Judith-Helfand Archives - Page 5 of 5

Remembering November 22, 1963 and President John F Kennedy’s Assassination

Saturday November 22, 2008

Reading Time: 11 minutes

Somewhere in a trunk I will find a copy of the San Diego Evening Tribune dated November 22, 1963. There is also a copy of Life Magazine that was published November 29, 1963. I really don’t have to take the time to find these mementos, because my memories of a day long ago, to which I will dedicate today’s blog, remain vivid in my mind.

It was a Friday and I was a 14 year old high school freshman at Cathedral Girls’ High School in San Diego, CA. Every Friday the entire student body of 400 young girls attended Mass at St. Joseph’s Cathedral at 11:00AM. In procession we marched into the cathedral to take our pre-assigned seats in the pews. Sitting about five seats from me was another freshman that had a “forbidden” transistor radio in her purse. Shortly after 11:00AM this young girl slipped the radio out of her purse and, against all rules, she turned the radio on thinking she would be listening to the music of the day. Within minutes whispered talk was passed along the pew and we learned that President Kennedy had been critically wounded in Dallas, TX. This row of girls knew instinctively that we should certainly try to share this news bulletin with one of the nuns, perhaps Sister Anne Rita or Sister Eileen Leo (two young nuns who were more or less responsible for the freshman class). But how do we tell them without admitting that we were all breaking the school rules primarily by having the radio and secondarily turning it on during Mass?

We never had to admit our transgression, as suddenly Monsignor Rice appeared on the altar and whispered something to the young celebrant, Father Edward Brockhaus. And then, Monsignor Rice stepped to the pulpit and made the announcement: “President Kennedy has been shot and killed. When our Mass is concluded all students are instructed to return to their home room and be dismissed for the day. You will go immediately to your public bus and make your way home.” We sat in shock, going through the motions of Mass and as the final blessing was bestowed on us all, we walked solemnly down the aisle…to be met by local news media, congregating at our Cathedral, the center of the Roman Catholic Church in the San Diego Diocese. Outside I found my older sister, Agnes; she was a high school junior and crying we made our way to the bus stop and took the 16 mile drive to our home.

When we arrived home our parents were waiting for us with our other two siblings. The television was on and remained on for the next three days, non-stop. In 1963 there were only the major networks on the three San Diego channels, NBC, CBS, and ABC. But each network channel covered this life altering event continuously: such as the transporting of the President’s body to Air Force One with First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy walking next to the casket. (We did not have color TV, so we depended on the TV anchor to describe her pink suit, with matching pillbox hat.) Later we would see still photos of Lyndon B. Johnson being administered the oath of office aboard Air Force One. And still later we would watch as the President arrived back in Washington, DC. I remember we wept openly for three days. Our parents wept, a sight seldom witnessed by us. We all knew that our lives had changed forever. Within two days we were still watching live coverage as Jack Ruby shot and killed Lee Harvey Oswald (the suspected assassin).

On November 25, 1963, John F. Kennedy, Jr’s (John-John)third birthday, President Kennedy’s funeral took place. My memory of this day is that of my family sitting in the living room watching the procession, a graceful First Lady, the funeral mass, and dignitaries from all over the world gathering to honor our fallen President. And then there is the heart warming memory of little John-John saluting his father.

Every year at this time I stop and remember President Kennedy. Somehow life has gone on, 45 years since this fateful day. And every year I have wondered how life might have been had November 22, 1963, passed without incident. Today, Brian Williams of NBC Nightly News posed the same question

Daniel, John Kennedy, Jr, Aaron – March 1991

As an aside, I later met John F. Kennedy, Jr. He was a guest at our inn in March 1991. Imagine my surprise to realize that the young Mr. Kennedy had checked in late on a Friday night with his old college friend. The reservation was in his friend’s name. Suffice it to say, as the weekend progressed I asked John Kennedy if I could take a picture of him. He agreed and we went to our owner’s quarters. Our sons, Aaron and Daniel, then 10 and 7, sensed this was a special occasion. Aaron seemed to know that it was important for John to know how much his father had been loved by his parents and grandparents. He handed John a letter from his mother, Jacqueline, which had been sent to my father back in 1964, expressing thanks for the small donation my parents had made to the Kennedy Library. John stood quietly in our home, carefully studying this letter, his mother’s note, rubbing his hand against the paper and then with a smile he returned it to Aaron.

