazine.

A revolutionary new approach to walking... wow. Who would of thought? A Revolutionary and New Approach to Walking! I started laughing and was curious at the same time. Mostly, though, I knew I was just given a topic to write about.

People have been walking for a long time. They have been walking since God created Adam. Or depending upon your lack of religiosity, men have been walking around since the first simian stood up and became a proto-sapien, if there is even such a creature. In my short time, short that is relative to the history of man, I have seen a variety of strides, gaits, limps, saunters, and sashays. I have seen bold cocky jock walks. I have seen dainty ultra-feminine glides. I have seen drunken sways, old shuffles, and the tip-toe gleeful walk-runs of infants. I have seen the mournful walk of grieving family and friends leaving a burial. I have walked both a daughter down an aisle and a bride back the other way. I have seen the inimitable Bill Cosby do an entire schtick on the way the kids walk across the stage at their high school graduations. I have seen retirees walk the malls in the mornings. I have marveled at and never really understood race walkers.

So, what is this Revolutionary New Approach to Walking that will result in the loss of 22.5 pounds in two months? Walking on ones hands for two months would be kind of revolutionary and I am certain that discipline and physical exertion required to do such would result in a loss of weight for sure. The only question I have is how many people can actually walk on their hands. The people I know that can are already lean and in great shape.

So, what is this revolutionary approach? I followed the link to the website and learned a little bit more. The Revolutionary Approach is something they are calling Interval Walking. I am sure, it is similar to interval training in running, biking, and swimming that builds strength, endurance, muscle, and burns calories. I suppose it will give a regimen that includes a sensible eating plan. All of these hyperbole laden offers seem to include a phrase, or caveat, of "when accompanied by a sensible eating plan." I can see many other "revolutionary" programs that could be offered:

• A revolutionary approach to eating: Our scientists have proven that the less you eat and the more you move, the less you will weigh!

• A revolutionary approach to getting into the college of your dreams: Our psychological staff has developed an unprecedented 12 year program of doing all your homework and more to get you into one of the top 100 colleges in the United States. Yes, thats right, one of the top ONE HUNDRED colleges in the old US of A.

What would be revolutionary would be a method that would truly change ones mindset and prevent the backsliding that many of us are so good at. I would pay for something that I could follow and permanently change my lifestyle without either drugs or pavlovian torture methods. Anyone who came up with something like this could be an instant Nobel Prize winner and most probably wealthy.

I went to the website, following the link in the mail. The thing is like an onion. The first page basically regurgitated the information in the body of the email. There was no price. I clicked on the "more information" button and was directed to another page that wanted my name, address, email, etc. before it would proceed and still no pricing. I did not fill out the form, I was not curious enough about the price to have to deal with getting duplicates of all the emails I currently get from Rodale.

I did learn that, whatever the price, I would have 20 days to evaluate the program and return it if I was not satisfied. They also offered an mp3 player gratis to sweeten the pot. Wow, the program was not only a Revolutionary New Approach to Walking but I could try it for free and get an mp3 player to boot. I was at the point that I did not care about the price. I just wanted in on this deal. I wanted to walk like the revolutionary that I think that am. I want to walk listening to the music that I like. I would pay for the walking but the music would be free. It sounds kind of backwards but, what the heck, it is 2011 and I should be ridding myself of old thinking that is weighing me down.

Alas, I had not actually read the top line of the email. The revolutionary approach to walking and losing 22.5 pounds in just 8 weeks seems to be only for women. Dang.

July 2011: Musings & Meanderings on the Space Shuttle, Global Warming, & the Economy

2011-07-26T15:08:00.003-05:00

I usually write a health and fitness letter around this time of year. I am going to pass on that topic this year. It would be a boring letter (not that there are any guarantees that this will be a riveting read by any means). It is the 21st of the month and another topic has not jumped out and grabbed my attention. This being the case, I will make this letter one of those true musing and meandering letters I occasional send out.

Most of these pieces are motivated from the news this month and certain articles on the topics I have read.

