Trust But Verify

July 14, 2025

Good morning! It’s a crowded morning with (Storm the…) Bastille Day and dozens of other holy days competing for recognition and celebration. Anyone still watching professional baseball these days? We’ve learned they will use robotic artificial intelligence umpires at tomorrow’s All Star Game. Who will suffer the slings and arrows of the angry crowd?

• Another of the giants has fallen.
  • Larene Hark was a woman of humble integrity, infinite optimism, limitless intelligence, a well-formed conscience, and genuine joy.
  • She was a dear friend for 53 years…
• So, for how long do we sit on the BitCoin sidelines?
• Courtesy of some of our children we have a new perfectly pruned pyramidal Colorado Black Spruce in our yard.
  • We have been watering it daily for more than two months while rain from the sky has contributed, too.
  • It has been fascinating to watch what was a completely horizontal top branch re-position itself to be the new 18″ center lead trunk of the tree — the one where the star would go in winter.
  • The tree was meticulously nurtured in the nursery and is probably 12-15 years old; the very top was pruned so as to have no apparent center lead trunk.
  • Interesting how that horizontal branch saw itself as needing to change its role from being just one of the many to being the new leader —
  • — and then to stretch out toward the sky with 18″ of new height.
• In a blind taste test could you identify the sounds coming from a Stradivarius vs. those coming from a good-quality high school instrument?
  • I’ve seen several Stradivarii (at the Royal Palace in Madrid; they have a full string quartet!), but never heard one, at least I don’t think so.
  • I would like to see if I could get it correct ten out of ten times.
• Given the proliferation of the pesky pigeons made famous by Mary Poppins, how do they keep the Wimbledon tennis courts free of pigeon poop?
  • (Answer down below… consider this the question of the day.  Hint:  It’s not the roof, plus there are LOTS of courts to keep clean, not just Court #1.)
• In terms of having an automobile accident, you could make the claim it’s half as safe to drive in Minneapolis as it is in Boise, Idaho — and you’d be right, according to Allstate Insurance.
  • And what we hear again and again is apparently true… Boston has the highest number of accidents per person in the U.S., quadruple those of Boise, more than double Minnesapolis.
• Book:  Chernow’s, Mark Twain, 2025
  • And/ Or, it doesn’t always have to be history, sociology, religion, or philosophy… try, Febos’s, The Dry Season, 2025.
    • Actually…
• On another cultural note, get ready for Ken Burns’s Magnus Opus, The American Revolution, launching November 16th.
  • Get it onto your calendar; it might eclipse Roots.  (Yes, it launches on a Sunday during football season.)
• I will give this one to you completely free-of-charge:
  • Looking to make a big positive difference at work?
  • CHANGE what you do — all of the little, medium-size, and big things — to more closely match one or more of your strategic imperatives.
  • It’s that easy, believe it or not… and most won’t believe it, nor practice it, but…
  • Try it for just an hour a day and let me know how it goes.
  • (Don’t have any strategic imperatives?  We need to visit.)
• You’ve heard and no doubt used the expression, Trust but verify.
  • Financial audits are perhaps the most common application of this aphorism, but lots of things aside from finances can and should be audited.
  • Accountability isn’t something you do TO someone, it’s something you do WITH someone.
  • By clearly setting expectations and consistently providing recognition and feedback, you can empower your team members to perform at higher levels.  (Eades)
  • Raw data have amazing, if sobering power.

Answer:  It’s Rufus the Hawk, a dedicated dissuader of pigeons aloft in the Wimbledon skies.