A December 12th Memory

 

Back in the early 2000’s, it was around late November.  I was trying to arrange a meeting involving the Logistics and Customer Service leaders of Colgate-Palmolive.  I do not recall the exact topic of the meeting.  I think it was maybe the second gathering for a project we were working on in the Latin American Division.  We wanted to get the meeting in before the Christmas holidays to to push the project forward and not lose three to four weeks due to the Christmas Holiday and the slow ramp-up in the first few weeks of the New Year.  If it was a short update meeting, we could have done it by conference call.  But, we needed to spend a full day, if not two, working through an detailed agenda.  So, the meeting had to be face-to-face.

I called Angel De La Puente, the Director of Customer Service and Logistics who was both my #1 report and partner in the project we were working on.  We looked at our calendars and the only date that could possibly work was December 12^th which was a Friday that year (making 2003 most likely the year).   For reasons that elude me, we had to meet in Mexico City.  We planned start our work on Thursday in the afternoon, work all day Friday, and end with a holiday dinner.  Folks could fly home on Saturday morning, and we would achieve our objective of making good progress on project.  We were set to go.

Just before sending out the email inviting everyone to the meeting, I got a call from the VP of Manufacturing in Mexico, who was Angel’s local boss.  He asked me if the meeting could be moved to another date as we had selected was the Virgin of Guadalupe Day.  While it was still a working day, it was an important holiday and there were festivities on site and hosting fifteen or so guests would be inconvenient. 

Well, I had two tasks.  First, I took care of business and moved the meeting to January.  We would still make our deadline.

Secondly, I was looking forward to call Angel.  This would be a fun and memorable call.  When he answered, I started right in, “Hey Angel, you have always taken great pride in knowing the history of Mexico and sharing the knowledge with me.”

He said, “Yes, somebody has to teach you Gringos.”

Smiling, I continued with the set-up, “Today, I am really questioning how much you really know.” 

He gruffly asked, “What the hell are you talking about?” 

“Well, you know about our December 12^th meeting?”

I could sense his growing frustration when he retorted, “Yes, of course.”

“I am shocked, truly, that I have to be the one to point out to you that it is the Virgin of Guadalupe Day.  I am just shocked you did not know this as it is a very important and sacred holiday in Mexico.”

There was one of the longest pregnant pauses I have ever experienced.  I knew I got him but good, and I knew he knew it as well.  He knew I would be bringing this up often whenever he was showing his natural pride.  It was indeed a long pause.  Then ever so slowly, with that deep, gravely, voice of his, he slowly uttered that one-word expletive for which he was so famous.

Angel passed away two years ago on December 29.  I miss my friend.

The Vortex Cometh

Dr. Zhivago - The Ice Palace

    The news all over Chicagoland the past few days has been about the polar vortex that is bringing us the coldest day in recorded history. It is 6 pm Tuesday, January 29th, the temperature is 1oF. Overnight the temperature will drop to -21oF. Tomorrow, Wednesday, January 30th, the temperature will not rise above -11oF or -24oC. It is this last record that is the record setter as it will be the lowest high in recorded history.
    Of course, the low temperatures are serious, but it really gets interesting when we include the wind chill factor, in fact, it gets downright scary. The winds will gust from 19 – 24 mph. The wind chills will vary between 30 - 60oF. The news shows all have experts saying the effects of frostbite will manifest themselves on exposed skin in five minutes. You could walk outside to get the mail, if they actually deliver the mail tomorrow, and your ears could freeze and fall off. OK that is an exaggeration, but this is crazy serious stuff. This is not a good time to be homeless in Chicago.
     Most schools have already closed including North Park University where I teach. Many businesses have also decided to allow people to work from home including my wife’s. We will be bundled up, hibernating indoors, and Pasternaking. Pasternaking? The kind of extreme weather that is moving in, reminds me of Dr. Zhivago by Boris Pasternak. The scenes that impressed in both the book and the movie are when Yuri and Lara where hibernating during the brutal Russian winter and Yuri wrote poems for her. Of course, there are the brilliant scenes of the ice palace. It will be that kind of day tomorrow.
     I feel impelled to write a poem tomorrow. If I do it should be with a fountain pen by candlelight. But truth be told and assuming the internet connections all work, I will be grading and writing by the light of a computer monitor.
     I actually like a real winter like we are having. I love the big snows and cold blasts. I grew up with four seasons and enjoy them all. It is not a real winter without these Zhivago like snows and frigid blasts of cold. The weather this week, I will admit, is beyond the kind of frigid blast that I need to feel like we had a real winter.  Honestly, the cold extremes and big snows of winter are more fascinating to me that heat waves and torrential rains of summer.
     This is not the first time I have blogged about this love for and fascination with winter.