Yes, it is Saturday. This is not a technical blog, but you do have to wonder about a nation that connected 45 years ago today with television, radio, newsprint, photos, magazines and a common bond of a shared loss. This was a day that shaped our lives forever.

Feel free to leave a comment of your memories from November 22, 1963.

Reading Time: 10 minutes

The other day I signed into my Gmail account and noticed a new link at the top of the page. The link says: “New! Video chat.” Usually I learn about new Gmail tools from Webconsuls’ technical director, Darin McClure. What crossed my mind is why hasn’t Darin sent me or us an email extolling the virtues of this new tool. Not like Darin to not jump on a Gmail bandwagon. Hmmm! I even reviewed the Webconsuls’ blog to make sure I hadn’t missed a blog about this new tool. Couldn’t find anything.

I ignored the bold red font, “New! Video chat” for a few days, but yesterday I was a little curious. So, I clicked on the link. This is what I learned:
* Voice and video in Gmail only works with the newer version of Gmail in supported browsers: FF 2.0+, IE 6.0+, Safari 3.0+, and Google Chrome.
* Download the Gmail voice and video chat plug-in, quit all open browser windows, and install the plug-in.
* Sign in to Gmail.
* In the Chat section of your Gmail, select the contact you want to call. If they have a camera icon next to their name, you can make a voice or video call to them; just click Video & more.

Now the first thing to remember is that you need to have a web-cam. If you don’t have a web-cam, then Google has made it easy for you to purchase one. According to their site: “We tried to make buying a web-cam easier by working with Logitech and Buy.com to offer high quality cameras at up to 30% off with free shipping until November 30th, 2008.” The prices quoted range from $39.99 to $89.99. But, not to worry, I already have a web-cam, so I was good to go.

My browsers met the requirements, I downloaded the Gmail voice and video chat plug-in, I quit all open browsers, and I installed the plug-in! I signed in to my Gmail account and lo and behold, there I was in a little window…Judy at work! Great, right? Here is what I noticed:
1. My Web-cam sits right on top of my monitor, so I could see myself very clearly, but I could also see my co-worker, Dennis, at work at his computer desk. You see when we are both working my back is to him, a kind of “what I don’t see won’t hurt me” position. But now I could clearly see him working away.
2. I could also see the little camera icon next to my name in the “Chat” box on my Gmail page, but interestingly enough the only associate with a camera icon next to their name was Malik. I could see that Malik was on-line so I tried to connect with him with video chat. Well, he could chat, but what I discovered is that he was experiencing problems with Video Chat. To quote Malik: “crashes my browser every time though”. Not good and I read on-line that other users were experiencing this problem. Bugs!!

You need to be aware that this new tool is being rolled out by Google, which means not everyone has access to the new tool at the same time. Don’t assume that because you have access that all of your friends can access it, just yet.

Here is my first take on this tool: Fun tool. Free tool, unless you need to buy a web-cam. I don’t really know if it will take the place of Skype, as Google video chat does not allow you to connect to landlines, but it is one more tool for the tool box. Whether it will be the sharpest tool in the box remains to be seen. Also, I noticed that once you have downloaded this new tool, there does not seem to be a way to just “turn it off” should you not want to be contacted via video chat. This is a little disconcerting, but maybe I just haven’t played with it enough. I do know that the software is not activated unless you are signed in to your Gmail account, so maybe that feature is the main “shut-off” valve. In other words, you can be signed out of your Gmail account and still be running “Google Talk” on your desktop and chat with friends and co-workers the old fashioned way, sans webcam.

According to the official Gmail blog: ‘Once you install the plug-in, to start a video chat, just click on the “Video & more” menu at the bottom of your Gmail chat window, and choose “Start video chat.” You’ll have a few seconds to make sure you look presentable while it’s ringing, and then you’ll see and hear your friend live, right from within Gmail.’ The operative phrase in this statement is: “You’ll have a few seconds to make sure you look presentable.” Yikes!!!

Here is the bottom line: if you are always signed into you Gmail account, the webcam is running and you better be prepared for your friends and co-workers to want to video chat with you. You better keep your desk straightened, your hair combed and not be wearing your PJs at 3:00PM.

