April 17, 2023
Good morning! Ever notice when you’re wanting to sell a car it immediately increases in value? The legendary Tupperware Company is forecasting bankruptcy. Somewhere in that news is a smart-aleck, pejorative quip… but we haven’t yet determined precisely what it is. You can now get yourself a professional football team (U.S., not world FIFA) for ~$6,000,000,000. At some point in the next several days the human population of India will exceed China and will likely continue on that trajectory for decades.
- Each year we learn about the Library of Congress adding a few more songs or recordings (speeches, sometimes) to its permanent collection.
- The library refers to its melodic Hall of Fame as, “…a compendium of sound recordings deemed representative of U.S. artistic, cultural, and historic treasures.”
- It makes you wonder, if these songs are just making the cut now, what songs made the cut before them?!
- A few of this year’s iconic tunes: Imagine (Lennon), Take Me Home Country Roads (Denver), All I Want for Christmas Is You! (Carey), Margaritaville (Buffet).
- There are 625 songs (recordings) now enshrined.
- Among the first recordings enshrined when this started in 2002: FDRs Fireside Chats, Morrison reporting on The Crash of the Hindenburg, Woody Guthrie’s This Land is Your Land, and Kate Smith’s God Bless America.
- The National Recording Registry at the Library of Congress preserves our history through recorded sound and reflects our nation’s diverse culture.
- Here is a reminder to keep your embouchure in good shape — always.
- Do not neglect to practice daily, whether it be on a reed instrument, or brass — or, in the case of string instruments or percussion, exercise to keep nimble those wrists and fingers.
- A friend from many years back has called forth my trumpeting (bugling) skills.
- But, surprise, surprise, there are zero of those skills at the ready.
- But, for this guy, I’ll try to get back in shape.
- He has known it for some time, but now it’s for sure.
- He will die sometime soon, within days — absent a miracle.
- An out of control tumor on his brain, squishing his pituitary, has cut off any chance of life and will soon stop his heart.
- He phoned me; he wants me to play Taps at his funeral.
- I haven’t played Taps in probably forty-five years.
- He’s young, only 56, and will leave behind an even younger wife and a son.
- The least I can do is get my lips back into shape. Is that even possible?
- Should you have a leadership or a professional coach? (Hint: Yes)
- Research indicates IF you’re going to have a coach, engage with him/ her often.
- It probably does more harm than good to engage sporadically or infrequently with a coach.
- Makes sense. Healthy lifestyle vs. a lifestyle that binges from one unhealthy habit to the next… settle on something.
- Made in the United States (America), good or bad, accurate or a myth?
- For at least a quarter century, factory production capacity in the U.S. was flat, at times even declining a bit.
- Now, construction spending related to manufacturing has soared to $108 billion annually compared to an average $75 billion throughout the 2010s, less before then. (U.S. Census Bureau)
- (It’s unclear whether these data are adjusted for CPI.)
- Countries are playing whack-a-mole with oil production.
- (These data have nothing to do with the good or the bad or the right or the wrong of petroleum products, just fascinating information on the very real world stage.)
- As Saudi Arabia cuts back on production, countries like Nigeria, Kazakhstan, and Iran — even Norway — are ramping up production.
- The world considers these other sources of oil less reliable, but who knows, perhaps they will become more reliable? (Int’l. Energy Agency, 2023)
- “Winning market share away from competitors is a sign of a superior business model.”
- According to research by McKinsey, such companies are, “1.7 times more likely to generate peer-beating returns than those lagging behind.”
- A myopic view might sustain but rarely will it contribute to growth as significant as paying attention to the external environment. (Bradley, Doherty, Etc., et al., 2023)
- “The stakes in sales are clear: Do your job better than a bot could do it or risk replacement.” (Borchers)
These accumulate from week to week… I can’t bear to take leave of them… these are not required re-reading:
“The skin never forgets.” (My highly-skilled dermatologist, 2023)
“Don’t wait to do something.” (Bennett)
“There is no education in the second kick of a mule.” (Clemens/ Twain)
“We miss out on opportunities when we only ask what could go wrong; it’s also worth asking what could go right.” (Grant)
“Everything we do affects everything we do.” (Fritz)
“All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware.” (Buber)
If the media are writing the first draft of history, how important is it for them to get it as accurate as possible?
“I am bound to say that in all the accounts which you have been so good as to give of my own small achievements you have habitually underrated your own abilities. It may be that you are not yourself luminous, but you are a conductor of light. Some people without possessing genius have a remarkable power of stimulating it.” (Doyle, Holmes to Watson)
“When the sea was calm, all boats alike / Showed mastership in floating.” (The Bard)
“Vision is equal parts inspiration and aspiration.” (YT)
“We’re in an epidemic of distraction and disconnection.” (Richards, 2023)
“Maybe love shouldn’t be such hard work.” (Zellweger in Jerry Maguire, 1996)
Rivers never go in reverse… so, try to live (and work) like a river. forget your past and focus on your future. (Unknown)
“I’m irrationally optimistic.” (Brooks on 2023)
“Flexibility is here to stay.” (Sinek on the future of work for 2023)
“I’m an expert at listening — but I sucked at listening when it came to my family and friends.” (Sinek)
(From M.I.T. Sloan, 2022) –“…When inaccurate or wrong information is repeated, an illusion of truth occurs. People believe repeated information to be true — even when it is not.”
“It is startling to realize that other countries have nationalistic slogans of their own, none of which are, ‘We are number two’!” (Sedaris)
“The true rule in determining to embrace, or reject anything, is not whether it have any evil in it; but whether it have more of evil, than of good… there are few things wholly evil, or wholly good.
Almost everything, especially of governmental policy, is an inseparable compound of the two; so that our best judgment of the preponderance between them is continually demanded.” (A. Lincoln)