• An Old Fashioned Winter 2-11-18
• Snow Day! 1-8-18
• For the Love of a Good Winter Blast 1-11-15
• Brutalmente Frio! 1-30-14
• It Began with an Air Bath 1-27-09
• Winter Survival 1-05

     I have been joking for the past few days with my students that the one of the good things about the polar vortex is that it takes my mind off of global warming. It is humorous but a sign of a system being out of control can be the increases in the kinds of extreme weather we have experienced throughout the year e.g. longer hurricane and tornado seasons, more hurricanes and tornados than ever, hotter summers, and weirder winters. To me, this is just another example of such an extreme.      Just as I sat down to write this piece, almost on cue, President Trump tweeted:

     He does have a way with words…
     Stay warm and safe Chicago.

Chidem Inch: Armenians Invented Music Too?

PeopleOfAr and YouTube sited cited in this blog

     First it was reported in 2010 that Armenians Invented Clothes. Then a year later it was reported that Armenians Invented Wine. How amazing are we? And,it doesn’t stop there.
     On January 16, 2019, Tatul Sonentz-Papazian shared an article on Facebook that basically proves we invented music too. What? We invented music? This is crazy and very cool.  But, come on! Now we are starting to just make stuff up to irritate Recep Tayyip Erdogan (it should be noted that wholeheartedly I support such efforts in this regard).
     Actually, perhaps we did not actually create music but the we are credited with, or taking credit for, the oldest fragment of written music. Well, actually, it was our grandfather ancestors the Hurrians.  The article Sonentz-Papazian shared was from a website, The PeopleOfAr. It seems that a 3,400 year old cuneiform tablet of a hymn to the goddess of orchards was discovered in the 1950s. The tablet stated the music was written for an ancient lyre and even provided instructions for tuning. It was in a complete state where Amazingly, scholars were able to make enough sense out this to transcribe the tune to sheet music and then play it.
     There is a recording of one Michael Levy playing the tune. This YouTube post makes no mention of the Armenians except in one comment:   “Hurrians/Urartu/Hayasa-Azzi/Arme-Shupria = Armenians.” Speaking of comments here are a few I found amusing.

• This is not real music. What is it with all these "instruments" this new generation uses? In my day, we just used to sing and beat together two rocks to make music.
• Dis song is bring me back to my childhood memories
• Definitely my favourite brutal hurrian hymncore song
• If you grew up listening to this, your childhood was awesome.
• I saw these guys in concert back in the day

     So, who are the Hurrians and how do we know they are our national grandparents? I have never heard of them before. But, I am nowhere near being a historian specializing in such things. I looked them up on the internet and read two articles I found out about them in such places as the Encyclopedia Britannica and Archeology: a publication of the Archeological Institute of America. Neither of these mentioned anything about Armenians being descendants of the Hurrians. I did find a 1944 book, Hurrians and Subarians by Ignace Gelb of The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, in which Armenia and Armenians are referenced several times.
     It should be noted that on the YouTube site that one of the people that posted a serious comment, Messenger of Hor-pen-abu, in which the author basically alludes to the Assyrians being the descendants of the Hurrians. It seems that the Hurrians might have contributed to a few races. They seem to have lived at times in what is today Syria, Iran, Turkey, Iraq, and Armenia. Any peoples who came after the Hurrians could probably say they are descendants.
   Per Gelb:

The territory around Lake Van was occupied in the Late Assyrian period, between 900 and 600 B.C, by the state of Urartu, whose kings left many cuneiform inscriptions written in a language which is a close relative of Hurrian. This region may have formed the home of both Urartians and Hurrians with the qualification that, while the Urartians occupied predominantly the area north and east of Lake Van, the Hurrians may have held the area south and west of it. (Gelb pp 90 – 91)

     OK then, this tracks with what was written in the PeopleOfAr blog. The About PoA states:

This blog is dedicated to Armenian culture, history and everything else Armenia related. PeopleOfAr is set on a journey of self education, sharing of knowledge and pursuit of hidden Armenian cultural “treasures”, all in the spirit of academic integrity.

