If you buy into the idea that too much salt is not good for you and that it contributes to higher blood pressure, then read on. I was blown away last week when we bought a new product at the supermarket - Heinz No Salt Tomato Ketchup - and it tasted FANTASTIC. My immediate reaction - why in the hell did there have to be so much damn sodium in ketchup all these years if you could make a ‘no salt’ version and have it taste so darn good? I mean, can you argue that Heinz had some social responsibility to take action a long time ago? You could easily play out how all those hundreds of tons of sodium consumed by consumers over the past twenty years (since sodium intake was recognized as being something a health-conscious person needed to manage) has contributed to the earlier deaths of people, in that all that 'unnecessary’ salt contributed to more heart attacks and strokes. Clearly, consumers of products have their own responsibility to manage what they eat. And then, yesterday, in reading an article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel about how the Johnsonville Sausage Company is expanding into international markets, I read this: "Probably the biggest lesson for Johnsonville was that salt levels in food are much lower in both Asia and Europe…….(says a spokesman): "We had to take a lot of sodium out.“ It was one of those shake-your-head moments. What are you going to do?
My Alma Mater & Angel Investing
About a year ago I emailed the editor of UVa’s alumni magazine to make the point that the vast majority of articles on alums were about graduates getting books published, academics or researchers, and that they had yet to write about alums involved in the world of angel investing and startup venture capital. Fast forward a year and the most current issue has an article on that very topic, with a section on my experiences (click the article “Changing the World…One Deal at a Time”): University of Virginia Article,
Two Terrific Political Sites
If you’re really into presidential politics, there are two sites that don’t get the attention of say a HuffingtonPost.com that are absolutely terrific. As much as I like watching Hardball and other talking heads, two sites are great for cutting to the chase. A very up-to-date and fascinating analysis of the electoral college race between Obama and McCain: www.FiveThirtyEight.com And a specific daily tracker of delegates in the Obama-Clinton race: click here.
An Active Round of Golf
A couple of days ago Jen and I went out on a cart and I played a quick, active nine holes of golf, which was highlighted by making a seven foot putt and having the second eagle in my life (Chiricahua #2, a strange super steep uphill par-4; and to think I was that close to a hole-in-one on a Jack Nicklaus-designed par 4 hole!). I teed off at around 4:00 p.m. and for the next hour, there was no one ahead of us. We had the whole course to ourselves. It was fantastic.
It got me thinking about how much I love to play golf when it is an active, faster- paced round, and how much I really dislike golf when it is ‘slow.' Some guys call it a 'relaxing round of golf.' But, to me, when you’re backed up on the course, and you’re constantly waiting for someone to hit, it’s not relaxing. It’s just a buzzkill. It’s as simple as that.
The game of golf is struggling now, due in part because of the big chunk of time it takes to play an 18-hole round of golf. Guys just can’t or don’t want to do that now like in the past.
I might feel differently when I’m older, but I vote for making playing golf a more 'active' experience.
On Horse Racing and Racehorses.
When I was in high school and later college in Virginia in the 70’s, I started to get into horseracing. I was earlier introduced to the sport and to the concept of betting on horses while watching television every year and the Running of the Roses, the Kentucky Derby. My interest brought me to the Charlestown Race Track in West Virginia, about a 90-minute drive from my hometown of Alexandria. On the hierarchy of tracks across the country, Charlestown was pretty much at the bottom, with most claiming races less than $5,000 and the purse of the feature 8th race rarely exceeding $15,000. Over time as I regularly visited the track and pored over The Daily Racing Form, I started honing my handicapping skills, reading the great classics on the subject by guys like Tom Ainslie, and absorbing what I could reading articles by the ‘dean’ of writers on the subject, Andrew Beyer, who wrote for The Washington Post. I eventually starting going to the two tracks around Baltimore, Pimlico and Laurel, and starting watching all of the Triple Crown races on TV. In fact, in my 20’s I travelled to the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes at least 8 times. Make no mistake, I loved horseracing: the whole culture of breeding for speed, training for the big race, the competition and the opportunity to bet and win money. For awhile there I was pretty sure I was developing a handicapping system that was going to make me a lot of cash.
