After working on the head, we moved on to the front of the pig and separated the shoulder roast or Boston Butt (probably one of my favorites) from the front primal.
Wednesday, March 07, 2012
Dan's New Entrant
Dan's "Crappy Beer Challenge" was "won" by Coors Light. I'm sure Dan can still taste that yummy Coors Light aftertaste in his dreams.
I think Dan will need to make a "funny car" edition to make room for this new entrant - a Coors Light / Iced Tea hybrid.
I like the end quote - someone else is eating their "lunch". I'm sure we will see that lunch right back in the toilet soon.
I think Dan will need to make a "funny car" edition to make room for this new entrant - a Coors Light / Iced Tea hybrid.
Molson Coors is hoping beer drinkers don’t mind another flavour in their brew — tea. The company announced Tuesday it’s launching Coors Light Iced T, a tea-infused brew next month. And it’s making Canadians the guinea pigs.
At a meeting in New York with analysts, Molson Coors revealed it will launch the brand in Canada first, but might consider expanding it to U.S. markets as well.
Despite its April 1 launch date, the reason for the tea beer is no April Fool’s gag.
Molson Coors CEO Peter Swinburn acknowledged that beer has been getting an ever-shrinking share of the alcohol market, and that flavoured beers are one of the responses.
“Someone else is eating our lunch in the alcohol space,” Swinburn said.
I like the end quote - someone else is eating their "lunch". I'm sure we will see that lunch right back in the toilet soon.
Tuesday, March 06, 2012
It Works Until It Doesn't - Service Firm Pensions
I spent many years in the consultancy / accounting industry, which has many similarities to the business model for legal firms. They are both 1) primarily based on hourly billing rates for their income 2) use a pyramid or partnership structure with the top members often receiving an equity or ownership stake 3) have partners who need to seek out business in order to keep the revenues flowing. If you are interested in this industry, I highly recommend reading "Managing the Professional Services Firm" by David Maister, a timeless book on the topic.
The Wall Street Journal had an article recently titled "Next Pension Clash: Law Firms" with the subtitle "Unfunded plans burden younger partners, but build loyalty among small group".
Thus the partner, who was well compensated while he was at the firm, is now going to collect a pension in the future, while he is no longer contributing to the ongoing revenues of the firm. It is true that the client relationships that the partner built up (and left behind) are valuable to the firm, along with any specialties that the partner built up (and trained staff on), but the bottom line is that most of that revenue stream is up for grabs soon after the partner is gone. Even if the clients are left in good shape and well transitioned, if the NEXT partner doesn't do a good job, all that goodwill is drained very quickly.
Like all unfunded pension schemes - it is really a "bet" on the future, on an era of rising prosperity, and a bet that paid off for a generation of retired lawyers. For those coming up the ranks, however, the future of course looks more uncertain, with more vicious competition and increasing use of offshore resources for more mundane matters, which both can be a source of short term profits as well as a long term threat of cannibalization of higher margin revenues up the chain.
It seems like these sorts of burdens would turn off rising lawyers, who have the ability to "jump ship" quite easily since non-compete laws generally don't apply to lawyers, from what I understand (it is interesting how those that write the laws that entangle everyone else managed to develop an escape hatch for themselves). These sorts of payouts, which come out of partner profits after all expenses have been allocated, can be significant in harder times.
Traditional pensions are also under intense pressure, especially since the "rate of return" assumptions are being reduced with the Fed's extremely low interest rates. This article sums up how corporations are asking for relief:
While the companies are basically arguing that interest rates are artificially low and that their funding requirements shouldn't surge as a result, the unstated point is that returns for EVERYONE have gone down, as well. Many models for investors in 401k plans used to assume 10% rates of return indefinitely; given market volatility and flat returns over the last DECADE, 10% / year seems ridiculous to investors of all stripes.
The pension firms in this article often have different challenges because they are often unfunded and totally dependent on future revenue streams; in this sense at least they are immune from the Fed's zero interest rate policy distortions.
Cross posted at Chicago Boyz
The Wall Street Journal had an article recently titled "Next Pension Clash: Law Firms" with the subtitle "Unfunded plans burden younger partners, but build loyalty among small group".
At some of the country's top firms, younger lawyers will foot the bill for deluxe pension plans that could drag down their own earnings for years to come... these pensions are largely unfunded. Partners at some elite firms are often entitled to between 20% and 30% of their peak pay after retirement - in many cases, for life... that could mean payments of $400,000 to $600,000 per retired lawyer.One of my friends who is a partner in a professional services firm once told me that he'd never tell his son to go into a business where he was "selling his time". While there are many other attributes (a senior person is selling his time AND his ability to manage and supervise staff), there is a lot of truth to this quote.
Thus the partner, who was well compensated while he was at the firm, is now going to collect a pension in the future, while he is no longer contributing to the ongoing revenues of the firm. It is true that the client relationships that the partner built up (and left behind) are valuable to the firm, along with any specialties that the partner built up (and trained staff on), but the bottom line is that most of that revenue stream is up for grabs soon after the partner is gone. Even if the clients are left in good shape and well transitioned, if the NEXT partner doesn't do a good job, all that goodwill is drained very quickly.
Like all unfunded pension schemes - it is really a "bet" on the future, on an era of rising prosperity, and a bet that paid off for a generation of retired lawyers. For those coming up the ranks, however, the future of course looks more uncertain, with more vicious competition and increasing use of offshore resources for more mundane matters, which both can be a source of short term profits as well as a long term threat of cannibalization of higher margin revenues up the chain.
It seems like these sorts of burdens would turn off rising lawyers, who have the ability to "jump ship" quite easily since non-compete laws generally don't apply to lawyers, from what I understand (it is interesting how those that write the laws that entangle everyone else managed to develop an escape hatch for themselves). These sorts of payouts, which come out of partner profits after all expenses have been allocated, can be significant in harder times.
Traditional pensions are also under intense pressure, especially since the "rate of return" assumptions are being reduced with the Fed's extremely low interest rates. This article sums up how corporations are asking for relief:
The latest bid is spurred by the effects of the Federal Reserve's low interest-rate policy, which has led to soaring pension liabilities.