     So, did we invent music? Is this an Armenian song? The scholarly type in me says “I am not entirely sold on these claims. I will say that this very old song is from the regions where Armenians descended and lived for centuries.” The proud Armenian in me says, “Of course we invented music. Armenia is the cradle of civilization.”
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The State of the Dis-Union

foxiness.com

     Human behavior is human behavior. Age and education might refine it some, but it is still there. Be it benevolence or greed, having grace and style or being rude and boorish, considerate or inconsiderate, kind or mean, all these traits exist in all of us to varying degrees. From my experience, the percentages of people with extremes of these traits are the same across all strata of education and socio-economic classes. We like to think that doctors, lawyers, elected officials, clergy, professors, and others in influence and leadership positions ought to be above this but that is not the case.
     We are in a partial government shutdown. As of this writing, it has gone on a month. Furloughed government workers without enough savings are really being adversely impacted. Meanwhile, our leaders, namely our President and the Speaker of the House are exhibiting the kind of tit-for-tat pettiness I wish our government leaders were above.
     On January 16th, the new Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi sent a letter to President Trump stating that she wanted to postpone the State of the Union Address until after the partial government shutdown was ended. The State of the Union is an annual speech by the President of the United States given to both Houses of Congress to set the legislative agenda for the year. Until this happened, I was unaware that the President is formally invited by the Speaker of the House has to come and speak. So, Speaker Pelosi’s suggestion was, in fact, a disinvitation.
     A day later, per CNN, “President Donald Trump said Thursday he was denying House Speaker Nancy Pelosi a military plane for a trip to Afghanistan that was set to begin in the afternoon, a tit-for-tat retaliation that deepened the divide between the leaders and brought the government no closer to reopening.” The trip was not publicized and used military aircraft for security reasons. The news report was the first the public knew about Pelosi going to Afghanistan. The NPR report I heard said that Speaker Pelosi was en route to the airbase for the trip when she got the news that President Trump had cancelled her flight.
     This is indeed  tit-for-tat retaliation and petty gamesmanship.
     Some will read this and venomously blame either the President or the Speaker. I am certain to get an earful either supporting the Speaker or the President while vilifying the other. To me, it shows how polarized we are both in government and as a people. We are at a record number of days for this kind of government shutdown and it is unclear when this will be resolved. Both sides are intransigent and blame the other.
     I understand that conflict can be good if there is room for negotiation and compromise. I adhere to the school that antithesis can lead to synthesis and provide better results than one extreme making all the decisions. That is not the way our government has worked for the past ten years. I also thought our leaders were above such pettiness when there are huge issues to be tackled. Color me naïve… I guess.

The New Yorker

      I love The New Yorker. I bought my first copy on a whim when I was 22. I was at the airport travelling maybe to Boston. Maybe the cover intrigued me, more likely I was curious about the magical mystical place that New York was. Upon settling on the plane, I thumbed through the magazine and, like most at first glance of the venerable magazine, I was taken with the clever cartoons. Then I noticed an article with the words Armenians in it. I went to the beginning of the article to find that it was Passage to Ararat by Michael Arlen. I was getting all set to read the article on when I noticed that it was part 3 of 3. Dang.
     Upon returning to Detroit, I contacted my friend Patty whose family ran a news and sundries shop in an office building in Dearborn. I asked if she might be able to get the past two issues so I could read all three parts. She said she would try. I suppose I could have gone to a library but that thought never occurred to me. A week or so later, Patty called me and said she had the magazines.
     On a Saturday in March 1975, a coldish dank sleety Saturday morning, I sat down to read the articles. I quickly realized how long articles in The New Yorker could be. It took me all day to read the three articles and I couldn’t put them down until I finished. I had no idea who Michael Arlen was. But, I realized immediately, what a gifted writer he was. I came to learn later that he was the TV critic for the magazine and The New Yorker published his entire book in their pages before it was published by Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.
     Michael Arlen was a junior. His father Michael Arlen Sr. was Armenian, and his mother was English. His father became English. In fact, he became an English writer of some renown with his novel, The Green Hat, being his best-known work. The younger Michael was unaware of his Armenian heritage because his father turned away from it after 1915 Genocide. The book explores junior seeking out to learn about what it meant to be Armenian. The quest took him to Turkey and Soviet Armenia. It is a fascinating book any Armenian should read.
     Reading Passage to Ararat made me subscribe to The New Yorker. I was a devoted browser of the magazine until I moved to New York (duh!) and let the subscription lapse for a short period. I also took a hiatus during the dismal years of The Great Recession. My wife renewed it for me this past fall and I have enjoyed browsing it again.
      Browse? Yes, I should read it cover-to-cover as the writing is that good. But instead, I browse. I read a gem of an article here, a poem there, or a review of a film or play. I always look at every cartoon.
     I was looking for something to read during finals week this past December. I picked up

