Time to Self-Publish?

The Benjamin Franklin Quote Desktop Ornament 

     I do like to write.
     There is a great pleasure in this for me.  Mostly, I do it for myself.  I write because I have to or want to.  I am never sure which, but most certainly a combination of wanting to and having to.  I also write to keep in touch with friends and family.  So, I do want others to read what I have written and appreciate an audience as much as the next person.  
     When I was part of BNI during the Great Recession, we had a secret Santa and my secret Santa gave me a paperweight or desk ornament with a quote from Benjamin Franklin:  "Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing."  I love this quote from the great statesman, scientist, and philosopher.   I am, especially at my current age, on the "write something worth reading" side of this scale. 
     I have wanted to be published.  I not only want to publish a book but I want to publish several.  I would settle for self-published but prefer to get paid for it.  I would love to be a Sydney Harris.  I would love to have books of poems published and several novels.  In short, I would love to generate some revenue, part of my salary from writing.  Last year, my worst year of blogging, I would have said it is a pipe dream.  This year I am feeling more energized about it and ready to think about doing something about.  
     Note: I did say I am ready to think about doing something about it.  I often use a quote/motto when I am writing or thinking about weight loss and control. "Knowing never equals doing."  I would modify that quote in the case of self-publishing:  "Aspiring never equals doing either."
     I do have four volumes of poetry, countless haikus beyond that, and the entire body of work in this blog to work on.  Three favorite MBA students of mine were not overly impressed with the textbook we used in a graduate operations management course in the term that just ended.  I had them read some of my professional blogs as part of the course.  All three have been pushing for me to write my own course materials and eventually textbooks of my own.  Of course, they are right.
     Why haven't I done these yet?  Self-publishing a book of poems or the best of this blog is a simple matter of cutting, pasting, formatting, creating a table of contents, some cover art, and such.  The writing of the material is done and has been done for years.  Oh yes, my friend Gian insists that I would have to have it all proofread and edited as I am prone to posting items with spelling and grammatical errors in them.  
     I know I have used that Benjamin Franklin quote before in a posting.  Sure enough, a blogger search revealed that I used it a post from March 4, 2013, almost five years ago, titled Not Quitting. There was another great quote I used in that piece:  
           A Professional Writer is
           an Amateur Writer
           Who Didn't Quit.

     I do need to do this.  Maybe I should push myself to publish a book of poems or haikus along with the Best of This Side of Fifty in 2019.  That sounds like a wonderful resolution for the coming year.
     Methinks I just created my first resolution for 2019.

Christmas 2018

Wish you all could've joined us

     It is Christmas morning.
     It is a crisp, coldish, 35 degrees out.  It is pretty quiet in the house.  My wife is sleeping and it is well-deserved given the days and nights she put in preparing for our fabulous Christmas Eve family gathering and dinner.  It is just the two of us.  Our daughter and her family are at home in Los Angeles and were unable to travel here:  Feeling Thankful.   Our son and his family are in New York and unable to travel here because they are expecting in February!
     I thought I would revive a This Side of Fifty Tradition and pen a Christmas Morning letter to one and all.  I have been writing and distributing a monthly letter since February of 2004.  In 2009, it turned into this blog.  In 2004, 2005, and 2008, I wrote Christmas themed letters.  My favorite of those was the December 2005 one in which I parodied the Christmas letters we often get in Christmas Cards.  In 2010, I began writing a Christmas Card kind of letter or blog post.  I was up earlier than everyone else.  It was dark, I had a cup of coffee nearby, the world was still, and I would pen a stream of consciousness letter mostly thankful for all the people I know but would not be that Christmas Day.
     Note that my friend Ara would also tease me about the opening of those letters e.g "it is Christmas morning, it is dark still, I have a cup of coffee at hand, and the house and world is peacefully quiet yada yada yada."  He considered it my version of the classic, "it was a dark and stormy night..."  Truth be told, he was spot on.