While the companies are basically arguing that interest rates are artificially low and that their funding requirements shouldn't surge as a result, the unstated point is that returns for EVERYONE have gone down, as well. Many models for investors in 401k plans used to assume 10% rates of return indefinitely; given market volatility and flat returns over the last DECADE, 10% / year seems ridiculous to investors of all stripes.
The pension firms in this article often have different challenges because they are often unfunded and totally dependent on future revenue streams; in this sense at least they are immune from the Fed's zero interest rate policy distortions.
Cross posted at Chicago Boyz
Old School
Recently I was in Milwaukee (whose motto should be "It's Better Than You Think") and I lazily parked outside a diner too close to a driveway. The parking authorities promptly came and gave me a ticket which I paid by mail. Glad to see that Milwaukee has their priorities straight - per this site they rank Milwaukee a "4" on a scale of 1 to ONE HUNDRED in terms of crime, especially violent crime (i.e. "Milwaukee is safer than 4% of US cities).
In Chicago tickets are now getting more and more automated, with red light cameras now snapping photos and send them to you by mail. You can even replay your violation online at the City of Chicago's website which is pretty cool, actually. While Chicago isn't doing anything to fix it's sky high murder rate (they received a "6" out of 100 per that same scale), at least they don't have to send out a policeman in a car to give out tickets.
Monday, March 05, 2012
Saturday, March 03, 2012
The "Dick" Economy
When I was a consultant I traveled throughout the US and worked in many different states and regions. I grew up in the Midwest, where my core values were shaped. A general description of these values in business would be a variant of the "golden rule" - from wikipedia:
This sort of approach wasn't out of the "goodness of your heart", it was a fair and reasonable way to approach your customer or supplier. An example - you are working on a job at a price that you both agreed upon, and then you find that things are significantly different than planned and you will come up far short of your original profitability or even lose money on the job - what do you do?
You approach the customer, subtly, and describe some of the new or unseen events that have changed the scope of the project since inception. The customer has a few options - they can 1) give you nothing and tell you to "eat the difference" 2) split the difference on some of the unforeseen items which may not make you whole but softens the blow 3) not change the current deal at all but implicitly or explicitly tell you that there are future opportunities to make yourself whole.
More often than not, we eventually came to a #2 type resolution, although it was often linked with a #3 type opportunity. Rarely were we just told to "pound sand" and take the #1 option.
Why is it this way? On the surface it would seem that, as a customer, #1 would always be preferable. You have a binding contract, why not stick it to your vendor? A few reasons - a bitter vendor is unlikely to do good work, and will look at the contract in detail to find a way to stick it back to you by living to the "letter" not "spirit" of the agreement. An additional component is that if you behave as if life was a series of single transactions with no consequences to others (i.e. a series of #1 events), you eventually end up with a reputation as a "bad customer" and this will come to damage you in various ways; often it will get raised from the vendors boss to the customers' boss at the golf course or some other type of less formal venue; and most companies don't want a reputation for being difficult and vindictive. An additional element is that this type of behavior is generally not how people in the Midwest live their lives - it will probably be correlated with other types of behaviors (selfishness, not looking out for co-workers, extreme ambition) that will lead to at least a mild ostracism or at least career damage.
The second part of a series of #1 issues is that the SUPPLIER can just walk away from the job in the first place if they aren't going to earn a sufficient profit. Sure, you can sue them, but the courts take forever and meanwhile, whatever project you hired the supplier for in the first place is languishing (i.e. a product launch, or a cost reduction project, etc...). This is a variant of the golden rule on the part of the supplier, which means that they have an obligation to do the best work possible under the spirit of the agreement to make the purchaser look good.
In my limited experience the apex of #1 experiences on all side was New York. Even the simplest item became a desperate bargaining scrum, with both sides scouring the other for weaknesses and gleefully "sticking it to them" whenever possible. If you approached a NY transaction with the attitude of a midwesterner, you were going to get screwed, because they were going to walk all over you and push for favorable terms and lord over you their advantages while you would be loathe to use the same tactics in return. Soon even the dimmest types have to take on #1 attitudes, and then regular update meetings are just taking turns throwing the other guy "under the bus" and scheming to leverage the fine print. A real joy.
The difficulty with #1 behavior is that it "negates" itself when confronted by both parties using this set of tactics. Now you get back to equilibrium, but the entire transaction and work effort is bitter and poisoned. As far as future work, you just "roll forward" your grievances into the NEXT transaction and find ever more creative ways to win with #1 tactics in the future, as both sides escalate.
The total of #1 behavior on both sides over time isn't better than "golden rule" or Midwest behavior - you get back to the same equilibrium either way - and in the Midwest model of reasonable assumptions and giving the other guy a break and not living by the "letter" of the law, the entire process isn't poisoned and miserable all along.
The "Dick" Economy:
Recently I read that lenders were paying homeowners not to "trash" their houses during short sales; the lenders would give an amount of money sometimes in the tens of thousands to current residents (don't want to call them "homeowners", because they obviously own nothing it is a short sale) to keep the homes tidy and work with prospective buyers as they tour the home. In this instance the current resident isn't even paying their mortgage, and yet the bank is paying them MORE to not trash the home, to boot. This is an example of "the Dick economy" where we have to assume negative, single-transaction behavior on the type of actors.
A similar example is a horror story of someone in Chicago I know who rented to a prosperous engineer who promptly failed to pay any rent at all and then due to the slow process of eviction was able to live rent free for six months. The time would have been far longer except that the home owner had a contact with the sheriffs department that allowed the process to get expedited. It is interesting to speculate that the type of moral indifference that lets people strategically default on loans wouldn't come up in more forums; after all, if you don't pay your mortgage and live free in your house for years, why wouldn't you play that same trick on the stupid landlord who lets you come into the building?
New York, on the other hand, has this figured out. Want to rent in New York City? You need to have your income verified and have a co-signer. If you can't pay, they go after whomever co-signed. And you can believe that they are going to do this. New York expects #1 behavior among all players, and the game is played that way.
It will be interesting to see if "walk away" behavior infects more of the Midwest and we all end up like NYC. If people start to walk away from mortgages and then push the rental situation to the same place, you can bet that soon a co-signer or many months of pre-payment will become the norm here.
