Thinking outside the shoe box
Zappos is a leader in online shoes sales, and the company’s success is due to its attention to detail and innovation. In a brief article, Bill Taylor writes of one way Zappos makes sure that it is hiring people who believe in the company:
So when Zappos hires new employees, it provides a four-week training period that immerses them in the company’s strategy, culture, and obsession with customers. People get paid their full salary during this period.
After a week or so in this immersive experience, though, it’s time for what Zappos calls “The Offer.” The fast-growing company, which works hard to recruit people to join, says to its newest employees: “If you quit today, we will pay you for the amount of time you’ve worked, plus we will offer you a $1,000 bonus.” Zappos actually bribes its new employees to quit!
Why? Because if you’re willing to take the company up on the offer, you obviously don’t have the sense of commitment they are looking for.
It’s an amazing offer from a remarkable company. A company, by the way, that expects to generate more than $1 billion in revenue this year. (via Kottke)
Boone's Birthday Bash
Happy 80th birthday to native Oklahoman Boone Pickens. The energy maven and billionaire dropped off a $100 million check up in Stillwater Wednesday, after celebrating Tuesday night with celebrities and VIPs in a black-tie extravaganza engineered by his wife, Madeleine.
Alan Peppard in the The Dallas Morning News reported on the festivities, which included Oklahoma Gov. Brad Henry among the celebrants.
Madeleine dispatched a Gulfstream to Italy to fetch Mr. (Andrea) Bocelli and his fiancee, Veronica Berti, and bring them to Dallas for Monday’s rehearsal and Tuesday’s party. Another plane went for Miss (Sarah) Brightman, the former wife of Andrew Lloyd Webber who originated some of his most famous roles, including Christine Daae in The Phantom of the Opera .
American Idol fave Katharine McPhee, who stirred up McPheever among her Idolfans, has toured and recorded with Mr. Bocelli. She opened the evening along with Belgian chanteuse Lara Fabian.
Emcee Dennis Miller said the lavish gala “makes Caligula look like a minimalist.”
“Boone is one of the few people who can watch Giant and think it’s a home movie,” Miller quipped.
Pickens regularly says that he’s never had more fun making money than he has in the past several years, and there’s no reason to doubt him.
Video killed the newspaper reporter
Here's me interviewing our local IRS spokesman, David Stell about the upcoming tax rebate checks we'll soon be receiving. Being on camera is still a brain-scrambling experience for me. When we finished, David asked me how long the interview had lasted. I guessed about five minutes. It was actually about eight-and-a-half minutes long, so I only missed it by about 65 percent.
If the interview seems to move smoothly, credit David, whose knowledge of IRS arcana is nearly unmatched. In fact, he called me immediately after a recent conference call with the acting IRS commissioner Linda Stiff (yes, that's her name) to correct a misstatement that she had made.
(Can't seem to get embedded version to work, so try this link)
Facial fire tops statehood
The New York Times has opened up some of its most historic archives to the public. TimesMachine offers a look at any New York Times edition from 1851 through 1922. I decided to see if I could find how the paper of record covered Oklahoma's statehood. It wasn't as easy as I had thought it would be.
First, I went back to read the front page of the Nov. 17, 1907. There was nothing there about statehood, although there was a lengthy article on the accidental incineration of the beard of a 70-year-old man who had never shaved.
Perhaps, I thought, the Times opted to run a story on the actual day Oklahoma became a state. But I could find nothing in the Nov. 16, 1907 paper.
So I returned to the Nov. 17 edition and began to flip through the pages. Eventually, on page 8 I found a fairly brief mention of President Theodore Roosevelt's signing of a proclamation declaring Oklahoma's statehood. You can see it yourself by clicking here.
As the Times noted: "There was absolutely no ceremony connected with the signing of the
proclamation."
Of course, we played it bit larger in The Oklahoman. Our banner headline read:
OKLAHOMA BECOMES STATE, Scratch of Quill Pen Lets The New State Into Union; Indian Territory and Oklahoma Are Symbolically Wed."
The Oklahoman also managed to find room on the front page for a fatal saloon shooting. Here's the flavor of that feature:
"In a pistol duel in Ed Conley's saloon, 116 West First Street, at 8:15 o'clock last neight -- a little more than three hours before the prohibition law was applied by Sheriff Garrison and the police departement -- Robert Johnson, bartender, was shot three times and is now believed to be in a dying condition at St. Anthony's hospital. (A later bulletin noted that Johnson had died.)
Perusing century-old newspapers is endlessly fascinating, with the advertisements often as startling and revealing of the past as the news of the day and the manner in which it was reported.
Just in case...
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Meeting mayhem
Like many newspaper reporters, I served an apprenticeship covering meetings of municipal boards and panels. In my earliest days, I was a regular at city council meetings in Norman, Del City and Midwest City. One of the first things you learn is that there tends to be a cast of regulars who attend the meetings. Some of those regulars are fervent, even emotional, about the issues they hold dear.
The fear that those emotions can erupt in violence was acknowledged by the Oklahoma City Council in 1996, when the city spent $2,000 to conceal steel plates in the horseshoe desk the city council sits behind. The plates were designed to protect council members in case of an attack, noted a story by my colleague Jack Money.
But the most extreme example will forever be Charles Lee "Cookie" Thornton, who burst into Thursday's meeting of the Kirkwood, Mo., city council and fatally gunned down five people. An Associated Press account notes that Thornton often was "a contentious presence" at council meetings"
More from the AP:
He had twice been convicted of disorderly conduct for disrupting meetings in May 2006.
The weekly Webster-Kirkwood Times quoted (Mayor Mike) Swoboda as saying in June 2006 that Thornton's contentious remarks over the years created 'one of the most embarrassing situations that I have experienced in my many years of public service.'
The mayor's comments came during a meeting attended by Thornton two weeks after he was forcibly removed from the chambers. Swoboda had said the council considered banning Thornton from future meetings but decided against it.
