Mary Schmidt Marketing Troubleshooter

I just got notification from Amazon that my order for The Rational Optimist has shipped. I’ve had the book checked out from the library for weeks, dipping in and out of it…and just can’t seem to finish it (the teetering stacks of reading material around the house are getting out of control.)

The premise of the book, backed by data, is that “the habit of of exchange and specialization – which started more than 100,000 years ago – has created a a collective brain that sets human living standards on a rising trend.”

Here’s the PBS interview with the author, Matt Ridley: Author Says Modern Life is Good Despite Recession.

If you need a bit more perspective, read A Lifetime Washed Away. As the writer notes, “I found most pitiful a family gathered around a prostate brown-and-white brindled cow.” The column personalizes the tragedy of the floods for me in ways no amount of screaming headlines or pitiful photos could. Sure, I can contribute to relief funds but there is NOTHING I can do directly to help that family or save that cow.

This tale was in the same edition of NYT that also had an article on six-figure fish tanks. “Karin Wilzig has a hard time choosing a favorite color from among the 64 that she and her husband can use to illuminate the 14 1/2- foot, 450-gallon aquarium in their TriBeCa town house. The default is fuchsia, which turns the dozen koi a deep pink.”

…and I’m obsessing over what color to repaint the bedroom. Tough life.

If this post resonated with you, please donate online for Pakistan relief. (This goes to the State Department. If you don’t like that – find your own way to contribute.)

Happy Friday 13th! Now, my Friday Martini Time post.

A recent NYT article, But Will It Make You Happy? notes that, “The latest round of research [about happiness], for lack of a better term, all about emotional efficiency: how to reap the most happiness for your dollar.”

The article goes on to note that people WILL (and continue to) spend on experiences that make them feel good. (Indeed. This is why I keep postponing hardwood floors and kitchen renovation. I’d rather travel.) The article also notes that Apple seems to be the only retailer that gets this. (Yep. See my umbrella post from earlier this week.)

I’ll never get my possessions down to just 100; I really can’t give up toilet paper; and I can’t live on 50% of what I earn (since as a indie consultant that can vary dramatically from year to year.) I can, however, keep working on simplifying, reducing, reusing…and generally removing stress and clutter (real and virtual) from my life.

I’ll continue to drive my 10-year-old (long paid for) jeep with the cracked windshield until it’s a No. Va. (Sure, I won’t impress any valets…but then I don’t go anywhere with valet parking.)

And, then there’s also…

No Tee-Vee Service. I canceled my DirectTV service. Of course, I had a brief panic spasm when I realized this meant I’d miss the real time season premieres of Sons of Anarchy and Supernatural! But, I’ll live (and can watch later online). I’ve got piles of DVDs, can get many more from the library, and, old-timer that I am, I rediscovered my videos and VCR, all of which work fine, after years of gathering dust. I’m watching less and enjoying it more. (Kicking that channel surfing addiction cold turkey.) I also immediately put the equivalent of 12 months of DirectTV in my savings account. Not a fortune, but a considerable sum to spend on experiences with friends, like day trips and good dinners.

Instead of one, buy none. I’m a museum junkie (Ohhh, postcards! Reproductions! Posters! Catalogues! Books!) and I love unusual handcrafted things. But, over time (and thanks to downsizing my house, I don’t want to end up on Hoarders...) I’ve learned to be just as happy looking as owning. Certainly, I still buy here and there, but only if I really, really want the item. But, I’m under no illusion I actually need another painting, book, or tchotke.

Pay-as-you-go cell phone. Yep, me, drug dealers and spies…;-) I don’t travel that much. I have both an iPad and a MacBook. I’m not a brain surgeon on call. My friends aren’t panting to know every single thing I’m doing right now (Are you as sick as I am of the people in supermarkets mindlessly wheeling their carts around while they have some inane conversation at the top of their lungs…while their kids are screaming for attention at the top of their lungs? Really, who needs to know I’m buying bread? I also like knowing what’s going on around me. Heck, I even acknowledge the checkout clerk is a human being.)

If I accidentally drop kick the no-glitz phone across a parking lot and it breaks, no great loss, either financially or emotionally. (I did the drop kick thing, it still works.)

…and no, you can’t have the number.

Now, I’m clocking off, getting in my old Jeep, stopping by the library to pick up some (free) DVDs I reserved, then using my $5.00 off coupon at Flying Star to eat local…and then shop local (for things I really need, like vodka, at the locally-owned liquor store.)

