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More from the world of apostrophe annoyances:
Learn from the pro's how to plan events of all types and sizes just before the holiday season kicks off and with 2007 just around the corner.
The author of that line? PRSA.
Come on, people. Basics.
That's a picture of the parade that wound in front of the new Busch Stadium the other day to celebrate the tenth world championship for the St. Louis Cardinals, and the first since 1982.
It worked out perfectly -- game five at home on a Friday, and they won the series in front of the home crowd. No one expected them to get beyond the Padres, much less win it all.
I'm really pleased for the Cardinal fans. What a great baseball city -- the Redbirds draw 3 million a year, no matter what kind of team they're fielding. No much fair weather in that fan base. How many times has there been a player that lands with the Cards, endears himself to the fans, and then forswears a higher amount of money in favor of staying there? It's the best baseball city there is.
I'm disappointed to see that St. Louis is named the most dangerous city.
It disappoints me for a lot of reasons. I grew up 100 miles south of St. Louis and made, I don't know, a million drives up and back for Cardinal games, swim meets, time with friends, airport runs, whatever. I know about its heritage as the jumping off point for western exploration in the early 19th century. For a time, it had (by far) the country's best education system. It had a lot going for it.
To be fair, it still does -- it's a good city. I have immediate family that lives and works there, and enjoys St. Louis life. But like many cities, particularly in the midwest (and I'm very surpised to see KC at only #16 in this ranking -- it's on track for 100 murders again this year), it needs to step on the neck of crime if it's going to have a downtown renaissance, an influx of business, and all the things blighted cities seem to want to regain their lost prestige.
Now, then there's the matter of the world champion St. Louis Cardinals. More on that shortly.
Nice dinner tonight with Kevin and Kimberly. Can't believe how big their kids are getting -- and Lia, their new daughter, is a dream of a little girl.
Great to connect with friends like these.
Keep a fire for the human race
Let your prayers go drifting into space
You never know what will be coming down
Perhaps a better world is drawing near
And just as easily it could all disappear
Along with whatever meaning you might have found
Don't let the uncertainty turn you around
Go on and make a joyful sound
Happy Friday. Rattling around upstairs:
Interested as I am in politics and government, the last week or two before an election disgust me. They have since 1988. You can wear out your wrist flipping away from all the attack ads, on TV and radio. Thank God for XM.
Speaking of XM and politics, yet again, I heard Barack Obama interviewed this morning on On Point. He's very impressive, obviously, in a lot of ways, but here's my favorite two: 1) Replying to the observation that he's the political rock star of the moment, he says, "Don't put your faith in that. We live in a celebrity culture. I hope any appeal anyone is assigning to me has at least something to do with what I stand for." 2) He says he's learned in the past year that the "divisiveness" prevalent in politics is an inaccurate magnification of what's actually happening in the US. People are more together on many things than you might think, and gravitate toward the center. That feels pretty good to me, because I'm tired of you-hate-me-I-hate-you "debates."
Missouri teacher caught smoking pot on school grounds. A second grade teacher thought this was a good plan. I don't know which one is more full of stupid, the teacher or the parent who said she didn't think it was a big deal. Makes my home state look even worse.
I like using the Google on the Internets too. Thanks, Al, for inventing it. Whoops, about time for the lunch.
U.S. exercise guidelines coming in 2008. Good. Opening line should be: put down the fork, get up, move.
I'm always interested in funny or unique turns of phrases or colloquial sayings. My Dad had a million of them. When he was content, he was "like a shoat in a corn crib." When he was prepared, he was "Johnny at the rat hole." Someone new to something was usually "greener than goose shit at grass time." His favorite foods were "so good it'll crawl up in your mouth." I miss hearing that from him, of course, and miss colorful (I don't mean profane) language in general. Now, all you hear about is "transparency."
Doc Searls has an ongoing thread about marketing and conversations. Of course he does -- he's the Cluetrain guy.
There's a very good exchange here between Doc and Joe Andrieu that is worth reading in its entirety, including the further exchange in the comments section. A couple of relevant points:
You never know.
My brother just got e-mail from a man in Italy who witnessed a fighter being shot down in WW2. The pilot's name was the same as my father -- Truman Cole. The man found my dad's name in the obituary section of my hometown paper and contacted the editor, offering to get in touch with the family to share a memory.
Turns out it wasn't him -- my dad was a WW2 veteran, but not a fighter pilot (though he did become a pilot later). My brothers and sister are touched by his making contact. I hope he finds the other Cole family.
His e-mail:
My name is Tonello, living in Ala, a small city on the Brenner Pass in North Italy. The 11.05.1944, I was 12, I saw a B26 Marauder hit by two garman [sic] Me 109 and shot down near Ala town. I saw too two chutes and the capture of an american pilot on the afternoon of same day. As I know after, the B26 was of 320 BG 441 BS. Pilot Cole, Truman. Is the Truman Pilot a relative of Truman Jr. please? Is it possible to comunicate [sic] with him? Many thanks and wishes.
Great set of people profiled by US News as America's best current crop of leaders.
Definitely worth reading.
Finally, someone else noticed the bullshit fees Kansas City lards on when you rent a car there. It's the worst municipal offender.
From the story:
"In enacting [them], officials typically assume that local constituents are shielded from payment because out-of-town visitors — and therefore non-voters — carry most of the burden.
Steve Glorioso, assistant to Kansas City, Mo., Mayor Kay Barnes, says the arena fee was approved by local voters.
The downtown arena 'will bring tens of thousands of conventioneers to the city,' he says. Revitalizing the downtown area also helps to attract more visitors, which helps rental car companies, he says.
The $4-a-day arena fee has been a success, he says. In the 12 months ended in April, the city has raised $8.9 million from it, or about $900,000 above the initial projection."
It may have exceeded anticipated fees, but how much business is the city losing because it angers people by taking flat-out advantage of them?
"Business travelers such as Jerry Vandiver are upset about the high cost of renting in Kansas City. The country singer and songwriter from Nashville recently rented a car from Thrifty while visiting Kansas City. He says the base rate for renting for two days was $88, but the bottom-line price was nearly double, $160."
My experience, too, Jerry.
"In 2004, revenue from rentals at non-airport locations — which presumably cater more to local residents — exceeded revenue from airport rentals for the first time in industry history.
'The notion that it is borne by somebody else who doesn't live here is increasingly outdated,' says William Gale, an economist at The Brookings Institution and a co-author of an industry study on the taxes.
Gale and Kim Rueben, an economist at the Urban Institute, found that many customers in Kansas City were willing to travel several miles outside of the city to avoid the arena fee.
After Kansas City passed the arena tax in 2005, the number of cars rented by local residents in the taxed area fell steeply compared with previous years, Gale and Rueben concluded."
Whoa. Logic. So the city made its anticipated reaming fees, but the car rental companies lost business thanks to the soak-the-traveler-so-we-can-claim-clean-hands idea.