Merry Christmas, Feliz Navidad, Shnorhavor Surp Dznunt

     It was a pleasures to pen those letters.  I continued it each year through 2016.  I did not write one in 2017.  I only blogged eight times that year.  I am not sure why.  I was busy at the university.  I got out of the habit and I hated that I got out of the habit.  The habit of daily writing and blogging was something I was proud of and it was my thing.  I did not like that I let it lapse so badly.  On New Year's Day, I resolved to write more.  I am pleased to say that this and quitting smoking cigarettes in 1990 are by a long shot the best resolutions I have ever made and kept.  They might be only two I have ever kept.  With this posting, I have 91 postings this year which eclipsed the previous high which was 53 in 2011.  I have been looking forward to writing this letter all year.
     Last evening, as is another tradition, my friend Andres called from Uruguay.  It used to be a bigger deal when it was an international call.  But, with WhatsApp, we video chatted for free.  Being in the southern hemisphere, he was enjoying a lovely 86 degree Christmas Eve in a t-shirt and shorts.  It is always a pleasure to hear from him.  Later in the evening, my phone started buzzing.  This time I was getting Christmas greetings and well-wishes from China where I had the privilege to teach in the summers of 2015 and 2016.  It is most thoughtful of these students to keep in touch as they do.  Through the magic of WhatsApp, I have been exchanging greeting with friends in Mexico, Panama, Costa Rica, and elsewhere.
     Allow me to copy/paste the last few paragraphs from my 2012 Christmas Letter:

I know I will not see most of you this year. I am not sure if this is an Armenian or American tradition, but consider this my making the rounds, knocking on your door, wishing you the best of the season, and you inviting me in to meet you and yours over a cup of Christmas cheer. If I could do that in Detroit, Los Angeles, Boston, San Jose, New York, Wilton, Caracas, Mexico City, Yerevan, Istanbul, Buenos Aires, Montevideo, Guatemala City, Panama City, or Ocala, that would be something. Heck, it would be something if I could do that with everyone I know in Chicagoland! 

I close this letter the same way I did last several years. 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 2019 is a year of health, happiness, and prosperity for you and yours.

Logos Taking Over Floor and Field

     It is clear that big time college sports are big time businesses. The revenue comes mostly from men’s football and basketball. Most of the revenue comes from ticket sales, television, and apparel. With big time revenues comes big time marketing. I am not a marketing expert by any means, but I know that keeping the brand top of mind is a huge obsession of the marketeers. Perhaps this explains why the logos have gotten much larger on football fields and basketball arenas. It is quite noticeable, at least to me.
     Consider three Big Ten teams: Michigan (duh), Michigan State, and Ohio State. Here are photos of their basketball floors from the 1980s and 90s and this year. The simple M, S, or O used to be inside the tip-off circle. It defined the home floor in what was a tried, true, and understated view. 

     It was clear whose arena is was.  The school colors were prominent and one letter in the circle.  That was it.  Simple.
     Let's take a look at some more recent photos of the sames three schools.

     Look at how much larger the logos have gotten. They have gotten huge and take up to a third of the court. The Michigan Block M, the Spartan Helmet, and the OSU logo are on screen during at least 50-70% of the game air time. It is pure, big and bold, marketing. The logo is there, front and center. It is subliminal. It is liminal. Given the size, I would argue it is super-liminal. It is marketing and advertising of the brand throughout the entirety of the game. I only wonder why it took them so long to come up with this idea.
     The same has happened in football but nowhere near the degree that it has happened in basketball. In this case we will only look at Michigan Stadium.  This first photo is from the 1969 Michigan - Ohio State game.  Note that the Block M logo is barely visible and incredibly small.  It barely spans 2-3 yards.  There is no contrast, at least in this photo, in the colors.

 

     Look at Michigan Stadium today.  It is bigger, spanning maybe 10 yards, vivid, and clearly visible.

 

     Clearly, I captured these photos off of various youtubes and websites.  I wish they were all the same perspective to give a better idea of what I am talking about, but, I am sure you get the idea.  

     Needless to say, I did a Google search to see if this phenomena of the growing logo had been covered.  Being a kind of esoteric topic, I had to search several variations of the topic to find just one reference, a slide-show, in the USA Today of 2-27-13.  I will close this post with a photo from the USA Today slide show of the massive Kansas Jayhawk logo (you're welcome Ann Hicks!).

Et tu General Motors?