July 21 - The Space Shuttle: The Space Shuttle Atlantis landed early this morning in Florida. With the landing, the thirty year Space Shuttle program comes to an end. The last Apollo mission was in December of 1972. There was not another manned US flight until April 12, 1981 when the Columbia was propelled into space riding piggy back on the solid fuel boosters. From that date, there have been 135 flights.

There were five Shuttles that were built and actually went to space. They were named Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis, and Endeavor. Only three remain. Challenger and Columbia both had mid-air disasters resulting in the loss of both crews and the shuttles as well. The demise of Challenger was on January 28, 1986. It was cold and the o-rings on the solid fuel boosters did not seat and seal properly. Upon take-off, a fuel leak occurred and ignited. When that happened, the entire booster and shuttle were consumed in flames. It was a tragic accident that stunned the nation. It was one of those moments like the JFK assassination, the death of Princess Di, and 9-11, when everyone remembers where they were and what they were doing when they learned of the news.

The Columbia incinerated on re-entry on February 1, 2003 destroyed the orbiter and resulting in the loss of the entire crew. At launch, 16 days earlier, a piece of insulation broke free of the booster and punctured the leading edge of one of the wings. The intense heat, reaching up to 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit, and turbulence of re-entry ripped the vehicle apart beginning at that puncture point. This was also a very sad event but it was not as big of a shock because, I believe, the Challenger disaster 17 years earlier clearly made the public aware of how dangerous these kinds of flights were.

The program cost $209 Billion. 355 individual crew members flew one or more shuttle missions. The astronauts spent almost 200,000 man-hours in space. The shuttle fleet has orbited the Earth 21,000 times over the span of the program. Over the years, the shuttle fleet has taken 3.5 million pounds of cargo into space for 180 specific tasks such as launching satellites and delivering payloads to the international space station. The shuttle fleet has returned 230,000 pounds of cargo back to Earth. The shuttle program has had a long and storied life.

I wonder why we end a program like Apollo and now the Shuttle program without having the follow-on project teed up and ready to go? There is a lot of talk that future space missions will not be government funded but rather private ventures. The entrepreneurs behind some of these ventures are Richard Branson, the founder of Virgin Atlantic, and Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com fame.

I have written in these letters before that I never thought the Space Shuttle and booster system was a good design. Mostly it was because it did not look slick. The orbiter it self was big and bulky. The piggy back launching system was nothing like I expected when I first saw it. I thought it was downright ugly. When I read about the tiles that were glued to the orbiter, I was impressed with the ceramic chemistry and design but, really, tiles glued to a space ship? It made no sense to me. I do understand the facts and figures quoted above about the number of missions and payloads. Those numbers are impressive. The system did not appeal to me aesthetically nor did it convey a high level of reliability. It looked all wrong.

Thus, for me, only one figure stands out. The bottom line is that two of the five orbiters were destroyed resulting in the lives of the two crews. The horrible and tragic demise of Challenger and Columbia loom large. The motto of the program, or at least as I have seen on NASA Space Shuttle coffee cups, is “Failure is not an Option.” This combined with the lack of a follow-up program leaves me in two minds about the program.

July 22 - Global Warming Re-visited: The eastern half of the United States is experiencing what used to be referred to as a heat wave. It is no longer called that. I heard a new term this week that seems to have supplanted “heat wave.” We are currently under a heat dome. It is a term common to meteorologists but not to the public. Basically, a heat dome is an abnormally large high pressure system in the upper atmosphere that compresses and heats up the air under it causing soaring temperatures. It would seem that a heat dome causes the old fashioned heat wave. It makes me wonder if we will have to change the words of the old Irving Berlin song from:

We’re having a heat wave...

We’re under a heat dome...

It would be easy to write about global warming because we are record setting temperatures are being set in the eastern of the United States. It is partially true because the motivation is from a Washington Post article, “Five Myths about Extreme Weather” was written in the middle of this heat wave... um... heat dome thing we are experiencing. There was one startling fact in the article:

Globally, June was the 316th month in a row that had a higher temperature than the 20th century average. http://t.co/zrDZtP7

Golly, Mr. Science, that sure seems like a significant statistic. I wonder what it means.