Cross posted at Chicago Boyz
The Golden Rule or ethic of reciprocity is a maxim, ethical code, or morality that essentially states either of the following:
(Positive form): One should treat others as one would like others to treat oneself.
(Negative/prohibitive form, also called the Silver Rule): One should not treat others in ways that one would not like to be treated.
This concept describes a "reciprocal" or "two-way" relationship between one's self and others that involves both sides equally and in a mutual fashion.
This sort of approach wasn't out of the "goodness of your heart", it was a fair and reasonable way to approach your customer or supplier. An example - you are working on a job at a price that you both agreed upon, and then you find that things are significantly different than planned and you will come up far short of your original profitability or even lose money on the job - what do you do?
You approach the customer, subtly, and describe some of the new or unseen events that have changed the scope of the project since inception. The customer has a few options - they can 1) give you nothing and tell you to "eat the difference" 2) split the difference on some of the unforeseen items which may not make you whole but softens the blow 3) not change the current deal at all but implicitly or explicitly tell you that there are future opportunities to make yourself whole.
More often than not, we eventually came to a #2 type resolution, although it was often linked with a #3 type opportunity. Rarely were we just told to "pound sand" and take the #1 option.
Why is it this way? On the surface it would seem that, as a customer, #1 would always be preferable. You have a binding contract, why not stick it to your vendor? A few reasons - a bitter vendor is unlikely to do good work, and will look at the contract in detail to find a way to stick it back to you by living to the "letter" not "spirit" of the agreement. An additional component is that if you behave as if life was a series of single transactions with no consequences to others (i.e. a series of #1 events), you eventually end up with a reputation as a "bad customer" and this will come to damage you in various ways; often it will get raised from the vendors boss to the customers' boss at the golf course or some other type of less formal venue; and most companies don't want a reputation for being difficult and vindictive. An additional element is that this type of behavior is generally not how people in the Midwest live their lives - it will probably be correlated with other types of behaviors (selfishness, not looking out for co-workers, extreme ambition) that will lead to at least a mild ostracism or at least career damage.
The second part of a series of #1 issues is that the SUPPLIER can just walk away from the job in the first place if they aren't going to earn a sufficient profit. Sure, you can sue them, but the courts take forever and meanwhile, whatever project you hired the supplier for in the first place is languishing (i.e. a product launch, or a cost reduction project, etc...). This is a variant of the golden rule on the part of the supplier, which means that they have an obligation to do the best work possible under the spirit of the agreement to make the purchaser look good.
In my limited experience the apex of #1 experiences on all side was New York. Even the simplest item became a desperate bargaining scrum, with both sides scouring the other for weaknesses and gleefully "sticking it to them" whenever possible. If you approached a NY transaction with the attitude of a midwesterner, you were going to get screwed, because they were going to walk all over you and push for favorable terms and lord over you their advantages while you would be loathe to use the same tactics in return. Soon even the dimmest types have to take on #1 attitudes, and then regular update meetings are just taking turns throwing the other guy "under the bus" and scheming to leverage the fine print. A real joy.
The difficulty with #1 behavior is that it "negates" itself when confronted by both parties using this set of tactics. Now you get back to equilibrium, but the entire transaction and work effort is bitter and poisoned. As far as future work, you just "roll forward" your grievances into the NEXT transaction and find ever more creative ways to win with #1 tactics in the future, as both sides escalate.
The total of #1 behavior on both sides over time isn't better than "golden rule" or Midwest behavior - you get back to the same equilibrium either way - and in the Midwest model of reasonable assumptions and giving the other guy a break and not living by the "letter" of the law, the entire process isn't poisoned and miserable all along.
The "Dick" Economy:
Recently I read that lenders were paying homeowners not to "trash" their houses during short sales; the lenders would give an amount of money sometimes in the tens of thousands to current residents (don't want to call them "homeowners", because they obviously own nothing it is a short sale) to keep the homes tidy and work with prospective buyers as they tour the home. In this instance the current resident isn't even paying their mortgage, and yet the bank is paying them MORE to not trash the home, to boot. This is an example of "the Dick economy" where we have to assume negative, single-transaction behavior on the type of actors.
A similar example is a horror story of someone in Chicago I know who rented to a prosperous engineer who promptly failed to pay any rent at all and then due to the slow process of eviction was able to live rent free for six months. The time would have been far longer except that the home owner had a contact with the sheriffs department that allowed the process to get expedited. It is interesting to speculate that the type of moral indifference that lets people strategically default on loans wouldn't come up in more forums; after all, if you don't pay your mortgage and live free in your house for years, why wouldn't you play that same trick on the stupid landlord who lets you come into the building?
New York, on the other hand, has this figured out. Want to rent in New York City? You need to have your income verified and have a co-signer. If you can't pay, they go after whomever co-signed. And you can believe that they are going to do this. New York expects #1 behavior among all players, and the game is played that way.
It will be interesting to see if "walk away" behavior infects more of the Midwest and we all end up like NYC. If people start to walk away from mortgages and then push the rental situation to the same place, you can bet that soon a co-signer or many months of pre-payment will become the norm here.
Cross posted at Chicago Boyz
Saturday Night Sixties
It’s Saturday night. Time to relax. Again. Let’s set the wayback machine for the 60’s, my favorite decade.
Pour yourself a big, stiff cocktail. Put a thick wax platter on the turntable of the hi-fi and gently drop that needle.
Pour yourself a big, stiff cocktail. Put a thick wax platter on the turntable of the hi-fi and gently drop that needle.
Just Another Bad Idea
For 35 years I was in the idea business, a creative profession if you will. My group was responsible for promoting consumer products through on-site retail and print delivered media. What we did supported the overall advertising strategy.
Marketing sells but it’s up to the product to satisfy the customer. I recall a brilliant ad campaign developed by the Chicago office of the global ad agency where I finished my full time career. It was for Sears. The idea was “Come See The Softer Side Of Sears”. The strategy was to lift Sears sagging sales of what they referred to as soft goods, or anything that was not automotive, tools and appliances, which were called hard goods.
The spots were so unlike Sears and so well done. What the ad campaign did was drive traffic to the Sears soft goods area it had not seen in years. It had some consumers excited that once at Sears they would find contemporary and affordable clothing, shoes, etc. Mission accomplished? Not quite.
