Saturday, February 22, 2003
BIGGER IS NOT BETTER.
It's fundamental nursery-rhyme reasoning: “when the bough breaks”...any cradles resting on such a structure will fall. It would seem to apply to many business firms, today which we see in sad disarray, seeking mixed panaceas in Chapter Eleven and bankruptcy and failing to find the help they seek.
Corporations are going to come and go. They are man-made and, hence,. flawed from the start, but some seem to be better established than others
As we look at today's failures. it appears many of them simple grew far too fast for their own good.
If there is any one thing which scares me in reading the business news it is that terse, little announcement that sneaks out of some press release writer's notebook which lets us know that “so-and-so” is about to buy “such-and-such”.
. These pre-purchase feelers are carefully crafted and skillfully positioned to either present the idea that the young company has grown to such an extent that it now wishes to take over lesser firms and be the biggest boy on the block. Or, it can also be crafted to hide the fact that the young corporation is feeling unsteady and weak in some areas and needs some stability to be found in older,well-established firms in the same of related field. They are looking for help in a back-handed manner. Notice, if you will, how often the so called “merger”, “take over” “alignment” suffers a reverse in title not too long after the union. The “lesser” company seems to dominate. The tail wags the dog.
I once worked for a large typewriter firm and when it was noised around that “we” were buying a major European firm, we former workesr in the American firm were rather pleased and even proud that our one time company was buying up a decadent old Italian firm. A year later the name under which we have been a leading manufacturer ceased to be entirely and the logo of the Italian firm had replaced it. It happens that way today, too. Who is buying whom? That detail is not always as clear and clean as it should be.
We see mergers taking place and they can be seen either as advancements or as surrender to pressuring circumstances. Very little is ever accomplished by one firm buying another firm buying another while each is in good health. There is a basic underlying fact that says there is something wrong with one or the other,or they would not be seeking to take on on each others troubles.
It takes time to build a good business. It has to develop a strong root system. It has to grow with sureness and stability and to refrain from sending out branched with unplanned abandon long before trunk has grown sufficiently strong to hold such additions. You don't see many corner newsstands staring super-bookstores in every other city for miles around. You have witnessed the branch bank phenomena in your area ,no doubt, convenience stores, fast food spots. and fortune telling booths and oriental self-defense parlors, as well. Cloning endless additions of an imperfect business does not help anyone.
The clone concept has a great many business people fooled it seems. It would be wise to reflect on the fact that “Dolly the celebrated cloned sheep, had to be put down at half her time because of conditions which were developing in her lungs and other parts of here body which made her twice a sold as she was and on the decrepit side while still pre-mature. She, like the tree we envision and like many of the dot-com firms which came and passed on quickly; they all grew far too fast and age without maturity is neatly packaged Hell for anyone to handle.
Be suspicious when you hear someone is buying someone else. As Freeman and Godsen used to say in their old “Amos 'n Andy” scripts for radio “...you has to figger out “who am de “buy-or”and “who am de “sell-eee!” before a deal can be made.
A.L.M. February 21, 2003 [c682wds]
Friday, February 21, 2003
TREE BUCKETS
Sap buckets are already hanging on local maple trees and that's a good sign that someone else thinks Spring in on the way.
I am not alone.
The appearance of the shiny buckets in the grove of maple trees is ,to me, a sure indication that winter is on the wane and spring lies just ahead. With honey makers from the Great Lakes area on down - from Maine to the southern tip of mapledom – it is the generally accepted word Because this winter has been a severe one we are to be blessed with a bountiful crop of honey. It works out that way and, while I don't know how the scientific citizenry might consider it to be, the idea is a pleasant one. It is to be encouraged.
There some some "iffy" words in there, however, just in case it does not work out the way it is supposed to. Severe winter - lots of spring blossom and a good honey crop. Logic.
Either Vermont or Maine will generally be the top honey producing states with New York flowing in third, but it is hard to beat honey from the flowers of this Shenandoah Valley of Virginia area. The honey-making festivities of the Highland County area around the community of Monterey each year draw tourists - well, like bees to fabulous flowers!
Each year the grove which surrounds the colonial Augusta Stone Presbyterian Church - 1740 'till now, and still going strong - at Fort Defiance, Virginia , sprouts new glistening buckets and it is these I see as my harbingers of Spring as I visit the old church. A young man in the community puts them out each year - "lays them out" the honey people say, and the honey-money goes to support the Ft. Defiance High School Band program.