For the record, I un-installed the “plug-in” yesterday, because I don’t want to be the first one on my block to use this software…I am going to wait for Darin, Lisa, Dick, Dennis, Malik, Keith, Dan and Dennis to “plug-in”. I don’t want to be the cheerleader and I am still wondering why the usual cheerleaders are not cheering…just yet.
To learn more, view the video below and I promise to keep you posted on this new tool. Let me know what you think by posting a comment here.

Reading Time: 5 minutes

This weekend Dennis and I are attending homecoming at Amherst College. It is a sentimental journey for Dennis, class of 1968. I have been on this campus a number of times over the past 30 years, but yesterday was special for a number of reasons. While taking an afternoon stroll we came across a wonderful new, slightly larger than life-size statue of Robert Frost. I stood there admiring this work thinking of how the campus must have looked when Robert Frost was an English professor at Amherst, off and on from 1916 to 1938. I thought if Robert Frost were alive today what might he think of our most recent election. The last election Robert Frost witnessed was 48 years ago today when John F. Kennedy made history as the first Irish Catholic to be elected President of the United States. I remember that election night. I was eleven years old and I remember watching the returns with my Irish Catholic parents. I remember the tears in their eyes. When John Kennedy was inaugurated on January 20, 1961, he invited Robert Frost to speak at the inauguration. It was remarkable.

This week Dennis and I watched the election returns with our adult children. We watched History unfolding. Again remarkable. So today, again I will walk the Amherst College campus with Dennis, we will watch a football game, meet old friends, enjoy a concert.

And we will ponder the words of Robert Frost in his “The Road Not Taken”.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that, the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
two roads diverged in a wood, and I —
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Here’s to the new road we will travel together…

Reading Time: 10 minutes

Coffee-Maker

2008 Daylight Saving Time (DST), aka daylight time, will come to an end on Sunday, November 2nd at 2:00AM**. So if you happen to be awake at 2:00AM on Sunday morning and you don’t live in most of Arizona and Hawaii please remember to “fall back”. Most people will go around their home before they go to bed on Saturday evening and reset all of their clocks. They will check the kitchen stove, microwave, coffeemakers, wall clocks, grandfather clocks, alarm clocks, their wrist watches, etc. Depending on the age of your automobiles or the sophistication of your car you may need to reset your vehicle clocks, as well. Your computers will update automatically and the good news is if you have cable TV your local cable company will automatically update your cable boxes. “Springing forward” and “falling backward” can be exhausting.

40 year old oven clock

If you take the time to read the history of daylight saving time you will find that the pros and cons continue to baffle countries, states, counties, etc. When these governments debate the benefits, typically research shows that most of these benefits are never realized. But that is not my problem this year. You see this year I moved to Arizona, one of two of the United States that chooses not to observe “daylight saving time”. Arizona is actually located in the Mountain Time Zone which means that when it is 10:00AM in California (PST), then it is 11:00AM in Arizona, except during “daylight saving time” when Arizona does not “spring forward”, which means from the second Sunday in March until the first Sunday in November it is the same time in Arizona as it is in California! Now just to confuse the issue a little more, part of Arizona includes the Navajo Nation and the geographical boundaries of the Navajo Nation include parts of Arizona, Utah and New Mexico; therefore, the Navajo Nation does observe “daylight saving time.”

Cable Box

Time zones can be quite entertaining. We tend to zero in on our own time zone and sometimes have trouble with the simple computation of adding or subtracting hours to determine what time it is in another time zone. Let me give you an example. When I was an innkeeper in New Hampshire (EST) it was not unusual to get a phone call at midnight with someone requesting to make a reservation. Invariably when I would inquire where they were calling from they would say something like California (PST). If I had been awakened from a deep sleep, I would further inquire “Do you know what time it is in New Hampshire?” And more times than not, the response would be: “Oh, isn’t it 6:00PM? Isn’t New Hampshire three hours behind us?” No….New Hampshire is three hours ahead of California!