Customers seeking what the ads promised were in for the harsh reality that what Sears was offering fell far short of their heightened expectations. Same old Sears stuff. They failed to deliver on the promise and have been struggling ever since. When a customer is disappointed in what the marketing promises they are most likely lost for good. It is very hard to get them back.
Ideas are only as good as the execution and delivery of a promise.
Since my job was to execute ideas and bring them to life I learned to spot a bad idea from the get go. I was in many ‘brainstorm’ meetings where everyone on the team could contribute solutions to a problem. The meeting leader would always begin by saying, “there are no bad ideas folks, everything is safe here.” This was to encourage each individual to go all out and contribute. The meeting leader would write down contributions on a large whiteboard or easel pad sheets that were then tacked to the wall. The ideas were culled down to three. Then it was up to me and my team to make the sausage.
Coming up with concepts was not my strength, mine was execution but I had a few original ideas along the way that were successful and worked flawlessly.
I could easily tell if an idea was worth executing because it was my job to price it out and execute the program. Having the experience of past failures it was easy to smell a turd in advance. If I took the initiative to list the downside of executing a specific idea, that alone was not enough to stop a marketing executive from getting excited. They always loved breakthrough ideas. “Find a way to make it happen”, some would say. Well, I could always make it happen but seldom on the budget they had in mind. If they were really, really excited about an idea they would find more money to throw at it no matter how it would eventually perform.
There was a reason why some were breakthrough ideas, nobody was foolish enough to attempt them before. If I voiced my opinion to say something was bad idea they looked at me as being negative so I came up with a sly way of distracting attention from a bad idea without being negative. I called it using a ‘kill’ phrase or word. It could be as simple as mentioning a comparison to a competitor, claiming it was not in the brand image or even reaching way down into the P.C. pocket and mentioning how it could be considered offensive to a certain age or ethnic group. At times it worked. Still, I didn’t have enough ammo to kill all the bad ideas so I was stuck executing many turds.
Here’s a real bad idea – electric vehicles.
What’s not to like about a car that’s quiet, clean and efficient? The first geniuses to manufacture this bold idea were Anthony Electric, Baker, Columbia, Anderson, Edison, Fritchle, Studebaker, Riker, Milburn, and others in 1897. They were too expensive and had a limited range so they failed. Since then many others have also tried and failed.
Today it was announced that GM is discontinuing the production of the Chevy Volt. Here was a bad idea that didn’t take a genius to figure out. This would not stop the federal government tidal wave of taxpayer cash to go ahead and execute it anyway. Throwing good money after bad is the government way.
It is my belief that no kill phrase or word in a brainstorm meeting would have derailed this turd. It was going to get done hell, high water, or bankruptcy. This time, oddly enough, bankruptcy came first.
Automakers tinker around with way-out-there concepts all the time. They truck them around to auto expos to get customer feedback. They work in secret if they come up with an idea thought so hot they will go to great lengths to conceal it from the competition. Not so with the Chevy Volt.
General Motors became Government Motors. We all know that the federal government loves bad ideas and cannot wait to throw money at them in order to appeal to a block of constituents or pay back unions and crony businesses. It was touted at the highest levels as being the future of ‘green’ energy and would be a huge success. Green energy is a good idea but not in today’s market. It’s a huge money hole and they are using our money.
The only potential buyers of this turd were to be the gadget-havers. You know, the same ones who paid $8,000. for an early flat screen TV that would be old-tech in two years when a better model would cost half as much. Most of them were wise to the Chevy Volt ruse.
The government motor company pinned their hope on the fact it would sell to those among us who feel the need to make a political or environmental statement. This alone is the reason why the Toyota Prius was a success. It had a strikingly unusual look but it was also affordable.. The make-a-statement types bought it because it projected a public image that they were environmentalists who were different, concerned and cared more than others about worshiping the planet. I call that good execution. At the same time Honda offered a hybrid vehicle that failed. Why? It looked like an Accord. No visual environmental statement to be made there.
So to sum it up, electric vehicles are not affordable or practical or unusual enough to motivate a consumer to make a purchase or a statement. It cost the public billions to produce and few were seduced by the promise.
It was just another bad idea who's time never came. It is the answer to a question nobody asked.
Marketing sells but it’s up to the product to satisfy the customer. I recall a brilliant ad campaign developed by the Chicago office of the global ad agency where I finished my full time career. It was for Sears. The idea was “Come See The Softer Side Of Sears”. The strategy was to lift Sears sagging sales of what they referred to as soft goods, or anything that was not automotive, tools and appliances, which were called hard goods.
The spots were so unlike Sears and so well done. What the ad campaign did was drive traffic to the Sears soft goods area it had not seen in years. It had some consumers excited that once at Sears they would find contemporary and affordable clothing, shoes, etc. Mission accomplished? Not quite.
Customers seeking what the ads promised were in for the harsh reality that what Sears was offering fell far short of their heightened expectations. Same old Sears stuff. They failed to deliver on the promise and have been struggling ever since. When a customer is disappointed in what the marketing promises they are most likely lost for good. It is very hard to get them back.
Ideas are only as good as the execution and delivery of a promise.
Since my job was to execute ideas and bring them to life I learned to spot a bad idea from the get go. I was in many ‘brainstorm’ meetings where everyone on the team could contribute solutions to a problem. The meeting leader would always begin by saying, “there are no bad ideas folks, everything is safe here.” This was to encourage each individual to go all out and contribute. The meeting leader would write down contributions on a large whiteboard or easel pad sheets that were then tacked to the wall. The ideas were culled down to three. Then it was up to me and my team to make the sausage.
Coming up with concepts was not my strength, mine was execution but I had a few original ideas along the way that were successful and worked flawlessly.
I could easily tell if an idea was worth executing because it was my job to price it out and execute the program. Having the experience of past failures it was easy to smell a turd in advance. If I took the initiative to list the downside of executing a specific idea, that alone was not enough to stop a marketing executive from getting excited. They always loved breakthrough ideas. “Find a way to make it happen”, some would say. Well, I could always make it happen but seldom on the budget they had in mind. If they were really, really excited about an idea they would find more money to throw at it no matter how it would eventually perform.