Read More: Aaron Greenspan, Why I Don’t Have a Cell Phone

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Living Richly Or Well?
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‘Tooni Musing: Getting Down and Dirty

“Why don’t you get out of that wet coat and into a dry martini?” (Robert Benchley to Ginger Rogers in “The Major and the Minor,” a 1942 movie)

Ah, it’s Friday again. It’s been extremely hectic around the Schmidt office and casa of late, as you may have inferred from lack of blog posts. But, whatever happens – good or bad – Friday always arrives, doesn’t it?

So, in the spirit of TGIF – and for ‘tooni drinkers everywhere – a few classics re “our” favorite drink.

The Thin Man movie (first one, the sequels got progressively worse). I get woozy just watching them pound down the ‘toonis (“Will you bring me five more martinis, Leo?”), but Myrna Loy is sheer delight. Alcoholism never looked so glam.

Martini time with W.H. Auden (Lovely article about a relationship with the poet.)

M.F.K. Fisher: Martini-Zheen, Anyone? (Gourmet archives, 1957; I’m happy to say I own an original issue with article.)

Mental Floss: 10 Famous Martini Preferences

#5:Alfred Hitchcock and Winston Churchill had the same idea – Hitch said the closest he wanted to get to a bottle of vermouth was looking at it from across the room. That quote is often attributed to Churchill, actually, but the Washington Post says otherwise… Churchill is misquoted all of the time, so I’m inclined to believe them. (I gaze fondly at the vermouth and then gently shut the fridge door…(yes, I do occasionally use it, but hardly ever in my Friday evening martinis.)

Happy Friday to all.

NYT: Doomsayers Beware, a Bright Future Beckons

I like to think of myself as an optimistic realist…or a realistic optimist, depending on the day and issue. (And yes, there are times I’m a cranky cynic; I’m also human.)

Regardless of my mood, I’m weary (and wary) of the constant bombardment of doom we face 24/7.  I try to keep it in perspective – we’ve always been one epidemic, meteor or mad man away from Armageddon.  And, I’m sure that when our first ancestor dropped out of the tree to forage, there was a lot of hysterical screaming, “No, NO! OG! You’ll die! Something will eat you! Come back! Come back!. GET BACK!” (Of course, all that probably sounded more like, “SCREECH! Oogga, ooga, UH! HU! SCREECH” …but I digress…)

That’s why I was heartened to read of several books in NYT – all of which point out that somehow we keep chugging along.  Civilization keeps getting more – um – civilized.  Think about it – even in our current toxic political climate – Obama didn’t have Sarah Palin beheaded (of course, she probably would have kept right on moving around,  flappin’ – like the headless chickens my grandmom dispatched on a regular basis)…George Bush didn’t look Al Gore in the tower.  None of our leaders have fought in a duel lately.  London isn’t literally sitting atop rivers of sh**.  Billions have access to clean water (although at least a billion people don’t. We need to work on that. Some predict the next world war will be fought over water, not oil.)

We’ve made some progress over the years. As noted in NYT about “The Rational Optimist,” by Matt Ridley.

It does much more than debunk the doomsaying. Dr. Ridley provides a grand unified theory of history from the Stone Age to the better age awaiting us in 2100.

What made Homo sapiens so special? Dr. Ridley argues that it wasn’t our big brain, because Neanderthals had a big brain, too. Nor was it our willingness to help one another, because apes and other social animals also had an instinct for reciprocity.

“At some point,” Dr. Ridley writes, “after millions of years of indulging in reciprocal back-scratching of gradually increasing intensity, one species, and one alone, stumbled upon an entirely different trick. Adam gave Oz an object in exchange for a different object.”

The evidence for this trick is in perforated seashells from more than 80,000 years ago that ended up far from the nearest coast, an indication that inlanders were bartering to get ornamental seashells from coastal dwellers. Unlike the contemporary Neanderthals, who apparently relied just on local resources, those modern humans could shop for imports.

Ah – shopping!  We can save the world with shopping!  But seriously – Ridley goes on to talk about innovation coming from the bottom up – from entrepreneurs.

Rulers like to take credit for the advances during their reigns, and scientists like to see their theories as the source of technological progress. But Dr. Ridley argues that they’ve both got it backward: traders’ wealth builds empires, and entrepreneurial tinkerers are more likely to inspire scientists than vice versa. From Stone Age seashells to the steam engine to the personal computer, innovation has mostly been a bottom-up process.