In a federal lawsuit stemming from his arrests during two meetings just weeks apart, Thornton insisted that Kirkwood officials violated his constitutional rights to free speech by barring him from speaking at the meetings.
But a judge in St. Louis tossed out the lawsuit Jan. 28, writing that 'any restrictions on Thornton's speech were reasonable, viewpoint neutral, and served important governmental interests.'
You can read Thornton's complaint here (via USA Today's On Deadline).
Balancing the public's right to weigh in with the panel's duty to get its business done in a timely manner has long been a touchy point for those who hold the gavel at city council meetings. I don't recall ever fearing for my safety during a council meeting, but there were some nights when I feared for my sanity as a "usual suspect" launched a lengthy diatribe into a public microphpone.
I've seen city officials gavel down long-winded speeches or even ask police officers to escort uncooperative members of the public from council meetings. And some of those situations were tense. But I'm glad I never had to witness what reporter Janet McNichols saw and heard Thursday night.
Cold comfort
A colleague recently asked me how Oklahoma City's diet might impact Sonic, the popular drive-in restaurant company based in Bricktown. I recalled a story that Sonic CEO Cliff Hudson told during the company's most recent shareholders' meeting. Responding to a question about how Sonic was countering competitors' lower-fat offerings, Hudson discussed a recent healthy food product offered by his company.
Sonic sold and promoted a low-fat fruit smoothie concoction that was healthy and tasty. Turns out, Hudson said, the second most-ordered item that accompanied the fruit smoothie was a double cheeseburger.
Hudson's conclusion: We give the customers what they want.
Now comes a front-page feature in The Wall Street Journal noting that growing popularity of a no-fat, no-calorie menu item that Sonic sells by the bagful--ice.
Okie crooner Vince Gill is among the frozen faithful. His wife, Amy Grant, bought him a machine just like the ones at Sonic's 3,400 restaurants and installed it in their garage to produce his preferred chewing ice.
From the Journal's story:
"I've chewed ice my whole life," says the 50-year-old Mr. Gill. Growing up in Oklahoma, he says, he judged restaurants by the quality of their ice. Today, he says, when he travels outside the U.S., he finds slim pickings.
"Europe is a drag," he says. "I ask for ice, and they give me one or two cubes. They're stingy with their ice. I'd never survive there."
Trivial pursuits
Our family hosts a Super Bowl watch party each year that is designed to appeal both to football fans and to those who are not as enamored by the game, but who enjoy getting together to eat, talk and watch the commercials. Last year, we started a new tradition. A trivia contest that was constructed to give a chance at victory all of our participants; not just the football fans.
I have created another trivia contest for the upcoming Super Bowl, but I don't want to release the answers ahead of the game. So I am publishing last year's trivia contest. Last year's winner took home a Chris Paul bobblehead doll.
To see the answers, scroll down to the post below the questions.
1. Which of these performers has never performed the National Anthem at a Super Bowl?
A. Billy Joel
B. Neil Diamond
C. Wayne Newton
D. Dixie Chicks
E. Backsteet Boys
2. Who was the first celebrity to perform the National Anthem at a Super Bowl
A. Al Hirt
B. Andy Williams
C. Perry Como
D. Englebert Humperdink
E. Anita Bryant
3. What percentage of all Super Bowl tickets are set aside for the general public?
A. None
B. 1 percent
C. 10 percent
D. 20 percent
E. 50 percent
4. The cheapest ticket to Super Bowl I cost how much?
A. $6
B. $9.99
C. $12
D. $20
E. $50
5. Which of these has NOT been a theme for the Super Bowl halftime show?
A. Happiness Is...
B. Founding Fathers of Rock ‘n Roll
C. KaliedoSUPERscope
D. Indiana Jones & Temple of Forbidden Eye
E. Be Bop Bamboozled
6. Who was the first non-official to toss the coin?
A. Ronald Reagan
B. George Halas
C. Bronko Nagurski
D. Red Grange
E. OJ Simpson
7. Sales of this item increase 20 percent on the day after a Super Bowl
A. Drano
B. Antacid
C. Tylenol
D. Toilet paper
E. Footballs
8. What was the Super Bowl named after?
A. Super Ball
B. Superman
C. Super Duper
D. Soup or nuts
E. Super glue
9. Heading into this year's playoffs, the New England Patriots and the Dallas Cowboys were the top-seeded teams. When was the last time the two top-seeded teams met in the Super Bowl?
A. 2006: Indianapolis Colts vs. San Diego Chargers
B. 2002: New England Patriots vs. St. Louis Rams
C. 1998: Denver Broncos vs. Green Bay Packers
D. 1993: Dallas Cowboys vs. Buffalo Bills
E. 1979: Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Dallas Cowboys
10. This player played in more Super Bowls than anyone else.
A. John Elway
B. Preston Pearson
C. Charles Haley
D. Cornelius Bennett
E. Mike Lodish
11. This player holds the record for most career fumbles in Super Bowl play.
A. Roger Staubach
B. Terry Bradshaw
C. Joe Montana
D. Thurman Thomas
E. Jim Kelly
12. What has occurred more often in Super Bowls, missed extra points or safeties?
A. Missed extra points.
B. Safeties.
13. True or false: All nine interception returns for touchdowns in Super Bowl play have been by a member of the winning team.
A. True.
B. False.
14. Quarterbacks wearing this uniform number won nine consecutive Super Bowls. What number is it?
A. 7
B. 8
C. 10
D. 12
E. 16
15. What Dallas Cowboy had has helmet stolen at the Super Bowl in 1994?
A. Troy Aikman
B. Michael Irvin
C. Daryl Johnson
D. Jay Novacek
E. Emmitt Smith
16. Ten of the top 20 most-watched television events are Super Bowls. But the last episode of what program is the single most watched show in history?