I, too, have been time zone challenged over the years. When I first moved to Alaska in the winter of 1983 there were four time zones Alaska. Yes, you read correctly, four time zones in one state. This became a problem when Dennis would travel throughout the state and he would call home to check in, many times forgetting that he was two time zones away from me and I had already gone to bed! Fortunately, in September 1983, Alaska went to two time zones. Some at the time referred to this new larger time zone as “political time.” The New York Times reported on September 18, 1983: “Transportation Secretary Elizabeth H. Dole ordered changes Friday that will put most of Alaska in the same time zone and end years of confusion and communication problems in the state. Under the action, taken under the Uniform Time Act of 1966, all but the extreme western portion of the Aleutian Islands will be consolidated in the Yukon Time Zone. The change takes effect on Sunday, Oct. 30, when the country goes off daylight time. Alaska, the largest state in area, stretches across four time zones. That has created problems in doing business within the state, with the rest of the United States and with foreign countries. The changes were made at the request of the Alaskan authorities, who had complained of the difficulties of dealing with four time zones, after public hearings in the state.”

Wall clocks need to be changed

The good news for me is that tonight I don’t have to go around the house and change all of the time pieces, but I do have to remind myself for the next four months that I do live in the Mountain Standard Time zone and not to call my California Webconsuls’ associates too early in the morning. Remember Mountain Standard Time is one hour ahead of Pacific Standard Time. This means when it is 6:00AM in Arizona, then it is 5:00AM in California!

This morning it just occurred to me that Fire safety officials encourage people to use the two annual clock shifts as a reminder to check the batteries in smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. I wonder how Arizonians remember to check their smoke alarm batteries, since they don’t need to reset their clocks. I will let you know how this works out for us.

By the way, since it is Saturday, why not share some of your own anecdotes about Daylight Saving Time?

**Daylight Savings 2012 ends on November 4th at 2:00AM.

Daylight Saving Time ends this weekend, turn clocks back one hour (kdvr.com)

Reading Time: 7 minutes

Have you ever been to Rockport, MA? I have not, even though I lived in New England for 12 years. Amazing, isn’t it? For 12 years I lived in New Hampshire, but my life as an innkeeper didn’t allow for much leisure time to visit all of the beautiful spots that New England has to offer. But this summer I was able to get to know Rockport, MA and more particularly The Seaward Inn because innkeeper, Nancy Cameron-Gilsey (a Certified Social Worker!), requested that I help her update her website. You see Nancy has been a Webconsuls’ client since November 2000; in fact The Seaward Inn is one of our oldest clients, both literally and figuratively. On May 7, 2009, The Seaward Inn will open for their 65th Season! This being Saturday morning I invite you to learn a little more about The Seaward and Rockport, MA.

It was 1945, well before Nancy’s birth, when Nancy’s parents first purchased the large home situated on five acres in Rockport, overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. World War II had ended and Roger and Anne Cameron opened their home to summer guests. Rockport is a small town about 25 miles north of Boston and it sits on the tip of the Cape Ann Peninsula. Rockport is picturesque; in fact, Walt Disney Productions has listed Rockport Harbor as one of the ten most scenic places in the United States. Rockport is just a short drive from Gloucester, MA, which you will remember from the movie and book, The Perfect Storm (2000). And, yes, the cast and crew stayed at The Seaward during the filming of this fabulous movie. But I digress…back to the website update.

Nancy’s site is not large, about 15 pages. It was designed many years ago, prior to Webconsuls being retained to do the search engine optimization(SEO) for the site. The site update started with a simple inquiry from Nancy about how to incorporate new photos and how to upgrade the information found on her “Area Attractions” page. I told Nancy I would review the site and then my research began in earnest. Since I love history, I found myself reading everything I could find about Rockport, Dogtown, Motif #1, and then I had long conversations with Nancy about all the famous guests that she and her family have welcomed to the inn. It was all so interesting.
As the weeks progressed, Nancy and I stayed in touch. She sent me the new photos, shared the history of the inn, and introduced me to her long time employee…Rose Marie Leal. Then one day Nancy and Rose told me about their latest adventure at The Seaward…their “Sunday Morning Live” series. Their Sunday Buffet by the Sea features live musical entertainment and it is open to the public. With this bit of information Rose and I went into high gear and a video was born, with the help of our Support Technician, Dan. You can enjoy the video here featuring images of The Seaward and the music of The Barbara & Al Boudreau Jazz Trio.