The buckets usually appear when weather forecasts indicate temperatures will go above forty degrees. I am pleased to hear February 25th quoted as the day that happens because is my birthday. Actually, they say the 22nd, but I ignore such claims. Trees do better if they have plenty of water, too . Heavy snow is best. A sudden cold snap can cause trouble and a few days above fifty degrees can work havoc, as well. There is an old saying which varies quite often but ends up as:”Don't count your honey "till it's in the jug”.
Like almost everything about the farm, it's a risky business. And, the risk starts long before the bees come out of their hives and get busy as good bees are supposed to be.
A.L.M. February 20, 2003 [ 443wds]
Thursday, February 20, 2003
SAYING IT...
It has been said on the Evening News this week that the War with Iraq has “already started.”
It has, and that fact comes as a shock to some people who were not aware of the fact that we have been conducting air raids on Iraqi military targets for several months. No one denies that fact. They just don't talk about it. It is what has been called a “Low Level War” but it is combat with an enemy none the less. You have been listening to accounts of such raids in enemy territory - a radar installation most recently, and other -“military” targets the past few months- in the so-called “no-fly” zone which makes it all an enforcement actions designed to keep the peace rather than to be attacks.. No one seems to get too worked up about it and neither side gets excited about such incidents, so they continue and they are war-like actions in spite of their guarded nature which might call the police actions designed to maintain the terms agreed upon at the end of the Gulf War.
TV's prime talking heads are now using roughly-cut statements which say it in the form of a question, as a rule. Some are asking if listeners think the dropping of what they are calling “propaganda” leaflets over Iraq. Are such planes engaged in war-like actions? To think of such informational materials as “propaganda” is a throw back to other times but that does not keep critics from using such pointedly derogatory terminology.
The tip-toe stance in regard to existing pre-war activities reminds me of a temporary ban which was quietly set up some years because the president was out of the country and the new people were asked to refrain from mentioning it. The media complied, but one radio commentator gave daily teasers, however.“He is not at the White House! He is not at Camp David? Where in the world might he be tonight? A pause and the next news was carefully date-lined.
A petty thing,of course, but such pettiness can prove to be costly when we are in a wartime attitude. We, by our very nature, oppose and resist censorship or even official guidance, in any form. We may not like it and think it to be very un-American to be told what to do. In our preference for such freedom, we must also accept the individual responsibility with comes with such a treasure.
It could well be that, in effect, the war has already started. Those who believe so, should have courage enough to step forward and say so if they wish to do, but to make a subtle game of it using hints and suggestions is dangerous. We had a slogan in another era saying: “Loose Lips Sink Ships!” They could and did.
Half-baked ideas, set forth as being complete, can bring down planes and entire civilizations. It is important that we start listening carefully to what we hear and to due consideration to who is supposed to have said it as well as who actually said it. We must fine-tune our ears to hear what is being said as well as the manner in which it is being presented.
A.L.M. February 19, 2003 [c545wds]
Wednesday, February 19, 2003
TWAIN TIME
Mark Twain is one of those writers we should read again when we get older.
We have a memory of having read his “funny stuff” but when we recap our reading we actually find we have read very little of his writings, Tom Sawyer, perhaps, Huck Finn , those tales about the rafts and river steamboats, a some have a memory of the Yankee character he created who suffered a bump on his head and found himself waking up under a tree in the time of King Arthur and the Court at Camalot. Far too often, our memory is a bit warped and we realize that what we are actually remembering are versions of his stories we have seen in the movies.
I received a 3-thousand book CD library for Christmas and among the first books I decided to “re-read” was that of the Yankee living in a restored King Arthur's armor-suited domain.
To my be surprise, I found that I had never read the book at all.
What I was remembering was Will Rogers playing the role said Yankee many years ago -so long ago, I now realize, that it was a film without sound. That film and dealt with the impressive opening episode of the book, and, unless I am again mistaken, I think that is as far as it went. You know that part of the story in which the Yankee is due to lose his head to the royal executioner's blade, unless he comes up with the sort of thing MacIver did so well on TV just a year or two ago to show his impressive power which would make his onlookers think he was a magician of special abilities.
Your will know that story because it has been done to multi-death by every facet of the media. I'm sure because it has been done in so dne doe to death in many ways. Doomed, he remembers that the year om which he finds himself was one which witnessed a complete eclipse of the sun... so he lets it be know that, if he is harmed in any way, he will blot out the sun.
Right on schedule, after a last-minute cliff hanger, he starts the process. Twain, almanac in hand, no doubt, lets him do just that and the populace is very much impressed as was the king and the knights who were at the Round Table. Listening to their pleas, he awaits the king's offer making him assistant king, then slowly brings the heavenly light back and restores it's warm light!