A. “The Fugitive”
B. “The Tonight Show”
C. “Friends”
D. “M*A*S*H”
E. “Roots”
17. ABC rejected 13 commercials from this company for the 2006 Super Bowl before signing off on the commercial depicting a girl and her highly-stressed, about-to-snap bra strap?
A. GoDaddy.com
B. Meineke Auto Parts
C. Cialis
D. Keystone Beer
E. Paul Meade Insurance
18. Which of the following shows did NOT premeire immediately following the Super Bowl
A. “The Wonder Years”
B. “Friends”
C. “Family Guy”
D. “Survivor”
E. “Grey's Anatomy”
19. A 1996 extended episode of “Friends” is still the biggest post-Super Bowl draw ever, with 52.9 million viewers. Who were the two big guest stars?
A. Cher and Sean Connery
B. Julia Roberts and Jean-Claude Van Damme
C. Bob Berry and Linda Cavanaugh
D. Jodie Foster and Brad Pitt
E. Roy Rogers and Dale Evans
20. Who makes the Lombardi Trophy?
A. Faberge
B. Saks
C. Midwest Trophy
D. Tiffany & Co.
E. Jostens
The Answers
The answers to the Super Bowl trivia quiz posted above:
1-C (Wayne Newton) 2-E (Anita Bryant)
3-B (1 percent)
4-A ($6)
5-B ("Founding Fathers of Rock 'n Roll)
6-D (Red Grange)
7-B (Antacid)
8-A (Super Ball)
9-D (1993: Cowboys vs. Bills)
10-E (Mike Lodish was in 6 Super Bowls)
11-A (Roger Staubach fumbled 4 times)
12-A (missed extra points)
13-A (true)
14-D (12-Bob Griese, Roger Staubach, Terry Bradshaw, Ken Stabler won every Super Bowl from VI through XIV)
15-E (Emmitt Smith)
16-D ("M*A*S*H")
17-A (GoDaddy.com)
18-A ("The Wonder Years")
19-B (Julia Roberts and Jean-Claude Van Damme
20-D (Tiffany & Co.)
The big bounce
The Dow Industrials have been as erratic as Britney Spears on her way to a child custody hearing. On Wednesday, the index of 30 of the largest U.S. stocks plummeted more than 200 points, reversed course and closed the day up more than 300 points. It was an impressive bounce, in a neck-snapping sort of way. But was it unprecedented?
Paul Kedrosky ran the numbers on his "Infectious Greed" blog, and determined that only one other trading day moved from at least a 1-percent loss to a positive close produced a wider variance than Tuesday's 625-point swing. That was a 701-point reversal on July 24, 2002.
But, as Kedrosky correctly points out, it's all relative. A 600-point swing in the Dow sounds impressive, but the index currently is wobbling around the 12,000-point level. Ranking those dips and dives by percentage is a more accurate way to compare today's volatility with that of other decades. And by that measure, Wednesday's wild trading day is not even among the top 10.
Four of the six biggest percentage swings occurred from 1929 to 1937. The largest ever was a 12.9 percent move in October, 1987.
So the next time someone tells you the Dow is up or down 200 or 300 points, consider the percentages.
Speaking of the Rev. Dr. King...
Will Mecoy's reading of an excerpt from the "Drum Major Instinct" sermon.
The most segregated hour
Martin Luther King Jr. said America's most segregated major institution is the church.
"At 11:00 on Sunday morning when we stand and sing and Christ has no east or west, we stand at the most segregated hour in this nation," King said in 1963. "This is tragic. Nobody of honesty can overlook this."
In noting today's national holiday, ABC News on Sunday ran a feature about an Ohio church that is trying to break down the voluntary segregation of most churches. The church members regularly visit Sunday worship services at predominantly white churches. Sometimes they tell the church they're coming; other times they drop in unexpectedly. The pastor is trying to break down barriers between Christians.
"We are all brothers and sisters in Christ," the Rev. Cliff Biggers told ABC News. "If there's one Lord, one faith, one baptism, then we ought to be able to worship together."
In a small way, my family did that on Sunday. Our predominantly white Edmond church for the past four years has with predominantly black Holy Temple Baptist Church staged a joint Martin Luther King Jr. commemorative service at one chuch or the other. Since this year's service was scheduled to be at our church on Sunday night, we decided to worship at Holy Temple in the morning.
The members couldn't have made us feel more welcome. As you might expect, the service was considerably different than what we experience at our church. It was longer, louder and more participatory than what we're accustomed to. But the central message was a familiar one, and the experience was in all ways positive.
Unlike Biggers' concept, our attendance at Holy Temple was not part of any broad-based plan to tear down walls that separate black and white -- it was an opportunity for us to get out of our spiritual comfort zone. We're the kind of people who sit in a different pew just to meet folks and stir the pot. It also is part of an effort to help my children experience diversity, and to grow up as someone who evaluates people by the content of their character. But frankly, we did it mainly because we thought we would enjoy it, and we did.
Only 7 percent of America's churches are racially mixed. On June 29, Biggers is planning a nationwide Mission Sunday. He hopes to organize 1,000 churches across the United States to visit churches that "look different from one another."
Can I get an "Amen?"
Read all about it
The Internet has revolutionized much of our world, including the way reporters cover public companies. This week, I wrote stories about two Oklahoma companies that are going public, which means they are issuing shares for the first time to be traded on a major stock exchange.
Although we already knew both companies -- Oklahoma City's OGE Enogex Partners and Tulsa's Williams Pipeline Partners -- were planning initial public offerings, this week's newsworthy events each occurred late in the day. Typically companies about to issue stock for the first time refuse to make public comments to the media citing the so-called "quiet period" (although many business reporters think the executives are demonstrating an abundance of caution.)
