Category Archives: Miscellany

I don’t own a suit

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I bought my first suits in 1971. A gray one and and brown one, both in a nice polyester blend. I was getting ready to start my ill-fated career as a U. S. Postal Inspector and the suits were exactly what you’d expect a fed to wear.

A year later I was a small town radio guy and the suits were traded for Hawaiian shirts and Levis. It was a dozen years before I again needed a suit. All the managers at Learfield wore suits in 1984. Even when calling on an affiliate radio station in Tarkio, MO.

Over the next 15 years or so, I accumulated about a dozen suits that you’d have to examine closely to tell one from the other. They’ve been hanging in my closet since I tunneled out of the executive suite and into cyberspace several years ago.

Today I loaded them up and took them to the local Goodwill. And it felt great. Oh, I’ll probably need a suit again some day (can you rent a suit?) But for now, it’s business casual on the dressy end and Hawaiian shirts and Levis the rest of the time.

April Winchell has a better music collection than you

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Paul Winchell was a well known ventriloquist in the mid-1960s, the voice of Jerry Mahoney and Knucklehead Smiff. His daughter is April Winchell has her own accomplishments, including a website where you can find some great music.

There’s a collection of cover versions of Stairway to Heaven, including

AUDIO: The Dixie Power Treo (tuba and banjo)
AUDIO: Dolly Parton.

But my favorite section was Terrifying Christian Recordings.

Then I Start to Yodel by Princess Ramona

Jogging for Jesus

Amazing Grace (Tim Gibson as Donald Duck)

AUDIO: Then I Start to Yodel by Princess Ramona
AUDIO: Jogging for Jesus;
AUDIO: Amazing Grace (Tim Gibson as Donald Duck)

BONUS: Collection (PDF( of Terrifying Christian Recordings

Pick your decade: Frustration or Change

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I should just point www.smays.com to Seth Godin’s blog. Maybe change to WhatHeSaid.com. Mr. G picks two important trends for the coming decade. I’m opting for “change” over “frustration,” but you should read the full post.

Change: The infrastructure of massive connection is now real. People around the world have cell phones. The first internet generation is old enough to spend money, go to work and build companies. Industries are being built every day (and old ones are fading). The revolution is in full swing, and an entire generation is eager to change everything because of it. Hint: it won’t look like the last one with a few bells and whistles added.

In my experience, the people who poo-poo the idea of radical change usually have the most invested in keeping things the same. Good luck.

Balancing my checkbook

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My friend Keith tweeted his surprise that I still write cheques (He’s British) and balance my checkbook. I write less than half a dozen checks a month and it would be easy to pay all my bills electronically.

I confess there’s something comforting (?) about the routine of opening the bank statement and reconciling it with my checkbook. Maybe it’s an age thing. I’m old enough to remember Diner’s Club cards and the introduction of ATM machines.

And while there’s precious little math involved in balancing a checkbook, it’s the only math I have/do these days.

But I think the real reason I cling to this anachronism has something to do with my perception of the “reality” of money.  The same reason I have never used a debit card and always keep a little cash in my pocket. I love PayPal and used it every few days. But a bank statement and my little money clip with a few bucks in it are the threads that keep money real, at least in my head.

Bonus reference: Who remembers counter checks?