Frank McCourt

the December 8 issue of the magazine, sat down, and browsed. I settled on an article titled New in Town. I was impressed at how engaging the story of this young Irish lad who just immigrated to New York, getting a menial job, and started to come alive in a city where many go to do just that. Who wrote this I asked myself? I looked, it was on Frank McCourt and it was first published in the February and March 1, 1999 issues of the magazine. I was getting the magazine back then and apparently browsed right past this exquisitely written personal history. The issue I was reading was a best of issue of The New Yorker. I read a just as brilliant piece by James Baldwin in the same issue later that week.
     Frank McCourt? I had no idea who he was until I read this article. A google search quickly educated me that he was an Irish-American author and teacher who won a Pulitzer Prize for Angela’s Ashes.
     I was a bit amazed by my lack of knowledge. More so, I felt fortunate for having stumbled upon this lovely memoir having already missed it back in 1999. I may just have to read Angela’s Ashes.

More than Just a Pen

Dad's Cross Century

     Any reader of my e-letters that has now become this blog knows that I like nice writing instruments. I love pens and prefer to carry one that is both functional and stylish. When I first started my daily writing habit in June 2002, I handwrote every page. Now, I rarely do that but still enjoy taking notes and writing letters and cards with a fine pen. Even if I only need to sign something, say a drop/add form for a student, and am given a throwaway Bic or PaperMate, I will say no thanks if I have a Parker, Waterman, Cross, Caran D’Ache, Rotring, or Mont Blanc in my shirt pocket. I would just rather use a nice pen.
     While I have ballpoint, fountain, and roller ball pens, my weapon of choice by a longshot is a ballpoint with a fine point refill. I just like them. I like how I can write more meticulously in smaller script with them. I prefer the heft of a bigger diameter pens as well. I probably have around forty fine pens in my two offices and various briefcases. Yes, it is an indulgence and it is one that I enjoy.
     I just got a new pen in my collection. It is a humble old Cross Chrome Century ballpoint. There are a few nicks and scuffs but it still lusters. You can get these on ebay for $19 – 30. You can buy them new on Cross.com for $40. I have had few for these pens over the years. In the late 1960s and 70s, they were almost de rigueur where I grew up.
     But this one is special. It belonged to my father. In his primary career years, he worked for Detroit Bank and Trust, now known as Comerica. He sold financing for home modernization and then credit card services. I remember when he had Detroit Bank and Trust Parker Jotters that he would pass out to clients and customers. At that time, I thought they were the coolest pens and he would occasionally let me use his. Needless to say, I have a few of these as well. I remember when he upgraded. Someone gave him a Cross Chrome Century and the Jotters became an instant memory. He sported that Cross all the time as far as I could remember. Because of him, I too looked at that pen as a sign of being a bona fide businessman.
     Back then, I liked the Jotter better. I thought the Cross was too slender even though the styling was quite nice. I was given one early in my career, but still thought they were too slender for me. I did not like writing with them. I ignored but still revered the Cross brand. This lasted until I came across a Cross Townsend Lapis Lazuli pen on sale at my favorite pen shop in New York. It was love at first site and even more so at first write. Cross finally expanded their styling and the Townsend line was basically a fatter version of the Century. It was perfect. It is still one of my favorite pens.
     When last visiting my mother, she brought down two pens of dad’s and offered them to my sister and me. My sister took the gold Cross Century with the old Detroit Bank and Trust Indian logo on the clip. I took the chrome one because I knew this was his first Cross and was his go to pen for many years. I put a blue fine point refill in it and have used it exclusively for the past three weeks. I love it and will use it often because of its priceless sentimental value to me. I handwrote the draft of this page with it.

If You Can't Say Something Nice...

Alice Roosevelt Longworth from Pinterest

     Somehow in our dinner conversation this evening, we gravitated to the topic of the good and bad things, the complimentary and hurtful things, we say to others. Clearly, we evoked the old adage: If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.
     Immediately, I tried to recall a devilish variation on the quote which I thought was from Eleanor Roosevelt. I believe it was something like “If you can’t say something nice, come and sit here by me.” A Google search showed I was close on both counts. The quote is from Alice Roosevelt Longworth, the author, socialite, and eldest daughter of Theodore Roosevelt. There was a site of her quotes. There were actually several versions of the quote that I found. Two were on that site, one was on another, and a fourth on Pinterest (thus making me wonder about the accuracy of quotes on the internet).