That sent me scrambling to the Web site of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to read the companies' updated registration forms that describe the IPOs in great detail. And that level of detail provides its own problems. For instance, OGE Enogex Partners' filing is about 400 pages long, and is written as if a corporate lawyer was seeking to maximize billable hours. Here's a quick example from page 11:
Our general partner has the right, at a time when there are no subordinated units outstanding and it has received incentive distributions at the highest level to which it is entitled (48%) for each of the prior four consecutive quarters, to reset the initial cash target distribution levels at higher levels based on the distribution at the time of the exercise of the reset election. Following a reset election by our general partner, the minimum quarterly distribution amount will be reset to an amount equal to the average cash distribution amount per common unit for the two quarters immediately preceding the reset election, referred to herein as the "reset minimum quarterly distribution," and the target distribution levels will be reset to correspondingly higher levels based on the same percentage increases above the reset minimum quarterly distribution amount as in our current target distribution levels.
Don't bother reading it again; it makes about as much sense the second time through. I generally have about an hour to digest such jargon and produce a story. Of course, one learns which sections of the filings tend to generate the kind of facts needed to write a news story. And it doesn't hurt that I'm a little bit of an SEC filing wonk.
But if you're interested in being a business journalist (long hours! free coffee!), speed reading is a marketable skill.
Take the Dow and the 2,500 points
Not that anyone needs another reason to root against the New England Patriots as they seek to complete their perfect season, but here's one you may not have been aware of: your wallet.
There is a strong correlation between the Super Bowl champion and the annual performance of the Dow Jones Industrial Index, the oldest, most prestigious stock index. When a team that was an original member of the American Football League wins the big game, the Dow slumps. When a member of the original National Football League wins, the Dow surges. It works about 80 percent of the time, a success rate the envy of any stock picker. Most recently, it worked last year when the Indianapolis Colts, an original NFL franchise, took the championaship and the Dow gained 6.4 percent.
So if you're not already swayed by the Patriots' cheating, slovenly, Machiavellian despot of a coach, their cheating (girlfriend, not football) quarterback or their cheating (drug policy violation) defensive back, then just vote your pocketbook. (And their uniforms are ugly.)
Back the Pack. Your portfolio will thank you.
Apple skinned
Events often drive stock prices. Earnings, resignations, scandal and economic data can move shares up or down. But hype can affect stock prices as well.
Blogger Matt Haughey decided to see how much the much-hyped announcements of Apple Inc. at Macworld each January moved the computer and software company's shares. Haughey evaluated how much a hypothetical $10,000 investment in AAPL on the day before the announcements would return if sold the day after.
Tuesday's announcements of an ultra-slim, ultra-light laptop along with the ability to rent movies from iTunes apparently didn't impress traders. Apple stock slipped about 7 percent on Tuesday, and this morning was continuing to trend downward.
But Haughey's Web site clearly demonstrates the benefits of a buy-and-hold strategy. Although the returns in each of the past two years have been remarkable, $10,000 invested in Apple in 1997 would be worth about $500,000 today.
Billion with a 'b'
Sometimes we business writers toss around corporate earnings numbers without providing the necessary context. For example, markets are reacting today with a shudder to the news that financial behemoth Citigroup lost nearly $10 billion in the last 90 days of 2007. The multinational giant also reduced the value of its mortgage loan portfolio by more than $18 billion.
Clearly, that's a lot of money. But how much? Well, in Oklahoma terms, Citibank lost enough money in three months to buy every share of stock of OGE and ONEOK with enough left over to devour Sonic Corp. for dessert.
And the write-down of its portfolio is nearly enough to buy each and every share of Chesapeake Energy Corp.
In case you're wondering just how big the subprime meltdown is, it's huge and appears to be spreading.
There's no way to spin this kind of news, as evidenced by Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit's statement:
"Our financial results this quarter are clearly unacceptable. Our poor performance was driven primarily by two factors – significant write-downs and losses on our sub-prime direct exposures in fixed income markets, and a large increase in credit costs in our U.S. consumer loan portfolio. "
Dreaming of a green Christmas
Much of our business department's focus during this time of year is on retail businesses, which depend heavily on the shopping season. However, we also try to balance that coverage with personal finance articles designed to educate consumers on the dangers of overspending, fraud and the increasing hazards designed to empty our wallets.
Today I saw a great reminder of the dangers of the season for consumers on Joseph Sangl's financial freedom blog (via The Consumerist). A couple cut up their credit cards, and used the plastic pieces to pledge financial sanity.
Even though I write some personal finance stories, I'm not immune to the seduction of a good deal or an innovative product. Recently I bought what I consider to be one of the great inventions of our time. As the parent of four children, I have spent endless hours matching socks. It is a neverending and ultimately frustrating task as a large pile of unpaired socks always remains. Enter the Sock Pro.
These little rubber rings keep socks paired up through the washing and drying process. I bought 60 of the doo-dads in three different colors for $15, and they work. It's a joy to simply stack pairs of socks as you pull them out of the dryer.
I bought my Sock Pro gadgets online, but I'd love to know if any local retailers stock these.
Cooking the books
Public corporations spare little expense when producing their annual reports. Each year, media minions work tirelessly to generate glossy, themed publications that typically lead off with a letter to shareholders from the CEO. Lavish color photos of products, workplaces, employees and executives are sprinkled liberally through such tomes. The companies tuck mandated regulatory information -- the only section business journalists tend to read closely -- in the back.
But the creative agency of Bruketa & Zinic has created an annual report that for Coatian food company Podravka that takes presentation to a new level. Podravka has included a separate cookbook titled "Well Done" that is tucked inside a cut-out section of its current report. The cookbook's pages are blank -- until you wrap the book in aluminum foil and bake it for 25 minutes at 212 degrees (100 degrees Centigrade). The recipes, printed with invisible heat-sensitive ink, are revealed by the cooking. If overcooked, the book will burn.
These photos, published by the design blog Dezeen show how the text and images appear on the pages.
Apparently the American phrase "cooking the books" doesn't carry the negative connotation in the company's homeland.
Lust for lists
I recently wrote a story about how Oklahoma banks compete and included a list of 10 biggest banks in the state. The story would have been fine without it, but I was glad to see that our designer included the list in the newspaper.