There was a reason why some were breakthrough ideas, nobody was foolish enough to attempt them before. If I voiced my opinion to say something was bad idea they looked at me as being negative so I came up with a sly way of distracting attention from a bad idea without being negative. I called it using a ‘kill’ phrase or word. It could be as simple as mentioning a comparison to a competitor, claiming it was not in the brand image or even reaching way down into the P.C. pocket and mentioning how it could be considered offensive to a certain age or ethnic group. At times it worked. Still, I didn’t have enough ammo to kill all the bad ideas so I was stuck executing many turds.
Here’s a real bad idea – electric vehicles.
What’s not to like about a car that’s quiet, clean and efficient? The first geniuses to manufacture this bold idea were Anthony Electric, Baker, Columbia, Anderson, Edison, Fritchle, Studebaker, Riker, Milburn, and others in 1897. They were too expensive and had a limited range so they failed. Since then many others have also tried and failed.
Today it was announced that GM is discontinuing the production of the Chevy Volt. Here was a bad idea that didn’t take a genius to figure out. This would not stop the federal government tidal wave of taxpayer cash to go ahead and execute it anyway. Throwing good money after bad is the government way.
It is my belief that no kill phrase or word in a brainstorm meeting would have derailed this turd. It was going to get done hell, high water, or bankruptcy. This time, oddly enough, bankruptcy came first.
Automakers tinker around with way-out-there concepts all the time. They truck them around to auto expos to get customer feedback. They work in secret if they come up with an idea thought so hot they will go to great lengths to conceal it from the competition. Not so with the Chevy Volt.
General Motors became Government Motors. We all know that the federal government loves bad ideas and cannot wait to throw money at them in order to appeal to a block of constituents or pay back unions and crony businesses. It was touted at the highest levels as being the future of ‘green’ energy and would be a huge success. Green energy is a good idea but not in today’s market. It’s a huge money hole and they are using our money.
The only potential buyers of this turd were to be the gadget-havers. You know, the same ones who paid $8,000. for an early flat screen TV that would be old-tech in two years when a better model would cost half as much. Most of them were wise to the Chevy Volt ruse.
The government motor company pinned their hope on the fact it would sell to those among us who feel the need to make a political or environmental statement. This alone is the reason why the Toyota Prius was a success. It had a strikingly unusual look but it was also affordable.. The make-a-statement types bought it because it projected a public image that they were environmentalists who were different, concerned and cared more than others about worshiping the planet. I call that good execution. At the same time Honda offered a hybrid vehicle that failed. Why? It looked like an Accord. No visual environmental statement to be made there.
So to sum it up, electric vehicles are not affordable or practical or unusual enough to motivate a consumer to make a purchase or a statement. It cost the public billions to produce and few were seduced by the promise.
It was just another bad idea who's time never came. It is the answer to a question nobody asked.
Friday, March 02, 2012
Whole Hog Butchering Class, Part 3
After the short lecture on the pig parts, we got to the work of cutting the carcass into the "primals". Primals are basically large sections of pig that are easier to work with than the entire half carcass.
Thursday, March 01, 2012
Another Fish Story
Reading the local news this morning caused me to reflect on my past. That happens often when you get to be as old as I am.
The McDonald’s Filet-O-Fish sandwich is 50 years old this year.
I haven’t had one for many years but I recall them as areas so it was taken home or eaten in the parking lot to enjoy.
Later in life when I began in the ad biz the agency I worked at had the McD account. Our group didn’t create the television ads but we did everything else that was printed including package design. My boss was an art director and I was his assistant. He along with a writer came up with the idea of having a cartoon character represent this product – Phil A. O’Fish.
The Phil A. O’Fish character was illustrated by the same artist who drew the Kellogg’s rooster and Tony The Tiger, among many other ad characters of the day.
The accompanying image was named a ‘register topper’ because it fit into a channel on top of each cash register, staring right into the customer's face. It was one element of an in-store point-of-purchase campaign. McD knew early on that customers could be persuaded when making a specific purchase once inside the store. It was surprising for me to see the image imbedded in the online news article.
What I do know is that the F-O-F was once made from North Atlantic Whitefish. Now it comes from North Pacific Pollock. Only ½ slice of cheese comes on the sandwich along with tartar sauce.
And I hate tartar sauce.
The McDonald’s Filet-O-Fish sandwich is 50 years old this year.
I haven’t had one for many years but I recall them as areas so it was taken home or eaten in the parking lot to enjoy.
Later in life when I began in the ad biz the agency I worked at had the McD account. Our group didn’t create the television ads but we did everything else that was printed including package design. My boss was an art director and I was his assistant. He along with a writer came up with the idea of having a cartoon character represent this product – Phil A. O’Fish.
The Phil A. O’Fish character was illustrated by the same artist who drew the Kellogg’s rooster and Tony The Tiger, among many other ad characters of the day.
The accompanying image was named a ‘register topper’ because it fit into a channel on top of each cash register, staring right into the customer's face. It was one element of an in-store point-of-purchase campaign. McD knew early on that customers could be persuaded when making a specific purchase once inside the store. It was surprising for me to see the image imbedded in the online news article.
What I do know is that the F-O-F was once made from North Atlantic Whitefish. Now it comes from North Pacific Pollock. Only ½ slice of cheese comes on the sandwich along with tartar sauce.
And I hate tartar sauce.
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Whole Hog Butchering Class, Part 2
The first order of business for our subject was to remove the head. More under the fold.
Monday, February 27, 2012
Around Chicago February 2012
Upper left - the hotel Dana. There is a cool Asian restaurant in the hotel - the billboard has a girl with 2 different colored eyes. On the roof of that hotel there is a club that is open all winter. Note - from behind - that building looks like a Soviet creation it is all faceless wall with one window. Upper middle - a cool new building on the Northwestern medical campus in Streeterville. Upper right - a little candle lit setup in the restaurant Zocalo in River North. Lower left - some random construction in River North. They are just adding a level on top of a building like it is a third world country or something. Lower middle - Chick Fil A is in Chicago near the Magnificent Mile - that place is awesome! Lower right - a cool red building in River North.