Chevy Volt chevrolet.com 

     I have been critical of the Ford Motor Company in two recent blogs: Another Turnaround?and Ford Drives Sedans Out of their Showrooms. Now it’s GM’s turn.
     First and foremost, they just pulled the plug on their breakthrough electric vehicle. They will cease production of the Chevrolet Volt in March of 2019. I know two people who own the Volt and love them; one is my son-in-law, Michael, and the other is our close family friend, Bob. Bob, who lives in Detroit, is on his second Volt and will be sad that he cannot get a third one. Michael enjoys the gas mileage of his cobalt blue Volt on the congested freeways of Los Angeles but wishes it had a bit more sport car performance.
     Consider what Dan Neil wrote about the Volt in the Wall Street Journalback in 2010 when the breakthrough car was launched:

… Chevrolet Volt, GM's futuristic extended-range electric vehicle and the company's most technologically significant car since the 1912 Cadillac.

A bunch of Midwestern engineers in bad haircuts and cheap wristwatches just out-engineered every other car company on the planet. And they did it in 29 months while the company they worked for was falling apart around them. That was downright heroic. Somebody ought to make a movie.

     Clearly, GM did not know how to market nor how to improve the vehicle so that it would remain the icon that it started out as. It’s demise like that of the Ford Taurus is the epitome of ineptitude that has plagued Ford and GM for decdes.
     The Volt was not the only car that GM was going to cease production of in the next year. Five other vehicles, all sedans, are part of their exodus from passenger cars: Chevrolet Cruze, Chevrolet Impala, Cadillac CT6, Cadillac XTS, and Buick LaCrosse. Like Ford, GM is saying that this is the result of declining car sales as the public has been favoring crossovers, SUVs, and pickup trucks. In the case of GM, this might result in the shuttering of up to five plants and the elimination of up to 14,000 jobs.
     When we were looking for a new car for my wife in 2011, we looked at a LaCrosse. It seemed expensive for what it was. Instead we bought a used Mercedes C300 with about 20K miles on it. The revised Buick line was supposed to appeal to us. Perhaps, if we bought it, we may have liked it, but GM is fighting a huge perception problem. People don’t think their cars are as good as the Japanese and German cars in the same class. We valued a two-year-old Mercedes with mileage over a new LaCrosse. There is something wrong with that and, as the consumer, it is not my problem. It is one of many problems GM has not been able to solve.
     Cadillac? It was once the epitome of luxury cars in this country. You knew you had made it when you bought a Cadillac. Growing up, I always heard people praising an impressive but unrelated product by calling it the Cadillac of this and that. “This is the Cadillac of baby strollers.” Or, “That is the Cadillac kitchen tables.” But, no longer. They

The Old GM HQ in Detroit

still make a good car but when looking at the market shares of luxury cars in 2017, Mercedes, Lexus, BMW, and Audi are all ahead of Cadillac. Here is what Car and Driversaid about the XTS that is being discontinued: “The XTS may not be the best of its high-luxury bunch, but it is one of the cheapest… The XTS is a competent and relatively affordable retirement cruiser, but it can’t truly compete with the best in this class.” The XTS sells for 52% of what the Mercedes S Class sells for and 73% of the BMW 7-Series, but sales are so low that the car is being dropped.
     In 2014, GM made a lot of hoopla of moving the offices of the Cadillac Division to New York City. No US automaker has ever done anything like that. I remember when I moved to Connecticut and worked in Manhattan, I thought that every auto executive should come out here and drive their cars around the hills and winding roads of Connecticut and then into Manhattan. My thought they would understand why the Germans were beating the pants off the US luxury brands. With the Cadillac move, I thought just maybe GM was doing something right and would become competitive in a market they owned for decades. It did not work. On September 28, 2018, GM announced it was moving their 110-person Cadillac team back to Detroit. It was a failed experiment that I have to assume was poorly managed and underfunded.
     This is the story of GM. In the 1950s and 60s, their market share of the US auto market was in the high 70%’s. Today it is a 17.6%. The descent was steady and consistent over the years. By any standard, this is an epic decline that can only be attributed to poor management. During this epic decline, the culture of GM was underscored with an unbelievable arrogance fueled by the illusion that they collectively believed it was still 1955.