I like lists, and readership surveys tend to confirm that many others do too.
Each year about this time, Rex Sorgatz compiles his annual list of lists. It's a catalogue of others' "Year's Best of..." lists, and it's great fun.
The list will grow throughout the remainder of 2007, so he's just getting started. But a few intriguing lists already have appeared. For instance, here we learn that the University of Oklahoma's law school is tied for 73rd among the 2007 top law schools, according to one ranking. We also can see a Forbes list of of the world's most expensive homes, including a $165 million, 75,000-square-foot Beverly Hills villa once owned by William Randolph Hearst. And we can see the best magazine covers of the year, which includes the one illustrated here from Texas Monthly.
For more, head over the Sorgatz's fimoculous blog.
For a compendium of inane lists, check out McSweeneys to find creations such as "Titles from Dr. Suess' Brief Foray into Realism" and "Names of The Beatles If They Were Born Today."
City bites
A travel company recently selected some of the top Thanksgiving-related town names, leading off with Turkey, Texas.
Included on the list was our own Corn, OK.
The news release, compiled by TripAdvisor, describes Corn as follows:
Nearly an hour and a half due west of Oklahoma City, it is said that the town Corn originally received its name because the local post office was located in a corn field. Adding to its Thanksgiving status, Corn is known for its "Turkey Red" wheat, which the town has recognized with a milestone noting its historic first planting.
The list also highlights Cranberry, Penn., Pie Town, N.M., and Roll, Ariz.
There doesn’t appear to be a town named after my typical Thanksgiving Day meal memory. It would be called “Ohmigosh, I forgot to take the bread out of the oven!”
Burns Flat, perhaps?
What's in a name?
An article in some copies on Wednesday about Congressional efforts to pass legislation to expand the government’s electronic wiretapping powers misspelled — yet again — the surname of the attorney general of the United States, in three of four references. He is Alberto R. Gonzales, not Gonzalez. (The Times has misspelled Mr. Gonzales’s name in at least 14 articles dating to 2001 when he became White House counsel. This year alone Mr. Gonzales’s name has been misspelled in February and March, and in two articles in April.)
A quick search of The Oklahoman's electronic archives found just a few instances when we misspelled the attorney general's name, including twice on NewsOk.com polls and once on the opinion page. Our Washington correspondent, Chris Casteel, appears to be a good fact-checker when it comes to official names.
Not that we don't make mistakes. The Oklahoman runs corrections on page two of the newspaper more days than not. I once wrote a column about Social Security that used "billion" when I meant "trillion." To quote Willy Wonka, "Strike that. Reverse it." (and I darn near misspelled 'Willy')
As USA Today noted, even the Justice Department can get it wrong.
Dubbing the Dow
It looks like Rupert Murdoch's deal to acquire Dow Jones Inc., publisher of Wall Street Journal, will go through. Some journalists have expressed concern about perceptions that Murdoch meddles in the news coverage of some of his media properties such as Fox News and The New York Post.
But one aspect of the deal hasn't received as much attention. The historic Dow Jones Industrial Index, which tracks stocks of 30 of the nation's largest companies, is part of the sale. Mr. Murdoch now has the option of renaming the most important, most reported stock index. How do you like the sound of "Fox News Industrial Average" or "MySpace Industrial Average" or even "Rupert and Wendi's Stock Index?"
It may sound strange, but we've learned how to adapt to new commercial monikers, such as AT&T Bricktown Ballpark, previously SBC Bricktown Ballpark and originally Bricktown Ballpark.
Wii scored!
My family had been seeking a Nintendo Wii for several months in a sort of passive manner. That is, we wanted one but not so much that we were willing to camp out or really make any kind of special effort to obtain one. It's not like we don't have adequate amounts of electronic entertainment hardware what with a Playstation 2, a Nintendo Gamecube and various Gameboys scattered about the house as well as a couple of computers.
But a recent Wal-Mart visit turned out to be fortuitous as we spotted an employee stocking Wiis. My 11-year-old asked the worker if he could have one, and she gave what I thought was a sensible answer: "You better ask your mom." We bought it, plugged it in and started having fun. You haven't lived until you've seen a 3-year-old bobbing, weaving and punching his way through a boxing program. It's a good workout to boot.
During a visit to the Apple Store last weekend, an employee chatted me up for several minutes about where I found my Wii and where I thought he could find one quickly. The conversation came even as customers swarmed around the store's display of iPhones.
If you're still looking, Wiis are getting easier to find and Nintendo is expected to ramp up production of the machines before the Christmas shopping season. If you're not intrigued by the immersive gameplay of the Wii, perhaps Nintendo's next version -- Wii Fit -- will grab your attention.
Rust never speaks
Tulsa's recent resurrection of a rusting 50-year-old car demonstrated how much fun a time capsule can be. A car certainly is among the best things that can be sealed away for future generations. Of course, I probably would have put a nice bottle of scotch or wine in the trunk instead of the case of beer our Tulsa brethren chose. Also, in case you didn't notice, Tulsa in 1998 cached a Plymouth Prowler (already a name from the past) to be uncovered in 2048.
Unfortunately, most time capsules aren't nearly as exciting. A government agency I cover actually stored copies of a speech during a recent time capsule event. For all our talk about making history, we don't seem to be very good at it when we have the chance to, you know, actually make history.
Some of the worst examples of time capsules are ones that are placed, and then eventually forgotten. A list of the "Most Wanted Time Capsules" includes 17 time capsules buried by the town of Corona, Calif., dating back to the 1930s. Officials tried to dig them up in 1986, but succeeded only in busting up a lot of concrete. A bicentennial time capsule designed to hold the signatures of 22 million Americans gathered during a cross-country wagon train in 1976 was nowhere to be found when President Ford arrived in for a sealing ceremony on July 4 in Valley Forge. It was presumed stolen and has never been recovered.