In quality control, a run of five measurements over the long term average indicates a system that is out of control and that perhaps the system output has changed. Further investigation is required that would result in an action plan to either return the system to its former level of performance or to simply recalculate the control chart parameters and thus except the new normal.

With regards to climate change, I would naively recommend recalculating the parameters because no action plan is going to fix things very quickly. 316 months in 26 years and four months. That seems pretty significant.

The argument against freaking out about global warming is often based on the fact that we have only been tracking temperatures and weather conditions for a hundred maybe two hundred years. In the history of our planet, we have seen long cycles of warming and cooling and perhaps we are simply seeing something that is in the normal ebb and flow of the planet. That sounds very rational. The counter to that would be that since 1900 man’s impact on the Earth has been significant. In 1900, there were 1.6B people in the world. Today there are 7. The amount of carbon emissions has grown exponentially with, my guess is, faster than the population growth. Furthermore, we have significantly reduced the forests and hence the planets ability to dealing with the increased carbon dioxide.

I am not freaking out, but I am concerned.

July 23 - The Fickle Economy: Calling the recession of 2008-2009 The Great Recession is apropos. It was not quite the The Great Depression as officially we never went into depression. The recovery, and I hesitate to call it that truly, is hardly robust. Words like sputtering, grudgingly lethargic, and others come to mind. Job cuts again reared its ugly head in June at companies like Borders, Lockheed Martin, and Cisco. The total cuts in June were 41,000 jobs. The number of state and local government workers cut so far this year has been over 140,000. The official unemployment rate hovers around 9.2% but really it is over 16%. The difference is the number of people who are no longer on unemployment, no longer looking for work, or working part time jobs far below the salaries they were accustomed to. This means that one sixth of the American labor force is unemployed or under employed.

I have contended that while we might officially come out of the recession, we will be a lesser country than we were when we went into it. I feel even stronger about this than when I first thought and expressed such. Companies continue to recover. We see reports of quarterly and annual reports showing profits and good progress. But, contrary to recoveries of the past, we are not seeing the trickle down to the masses. Because there are so many less industrial or manufacturing jobs, there are simply less jobs for the masses here to be created when the economy improves.

Housing continues to be lethargic as banks are still working their way through the foreclosure mess. It is not clear when housing prices may rebound. It is not clear if people can even afford to buy houses.

While all this happening in the US, the politicos in Washington DC are hanging on to extreme points of view. The Republicans want to balance the budget, not raise taxes, and let free enterprise capitalism accelerate the recovery. The Democrats want to raise the debt ceiling, raise taxes, and not balance the budget. Oddly, they last time the budget was balanced was when Clinton, a Democrat, was President. When the Republicans took power, a war on two fronts commenced albeit due to the 9-11 attacks and summarily plunged us into record deficit spending. No one is really trying to bring back good manufacturing jobs to the US. No one is investing in our people. No one is trying to resolve the root causes for the lethargic recovery that is making us look more like a European country.

We cannot rely on business. Most businesses are larger multi-nationals. Being multi-national they are more like small countries and less beholding to their country of origin especially in the case of US companies. In their ever striving for more sales and profits, they have moved manufacturing hither and yon. They are out to grow their companies and create wealth for their shareholders and their senior management teams. This will take precedence over anything remotely altruistic like creating jobs and bolstering the US economy. The notion of what is good for business is good for the country may be less true than ever.

I freely admit that macro-economics drive this behavior and that companies would not survive if they did not behave as they have in the past twenty years. I freely admit that I sometimes scare myself with my socialist sounding rhetoric. Truly, I do not feel socialist but rather am very interested in finding ways to create an environment that is indeed good for the country and good for business. I just do not see nor hear anything remotely like that coming from Washington and it really ticks me off.