It wasn’t until the late 80’s, however,when I was living in Los Angeles in the late 80’s a few miles from what I think is the greatest track in the United States, Santa Anita, that I REALLY got into horseracing and betting on race horses. After working on Saturday mornings, I would often head out to Santa Anita and play the last four or five races. I would even bring my five year old son along. I have this one vivid recollection one afternoon at the track with him and winning four races in a row! So there I was, with a HUGE wad of cash, exchanging ‘skin’ with my son, but at the same time realizing that I didn’t want to leave him with the impression that all Daddy had to do to make a lot of money was go up to a window and talk to a person on the other side! But such lessons were left for another day.
My betting strategy is pretty straightforward. Following the advice of many professional handicappers, the vast majority of my bets were to 'win’ only; I generally stayed away from the exotics. I also liked to play 'overlays’ (horses whose odds were considerably higher than what the Morning Line said they probably would race at) with out-of-towners who had stellar track records; there is often a local bias against horses coming in from the 'other’ coast, for example, therefore getting fewer bets and higher odds. I’ve actually done pretty well with this specific strategy, whenever it came up, which was not that often.
In 1974 and 1975, as a horseracing fan I got caught up in the incredible story of what was arguably the best female in horse racing history, Ruffian. Born in 1972, the coal black Ruffian won her maiden race in record time and by 15 lengths. She went on to win her first ten races by an average of 8 1/3 lengths, including the Filly Triple Crown. She was virtually unstoppable, and received a growing national following. Even the trainer of Secretariat, Lucien Laurin, suggested that Ruffian might be even better. In the summer of 1975, promoters set up a 'match race’ between that year’s Kentucky Derby winner, Foolish Pleasure, and Ruffian, to be held at Belmont Race Track.
I remember being really pumped up leading up to the race. Both Ruffian and Foolish Pleasure had the same jockey, Jacinto Vasquez, and he was given the option to choose which horse he wanted to ride in the match race. Incredibly, Vasquez choose the filly. The event was nationally televised on July 6, 1975 on a beautiful summer day.
What happened once the race started was one of the worst 'hi-lo’ experiences I’ve ever had in my life. Ruffian struggled to break cleanly out of the starting gate, but quickly got in stride and was neck and neck with Foolish Pleasure within seconds of the race. The first quarter-mile was run in a blazing 22 1/5 seconds. I remember how amazed I was at how the two horses were so close to each other; in her previous 10 races, Ruffian had NEVER been behind at any point of a race. EVER. She wasn’t about to let that happen in this match race; in fact, she started to pull away a bit from Foolish Pleasure for a couple hundred yards. And then, the unthinkable: both sesamoid bones in Ruffian’s right foreleg snapped. The jockey Vasquez tried to pull her up, but Ruffian kept running and running, further complicating an already terrible injury. What we all saw on national TV was Ruffian right hoof 'flopping’ around, as she came to a stop. It was heart-breaking. The TV announcers were stunned. It was awful. Ruffian was carted off in a horse ambulance. Surgery was performed, but when the filly woke up from the anesthesia, she thrashed in her stall and re-injured the leg (back then top horse vets did not have the big pool of water for horses to recover in like Barbaro), and was euthanized, a few hours following the race. Ruffian was gone.
At the time, much was written about how unusual it was for something like this to happen. Over the years, I’ve experienced, both in person and on television, other breakdowns, and tried to rationalize that these were highly unusual events. In fact, there was a time a few years ago when I gave serious consideration to investing in the purchase of one or more horses with the idea of hitting the jackpot and having one of them run in the Kentucky Derby. In fact, I did a fair amount of research about investing in a racing syndicate; several years ago a local radio personality in Milwaukee was part of a syndicate with about 20 other investors, and they had some genuine success with the horse Captain Bodgett that raced and did well in the Kentucky Derby.
