January 19, 2026
Good morning! I have been awake, enjoying coffee and listening to the reassuring sound of the furnace, since about four o’clock. (Ten below zero)Time for a nap. If my mother were still alive she would be 97 today; she shared a birthday with the confederate Virginian general, Robert E. Lee. And, short just four days, she was born at the same eggxact time as Marty King, she in the rugged back country of Montana, he very near where Jimmy Carter would later build his library. Proof positive: If you think a unicorn doesn’t exist, think again… it is the national animal of Scotland. Therefore…“If violence is epidemic then it must be a disease. Must be curable. A good doctor could cure it.” (Doyle)
- The Economist magazine reports the Germans might soon have to survive without sausages… the economy there is crushing sausage makers.
- It has been 43 years since a federal holiday was established to honor Martin King.
- It took two or three generations for it to finally catch on; change is so doggone hard.
- The U.S. Congress chose to honour Martin’s birthday rather than his death — which had occurred by assassination 15 years earlier on April 4, 1968.
- “The answer lies in developing the capacity to accept the finite disappointment and yet cling to the infinite hope.” (King)
- Your phone will now be able to determine if you’re dead — or at least whether you’ve lost interest in using your phone.
- The application is called, get this, Are you dead?
- And, lest you think you’re going to get it as a free download, forget it… it costs ~$1.15 per month.
- No information as to whether there is an annual or a lifetime subscription discount.
- If you buy it, please share back with me how it’s working… wait…
- ALWAYS there is more to learn.
- I was watching and listening to Yo Yo Ma play a rendition of Somewhere Over the Rainbow on his cello. (Arlen & Harburg, 1939)
- One source calls it, “A lullaby for the discontented soul.”
- Yo Yo says it is among his favourite songs of all time because of its genesis in the midst of the chaos, genocide, bigotry, and violence that would become World War #2.
- Hope.
- (Have you ever looked closely at Yo Yo’s fingers? So long, smooth, lithe… not unlike ET’s.)
- You’re probably doing the job you’re doing because you were very good at some other job at some point in history.
- Now you might be responsible for leading people to do what you used to do, but they’re not as good at it as you were.
- When a performance missed the mark, you stepped in.
- When something was unclear, you tried to clarify it yourself.
- When a dead line was at risk, you fixed it so the team could move forward.
- Trouble? You’ll fix it… and you’re good at fixing, really good… but…
- Fixing other people’s work feels helpful, but continually repeating it creates dependence — and dysfunction.
- Without realizing it, you are now the bottleneck; i.e., the biggest part of the problem. (Informed by Eades)
- Are you reading this from Davos? Please send news — and a jet. (A Spirit of Dialogue)
- For the first time since 2021, more United States citizens have mortgage rates above 6% than below 3%.
- But still, “…it’s probably going to be another four or five years of being a major (negative) factor in the housing market.” (Fairweather)
- Remember the so-called Scientific Method from grade #3?
- How about applying it to your marketing function?
- It’s such a simple, logical, and genius idea most will probably reject it.
- Write your hypothesis (educated guess regarding an outcome or results)
- Set up your control group — no fudging
- Test your hypothesis — change ONE variable at a time
- Carefully observe and record your data — no fudging
- Determine and chart/ graph your results
- Make conclusion(s)
- ADJUST — or maintain — your marketing approach based upon your Scientific Method results and conclusions (Murray)
“Adding more people causes problems. But people are also the means to solve these problems. The main fuel to speed the world’s progress is our stock of knowledge; the brakes are our lack of imagination and unsound social regulations of these activities. The ultimate resource is people—especially skilled, spirited, and hopeful young people endowed with liberty—who will exert their wills and imaginations for their own benefits, and so inevitably they will benefit the rest of us as well.” (Simon via Banaian, From The State of Humanity.)
Somewhere Over the Rainbow
Somewhere over the rainbow
Way up high
There’s a land that I heard of once in a lullaby
Somewhere over the rainbow
Skies are blue
And the dreams that you dare to dream
Really do come true
Someday I’ll wish upon a star
And wake up where the clouds are far behind me
Where troubles melt like lemon drops
Away above the chimney tops
That’s where you’ll find me
Somewhere, over the rainbow
Bluebirds fly
Birds fly over the rainbow
Why, then, oh, why can’t I?
If happy little bluebirds fly
Beyond the rainbow
Why, oh, why can’t I? (Arlen/ Harburg, 1939)