I look forward to visiting The Seaward Inn, touring Rockport, meeting Nancy and Rose in person. I am glad I had the chance to work on this project with them; it was a labor of love for them and became one for me. Having been an innkeeper and knowing what this life is like, I know that every decision you make is for your guests and Nancy and Rose work very hard to make every visitor feel welcomed. So, if you have never been to Rockport, why not put it on your short list? Remember, The Seaward is only open from May through October every year.
Tomorrow The Seaward Inn will close out their 2008 season, winter will come and go, and just as sure as the daffodils and crocus will bloom next spring, Nancy will be ready to welcome guests for their 65th season. I am sure her parents would be very proud.

Reading Time: 6 minutes

“Poll workers are a crucial element of the election process. You can buy new machines, you can educate voters, but really the poll workers are the bridge between the polling place and the voter.”…Doug Chapin, Director of electionline.org

You remember the 2000 presidential election, don’t you? One of my clearest memories of that day and the days and weeks that followed were the complaints by some voters that the poll workers were not helpful, were too old, and were not able to follow the various rules set down by the local registrars of voters. That was the year I made a promise to myself to become involved as a poll worker. I thought back to my youth when my mother served during every election as a poll worker in San Diego county and I said to myself why not continue the tradition. Why leave this burdensome task to only the retired senior citizens? Since 2000 I have tried to work every election in Orange County California and this year I will serve as a pollworker in Pima County Arizona.

Do you know how many Americans are needed to work the polls in any given general election year? It is about 2 million (with the average age of 72)or about 1% of total number of registered voters. When you go to vote you usually are expecting two basic needs to be met: (1) you want the polls to open on time and (2) you want the process to be expedient. But did you ever wonder what goes into meeting these basic needs?

Well, the truth is the parameters vary from state to state, but here are a few basics:
*Each poll worker must be a registered voter in the county they intend to work.
*Each poll-worker must attend a training class, usually about two hours.
*Each poll-worker is expected to study the instruction and reference manual(in Pima County, Arizona, this manual is 43 pages)
*Each poll-worker might be expected to assist in setting up the polling place the evening preceding the election
*Each poll-worker is expected to report to the polls one hour prior to the polls opening. (in Pima County, Arizona, the polls open at 6:00AM)
*Each poll-worker is expected to remain through the 7:00PM closing and to assist in preparing the ballots for shipment to the Registrar’s Office, which can take until 8:30PM. And in Pima County the poll-worker is not to leave the polls for any reason, not even to get something to eat!!!
*Each poll-worker must follow strict guidelines regarding attire (cannot wear anything political in nature)
*Each trained poll-worker is expected to show up, unfortunately it has been reported that 2 out of three 3 trained workers in New York fail to show up on Election Day!
*In Pima County Arizona, each poll-worker will be paid $140 for the 15-17 hours they work!

All of the above aside, the pollworkers are expected to be able to sufficiently answer fairly complicated questions regarding people’s right to vote. If voters arrive at the wrong poll, the pollworker must assist them to find their correct poll, and the list goes on.

I write this today; not just because it is Saturday, but I am hopeful that maybe it will inspire you to think about working the polls. It will give you a whole new perspective on what goes on behind the scenes to insure that we all can exercise our right to vote. See you at the polls…

Reading Time: 9 minutes

Yesterday my associate posted about Google Goggles. He explained how to enable the tool. I actually prepared my thoughts for this post on Thursday and then Keith beat me to it, but since it is Saturday morning, I thought I would weigh in on this subject anyway.

Wednesday evening I was up late and to tell the truth I don’t know if I learned of Google’s Goggles on a television ad or on a cable news story. Based on this admission I probably need a pair of Google’s Goggles. Here is the scoop: Google operates what they refer to as Gmail labs. Google has a number of techies that come up with interesting ideas and if the idea has some merit they throw it out there for their Gmail customers to “try out” in a Beta version. According to Goggles’ developer, Jon Perlow, “When you enable Mail Goggles, it will check that you are really sure you want to send that late night Friday email. And what better way to check than by making you solve a few simple math problems after you click send to verify you are in the right state of mind?”

OK, we have probably all sent out emails late at night when we are tired, overworked, enraged about life, but at the same time we have probably all been recipients of these types of emails. These late night communications provide interesting entertainment, not to mention insight into our emailing buddies.