That's just the first incident of thirty-plus chapters of other magical acts undertaken by the Yankee makes the king's so
official magic worker Merlin look like an upstart.
The Yankee worked hard to keep his new place as Assistant or Vice-King of the realm of Camalot. He ran the place on behalf of his buddy King Arthur and his changes and modifications in government make up the rest of the book.
Twain got to work off a great many of his somewhat strange social and political ideas possibly to try to influence the future.
While much of it may seem old-fashgioned and seen historically now they were new in King S' domain.He “invents” all sorts of things such as the telegraph and modernizes the land in many fantastic ways. I get the feelign reading some of the ideas that MarkTwain was being as serious as he could possibly be in setting down some of the the social ideas he favored, but it still comes off on the silly side since we have sucha pre-conceived notions of who and what he was as a writer.
I found I had not read the story “A Yankee in King Asrthur's Court” at all and I dare say it applies to much of MarkTwin's writings with many of you ,as well. He is read at certain times in our lives.
I have now read the Yankee thing and realize, for the first time, that I have probably been guilty of doing the same sort of injustice to other authors and their books. We do not realize how much we have been dominated by the media versions, early films, newer ones with color and computerized embellishments, radio,TV the comic book genre and now revised versions for the old ones, often discounting earlier accounts. The youthful generations today are in even more dire straits. Their entire memory of classic literature is based on their detailed knowledge and firm acceptance of the Disney versions of history. And, you and I both know how far from fact those tellings can go.
A.L.M. February 17, 2003 [c-777wds]
Tuesday, February 18, 2003
INNER CONFLICT
We, all too frequently, forget that the tribes of North American Indians were often in severe and costly conflict with each other. The battles they fought - small perhaps by white man's standards - were at times large enough to decide the future of entire tribes.
We can learn much by being aware of these early American wars.
One such decisive battle was fought in 1755 about two miles east of that point in the now-State of Georgia where Long-Swamp Creek and the Etowah River meet. That would be in the northwest in the Pickens-Wilkes county area. The specific battle marked a culmination of the state of war which had existed between the powerful Creek and emerging Cherokee tribes for at least a decade or more, certainly since 1740.
In April 1755 the great Cherokee Chief Oconostoata led five hundred of his braves in an attack upon the Creeks at that site. The Creek forces were far more numerous but the Cherokees soundly defeated them and sent the Creek warriors scurrying southward across the Chattahoochie River. In doing so, they left to the Cherokees the very heartland of what was to become the Cherokee's national home.
We should know more about these inter-Indian battles. This one is called the Battle of Tiliwa was strictly and Indian affair. It appears to be just one of many such tribal conflicts. We could learn several important things about the "native Americans" - as they are now called in argumentative circles - and our own ancestors the European "intruders."
The use of the term was, perhaps, we were, at least, in the Indian view, just that - intruders - moving into portions of lands "frequented by" rather than "settled by" Indians family groups. They had been, and were a largely nomadic and wandering set of people by nature. They were rivals in many aspects who were far from being at peace with each other. They had clan-likes disregard for the niceties of social conduct when family was concerned, and there can be little doubt that the small groups suffered great losses in senseless bickering and petty warfare with the neighbors - even relatives. Such wars were over ownership of real estate holdings and the larger areas which served as treasured hunting grounds so essential to their way of life.
The white man was, no doubt, can be accused of excessive violence in regard to Indians but at the same time we must not overlook the historical fact that the Indian was, at that time, his own worst enemy. Internecine strife was endemic. The Indian youth was raised to hate his counterpoint just across the mountain or river boundary. They killed each other in large numbers and the degradation, while to some degree over-stated when dressed in white-man's terminology. Very often those groups we call "tribes" are to be more accurately seen to have been "families"... small units of close, blood-related persons and a few hangers-on, perhaps, as well as several like groups with whom they were closely allied at a specific time and for a set purpose.
In order for Chief Oconostoata to bring together five hundred warriors, he would have to have behind him an amalgam of groups large enough to supply that many eligible-aged men. It is important to remember that the overall intent of the war could be seen to be quite different by each family group represented. A strong leader such as Oconostoata must have been could hold them together just so long.
We need to learn from the Cherokees, Creeks and others that in times of stress and dire need minor difference must be set aside for the common good. At the moment we are a nation at war in every way except the technical designation of its being named as such and we are in a constant ferment of petty disagreements with each other. It is time we joined together for our common good. Let's set political bickering aside for a time and tend to the now urgent difficulties which threaten our very existence.
A.L.M. February 16, 2003 [c681wds]
Monday, February 17, 2003
BAD NAME
Isn't it odd how products, which are really not unworthy of being marketed, seem to get what we call “a bad name” from the very start? They never seem to get a real chance to redeem themselves, either.