Whole Hog Butchering Class, Part One
A week ago I went to Bolzano Artisan Meats in Milwaukee to attend a whole hog butchering class. It was well worth the time. Some of the photos to come may be offensive to some, so I will be putting most of this series under the fold, as they say.
Kindle Works Well For Some Things
I was in San Diego last week and took my Kindle Fire with me to see how it would perform. It does well with some things, not so well with others.
For receiving hotmail, gmail and things like that it is fantastic. Surfing the net is a breeze as well. Of course it is a great reader and I have about 50 books loaded on it.
For things like documents with fine print and using programs like Log Me In, as well as Outlook, not so much. At least now I know the limitations.
On the plane you could purchase wifi for 12.95, a great value that really helped me pass the time on the four hour flight. As you can see below, you can surf the net for the highest quality news and information. I imagine if you are a frequent flyer you get the wifi for free but what do I know about that - zero.
For receiving hotmail, gmail and things like that it is fantastic. Surfing the net is a breeze as well. Of course it is a great reader and I have about 50 books loaded on it.
For things like documents with fine print and using programs like Log Me In, as well as Outlook, not so much. At least now I know the limitations.
On the plane you could purchase wifi for 12.95, a great value that really helped me pass the time on the four hour flight. As you can see below, you can surf the net for the highest quality news and information. I imagine if you are a frequent flyer you get the wifi for free but what do I know about that - zero.
Word Verification
Due to ridiculous amounts of spam once again, I need to put on word verification in the comments. Sorry about the inconvenience.
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Albino Spiny Hedgehog
My sister is taking care of an albino spiny hedgehog. She made him a little sleeve that he likes to hide out in. He also likes sunflower seeds, they can make him come out of his little hideaway a bit.
Saturday, February 25, 2012
Saturday Night Sixties
It’s Saturday night. Time to relax. Again. Let’s set the wayback machine for the 60’s, my favorite decade.
Pour yourself a big, stiff cocktail. Put a thick wax platter on the turntable of the hi-fi and gently drop that needle.
Pour yourself a big, stiff cocktail. Put a thick wax platter on the turntable of the hi-fi and gently drop that needle.
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Macy's (former Marshall Fields) in Loop
A great building if you get a chance to visit and loop up through the atrium at the detail.
Gruby Wtorek
It was the Monday before Ash Wednesday in 1973 and I was working in the studio of a small ad agency. This was my first career job.
Maryann, the executive secretary walked in. She stopped by the art table of Bobby, a veteran production artist. “Bobby, are you all excited about poonchkey (spelled paczki) day?” she asked. Bobby looked up, smiled and said he couldn’t wait. Both of them were of Polish ancestry, Maryann being a first cousin of the famous Coach K from Duke.
I jumped in and asked what a poonchkey was. She looked at me and said, ”what kind of a Polack are you anyway if you never heard of a poonchkey?” They both laughed. She explained that a poonchkey was a very special Polish pastry served up on the day before lent.
My expectations were exceedingly high the next morning with youthful, bright-eyed anticipation of some pastry delight never before known to me. Both of them brought in large white pastry boxes with enough to serve the entire office of about thirty employees. Bobby opened one box, grabbed a poonchkey, bit into it, showed me the remaining pastry and said, “that, kid, is the world’s best poonchkey. Well I’ll be, I said back, it looks like a jellyroll.
Looking at me as if I were the dumbest Polack in Chicago Maryann assured me that these were very special, handing me a poonchkey filled with apple. Biting in I was not impressed. My assumption was correct. It was just a jellyroll but the filling was better than most. Not wanting to disrespect their generosity I pretended to find them very special, special enough for me to eat two of them.
Growing up in a Polish family with a strong second and first generation ethnic background I knew we had some traditions that seemed odd to others. But we had a lot of fun in our family enclave. The food they made I still crave to this day such as authentic Polish sausage and pierogis. But for the life of me I do not recall ever being treated to a poonchkey. My family lived in a Polish section of Hammond IN while Bobby and Maryann grew up in the northwest Chicago Polish enclave. The two were quite different worlds as I would learn years later. Chicago has more Poles living there than any other city but Warsaw. Hammond? Not so much.
Poonchkeys are now found all over Northwest Indiana on Fat Tuesday, even out here in the more rural redneck areas where we live. This morning I saw some at the local grocery and bought two. Not being much of a pastry fan maybe they deserved another chance at redemption.
As suspected, it’s still just another jellyroll. The same way Crispy Creams are just another glazed donut to me.
After escaping Illinois 20 years ago to the free world of Indiana I learned of another Polish tradition that was foreign to me. One that is not known even to the Poles I worked with in Chicago at that time.
My westbound commuter train began in South Bend IN with Randolph St. in Chicago being the end of the line. Unlike the commuter train I rode in Illinois where nobody talked much and people kept to themselves this one was a bit livelier. It didn’t take long for me to make friends with a group of commuters who took the same train in and out daily. These were the party people and they were of all ages, sexes and races.
One day a lovely and friendly lady named Kathy asked me to join them. I did. Commuters getting on from Michigan City all the way to Chicago’s Hegewisch neighborhood on the far south side all were friends and they took to me rather quickly, both men and women. We would dominate the seats that faced each other across both isles. We joked and talked politics, work and just about anything that came up. On the commute home we all brought cocktails or beer and munchies on board for the ride home. On birthdays we would hang around the city together after work and have cocktails and dinner. It was a real tight group that I love to this day. I miss each one of them very much.
One day a feisty, younger, tall and rather attractive woman of Polish decent named Jill suggested we all go to Michigan City to celebrate Dingus Day. I asked what Dingus Day was and she looked at me in shock and said, “What kind of a Polack are you anyway that you don’t know what Dingus Day is?”
She explained that Dingus Day is the Monday after Easter and is a big Polish party of sorts. Seems Dingus Days is a real big Polish event in Michigan City and South Bend, which both still have large Polish enclaves. Who knew? Not me.
On Dingus Day in those places the bars serve Polish food of all sorts and live Polka bands entertain. Think of it as a pub crawl with cheap ethnic food. Think of it as a Polish St.Paddy’s Day without the cheap green tinted beer.
Well, nobody seemed too excited to attend the Michigan City Dingus Day festivities since it was a long haul at a late hour. To this day I never experienced the real Dingus.