1. If you haven't got anything nice to say about anybody come sit next to me.
2. If you can't think of anything nice to say, come sit here beside me.
3. If you can’t say something nice about someone, come and sit right here next to me.
4. The above photograph of Alice Roosevelt Longworth holding a pillow with a fourth version.

     As much as I like what Alice Roosevelt Longworth said, the root adage is more in line with this season of resolutions. Surely, we should all try to be nicer and apply the Golden Rule to not only our actions but what we say to and about people. In my internet a few other great on this general topic of watching what we say about others:

• Say what you mean, but don’t say it mean.
• If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude. ~ Maya Angelou
• Be sure to taste your words before you spit them out.

     This theme covers things we say to others, the gossip behind their backs, and what we say online about people we know and perhaps only know of. We live in an era where people are bullied online. We live in an era where the President of our country sets the tone with the kinds of insults and zingers that can be tweeted. Of course, there is still gossip. Anyone that works or belongs to any kind of organization, team, club, musical group, or church knows that gossip is nothing new. It can define and underlie the culture. It can be an informal method of communication that makes an organization more cohesive. More often, however, it is a divisive force that breaks people into subgroups and cliques that serves some and ices out others.
     I am as guilty of the above as anybody, especially the gossip part. I think it is part of human nature. As stated above the gossip can be measured and civil, or it can be malicious and hurtful.
     Communication is so critical in everything we do. Be it verbal, social media, or via email. We should all certainly strive to be more tempered. We should indeed taste our words before we speak or type them. For this year, I will add a commitment to speaking and typing in a more polite and civil tone.

Fumbling Upon a Topic

www.bobleesays.com

     What a difference a year makes.

     Last year I was chomping at the bit to write, write-on, and then write some more. Last year I had topics galore. Everywhere I looked there was something to write about. 
     This year, and I know this will change, it is January 4th and I am struggling with what to blog about. Really? Yes, for sure. I find myself writing about not having a topic to write about. I suppose this could be considered a writer’s block. 
     There are plenty of topics. A Democratic controlled Congress is in place and they are squaring off with President Trump. Both sides are huffing and puffing about the government shutdown and the proposed wall for the US – Mexico border. When I worked at General Dynamics Land Systems, this is what we used to call a target rich environment. There is no limit to what one can rant and rave about. But then, I would be mimicking Fox News and MSNBC. Furthermore, if I were to go down that slippery political slope, it would consume me as it has others on Facebook. I have seen friends and relatives lash out, rant, rave, and more. They irritate everyone they know, burn-out, disappear for a while, and eventually return posting only kitten and baby goat videos. Nah, that’s not for me. 
     There is the upcoming College Football Championship on January 7th; as I seem to like writing about football and probably consider myself a sportswriter wannabee. This is the fourth year in a row that Alabama and Clemson have squared-off in the College Championship series. In 2016, 2017, and now 2019, they are playing for the National Championship. As evidenced by really lackluster ticket sales, the country is taking a big yawn about this game. Yeah, Alabama. Sure, Clemson. Again? Ho-hum. Maybe, something needs to be done to ensure parity in College Football. Short of limiting scholarships or paying the players and having a draft, I am at a loss here.

The average resale cost of a ticket has gone from $1,043 to $533 in a matter of days, according to secondary ticket site SeatGeek. And you can still get tickets for much cheaper. Upper-deck seats, which had a face value of $475 each, were going for as low as $114 on StubHub, and $139 on SeatGeek, on Thursday. ~ Market Watch 

     Tickets are actually going for less than face-value. That is unheard of in a championship game like this one. I teach Principles of Microeconomics. I always refer to the secondary ticket market for sporting events as pure supply and demand. In this game, there is not very much demand, in fact, the demand curve has probably shifted. 
     There are certainly plenty of games during the regular season where there are empty seats. This certainly happens when two lackluster teams play each other, but I have seen it at Michigan Stadium where we boast a record string of 100,000+ attendance. It happens everywhere. 
     Part of this has to be due to people simply wanting to watch a game in the comfort of their own homes. Everyone has amazing televisions these days. There is instant replay. It really is a great way to watch football either alone or in a watch party. The older I get the home option sounds and better to me. No travel. No lines. Snacks at reasonable prices. Apparently, I am not alone in this. 
     There is also the fact that our passion for football has peaked. If the TV viewership for this game dips as well, the powers that be will have to do some thinking and planning on the state of the game.