The most ambitious time capsule certainly is the "Crypt of Civilization," scheduled for opening in 8113 -- on May 18. That massive time capsule's inventory includes some items to help those who open it understand our language, in case they're not speaking English anymore. The best time capsule of all time? I'd vote for the the pyramids of Egypt.
So what, besides dead rulers, slaves and automobiles, should we put in a time capsule. Here are a few ideas:
- Stock from local companies.
- Children's toys.
- How about putting a smaller time capsule inside and asking the future digger-uppers to rebury it for another 50 years?
- Something mysterious, say, a metal box marked "do not open" that contains a treasure map or an insolvable riddle.
- The Yellow pages.
- Household gadgets: a clock with a real wind-up mechanism, an iPod, a coffeemaker.
- A thumb drive with the current version of Wikipedia on it.
- A copy of the current most popular CD and movie on DVD.
Do you have any better ideas?
A matter of trust
Plucked from a torrent of PR pitches that recently landed in my in-box is a survey of business people ranking 10 professions in order of trustworthiness. The participants, mainly senior-level managers, CEOs and business professionals, produced the following list for the American Management Association, The Institute of Management Consultants and Consulting Intelligence.
Top Professions Ranked from Most to Least Trustworthy:
- Nurses
- Doctors
- Teachers
- Accountants
- Consultants
- Sales Representative
- Corporate Executive
- Attorneys
- Journalists
- Politicians
As a member of a profession that is based on credibility, that stings a little. But it's not surprising. I've seen similar results elsewhere. I just hope it's like surveys I've seen regarding Congress, where respodents express negative views of the body as a whole but support their specific representatives.
At least I'm married to a nurse. Now I know who to send to the bank if we need a loan.
Lunar lore
The Moon will be full tonight for the second time this month. It last was full on May 2. That relatively rare occurrence has been defined as a blue Moon. However, it's actually not an official blue Moon. A mistake by an amateur astronomer who wrote an article for "Sky and Telescope" magazine in 1946 led to the misnomer. A blue Moon, as originally described in old issues of the "Maine Farmers Almanac," is the third full Moon during a season that experiences four full Moons.
Although the mistake occurred more than six decades ago, the magazine didn't discover the error until eight years ago. It tracked down multiple copies of the old almanacs and ferreted out the true pattern of blue Moons:
Although the idea of a seasonal pattern suggested itself to us immediately, verifying the details required a lot of detective work. We found that the Blue-Moon definition employed in the Maine Farmers' Almanac is indeed based on the seasons, but with some subtle twists.
Instead of the calendar year running from January 1st through December 31st, the almanac relies on the tropical year, defined as extending from one winter solstice ("Yule") to the next.
However, the term and its incorrect definition already have entered our lexicon. As "Sky and Telescope" noted, at least one dictionary defines blue Moon as the second full Moon in a month.
For a closer look at the Moon, try Google Moon. Make sure you zoom in all the way to learn about the curious substance that forms Earth's only satellite. What does that look like to you?
Stamp of disapproval
Although frequent hikes in the cost of a first-class stamp are annoying, they are justifiable. When I first licked a first-class stamp at about age seven, it cost 6 cents. This inflation calculator shows that 6 cents in 1968 was worth about 35 cents in 2006. The current price of a first-class stamp is 41 cents.
While many reasonable folks who know more about the Postal Service than I do have argued that agency could be much more efficient, the balance sheet looks pretty tight. Last year, the Postal Service generated $72.7 billion in revenue and spent $71.7 billion to run the business. That's an operating margin of 1.3 percent.
Meanwhile, the Postal Service delivers just about anything Americans can jam into a mailbox. Here's a sample of items that these folks submitted for delivery that arrived at their destination: a $20 bill encased in a clear plastic envelope; a rose (with address attached with a string); a tooth; an unwrapped feather duster; a coconut; a deer tibia; a dead fish and a cheese wheel.
Now the Postal Service has delivered another option for those who don't like rate hikes -- buy more stamps. The new "Forever" stamp will mail a one-ounce first-class letter no matter what the rate of postage.
You picked a fine time to seize, loose wheel
Some of the best evidence to date that Mars was wetter than it is now was uncovered by the spunky NASA rover Spirit, which continues to operate long beyond its predicted lifespan. A broken wheel on the rover scraped a patch on the Martian soil, revealing a lighter area that produced a concentrated deposit of nearly pure silica. The presence of such a deposit would require the presence of water, NASA scientists say.
The three-years-and-counting mission of the Mars rovers has produced incredible images. The rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, were designed to last 90 Martian days. Click here to see a movie of a Martian dust devil. The image was created by linking a series of photographs from Spirit's camera.
NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit captured this stunning view as the Sun sank below the rim of Gusev crater on Mars.
These missions are much more than just pretty pictures. President Bush in 2004 announced the goals of completing the International Space Station before retiring the Space Shuttle in 2010, then returning to the Moon by 2020 with manned missions as early as 2015.
"With the experience and knowledge gained on the moon, we will then be ready to take the next steps of space exploration: human missions to Mars and to worlds beyond," Bush said.
My two bits
Oklahoma has selected the image to appear on the back of its state quarter, not without a little controversy. Early next year Oklahoma's quarter will be the 46th released by the U.S. Mint, representing the order the states were admitted to the union. In fact, we now can see the images each of the 50 states have chosen for their quarters, even though only 42 have been issued.
Here are the other unissued state quarters.
I'm a big fan of the state quarters program. My oldest son started collecting the quarters, found other passions to replace numismatics and I have taken up the job of completing the collection. I've always had an interest in coins and currency. Here are some of the images I like best and least.
New Jersey: This representation of Washington crossing the Delaware probably shouldn't have worked as well as it did, but it's a fine engraving and our minds fill in the gaps in this iconic image.
Indiana: A race car? You bet. (Did I mention that I'm an auto racing fan?)
Alaska: (See above) Several states chose wildlife, but you just can't beat a bear eating a salmon.