But over the past couple of years, I’ve soured on horse racing and no longer see the sport as something I want to devote much time toward. I rarely go to a track, and my online account on YouBet.com has been basically inactive for over a year. The tragedy of Barbaro’s misstep in the 2006 Preakness Stakes certainly affected my thinking.
And fast forward to 2008 and the most recent tragedy involving the filly Eight Belles in this year’s Kentucky Derby, and it’s pretty clear that horseracing has a major dilemma: breeders over the years have been tweaking their business models so that speed trumps over durability. This has been driven by stud and foal fees as much as anything else.
For me, the sad reality is that while I’ll probably continue to watch the occasional race on TV, the whole world of horse racing has a stigma attached to it and I’m no longer comfortable with it. I just don’t know how you correct it. Either you resign yourself to the reality that horses will break down and will be euthanized and it’s part of the sport, or you don’t.
PerfectWeather.com
Ever wanted to search for your version of ‘perfect weather’ in the U.S. by location, temperature or time of year? Well you can now with a website I started recently called PerfectWeather.com. It’s in beta, and it’s pretty cool in that you can select important parameters involving all sorts of things that could help determine your next vacation, a major career or life change move. The end result are flags to areas of the U.S. that 'match’ your requirements with links to obtain even more information. Check it out: www.PerfectWeather.com
Political Truths on March 9, 2008
- Hillary Clinton will stop at nothing to get the prize. She is shameless in saying John McCain is worthy and her fellow Democrat is not.
- Barack Obama better start getting some backbone. To allow Howard Wolfson to characterize Obama’s pushing for disclosure of the Clintons financials as Ken Starr-like and let him get away with it, and at the same time fire his aide Stefanie Powers for calling Hillary a “monster” in a foreign newspaper interview, is inexcusable.
- John McCain has a temper and a mean streak that is more than a little scary for someone running for President.
- When you stop and do the math of the remaining primaries, and assume that Michigan and Florida will have do-overs, Obama gets within a couple dozen delegates to get him over the top. There will be enough uncommitted superdelegates to make sure that happens. If it gets to that point (i.e., until late June), the Democratic Party will be fractured. If Obama gets the nomination, people in the Democratic Party will get over it. If Clinton gets the nomination, there will be major blocs of pissed off Democrats who will, in effect, temporarily leave the party and not vote in November.
Oh, To Be A Consumer!
I’ve posted on this topic before, but in the last twelve hours, it’s really hit me again: the creation and continuing elongation of the Long Tail of products and services is making it incredibly challenging to the ‘producers of product’, and providing to consumers an extraordinary explosion of 'choice.' Last night we went to see the recent Academy Award winner for Best Foreign Language Film, The Counterfeiters (which was excellent, by the way). I was really surprised at how few people were in the theater. This has been a recurring theme of late when going to see indie/lower budget movies. And this morning I read in the paper that an indie film production company, started by the guy who made a billion dollars in the garment industry (Sidney Kimmel, who started Jones New York), is scaling back big-time. When you do the math, it’s pretty easy to get: the indie film market has seen a huge infusion of cash from rich guys wanting to get into a new, hip area; film festivals have popped up everywhere on the planet; thus, an incredible increase in the number of really good indie films. But, alas, supply now outweighs demand, with people having so much choice now with 'media entertainment,’ and market economics kick in. It’s incredibly difficult to make money making indie movies. And as a result, Sidney Kimmel Productions, the producers of “Lars and the Real Girl” and “The Kite Runner,” are cutting back. Being a producer of almost anything these days can be a tough slog. The Long Tail at work. Meanwhile, we are treated to ever-expanding choice: in indie movies, in chocolates, in coffees, in sake, in EVERYTHING! Oh, to be a consumer!