In the Time of your Life...

     It seemed like yesterday was the start of this millennium. Now, it is 2019 and we are in

the 20thyear of this century. Time indeed moves faster the older we get.
     The start of a new year is the turning of the page. We are starting fresh, full of aspirations of what we will do and what we will do better. We delineate the traits and habits we want to drop and other, more desirable traits and habits, we aspire to finally ensconce them into our lifestyles and personalities. We all want to self-actualize, be more authentic, and become mentally and physically healthy.
     In contemplating all I have and want to do; the list is no different than it was last year at this time. Heck, it is not much different than it was last year at this time. It is not that much different than it was any of the New Year’s Days for the past several years. I have made progress on some and I have backslid on others. Some resolutions have stuck, others were mere memories after a day or two.
     What is it I truly want? What is it that most of us really want? Health, happiness, general well-being, and some degree of prosperity is what most of the seasonal greetings hope for.
     Today, on Facebook, Margaret Dabakian Ehramjian posted a quote from William Saroyan. This is not the Saroyan quote most Armenians think of. This one is the prelude from his 1939 play, The Time of Your Life:

In the time of your life, live - so that in that good time there shall be no ugliness or death for yourself or for any life your life touches. Seek goodness everywhere, and when it is found, bring it out of its hiding-place and let it be free and unashamed... In the time of your life, live - so that in that wondrous time you shall not add to the misery and sorrow of the world, but shall smile to the infinite delight and mystery of it.

     It is perfect for today, actually for any day. It is perfect for the time of anyone’s life.
     The play was a hit from the day it opened. It was the first play to win both the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award. Saroyan was an instant success and a toast of the town. Armenians were proud of him. His success was the general success of our people who just twenty-four years earlier had suffered so in our ancestral homelands. This son of immigrants from Bitlis was born in Fresno in 1908 and passed away in 1981.
     Needless to say, I did an internet search on the play and found out that the quote on Facebook, the one I was familiar with, the one I posted above is a Hallmark Card reduction, a very well-written and elegant Hallmark Card, of what he actually wrote. His most famous Armenian quote can be found in various plaques and other ornamentations adorning Armenian homes around the world. But the version we all have in our homes is, again, a Hallmark Card excerpt of the original. Read the full quotation at the end of Çidem İnç - Thoughts and Dichotomies. Every version of this quote hanging on the walls of Armenian homes leave out the “sons of bitches” part. The parts that are left out, in my humble opinion, are what made Saroyan the brilliant writer. Here is the full version of Saroyans preface to The Time of Your Life.

In the time of your life, live -- so that in that good time there shall be no ugliness or death for yourself or for any life your life touches.

Seek goodness everywhere, and when it is found, bring it out of its hiding-place and let it be free and unashamed.

Place in matter and in flesh the least of values, for these are the things that hold death and must pass away.

Discover in all things that which shines and is beyond corruption. Encourage virtue in whatever heart it may have been driven into secrecy and sorrow by the shame and terror of the world.

Ignore the obvious, for it is unworthy of the clear eye and the kindly heart.

Be the inferior of no man, nor of any man be the superior. Remember that every man is a variation of yourself. No man's guilt is not yours, nor is any man's innocence a thing apart.

Despise evil and ungodliness, but not men of ungodliness or evil. These, understand.

Have no shame in being kindly and gentle, but if the time comes in the time of your life to kill, kill and have no regret.

In the time of your life, live -- so that in that in that wondrous time you shall not add to the misery and sorrow of the world, but shall smile to the infinite delight and mystery of it."

     The full version is indeed more real. It is gritty. It is blunt in parts. “…but if the time comes in the time of your life to kill, kill and have no regret.” Wow. It reflects what the Armenians went through in 1915 – 1920. It reflects the depths of the Great Depression in the US when the play was written. It is still hopeful and a guide to aspire to but there is an underlying tone that the vast majority of us will never achieve this. That is no reason, however, not to endeavor and strive towards that ideal. It is what the time of our lives is about – if we so choose.
      I find the full version much more motivating.
     A happy, healthy, and prosperous 2019 to one and all.

Note: I have nothing against Hallmark Cards. In fact, I buy them frequently. Lastly, no Hallmark Cards were killed or injured in the writing of this bloggy bit.

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.