5.20.2022 – Phil is relaxed and

Phil is relaxed and
sporting new look in exile
says his mom’s headline

Not picking on anyone here but the recent sports headline “Phil Mickelson is ‘relaxed’ and sporting a new look in exile, says his mom” made me laugh out loud.

I am reminded of the story of 2nd Lieutenant just-graduated-from-West-Point John Eisenhower.

For his post graduation leave, instead of time off, Lt. Eisenhower got to go visit the headquarters of the Supreme Allied Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force.

The Supreme Allied Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force happened to be Lt. Eisenhower’s father, General (4 Stars) Dwight D. Eisenhower.

The story is told that the General, wanting to involve his son in operations, sent him to deliver a message to a nearby unit.

The story goes that Lt. Eisenhower got a jeep and went over to the unit and approached the commanding officer saying, “My Dad says to attack on the right.”

“Oh?” replied the office, “and what does your Mom want me to do?”

Another story from the same time has the young Lieutenant worrying about Military Protocol and asking his Dad for his thoughts.

According to Protocol, a lower ranking officer salutes a higher ranking office.

The just-out-of-West-Point 2nd Lieutenant with all of about 2 weeks seniority asked his Dad what he should do in the event that they are together and meet another officer who outranks the son but is out ranked by the father.

Should the son salute first or should he wait for the other officer to salute his Dad and then return the salute with his Dad or should he …

The General, according to the story, interrupted the son with no little temper and said, “THERE ISN’T AN OFFICER IN THIS THEATER THAT I DON’T OUTRANK and DOESN’T OUTRANK YOU!“

Anyway, I liked that Phil’s Mom is still looking out for him.

Someone has to.

5.19.2022 – modularity

modularity
globally contagious back
up redundancy

Gloom and doom again.

This time it is the world’s food system that is tottering on the brink.

In reading the article, The banks collapsed in 2008 – and our food system is about to do the same, by George Monbiot in the Guardian today, I was struck by the polysyllabic string of words in this paragraph.

“So here’s what sends cold fear through those who study the global food system. In recent years, just as in finance during the 2000s, key nodes in the food system have swollen, their links have become stronger, business strategies have converged and synchronised, and the features that might impede systemic collapse (“redundancy”, “modularity”, “circuit breakers” and “backup systems”) have been stripped away, exposing the system to “globally contagious” shocks.”

Anyone experiencing the ‘supply chain’ issues of recent months or the current baby formula crisis will find it hard to not be overcome by cold fear.

I am reminded of Mr. Bill Bryson’s book, A Walk in the Woods, about his efforts on the Appalachian Trail, where Mr. Bryson comments on the Chestnut Tree Blight that hit the United States in 1904.

Mr. Bryson writes, “At the height of the American chestnut blight, every woodland breeze would loose spores in uncountable trillions to drift in a pretty, lethal haze onto neighbouring hillsides. The mortality rate was 100 per cent. In just over thirty-five years the American chestnut became a memory. The Appalachians alone lost four billion trees, a quarter of its cover, in a generation.“

Then Mr. Bryson states, “A great tragedy, of course. But how lucky, when you think about it, that these diseases are at least species specific. Instead of a chestnut blight or Dutch elm disease or dogwood anthracnose, what if there was just a tree blight – something indiscriminate and unstoppable that swept through whole forests?“

I feel that that is just what the world is facing.

Something indiscriminate and unstoppable.

‘Just in time’ supply chains have converged and synchronised the world’s food system into one huge network that works if everything works but if one thing link in the chain breaks, an indiscriminate and unstoppable force brings the network down.

Maybe the world could handle shortages of one of two items, much like the baby formula problem right now, but indiscriminate and unstoppable is pretty much all encompassing.

Mr. Bryson was writing about nature and we have done to it through our interactions with nature.

With the food system, we have done to ourselves.

5.18.2022 – stunts brash marketing

stunts brash marketing
found crucial ingredient
treat customers well

The baseball great, Ted Williams, once said, “If you don’t think so great, don’t think so much.”

“Most people are usually pressing to play well, thinking about their performance a lot,” Savannah pitcher, Kyle Luigs says. “But if you can get out of your comfort zone and do something to get your mind completely off baseball … you’ll play better.”

Of course, I am talking about baseball.

Savannah Baseball.

Savannah Banana’s Baseball.

“This is saving baseball from itself,” Spaceman Bill Lee says. “Look at the fans’ response, look at the way the kids are showing up.”

If you haven’t heard, read this article.

There is not much I don’t like about the Bananas.

And with all the bananas stuff going on its this bottom line of “For all the stunts and brash marketing, the franchise has found a crucial ingredient that traces to Barnum’s dictum about treating customers well.“

Saving baseball from itself.

Did you know that all tickets are somewhere around $35?

Did you know once you get in, most concession food is free and all you can eat?

Tickets.

Those are the big problem.

How to get them?

5.17.2022 – work to ensure that

work to ensure that
players fully understand
the fundamentals

I was wondering if anyone had ever posted a Head Coaching job online.