Urban Meyer

saturdaydownsouth.com

     Urban Frank Meyer III just stepped down as head coach of The Ohio State University Football program. I am not what you would call a fan of Urban Meyer and certainly not a fan of Ohio State University Football. I am, after all, a Michigan fan… a Michigan man. But, I have to tip my hat to Coach Meyer. From the Ohio State perspective, he was awesome, he was a football god, and he never lost to Michigan in the seven years he coached there. Michigan fans really don’t like him because of this. The really don’t like borders on hate actually.
     Urban Meyer stepped down for health reasons. He has an arachnoid cyst in his brain. Some sources say it is inoperable and has increasingly caused him headaches and episodes where his memory is suspect. The headaches have been noticeable on the sideline as he has been caught on camera bending over and clutching his head. He even passed out at a game against Indiana this year. The rumors were prevalent on social media that he was going to retire because of this at the end of the season. So, his retirement was not a total surprise.
     A football coach the caliber of Urban Meyer is married to his job. It makes for lengthy work days both in and off-season. I imagine the stress levels equal the lofty pay that great coaches like Urban Meyer command. Furthermore, the elite coaches clearly know the game of football but, maybe more importantly, they are excellent managers of every aspect of the game, even the parts they delegate. The best coaches have developed and refined great systems. And, boy oh boy, did Urban Meyer have a great system. They never had a lull year. He recruited great talent, made them better, and devised game plans that made this teams unbelievably good. I recall a commentator, maybe a reporter, say that under Urban Meyer, “Ohio State doesn’t rebuild, they reload.” The one their only National Championship under Meyer in 2014, they did it with their playing their third string quarterback for the entire post season. I blogged about it in August of 2015. Braxton Miller went down in the pre-season, no problem, reload and move forward with J. T. Barrett. Barrett gets hurt in the Michigan game? No issues. Reload and win the National Championship with Cardale Jones. Unbelievable indeed. I was astonished and impressed but I shouldn’t have been. It was Urban Meyer’s system of recruiting, coaching up his players, and preparing them for games.
     Even during half-time and in press conferences after the game. He was infuriatingly matter of fact and irritatingly calm as he explained, and I paraphraise, “we recruit good player, teach them their role in our system, expect them to do their jobs, and they do.” I hated hearing that smug, confident, speech in countless variations, after Ohio State victories. His record was 82 – 9 in Columbus. Urban Meyer was clearly at the top of his game.
     There are rumors coming from every corner, except from Ohio State fans, that Urban Meyer is a cheat and often has the best team money can buy. As a Michigan fan, I would love to believe that just to justify our dismal record versus Ohio State. But, let’s face it. Elite college programs are money machines and the minor leagues for the NFL. The rah-rah, win one for the Gipper, spirit of student-athletes fails on the word student. The emotion is there for sure with both athletes and fans. But the vast majority of these gifted players are not really students. Many of these players probably would not have gotten into Michigan or Ohio State on their academics. So, really it is a degree of cheating, bending, or breaking the rules. I imagine the same thing is said about Alabama, Oklahoma, Clemson, and others. I am certain rivals would blow the whistle if there were evidence of such.
     I watched Urban Meyer on a TV interview a few years ago. He was talking about the stress of the job and how it kept him from quality time with his family. He seemed very open and heartfelt in his comments and desire to want to add some “normalcy” to his life. I believed him because he was so different, personable, and believable than in any other presser I have ever seen him. For all the success and incredible salaries, he seems like a guy truly struggling with work/life balance. I don’t believe he is that good an actor, so I believed him.
     Lastly, regarding Michigan and Ohio State. I often say, there is no rivalry without the rival. There is no rivalry, really, when the wins are lopsided as they have been in Ohio State’s favor this century. Nothing matches a great and grand rivalry such as this as when the record is closer to 50/50. We revere the Ten Year Hayes vs. Schembechler war for that very reason.
   Again,I tip my hat to Urban Meyer and wish him well.