I was pleased recently to see that the B-26 bomber which was made by Martin during World War II in excess of five-thousand and was vilified as “The Flying Coffin”, “The Widow Maker” and other such names, has been found to have been not so bad after all.
In a recent edition of “Ex-CBI Roundup”- a magazine dealing with the various aspects of World War II actions in the oft-ignored China-Burma-India theater of operations - I found some good things about the much maligned plane.
It was dangerous when flying – but more so for the enemy than to the pilots or crew thereof. A study of flight records and historical data concerning the 5,257 B-26 “Mararuders” the Martin Company made during World War II era shows they had a remarkably safe flying record. They were, true enough, more demanding on crew capabilities. They, for instance, had a landing speed of around one hundred thirty miles per hour – a bit too fast some thought for those days - faster than most other bombers – and that meant that an unskilled crew might find it could “get away” from them. Those who liked the plane spoke of it as being:”alert”and those who did not care for it said it was “tricky.” The observation which claimed it could be “too hot to handle” might well have been an apt accusation but it did have advantages such as a bigger bomb load capacity, greater speed and and increased staying power. Records also show that, while the B-26 was built to be safely operated by a crew of seven men. In actual use, however, records indicate it was often flown with a crew of six men – five , at times.
That tendency to fly with short crews could be interpreted as a point in favor of the efficiency of the plane.
We see other products so vilified, too.. Do your remember the “Edsel” - now a collector's item. Scoffers called it the “Horse Collar”, but I knew one Edsel owner who was very pleased with his and kept it for the rest of his life. His widow sold it at a profit and someone has it today and probably brags about it. There are other such examples of worthy products which have been bad mouthed from day one and thus lost forever and excluded from public evaluation.
How many can you think of off-hand?
A.L.M. February 14, 2003 [c448ds]
Sunday, February 16, 2003
AT TWENTY- ONE PER
During World War II, when I was invited to became a member of the Armed Forces of our nation to strike fear in the hearts of our enemies, the prevailing rate of pay for draftee soldiering was all of twenty-one dollars per month.
We survived.
Many of us wondered how we could possibly get along on that amount of money each month, but we quickly realized that military economics and civilian same-thing are never the same.
I was duly examined one cold November day, I remember and with a bus load of men from my Staunton, Va. Area. The usual run once around the room put your clothes back on and wait. After being declared sane by one grand old doctor I used to know back in the days when he sat in the local drug store back home talked back to the radio. I was sent to what was then called Fort Lee ,Virginia.,near Petersburg, Virginia, which was again being called “Camp Lee” as it had been during World War I since it was again being over filled with human bodies sent there to be trained in the ways of the army.
Some of the old barracks from 1917's trainees where still in use at the start of World War II. but we were lucky enough to get a brand new, pine-smelling one. The style was the same, but it was new. We moved in. Two Floors I was lucky again and got a first floor bunk about half way down from the Non Com officer's room at the end. The community showers and other facilities were at the other extremity. We were Company A and the Mess Hall was just across the company street from our bunk house.
In that situation we then began a rigorous thirteen-week campaign to change civilians into soldiers .The small, tan-colored field manual we were issued called lour lot “Infantry Training, Basic.” We were infantry and would be trained as such. We were also Infantry Medics and, as such, would not be trained for or with firearms, according to the dictates of the Geneva Convention which went along with those decaying 1917 barracks we felt.
Feeling varied on that specific branch of service most expected to become good medics, but the army changed along the way. When there proved to be more medics than were needed., we were make-over troops trained in some other field of work by on-the-job training and sent out as cadres of a mixed sort. My lot sent me - a shadow of my former self and probably as healthy an individual as I have ever been in my lifetime – to Langley Field, Va..
I will never forget the day we were told of that sensational change of pace for all of us The entire battalion on he drill field between he long rows of look-alike barracks and a full Colonel took his place on a flat-bed cart to make a speech. He wasted no time: “Men!” he yelled, “this entire battalion has been transferred into the United States Army Air Corp and, if I were you, I wouldn't ask any damned questions!!”A fine speech. It brought a flood of cheers, laughter and some unbelief. Our company comedian,
jumped on the platform and let loose with aloud and happy “horse neigh” which must have been heard , at least in Petersburg, perhaps in edge of Richmond!
About generous hunk of us were were sent to Langley Field, Virginia. They installed us all in a hanger on the flight line. What could anyone do with six hundred medics they did not need?
We found out gradually. The pay was better, too - fifty dollars per month.
A.L.M. February 14, 2003 [c631wds]
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