The Link Between CEO Faces and Company Profits
Not sure this will make it to mainstream media, but there is a very interesting study conducted at Tufts University which is published in the recent issue of Psychological Science (courtesy of Al Kraemer). To the chase, ratings of power-related traits from CEO faces, after controlling for age, affect and attractiveness, were significantly related to company profits. Put another way, CEO’s who score highest on perceived competence, likeability and trustworthiness based solely looking at photos of their faces run the top Fortune 500 companies. Conversely, CEO’s who scored lowest run the worst-performing companies.
A Shift Toward Savings?
Rarely in recent years have we read or heard about a possible shift with American consumers and their savings/spending behaviors. It’s mostly ‘compared to other countries, we’re pretty lousy savers.’ The February 29 Merrill Lynch Market Economist suggests that a major shift is happening:
Borrowers are also behaving differently
Not only are the lenders behaving differently, but so are the borrowers. Barely
more than 5% of the banks are now reporting rising demand for consumer
credit—at the 2003-05 debt bubble peak, this number approached an
unprecedented 40%. The Fed survey showed that not one bank reported positive
demand growth for either subprime or non-traditional mortgages, and a mere 2%
reported rising demand for prime mortgages! People’s attitude toward debt is
changing. After this parabolic rise of credit extension far in excess of underlying
personal incomes during the last 5-10 years, debt is now being viewed as a four-
letter word at best, and a ball and chain at worst. The public wants to climb out of
the morass. You see it in the data and you see it in the surveys. The economists
do not believe that people can change, but they will.
People do have the capacity to change. In fact, they already are.
Consider that miles driven by the average American now are down 0.5% from a
year ago. Energy usage in real terms has declined 1.2% in the face of record-
high oil high prices. There is a growing focus on health, education and other
basic necessities, and a focus away from conspicuous consumption on bigger
homes, fancy restaurants and expensive vacations. And the way that households
now seem to be shunning debt points to a renewed focus on personal savings
and intensified efforts on retirement financial planning
“The economists do not believe that people can change, but they will.” Wow, seeing will be believing. But if these guys are right, coupled with recent projections of the oldest Baby Boomers soon downsizing their homes and lifestyles as they get into their late 60’s and 70’s, watch out. Economic growth in a lot of areas is about to be stunted in the years ahead.
Austin, Texas
Our trip to Austin (my first extended visit) was terrific. The city often gets included in national “Best College Towns To Live In” or “Top Cities in America” lists, and in my view, deserves the recognition. Austin has a real entreprenurial, hip, progressive vibe. Much, much more pronounced than say a Charlottesville. More like Madison, but with much better weather most months out of the year. Takeaways:
- Austin is a fast-growing city with many new condos being built downtown along the Colorado River and subdivisions now spread out from the main metro area. City planners really blew the planning of roads during the expansion of the last 15 years, so traffic during busy times is like being in big city like Chicago (or in the case of ‘feeder roads’, like being in Connecticut). It’s a real negative to a terrific city.
- The music choices and venues, as expected, were extensive. Even bigger than Nashville. Twenty times 'bigger’ than say other college towns like Charlottesville or Madison. It’s incredible. Not just 'one area’ of town. Two negatives: on a Wednesday night in February, the music scene was dead: and for me it’s a bummer to go to these places where there is live music everywhere with very few people listening. It’s a different story on a Friday. I can only imagine what it’s like during a UT football weekend in the Fall. Highlights: Antones (we got invited to go to the VIP area above and to the side of the stage; the whole time as we watched the North Mississippi All Stars we were thanking our lucky stars that we weren’t in the mass of humanity below. In Austin, music venues don’t have preferred seating; it’s basically standing en masse in front of the stage. If that isn’t your thing, it’s kind of a bummer); Elephant Room (the premiere jazz venue, sort of the Blue Note of Austin, terrific).
- Another highlight is world-class restaurants. We went to three that were 28’s for food in Zagats, and they were great: Uchi (Japanese, creative sushi), Vespaiao (Italian, our favorite) and Wink (small portions, tasting menu, wine pairings, reminded us of Binkley’s in Scottsdale). Also, the breadth of hip, boutique shops in Austin is pretty unbeatable, outside of say an LA or Soho.