“Forget wars, religions, famines and poems for the moment,” Dr. Ridley writes. “This is history’s greatest theme: the metastasis of exchange, specialization and the invention it has called forth, the ‘creation’ of time.”

Now, I’m going to go use some of my time for gardening (and perhaps some shopping for the garden…;-) Y’all have a great weekend.

Sniveling demon minion to Lucifer: “But I did my best!”
Lucifer: “Do the best of somebody BETTER!!!!”

That bit of dialogue is from Supernatural, a television show that consistently ends up on critics’ top ten lists.  (It also has a killer soundtrack of classic road trippin’ R&R from the 70s and 80s. I got into a lot of fondly – albeit somewhat hazily remembered – trouble with many of these songs playin’.)

Of course, you’d expect management with fear in Hell. It should be noted, however, that sniveling minions can turn (and demons ain’t exactly trustworthy to begin with…duh-oh).

But – to be fair to Lucifer (it’s my blog and it’s Friday) – doing our best isn’t always good enough. Yet, some folks seem to think trying is sufficient and they should be compensated accordingly. This is especially a problem in non-profits. I’ve worked with more than one senior staffer or ED who were utterly aghast that they might be held accountable for actual results. (“But, I can’t control the donations!”)

Certainly, we should all try to be our best (bonus points to anyone who knows that TV show reference)…yet, we also need to recognize when that may not be enough…when to admit it and move on…or when to call in someone better (and pay them for results.) Me? I’m good, even excellent, at a lot of things. I – um – suck at others. Lessons learned and wisdom hard-earned.

Happy Friday! (I’m hoping the complete Season 4 of Supernatural shows up in the mailbox today. Total geek-out, enabled by that instrument of the Devil, Amazon one-click.)

P.S. I also highly recommend Vampire Diaries, which precedes Supernatural every Thursday.  So much for the CW targeting the young and pretty demographic.

Other TV recommendations (that you can queue up at Hulu and watch on the weekends) : Justified (based on Elmore Leonard’s characters – US Marshal in Kentucky): Fringe (Sci-Fi/Fantasy with terrific acting.  Watch  episode “White Tulip” to see why it’s must-see for me – wayyy out there sci-fi and a very human story about love, loss and letting go); Modern Family (sit-com).

Billie Hooper, the mother of one of my dearest friends,  died recently.  The family asked if I could write the obituary and eulogy – they were simply too broken up to focus on such things.  I knew her from holiday dinners and brief visits, but I didn’t really know her.   So, I spent some time with her daughters to find out just who Billie Hooper was – what she did, what she loved, how she would be remembered.

After listening and then writing…I now feel the loss in way I never would have before.  I missed out on a lot of warmth, fun, and laughter.

Billie never did anything “big” – at least  not as our celebrity-obsessed society defines noteworthy accomplishment (Oh, ah! 5 million followers on Twitter!).

She was an Oklahoma farm girl, worked at the same hospital for 35 years, and didn’t like to be the center of attention. Yet, she lived a big life, in the best sense of the word.  Billie will be remembered as a wonderful mother, wife and sister – kind, generous, and witty (I laughed as much as I cried when writing the eulogy…the stories!).  She’s also sorely missed by someone who never really knew her.

And, that’s a very big legacy.

Thank You Billie.

It’s been a good (and very hectic) week.  Lots of progress on a client project; spring seems to have (finally) decided to stick around; and a friend’s Mom is finally on the mend from major surgery.  It’s also been a week that has – ta-da! – generated a few more “rules.”

The top one: 1.  Never, ever make any assumptions about what your customers know or do.  They’ll – OMG! – surprise you.

2. Don’t assume no news is good news.  Check and find out what’s going on.  Sure, it may be bad, sad and depressing, but at least you can start dealing with it.  (This goes for everything from surgery to a potential biz investor.)

In a more whimsical vein (it’s Friday, after all):

Don’t plan to dig into a heapin’ plate of steaming spaghetti while watching a zombie flick. (What WAS I thinking?  Oh, it’s a prime-time telecast, so it won’t be that bad…um, it was that bad.)

Check the olives for mold BEFORE you put them in the martini.

and

Break the rules every once in a while (well, maybe not the ones above…)

From the “Things that make me happy” list: My old, old apple tree in the backyard. It’s great to sit under on a warm evening, with ‘tooni in hand.  I even take my notebook out on nice afternoons and have a office on a blanket…just have to keep an eye out for birds and their – um – deposits.