Wisconsin: A cow, a wheel of cheese and an ear of corn says "We're cheeseheads and proud of it!" There's no doubt which state this represents.
Connecticut: The Charter Oak is unique and always eye-catching.
Some I liked not so well:
Nebraska: That right-facing covered wagon seems to say "Busted. We're headed back to Philly."
New Hampshire: One of the original 13 colonies, and the best they could come up with was a rock formation? By the way, "The Old Man of the Mountain" collapsed in 2003, three years after this coin was issued.
Missouri: I've been to Missouri, and the Gateway Arch does not span the Mississippi River. Show me, indeed.
Texas: Looks like our friends to the south missed the deadline or forgot to fill out a form. They neglected to put much of anything on the coin.
South Dakota: Mount Rushmore is here, of course. But is it a good idea to place a bird above the carved faces? Aren't birds and sculptures natural enemies?
Harry Potter and the Interminable Wait
We're weeks away from the summer's biggest entertainment event: the publication of the seventh and final volume of the Harry Potter tales, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows." My family likely will have a copy of the book on the day of publication (12:01 a.m. on July 21). Some Potter fans are combing the Internet, discussing possible plot twists and speculating about what will happen to whom.
This is the cover of the U.S. version of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows."
All author JK Rowling will say is that this indeed is the final Harry Potter book, and that there will be more deaths. She killed off a major character in the last volume.
One of the most active Potter fan sites, The Leaky Cauldron, already has told its readers that it will not post potential spoilers. Rowling has endorsed that policy on her own Web site:
I add my own plea ... for one reason, and one only: I want the readers who have, in many instances, grown up with Harry, to embark on the last adventure they will share with him without knowing where they are they going.
Some, perhaps, will read this and take the view that all publicity is good publicity, that spoilers are part of hype, and that I am trying to protect sales rather than my readership. However, spoilers won't stop people buying the book, they never have - all it will do is diminish their pleasure in the book.
Rowling also provides a handy rumor-killing service on her site. For instance, Rowling notes that NONE of the following speculation is true. I repeat, the following statements are NOT TRUE:
- Harry and Neville must kill one another to fulfill a prophecy.
- Dumbledore is Harry's grandfather or relative of some kind.
- Harry and Valdemort will merge into a single entity.
If you just can't get your fill of Harry Potter information, check out the Harry Potter Automatic News Aggregator for regular updates.
Pedal mettle
I participated in Bike-to-Work activities on Friday, even though I didn't really get my bike working properly. It was great fun zipping through downtown Edmond with a police escort, not having to worry about staying out of the way of the larger, more polluting vehicles with which we share the road. We even gathered up a few of Edmond's finest who patrol on two-wheelers.
Meanwhile, the debate about sharing the road continues. Here's a typical example of one side from a local message board.
It strikes me as nothing short of stunning that some bikers will enter the road and then claim stunned amazement when the rest of the driving world doesn't bow and scrape to their presence. IMHO, bikes are an inherent hazard because of their lack of speed and their relative lack of visibility.
Here's a reasonable response -- from a site about cars, no less.
Remember that bicycles have an equal right to the road. "Drivers need to remember that roads are for people - not only for cars - and pedestrians and bicycles are, as always, part of our transportation system," reminds Barbara Culp, executive director of the Bicycle Alliance. On virtually all roadways except limited access 'freeways', bicyclists are allowed to occupy an entire lane of traffic where there isn't a designated bike lane, if they need it. Out of courtesy to motorists, most bikers don't take up the whole lane.
The streets are mean enough without riders and drivers pressing the issue. Let's try to get along out there.
Using your head
Friday is Bike to Work Day, and I may actually participate if I get my bike in working order. If I do, I can assure you that I will be wearing a helmet, just like Ryan Lispcome. A truck ran over Lipscome's helmeted head on Friday, and only the helmet was crushed.
"It feels really strange to have a truck run over your head." Lipscome said.
In an alternative view (which I frankly have a little trouble following), a researcher reported that vehicles travel closer to bicyclists who are wearing helmets.
His findings, published in the March 2007 issue of Accident Analysis & Prevention, state that when Walker wore a helmet drivers typically drove an average of 3.35 inches closer to his bike than when his noggin wasn't covered. But, if he wore a wig of long, brown locks—appearing to be a woman from behind—he was granted 2.2 inches more room to ride.
I'm still going with the helmet.
Another recent safety study based on 21 years of NASCAR accident reports theorizes that increased safety has produced more accidents. West Virginia University professor Russell S. Sobel claimed that safer cars and tracks produced more reckless driving, resulting in more accidents.
“I’d call this a win-win situation,” Sobel said. “It’s well known that NASCAR fans like to see the excitement of an accident. So, with safer cars, drivers will take more risks, and they will have more accidents. But the safety measures will cause the number of injuries to decrease.”
Professor Sobel's numbers may be right on, but his take on what NASCAR fans like is a bit off. I'm a fan, and I don't root for wrecks. And I suspect there are a few million Dale Earnhardt Sr. fans who would agree with me.
Sobel think his theory might be applicable to other pursuits.
Sobel suspects the effect of increased safety leading to more recklessness probably applies to other sports – better helmets in football and bicycling and better gloves in boxing for example – and possibly to average motorists.
“Obviously NASCAR drivers are different from regular motorists. On the other hand ask yourself this question: Would you drive more carefully if your car was less safe, say it had no seatbelts and a dagger protruding toward your heart from the steering wheel?” he asked.
Sobel conjectures that fewer drivers would tailgate other cars under this scenario. If this is true, then drivers are already responding to safety improvements in passenger cars by driving more recklessly.
I'm still planning to wear my helmet -- and be careful.
What's the point?
One of life's least appealing experiences is sitting through a bad PowerPoint presentation. I recently attended an event that included a clearly uncomfortable public speaker who essentially read his PowerPoint presentation to the audience. That exercise has earned the buzzword "death by PowerPoint."