- Very, very cool suburban area is West Lake Hills and areas around Lake Austin. Check it out.
- Friday night after dinner, we were walking around downtown and heard what sounded like Barack Obama’s voice coming out of a distant loudspeaker. Sure enough, he was having a rally at the state capital. 15,000 strong. An amazing, memorable event.
Hillary, will you please knock it off?
For the longest time I could never understand the level of sheer disdain that some people have had toward Bill and Hillary Clinton. But lately, I’m beginning to get it. President Clinton’s recent attempts to belittle Barack Obama and minimize his candidacy has been troubling enough. It was completely unacceptable. But the most recent maneuverings of the Clinton campaign to change the rules of the Michigan and Florida non-binding primaries, and to minimize the collective value of the results of the primaries to date (i.e, to re-define what ‘winning’ means) is flat-out upsetting. The Clintons are doing themselves and the Democratic Party no favors by showing that they will stop at nothing to gain and retain power. Hillary, will you please knock it off?
Rosy-Finch Trifecta
Last Wednesday Jen and I went up to Sandia Crest, elevation 10,700 feet, the summit of the Sandia Mountains just east of Albuquerque, New Mexico to view all three species of Rosy-Finches that breed in the United States. The owner of the gift shop at Sandia Crest has been putting seed out in the mornings during the winter, which attract the birds.With the Yellow-billed Loon I saw at Lake Havasu last week, I’ve added four new ones to my ABA Area list, #’s 571-574. Here’s a related link to Sandia Crest:www.rosyfinch.com
To My McCain-Bashing Republican Friends
With all the John McCain-bashing going on of late, as well as the most conservative of Republicans deifying the legacy of Ronald Reagan, I kindly suggest that you guys need a reality check: 1. As President, Ronald Reagan signed a law that granted illegals amnesty. If you don’t believe me, look it up. 2. On the topic of Islamic militancy, President Reagan quickly withdrew troops out of Lebanon following the bombing and mass killing of U.S. Marines in their barracks. He later sold weapons to the regime in Iran. 3. And most telling, President Reagan’s record on taxes and spending is in direct conflict with his reputation as a fiscal conservative. Look it up before you speak again. Federal spending doubled during his presidency (almost as bad as George W. Bush), and he raised the annual federal deficit from $73 billion to $153 billion (terrible, but not nearly as upsetting as George W. Bush’s disastrous stewardship over the financial running of our country). So to my anti-McCain Republican friends who long for the Reagan years: President Reagan accomplished many impressive things while in office, but the idea that there was this unwavering, uncompromising set of principles that defined his presidency is ridiculous.
Buying Tickets in the Free World
In a few short days, several friends (to include two former bosses that I worked with over 25 years ago!) will be visiting us in Phoenix for Super Bowl weekend. We have tickets and reservations to several events, but haven’t scored entry to the Big Game. Yet.
Which brings me to a topic I’ve been meaning to write about for quite some time: buying tickets in a free market to music, cultural and sporting events at prices that are significantly above face value to provide me/us with a close proximity to the stage or field. Back in the day, this was called ‘scalping.’ Today, it’s still called ‘scalping.’
I don’t care what you want to call it, but for the last 20 years or so, the ability to parlay my hard work in corporate mainstream into the purchasing of tickets close to the stage has been one of my life’s great pleasures. Pearl Jam, Steely Dan, Paul McCartney, Tom Petty, Rolling Stones, Aerosmith, Don Henley, Guns ‘n Roses, Dave Mathews, Paul Simon, Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen, Sting, Mark Knopfler, The Fray. I’ve seen their performances up close and personal. And when you’re that close, things happen that create cool memories: Eddie Vetter sharing a wine bottle with fans; Brian Wilson coming down and shaking my hand in between songs: and David Crosby of CSN&Y, after the encore, aiming and under-hand throwing his white towel to my then 14 year-old son.
If you haven’t considered paying a premium to get really, really close to a favorite performer, I encourage to rethink that. It is a very, very cool experience.