Europe is no better than the US. They might even be in worse shape with Greece, Portugal, and now Italy showing major cracks in their economies. People there want all of the benefits they enjoy but do not want to do what is required to pay the bills for the services and benefits. It is a tough situation. Part of the reason, I believe our economy coming out of the recession will be like the European countries is because they have probably more service and less manufacturing for longer than we have. I read an interesting fact in the July 18th New Yorker. It seems that in Greece, not paying ones fair share of taxes is a national pastime. It made me think of the Armenians in California. They operate on a cash is king basis because they do not charge and pay sales tax. Yet, both in Greece and California people want and express the high level of civil services they are used to, they just do not want to pay for them.

A sobering reckoning is probably overdue. This freaks me out a little.

Hokehankist

2011-07-24T23:35:00.005-05:00

We are having the one year memorial service for my Father In-Law, Harold Avedis Mardoian, today. We are including, as well, the one year memorial for my maternal Uncle Azad Merian and my paternal Aunt Seeran Wisner. Seeran died in June of last year and my Uncle Ozzie passed away two days after my Father In-Law. The repose of the soul service is called Hokehankist or literally the rest of the soul. It is a beautiful, moving, and solemn service.

The one year memorial or repose of the soul service is a big deal in the Armenian Church as was the forty day service after the funeral. Hereafter, we should be doing it once a year. Probably in another time, say twenty years ago, or in another place, let us say the "old country," we might have dutifully done just that. I am certain in the case of my Father In-Law, my Mother In-Law will observe this tradition and when she is gone my wife will follow suit.

I am much more haphazard in my observation of such rites and traditions. That does not mean I do not take it seriously. It is probably the part of our religion I take most seriously. Officially, I have Hokehankists on special days and when I remember. In 1988, I dragged everyone to church in Detroit on the first Sunday in October. It was my paternal Grandfather, Aram Gavoor's, 100th birthday. I thought it might be a good day to remember him. I was kind of excited about it. Other family members came along with me and we even went out to dinner afterwards. It was very nice. If I had not thought of it, I do not believe anyone else would have suggested it. But, that was the last time I did that. I really ought to get on an annual schedule.

There is a poem by the Armenian poet Bedros Tourian who was born in 1852 in Istanbul and died from tuberculosis at 22 in 1872. In his short life, he earned a place in the pantheon of Armenian poets. My favorite little bit of his was from a poem titled My Death. It sums up pretty much how I feel.

But, if my grave remains unmarked

In a corner of the earth

And remembrance of me fades away,

Ah, that is when I will die.

We have to remember. I have to remember. Otherwise, people that I have known, loved, and admired will truly be dead.

There is another Armenian poet, Vahan Terian (January 28, 1885 – January 7, 1920). He was born in the Armenian region of Jahavkh which is in Georgia. In his short life, he also earned a place in the ranks of Armenian Poets. I particularly liked one of his poems Farewell Song in which he gives a twist on the message that Tourian wrote of:

I am going to a darker earth, a remote land, I will not come back,

Remember me well in your hearts, I say goodbye, farewell.

My maternal Grandmother surprised one day late in her life. She called me close and told me that she wanted me to read this very same poem at her funeral. I did it dutifully but also with a heart simultaneously full of that odd Armenian mixture of love and joy while also weighed down by a sense of loss and pathos.

Remember me well or then I will really be dead is a powerful thought. I remember Bedros Tourian and Vahan Terian when I read their poems. I, of course, never knew them. I also remember my grandparents, great aunts and uncles, my sister Laura, and great-grandparents all but one of which I never knew. I remember my wife's relatives equally. I remember people I grew up with.

It is very important to keep the memories of our deceased relatives in our minds as much as our busy lives will allow. Beyond that, it is also important remember others that were key or important in ours lives.

I believe what Tourian wrote, one is not truly dead until no one remembers them. Perhaps that is why I seem to quietly and silently focus on the otherwise ignored. I should have Hokehankists said for them whenever I think of them.

===================== o =====================
Please see http://thissideoffifty.blogspot.com/2010/12/december-2010-another-eventful-year.html to read more about my Aunt, Uncle, and Father In-Law.