What kind of a Polack am I anyway?
Maryann, the executive secretary walked in. She stopped by the art table of Bobby, a veteran production artist. “Bobby, are you all excited about poonchkey (spelled paczki) day?” she asked. Bobby looked up, smiled and said he couldn’t wait. Both of them were of Polish ancestry, Maryann being a first cousin of the famous Coach K from Duke.
I jumped in and asked what a poonchkey was. She looked at me and said, ”what kind of a Polack are you anyway if you never heard of a poonchkey?” They both laughed. She explained that a poonchkey was a very special Polish pastry served up on the day before lent.
My expectations were exceedingly high the next morning with youthful, bright-eyed anticipation of some pastry delight never before known to me. Both of them brought in large white pastry boxes with enough to serve the entire office of about thirty employees. Bobby opened one box, grabbed a poonchkey, bit into it, showed me the remaining pastry and said, “that, kid, is the world’s best poonchkey. Well I’ll be, I said back, it looks like a jellyroll.
Looking at me as if I were the dumbest Polack in Chicago Maryann assured me that these were very special, handing me a poonchkey filled with apple. Biting in I was not impressed. My assumption was correct. It was just a jellyroll but the filling was better than most. Not wanting to disrespect their generosity I pretended to find them very special, special enough for me to eat two of them.
Growing up in a Polish family with a strong second and first generation ethnic background I knew we had some traditions that seemed odd to others. But we had a lot of fun in our family enclave. The food they made I still crave to this day such as authentic Polish sausage and pierogis. But for the life of me I do not recall ever being treated to a poonchkey. My family lived in a Polish section of Hammond IN while Bobby and Maryann grew up in the northwest Chicago Polish enclave. The two were quite different worlds as I would learn years later. Chicago has more Poles living there than any other city but Warsaw. Hammond? Not so much.
Poonchkeys are now found all over Northwest Indiana on Fat Tuesday, even out here in the more rural redneck areas where we live. This morning I saw some at the local grocery and bought two. Not being much of a pastry fan maybe they deserved another chance at redemption.
As suspected, it’s still just another jellyroll. The same way Crispy Creams are just another glazed donut to me.
After escaping Illinois 20 years ago to the free world of Indiana I learned of another Polish tradition that was foreign to me. One that is not known even to the Poles I worked with in Chicago at that time.
My westbound commuter train began in South Bend IN with Randolph St. in Chicago being the end of the line. Unlike the commuter train I rode in Illinois where nobody talked much and people kept to themselves this one was a bit livelier. It didn’t take long for me to make friends with a group of commuters who took the same train in and out daily. These were the party people and they were of all ages, sexes and races.
One day a lovely and friendly lady named Kathy asked me to join them. I did. Commuters getting on from Michigan City all the way to Chicago’s Hegewisch neighborhood on the far south side all were friends and they took to me rather quickly, both men and women. We would dominate the seats that faced each other across both isles. We joked and talked politics, work and just about anything that came up. On the commute home we all brought cocktails or beer and munchies on board for the ride home. On birthdays we would hang around the city together after work and have cocktails and dinner. It was a real tight group that I love to this day. I miss each one of them very much.
One day a feisty, younger, tall and rather attractive woman of Polish decent named Jill suggested we all go to Michigan City to celebrate Dingus Day. I asked what Dingus Day was and she looked at me in shock and said, “What kind of a Polack are you anyway that you don’t know what Dingus Day is?”
She explained that Dingus Day is the Monday after Easter and is a big Polish party of sorts. Seems Dingus Days is a real big Polish event in Michigan City and South Bend, which both still have large Polish enclaves. Who knew? Not me.
On Dingus Day in those places the bars serve Polish food of all sorts and live Polka bands entertain. Think of it as a pub crawl with cheap ethnic food. Think of it as a Polish St.Paddy’s Day without the cheap green tinted beer.
Well, nobody seemed too excited to attend the Michigan City Dingus Day festivities since it was a long haul at a late hour. To this day I never experienced the real Dingus.
What kind of a Polack am I anyway?
Monday, February 20, 2012
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Saturday Night Sixties
It’s Saturday night. Time to relax. Again. Let’s set the wayback machine for the 60’s, my favorite decade.
Pour yourself a big, stiff cocktail. Put a thick wax platter on the turntable of the hi-fi and gently drop that needle.
Pour yourself a big, stiff cocktail. Put a thick wax platter on the turntable of the hi-fi and gently drop that needle.
Thursday, February 16, 2012
The Intelligence of the Crow
A while back I read a book called "Ravens In Winter" and found the lives of crows and ravens to be very interesting. The book describes how they communicate food sources to one another through some type of unknown mechanism and their general high intelligence level.
When I was in Norway I came across a Carrion Crow (or at least I think it is; I looked it up on wikipedia) that found a clam-shell container that usually contains take out food. The crow obviously knew that it was correlated with food and poked it with its beak and shook it about deliberately before throwing it to the ground in disgust. I took a video and uploaded it and you can see it in HD here which I find very humorous.
Before 9/11 I traveled to Tasmania and had an encounter with what I believe was a Forest Raven, although once again I am not an ornithologist. The bird was AMAZINGLY persistent - when our car pulled up to a clearing it jumped on the side mirror (the window was open) and looked me right in the face (with big yellow eyes) and started cawing for food. I rolled up the window and it sat right on the hood of the car staring at me through the dashboard. I have never seen an (ostensibly wild) bird so unafraid of humans.
Cross posted at Chicago Boyz
When I was in Norway I came across a Carrion Crow (or at least I think it is; I looked it up on wikipedia) that found a clam-shell container that usually contains take out food. The crow obviously knew that it was correlated with food and poked it with its beak and shook it about deliberately before throwing it to the ground in disgust. I took a video and uploaded it and you can see it in HD here which I find very humorous.
Before 9/11 I traveled to Tasmania and had an encounter with what I believe was a Forest Raven, although once again I am not an ornithologist. The bird was AMAZINGLY persistent - when our car pulled up to a clearing it jumped on the side mirror (the window was open) and looked me right in the face (with big yellow eyes) and started cawing for food. I rolled up the window and it sat right on the hood of the car staring at me through the dashboard. I have never seen an (ostensibly wild) bird so unafraid of humans.