It’s pretty clear that in the last couple of years, whatever stigma that was attached to scalping has pretty much evaporated with the advent of large ‘open’ distribution centers of tickets on the Internet. The whole thing has been legitimatized by companies like Ebay’s StubHub.com and RazorGator.com. Nevertheless, it is fascinating to read about the evolution of ticket scalping in a terrific article last Saturday, January 19, 2007, by Joe Nocera, in the Sports section of The New York Times (I would set up a link but it’s not up yet).
In a few short years, the movement to stamp out scalping has disbanded, at least from the standpoint of institutions like the NFL (with some exceptions, like the New England Patriots) or law enforcement (with the notable exception of local ordinances in some cities which prohibit the selling of tickets close to the venue) taking active roles in furthering the stink of the stigma.
What remains, however, are people who lament about the “unfairness” of it all, of corrupt ticket distribution systems that result in tickets going to corporate sponsors and persons who, well, can afford to pay extremely high prices above ticket face value.
When I was younger and couldn’t afford great tickets, I don’t remember having this resentment vibe going. To me, the dilemma was NOT that it wasn’t fair; rather, the challenge was that I couldn’t afford those premium tickets, so I had better go out and work my ass off so I could get to the point where I could afford those tickets. It was about work ethic, sacrifices and making choices. There were times in the early days of ‘my hobby’ where these ticket purchases were a significant percentage of my weekly earnings. But it was the choice I made. I evaluated, did all the mental calculations, and made a decision: was it worth paying that much to get that close? I invariably decided that it was worth every dollar.
So I will now go on StubHub, take a deep breath, and take the plunge. But understand, Tom Brady is no Don Henley, so we might be back a bit this Sunday!
The Minimizing of Better Mousetraps & Secret Sauces on the Internet
There are some extraordinary forces at work impacting Internet-based companies that are wrecking havoc on ‘historical’ business models. My two main points:
- Better Mousetrapping At Accelerating Speeds – Everywhere one turns to on the Internet, there is a recently launched and often dramatically improved version of whatever it is being pitched, whether it be content or stuff to buy. The idea that an Internet business, whether it’s a startup or one that has some traction, can make a claim that they have a “better mousetrap” vs. the competition has become less and less important in evaluating the future success of that particular company.
- Encroachment & the Blending of Businesses - The term “barriers to competition” used to mean something in the business world, but on the Internet, it is extraordinarily minimized. Most of the Big Guys now are encroaching, not unexpectedly, on ‘historical’ competitors at amazing speed; but also, and even more disruptively, they are moving in on guys that weren’t viewed as a competitive threat just a few months or years before. Apple renting movies. Wikipedia entering search. Google getting into every model it can think of.
My fundamental point here is that on the Internet, protecting the recipe to the secret sauce is nearly impossible. While there is certainly something to be said about getting to a ‘new place’ on the Web and staking a claim first, or even second or third, the speed with which others include it in their own business models is just extraordinary.
Dogs, now Pigs, it's all the same to the Medical College of Wisconsin
In late November, 2007, The Medical College of Wisconsin(MCW) Department of Physiology finally relented to public pressure and will no longer be killing dogs in their student labs. MCW was joined by the New York Medical College, which also announced on November 26, 2007 that it will be ending it’s live dog lab, the fourth and last New York state medical school in 18 months to end this outdated practice. MCW, ranked only #46 in medical schools in the U.S., was one of the last medical schools in the country to discontinue this practice, only after persistent pressure from animal welfare groups and hundreds of concerned people in the community that thought that the killing of dogs was inhumane, and participated in protests in front of MCW or called their administrative offices. Looking back, it was amazing how much pressure had to be put on Michael Bolger, the President of MCW, to do the right thing. It was very interesting to learn just who was, and who wasn’t, in charge of the place. That’s the good news.