Sydney Harris

     Growing up, we got the Detroit Free Press delivered to our home. It was the newspaper my Dad chose. When I was old enough, I would read the comics and check-out the baseball standings and individual stats every day during the season. Gradually over time I would read an article here or there, mostly sports and some news.
     I was not big on the opinion, editorials, and the syndicated columnists that populated those pages. I knew of Sydney Harris because I saw his articles, but I never read them. When I started at Ford Motor, my dear friend Robert K. Jones was commenting on a recent article by Sydney Harris on day. It sounded very interesting and I admitted that I knew of his column but had never actually read one. RK told me that I was missing out, I would benefit from reading Mr. Harris, and that he actually thought I would like him. So, I read the next column and never stopped. RK was right. I loved the way Sydney Harris wrote and what he thought even when I did not entirely agree with him.
     Sydney Harris was born in London in 1917. When he was five, his family moved to Chicago. Chicago became the city where he grew up, went to school, and worked. He was an alumnus of the University of Chicago. He worked for various Chicago newspapers as a drama critic and columnist ended up at the Chicago Sun-Times. The Detroit Free Press picked up both Sydney Harris and fellow Sun-Times writer Mike Royko. I became ardent fans of both though they couldn’t be more different in both subject and style.
     I liked his writings so much, I bought his book, The Best of Sydney J. Harris: Chosen from 30 year of writing by one of America’s most perceptive columnists. I bought the book

in 1976 or 1977. I loved it and would read random selections and several over and over again. I am not sure where that book went. I may have lent it to someone, I may have lost it, or inadvertently given it to a library book drive. I was sorry to know longer have it.
     I had not really given it any thought until I was discussing my favorite Sydney Harris column with a colleague, Professor Gianfranco Farrugia. It was a brilliant piece about how he tended to drift to opposite point of view when amongst people that were die-hard conservatives or liberals. I loved it because I am the same way. When I first read it, it vindicated my middle of the road, consider both sides, perspective. Up until then, I believed something was wrong with me for not having the resolute views so many others espoused.
      I thought Gian would enjoy reading the piece. As I didn’t have the book any longer, I thought I would be able to find his columns online. There were plenty of quotes on the usual quote sites but no columns. Sydney Harris seemed to have fallen between the cracks as the world went from analog to digital.
     So, I did the next best thing. I went on Amazon.com and bought another copy of The Best of Sydney J. Harris for the typical, very affordable, used book price. When it came, I was delighted to see that Mr. Harris had signed the book. How cool.
     I immediately looked for my favorite column and in short order found it and read it. I was amazed at how good, how profound, the writing was. I was worried that I had exaggerated the quality and impact of this piece overtime and was actually prepared to be a bit disappointed. I was not. It was still an incredibly strong piece. This might be projection, but I saw the influence of Mr. Harris’s style in my own writing. I could see, also, why I like the blogging I have been doing this year.
      Sydney Harris died in 1986 at the age of 69. He had heart issues and passed on from complications of a bypass surgery. I was sad. I would miss his writing. But I am glad to have his book again and am once again reading one of my favorite writers.
     I typed up that favorite column and include it here, so others may find it and benefit from it as I did.

Why There’s Danger in Extremism by Sydney Harris
     A friend of mine, whom I have always considered a calm and stable personality, told me recently that he is regarded in some quarters as a wild-eyed radical, and in other circles as a stony conservative – when actually he is neither.
     “It’s an irresistible urge I have when I get together with extremists,” he said. “I promptly swing over the other extreme, just because I am so irritated with their one-sided view.”
     I was delighted to learn that somebody else reacts that way, too. For years I have deplored my own tendency to do this. In most cases, it gives a false impression of my views – but when I am confronting an extremist, I become a passionate defender of the opposite view.
     With ice-cold reactionaries, I sound like a rabid Bolshevik; with professional liberals, I take on the tone of a fascist; with ardent culture-vultures, I pretend to read nothing but comic books and lovelorn columns; with pugnacious lowbrows, I refer haughtily to the French symbolist poets and the ontological existentialism of Kierkegaard.
     This, of course, is a senseless way to behave; it is over-reacting to a situation. But, in all fairness, there is something about extremism that breeds its own opposite.
     The complacency of the bourgeoisie makes me yearn for the Bohemian life; the sloppiness of the Bohemian brings out my primness; loud-mouthed patriots prompt me to take a stand for the French way of life; and moist-eyed lovers of all things European give me the urge to hop on a chair and being waving Old Glory.
     The danger of extremism is that it forces its opponents to adopt an equally extreme view – thus hurting its own cause more than it realizes.
     The Reign of Terror during the French Revolution was a natural historical result of the repressive monarchy; the Satanism of Stalin sprang out of the soil of Czarist cruelty. 

     Not a single way of living is exclusively right. Combination is all. Life is the art of mixing ingredients in tolerable proportions, so that all the varied needs of man are somehow satisfied, and no important hunger is neglected. This is what extremists forget, with their too-simple slogans for the good life.