Cross posted at Chicago Boyz
Chicago Leads the Nation in Corruption
I tell you I had to pick myself up off the floor when I read this bit of news . Not.Federal prosecutors secured a total of 1,531 public corruption convictions in the Northern District of Illinois since 1976, said Dick Simpson, head of the university’s political science department.I never really came from a background where hush money or protection had to be paid. I wonder if you still have to pay people to "protect" your business "in case something happens" in Chicago.
Meanwhile, Illinois logged 1,828 public corruption convictions, the third most of any state, according to the report. Only California and New York had more.
But those states are much larger than Illinois. On a per-person basis, only the District of Columbia and Louisiana had more convictions than Illinois, according to the report.
Four governors, two congressmen, a state treasurer, an attorney general, 11 state legislators, numerous judges and dozens of aldermen have been convicted since the 1970s, according to the report, dubbed Chicago and Illinois, Leading the Pack in Corruption.
“For a long time — going back at least to the Al Capone era — Chicago and Illinois have been known for high levels of public corruption, Simpson said. “But now we have the statistics that confirm their dishonorable and notorious reputations. . . . . The two worst crime zones in Illinois are the Governor’s Mansion in Springfield and the City Council Chambers in Chicago.”
“Chicago is the most corrupt city in the country, and Illinois is probably the third-most corrupt state in the nation," Simpson said at a City Hall news conference.
If so, it is a disgrace. The corruption is a disgrace anyways. I wonder when (if) the people of the State of Illinois and the City of Chicago will ever get sick of it.
Cross posted at ChicagoBoyz.
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Oh My Akin’ Wallet
I hate February. Just hate it. Can’t buy a break this month.
February 10 - Her Birthday
February 14 - Valentines Day
February 28 - Our Wedding Anniversary
Why me God, why me?
February 10 - Her Birthday
February 14 - Valentines Day
February 28 - Our Wedding Anniversary
Why me God, why me?
The Living Dead and Rockers Who Survived
Recently I had tickets to see three see rock stars who have survived a lot longer than might have been expected given their lifestyles.
Mike Ness is the lead singer, songwriter and a guitarist for Social Distortion. Social Distortion has been around for a long time in multiple incarnations with Mike Ness. See this "list of Social Distortion Band Members" from wikipedia for the rotating cast, with Mr. Ness the one constant since the debut album in 1983 (almost 30 years ago!). I was pumped up to see the band and really liked a Direct TV Guitar Center sessions show they played (in HD) from which I took the photo below. Unfortunately they canceled in Reno (one expects the worst, an OD, although I have no information whatsoever except that it was canceled "due to illness") so I won't get a chance to see them unless they hit Chicago.
Two more guys who have no business being alive are Dave Mustaine of Megadeth and the famous Lemmy of Motorhead. They played together in a show I saw recently, both defiant in their own way. Lemmy, who has 35 (!) years as a rock star under his belt, has a lot of illnesses now including diabetes (I saw a documentary on him by Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters) and yet is touring as hard as ever. Their most famous album features "the Ace of Spades" of which I have a little bit recorded below. It certainly isn't HD quality but perhaps this is appropriate for a Motorhead concert which is more to be experienced than savored because the mix was like mud and it was more of a piledriver experience.
Finally there is Dave Mustaine. I recently bought a book called "the Hundred Greatest Metal Guitarists" which ranked Dave Mustaine #1 (which is probably more of a lifetime survival award, because the guitarist he has with him today, Chris Broderick, sounded way better at least for this show). Here is an interview with Mustaine about this ranking:
Mike Ness is the lead singer, songwriter and a guitarist for Social Distortion. Social Distortion has been around for a long time in multiple incarnations with Mike Ness. See this "list of Social Distortion Band Members" from wikipedia for the rotating cast, with Mr. Ness the one constant since the debut album in 1983 (almost 30 years ago!). I was pumped up to see the band and really liked a Direct TV Guitar Center sessions show they played (in HD) from which I took the photo below. Unfortunately they canceled in Reno (one expects the worst, an OD, although I have no information whatsoever except that it was canceled "due to illness") so I won't get a chance to see them unless they hit Chicago.
Two more guys who have no business being alive are Dave Mustaine of Megadeth and the famous Lemmy of Motorhead. They played together in a show I saw recently, both defiant in their own way. Lemmy, who has 35 (!) years as a rock star under his belt, has a lot of illnesses now including diabetes (I saw a documentary on him by Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters) and yet is touring as hard as ever. Their most famous album features "the Ace of Spades" of which I have a little bit recorded below. It certainly isn't HD quality but perhaps this is appropriate for a Motorhead concert which is more to be experienced than savored because the mix was like mud and it was more of a piledriver experience.
Finally there is Dave Mustaine. I recently bought a book called "the Hundred Greatest Metal Guitarists" which ranked Dave Mustaine #1 (which is probably more of a lifetime survival award, because the guitarist he has with him today, Chris Broderick, sounded way better at least for this show). Here is an interview with Mustaine about this ranking:
Then I got to No. 2 and it was John Petrucci [of Dream Theater] and I froze. I was No. 1. What made it better still is that the guy wrote: "This isn't about Dave as a person because he's been a cock" — [interjects with a bray of laughter] — "These four pages are about his guitar playing, which is the best. There are people who are better at one thing that Mustaine does, and others that are better than another, but no-one who's as good at everything." All I thought was… I win!While we are hopeful Ness is done battling his demons and Lemmy is committed to not changing a thing and going down exactly the same way he came in, Mustaine seems to have totally dropped alcohol and changed his life and even lightened up a bit. This says a lot for a guy who was kicked out of Metallica for being a bad drunk back in the days when all they did was party. One thing all three of these rockers (Ness, Lemmy & Mustaine) have in common is an amazingly long list of various band members. Thanks to wikipedia for adding the band member timeline to keep it all straight. Due to Mustaine's "lightening up" (he found religion) he now tours with some more youth-friendly and female-friendly fans - check out this "A Tout Le Monde" with the singer from Lacuna Coil (we missed them because they must have come onstage within a few minutes of the doors opening - the new Mustaine must drive a well-oiled ship because I've never heard of that).
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