The bad news is that MCW just doesn’t get it, and will still be one of only 10 medical schools in the entire U.S. that will continue to use live animals in these classes: now, instead of killing dogs, the medical school will use pigs. The Concerned Physicians for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) has played a very active role in generating awareness and promoting the cause. They are organizing an event in Milwaukee worth noting; here is there announcement:
The Medical College of Wisconsin is at it again! Despite determined efforts by PCRM members, concerned citizens, and a coalition of animal protection organizations led by the Wisconsin Humane Society, the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) is scheduled to hold another round of unnecessary animal labs in February. We expect that MCW will use and kill about 60 animals during the course. Please join PCRM members and physicians for a demonstration to save these animals on Monday, Feb. 18—the day the lab is scheduled to begin.
What:
Doctors lead peaceful demonstration at MCW
When:
Mon., Feb. 18, 11 a.m.The lab is scheduled to begin this day.
Location:
North 87th St. at MCW’s main entrance (betweenWatertown Plank Rd. and Wisconsin Ave.), Milwaukee
Parking:
Please use public parking on Watertown Plank Rd. or other adjacent streets. Please carpool when possible.Signs will be provided. Please make sure to dress warmly. No RSVP is required.
As you may know, MCW has switched from using dogs to pigs in its live animal lab. It’s crucial that we continue to let MCW know that there is no justification for killing any animals in the name of medical education.More than 90 percent of U.S. medical schools no longer offer live animal labs.
Please feel free to pass on to friends who might wish to attend, or who may wish to contact MCW directly and lodge a protest about their humane treatment of animals.
Article on Kohl's Book in Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
While it was nice to get some press taking note of the self-publishing of my book “The Rise & Stall of Kohl’s Department Stores”, there are couple points of clarification and corrections regarding this morning’s article:
1. ETR Group did own Christmas.com, but I sold it in late 2006;
2. The genesis of trying to get the book published was pretty much like this: I wrote the book in 2001-2002, tried for about 6 months to get it published (and as outlined in the book, to no avail), then put the whole thing on hold until late last year, then decided to update it and put in on this website so people could read it. I don’t recall telling the writers of the article, Doris or Kathleen, that I was “fed up”; often writers try to create an ‘edge’ or a 'controversy’ to their stories, and as a result, they end up not capturing the real genesis or dynamic of a situation. In this case, when they were interviewing me, they kept wondering why I wouldn’t go out and try to get it 'published’ now. Basically, I went through all that process in 2002, and learned that you don’t publish a book like this and make any money, and that it’s just a hassle to go to publishers and make the pitch. I would much rather just put it on this site and make it available to people, for free. It was no big deal. The book was written, why not get it out there for people to read?
3. The book is far more of a business model analysis, to be enjoyed by students of business, people in the retail industry and, of course, anyone who is familiar with the story of Kohl’s, than it is an expose. I thought that some of the highlights chosen for the bullet points in the article, while accurate, were minor. Not that I was expecting a book review a la The New York Times! Here’s a link to the article:
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=708851
Gr8find.com is Launched
An offshoot of what we were trying to do with TopNetPix.com in aggregating great websites into meaningful categories was putting together a pretty cool portal for shopping. Gr8find.com is really a spin-off of 1-Stop Shopping on TNP. The intent was to make searching for stuff you might want to buy more interesting, efficient and fun. We drill down into department store sites, as well as include great ‘under the radar, hard-to-find-on Google’ sites that give the visitor an experience that I think is, well, different. In a good way. The press release officially launching the site is here:
http://www.prweb.com//releases/2008/1/prweb616041.htm
Bird Connections
As friends and family know, I’m really into birding. I’m hoping to aggregate interesting links and content going forward on this site. For starters, here is a cool link that’s managed by We Energies in Wisconsin, which has set up webcams aimed at large nestboxes at five of their power plants. The boxes have been primarily been used by Peregrine Falcons, but a few days ago a Great Horned Owl has taken residence at the Oak Creek facility and has promptly laid an egg (with no doubt a couple more on the way). Here it is:
http://www.we-energies.com/environmental/protect_wildlife.htm