However, it’s not in the best of health – prone to mildew, moths, and whatever else is passing through.   But, it gives its all every year, producing bushels of apples…most of which have worms….which I cut out and use the apples anyway (when you’re a gardener committed to not using toxic stuff, you get a lot less squeamish about creepy-crawlies.)

Yesterday, Corva from Divine Earth (”Our pruning is seasonally appropriate, contemplatively rendered, and cost-effective.” Had me with “contemplatively rendered”) came to do a pruning estimate for the tree.  She also gave me some great free advice and her love of trees and nature simply radiated from her.

As we discussed those dang worms, she reminded me I should cull apples from the clusters, so the remaining one will grow larger. While it won’t get rid of the worm…”you’ll have more apple and less worm.”

And, that’s my takeaway for Friday ‘tooni musing – I may not be able to totally eradicate a problem, but, with the right work and attitude,  I can certainly have “more apple.”

Some people complain (and I’m one of them on occasion) about all the junk and noise on the Web…but we also have unprecedented access to not just information but learning. We’re only ignorant – about virtually any topic – if we choose to be. (One of my pet peeves with pundits and politicians.) Willful, arrogant ignorance is not a good thing – no matter how much you get paid for loudly and pointlessly pontificating (There’s gotta be a sentence thingy in there somewhere, by gosh!)…or promoting a book you didn’t actually write.

So, here are some of the bright spots on the Web – some serious, some not-so.

Seth Godin on chocolate should be fun. (packaging and branding)

Michele Miller on Burger King’s Marketing To Women (Well, at least this campaign is better than the S&M dominatrix one I saw in Germany a couple of years ago for the “angry whopper”…;-)

Bruce Fryer’s perspective on Health Care Reform: Rationing or Gluttony? (Brings to mind my Mom’s elderly friend who gets an MRI whenever she “feels like it.” ?! Need I mention she’s on Medicare?)

IP Law For Start-Ups (just what it says…found through Ask A VC.)

Grant McCracken on The John-Boy Problem (Marketers take note – you’re not necessarily the target market.)

Gail Collins, NYT Columnist, Florida We Have A Problem (We also have a whale museum funding problem, who knew?)

Ike Piggott’s taking the long view, doing a riff on P.J. O’Rourke’s classic piece, Whiffle Ball World. (I don’t always agree with Ike, but he thinks about things.)

When you live in a Whiffle World, you don’t worry about being eaten by hyenas, you worry about whether pets are spayed and neutered.

When you live in a Whiffle World, you don’t worry about your teeth rotting out, you worry about whether they are white enough.

When you live in a Whiffle World, you don’t worry about having access to safe drinking water, you fret over whether it’s the right flavor or brand.

The Unhappy Hipster. If you’ve ever wondered why those cool people in Dwell look so depressed…but warning: don’t be drinking coffee when reading or you may do a spit take.

Gretchen Rubin’s Happiness Project (For those of us who live in a Whiffle world, happiness shouldn’t be all that hard). Here are nine (very simple) things you can do every day.

Stuff White People Like, Conan O’Brien.

Sunset Magazine: How To Make Fresh Cheese. (Oh, put down the tweeter twitter and do something fun…that you can eat.)

You can also read my take on Avatar over at Lip-Sticking.

And, if you don’t feel like staring into your screen a minute longer…take a walk, maybe to the library, like I’m doing this afternoon, to browse through good old-fashioned dead-tree media…and enjoy the bright blue sky and snow-covered mountain views along the way.

As always, with our 24-hour news cycle – we’re being bombarded with doom, woe, and end of civility. Many an columnist and pundit is bemoaning that we’ve become a nation of disheartened, cowardly do-nothings. It’s hopeless. America is doomed, etc. etc. etc.

Here’s a quote that sums it up nicely:

“Courage disappeared from American public life in xxxx, and has been absent now for x years. There have always been cowards in our politics, there has always been an uncertainity of leadership, but never before has the whole nation become cowardly and remained cowardly over so long a space of time, never has it dodged every vital question that came up, and never has there been such a dismal lack of leaders – or at least one leader at a time – to whom it would listen.”

Think this was written by someone gazing back fondly at – say – the Reagan presidency? Maybe an unrepentant Kennedy fan? Well, there’s a reason I put those “x’s” in there (Jill – if you’re reading, I’m sure you’re way ahead of me…;-)

The above is from an article, Wanted: Political Courage, by Charles Willis Thompson…in the November 1932 issue of Harpers Magazine. He believed courage disappeared in 1919, “13 years ago.”