Venture capitalist Guy Kawasaki has blogged about enduring bad pitches, which invariably include a PowerPoint show.
As a venture capitalist, I have to listen to hundreds of entrepreneurs pitch their companies. Most of these pitches are crap: sixty slides about a “patent pending,” “first mover advantage,” “all we have to do is get 1% of the people in China to buy our product” startup. These pitches are so lousy that I’m losing my hearing, there’s a constant ringing in my ear, and every once in while the world starts spinning.
Kawasaki urges compliance with the "10/20/30" rule. No PowerPoint presentation should include more than 10 slides, last longer than 20 minutes or contain type that is less than 30 points.
If you've ever wondered how PowerPoint might have worked with some of the great speeches of the past, here's a look at an electronic version of the Gettysburg Address by Peter Norvig.
Here's a demonstration of a compelling -- and funny -- use of presentation software.
Fit to print
Business blogger Jeff Mathews, attending the Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting in Omaha, notices that many of his fellow attendees are newspaper readers. This warms the heart of a longtime newspaperman like myself:
To read a newspaper you have to sit up more or less straight with the page in front of you. If you need reading glasses—which most newspaper readers do, by definition—your head tends to tilt back, away from the page. And you don’t move much, except when flipping the pages, because it takes a few minutes to read each page.Reading a newspaper is an open, inviting, approachable kind of posture.
Matthews contrasts that with the unapproachable posture of a Blackberry user.
I doubt that I'm the only ink-stained wretch who collects newspaper readers. I like to see people reading papers in restaurants, coffee shops and libraries. As much as I use the Internet as a news source, I am still a hold-it-and-fold-it guy at heart.
Wii can't make enough
I sometimes experience vertigo while listening to corporate conference calls. The impenetrable jargon of analysts combined with the ferocious spin frequently employed by executives often produces little useful information.
When baffled, I'll contact local experts to help me make sense of the apparent senselessness. But I've found a corporate call that I'll ask my kids to help me decipher. And they won't mind because the executive is sharing vital information about Nintendo's ultra-hot video gaming console called Wii. And we want Wii!
This is a transcript of the Q&A portion of a financial briefing for the recently ended quarter by Satoru Iwata, president of Nintendo Co. Ltd. An excerpt:
"About Wii, on the other hand, we are feeling higher expectations in Americas than in Japan. People at NOA (Nintendo of America) tell me, "We have no recollection of a time when our products were being talked about this much in non-business situations." Probably, the U.S. practice of holding home parties and Wii's features, especially its unique aspect of "anyone can understand how to play instantaneously and can fully enjoy the play even in 5 minutes," are a good match. We think that we need to appeal to that aspect of Wii right now. Later this year, as I said, we will also be able to launch hard-core games, when we hope we can accelerate the Wii's installed base. We would like to make efforts to maximize the unit sales of Wii and DS in the American markets this year."
I'm not sure I like the sound of "hard-core games." Also, it seems to me the way to "maximize the unit sales of Wii" would be to stock them on the shelves of American stores. Perhaps this lost something in translation.
The following part I understand: The Wii will continue to be in short supply.
As for Wii, we are not disclosing the monthly production number today. Of course, now that Wii is facing product shortages in the markets, we are working on increasing production, and the effect is starting to show up little by little in this month already. As this month's production will be sold in the worldwide markets by the end of the next month, a small increase is expected at the retail outlets from next month.
Sorry, kids. The Wii watch continues.
Energy trading
Today was the first day traders at the New York Mercantile Exchange could buy and sell uranium futures on the famous and raucous commodity trading floor in the heart of Manhattan's financial district.
I visited NYMEX last fall, and it's a fascinating place. Traders in garish jackets displaying nametags with their nicknames, shout, wave and flip cards in an confusing cacophony of capitalism. It sounds something like this.
Yellowcake is concentrated uranium oxide produced from uranium ore and is the most actively traded uranium-related commodity. Its primary use is as fuel for nuclear reactors.
The uranium contracts traded at NYMEX will be for 250 pounds. Recently the price of uranium has topped $110 per pound. However, traders cannot take possession of the product, which is licensed and generally reserved for use by the power-generating market.
Uranium prices have been on an upward spike for several years. Industry insiders are curious to see what affect the NYMEX trading will have on prices.
Local hero
"Guess who died?"
The obits page jolted me this week with a dose of mortality. My first sports hero died. You’ve probably never heard of him, although a fair number of Oklahomans are familiar with the exploits of Evard Humphrey.
Evard was a stock car driver who won championships at Oklahoma City’s State Fair Speedway in 1964 and 1966. My father — a preacher, shade tree mechanic and auto racing enthusiast — began taking me to the races at the fairgrounds in 1967 after our family moved to Oklahoma. Daddy liked Evard, so naturally he also was my favorite driver.
I rooted for Evard every Friday night as long as he continued to race, first in his “sonic blue” car, and later in his “black magic” ride — both carrying his trademark No. 12.
Although I never shook his hand, I watched Evard in the pits and during his occasional visits to the stands. I thought he cut a dashing figure in his driving suit, and darned if the photos in The Oklahoman’s archive don’t back up those memories.
On the track, Evard was among the smoothest drivers. He took care of his equipment, was fast without being overly aggressive and generally avoided trouble (although I later learned that in his earlier days he didn’t mind mixing it up).
Like a lot of local kids, I was a big fan of the Dallas Cowboys, Oklahoma Sooners and St. Louis Cardinals, but if you had asked me which of my rooting interests I most wanted to win a championship, I would have nominated Evard.
Evard’s career wound down about the time that my adolescence and my father’s death caused my interest in attending the stock car races to wane.
Forty years after the first race I witnessed, I remain a fan of the sport. But there will never be a driver that I pull harder for than I did Evard Humphrey.
According to his obituary, Evard was 72 and “loved by all” — even some folks who never met him.