I was wondering if anyone had ever posted a Head Coaching job online, what would it say.

While I did not find a posting for a specific team, one online job site, in its career section listed this job description:

Head football coaches coordinate and oversee any assistant coaches as they work to ensure that players fully understand the fundamentals of the game. They run practices and drills to prepare their players for their next opponents. Head football coaches may also scout other teams and watch film to prepare plays and game plans. They make all of the decisions during a game. Depending on the level they are coaching at, they may also be involved in recruiting new players. Head football coaching duties include managing and instructing team members in an effort to win games, motivating football players before and during competitive events, and analyzing team strengths and weaknesses, while instituting game strategies based on such information. Head football coaches are also responsible for maintaining records regarding team performances.

I was wondering this due to a recent story about the head coach of the Detroit Lions, Dan Campbell, and his reaction to the 2022 Lions schedule.

I focused on the line, fully understand the fundamentals of the game.

I would classify team history as a fundamental.

I would rate something a team has done for 80 years or so as fundamental.

Now I like Coach Campbell.

I feel sorry for him.

Head Coach of the Detroit Lions is like being promoted to Captain of the Titanic except that you already saw the movie and you know what is going to happen and there is nothing you can do about it.

Anyway, Coach Campbell was asked for his reaction to a schedule that showed that the Lions had no Prime Time Games.

In other words, the NFL felt no need to inflict the Lions on the rest of the Country.

But Coach was upbeat.

“Just from a glance, I mean it’s, I have no arguments. I think it looks great‘, said Coach.

Then he was informed that the Lions would, of course, have that traditional Thanksgiving Day game.

The NFL tradition of football game on Thanksgiving Day that was invented by the Lions and maybe the 2nd thing anyone knows about La Ville de Tway or Detroit in the common usage.

“Who are we playing on Thanksgiving?” he asked?

Then he asked, “Are we home or are we away?”

In a way, it was the perfect question.

Tells me all I need to know about what to expect this season.

5.15.2022 – nuance in science

nuance in science
which is lost in debate on
social media

Boy! What might this haiku be based on today?

Howdy, what might NOT this haiku be based on today?

With all the possible topics at hand, I got the words for this haiku from an article titled, “Coffee bad, red wine good? Top food myths busted.”

The article takes on those awful bane’s of life today of red meat, coffee, red wine, plant milk and other awful anxiety causing additives that keep me up at night when I don’t have anything else to worry about.

I read the article not with a grain of salt but a bag, a pile, a State of Michigan Department of Highways salt spreader dump truck of salt.

I read the article more from the point of a humorous essay that a factual report.

The idea that statistically speaking (always get ready when that is spelled out) there are more health problems connected with moderate wine drinking … because there or so many more moderate wine drinkers is a line out of a Marx Brothers movie.

When I make presentations about the online world, I like to mention that a high percentage of people who visit a given website are most likely using the world wide web but most folks write that down in their notes.

I think it was Ricky Bobby who pointed out that on average, 97.5% of all people will die.

I am old enough to know that everything and nothing is bad for you.

You just have to pick your terms and go from there.

But the article did have two lines that I really liked.

The last line could have been predicted by anyone who had every heard, watched or read a report on what foods are good for you.

The last line says, “As with all things, moderation is key.”

No kidding?

Eating an apple a day keeps the doctor away, right?

Eating 100 apples will keep everyone else away due to the bodily production of internal methane gas as well as most likely kill you.

Moderation is key.

Gee wiz AND Boy Howdy!

The line I really liked was, when Rob Percival, author of The Meat Paradox: Eating, Empathy and the Future of Meat, was quoted saying, “But there’s nuance in the science, which isn’t often communicated in the press and is lost in the debate on social media,” he says.“

Mr. Percival, speaking as an expert in the politics of meat, is talking about the science of red meat being bad for you when he said, “But there’s nuance in the science …”

But that sentence is just too cool to not let stand alone as a judgment on the last 20 years or so about anything.

But there’s nuance in the science, which isn’t often communicated in the press and is lost in the debate on social media.

And please be aware, it is not just the numbers.

As I am talking about food, I am sure everyone knows that eggs are bad for you.

Why?

Eggs are bad for you as they are high in cholesterol.

And cholesterol is bad for you.

Everyone knows that.

Right?

Do you know why we know that?

Back in 1966 President Lyndon Johnson read in his morning paper that the cost of a dozen eggs was higher then it had ever been in history and LBJ went all LBJ on his staff to bring the price of eggs down!

One effort involved the USDA releasing anything and everything it had that was bad about eggs.

The next night every major evening newscast (all three of them) carried the story that according to US Government sources, eggs were high in cholesterol and while they weren’t sure what that meant, it wasn’t good.

And the price of eggs dropped.

And that message about evil eggs has stayed in the collective conscience of the American mind ever since.

Just google ‘eggs LBJ’ if you want to look it up.

If I am not getting my point across, maybe there is a nuance in the science, which isn’t often communicated in the press and is lost in the debate on social media.