Why do people send emails late at night or in the wee hours of the morning? Certainly it is not always a case of too many drinks as some commentators have stated. My experience is that many people do tend to work late at night. It is the quietest time with children safely in bed, co-workers hopefully not chatting incessantly, the pets not running wild, and the phone is quiet. When I worked as a business analyst and project manager for Mercury Insurance Services, we were expected to work from home after-hours. Yes, we were paid for 40 hours, but were told in no uncertain terms that if we had a deliverable deadline we must work at home. Most nights I would arrive home from the office around 6:00PM, dutifully make the family dinner, clean up the kitchen, throw a load of laundry in the washing machine, and then quietly go into my home office and fire-up the laptop. It was not unusual for me to work until 1:00am or even 2:00am writing technical documents. Very often I would email these documents to my fellow team members in the middle of the night. Why? Well, emailing the document gave me a sense of completing a task, as well as a feeling of starting the next work day 5 hours later with a cleaner slate. But imagine my shock when after sending the late night email many of my co-workers would respond immediately with an email that usually contained this phrase: “You’re still up, too?” As a by-product, this practice allowed us the opportunity to document the number of hours we were really spending on a project! Just for the record, this project began in January 2003 and was to be completed in three years. It is now October 2008 and the project is still going strong. So much for project management.

While Google’s Goggles is very clever, doesn’t it really imply that we are not mature enough to reasonably manage our email etiquette? People’s entire careers and companies have imploded because of email records. So why aren’t we more careful about the content of our emails? Who the heck knows, but here is rule I try to follow. Years ago I reported directly to the president of a bank, Willard (Bill) Bromage. Our means of communicating with peers, subordinates and superiors was to write a memo. One day I handed him a copy of a memo I proposed to send to the struggling IT department. He read the memo and advised: “Save this document for three days. Keep it here on your desk. In three days re-read your document. If, at that time, you still feel committed to your written word, then by all means mail it.”

Good advice, don’t you think? The difference between Bill Bromage’s advice and Google’s Jon Perlow’s “math test” is that Bill wanted you to consider the content of your communication, Perlow is assuming that if you can solve in 45 seconds three or four simple math equations (and I do mean simple) then you must be of sound enough mind to communicate in wee hours of the morning. In fact, Jon Perlow states in the Gmail “settings” for Google Goggles: “Google strives to make the world’s information useful. Mail you send late night on the weekends may be useful but you may regret it the next morning. Solve some simple math problems and you’re good to go. Otherwise, get a good night’s sleep and try again in the morning. After enabling this feature, you can adjust the schedule in the “General” settings page.” Interestingly Bromage had a three day rule, while Perlow has a three math problem solving rule.

A word of caution: try never to ASSUME. Happy Saturday!

Reading Time: 6 minutes

It is Saturday morning and tomorrow I will turn 59. I was hopeful that at this age I wouldn’t still need to be concerned about tags and labels, but hey I still do laundry at least once per week and in this day and age I find myself discussing the pros and cons of labeling or tagging blog posts. Let’s talk about clothes first: What is it about the tag or label in the neckline of a shirt or top that is so annoying? I ask this question, because as a woman I can categorically state I have never removed a tag from a piece of my clothing. But I can also attest that my significant other hates tags in the neckline of his clothing and he has on occasion twisted himself into the shape of a pretzel to attempt removing the tag while he is wearing the garment!

He claims it is scratching his neck and driving him crazy. I maintain that this is learned behavior from childhood when his mother tried to make him comfortable and dutifully removed all tags. You should know that when my children were little I never removed a tag from the neckline of their shirts, pajamas or the like. It was a sociological test I was running in my own little world. The truth is I really don’t care if my spouse removes these tags, unless, of course, the tag includes the laundry instructions.

Can’t tell you how many golf shirts have been ruined because they needed cold water as opposed to warm, or they should be hung to dry! Clothes manufacturers came to our rescue about 2002 and invented the tagless label. Accordingly, Marshal Cohen, chief retail analyst at NPD Group, a Port Washington, N.Y., market research firm stated in 2005: ”Tags are a very emotional issue.” Is he kidding me? Illness, death, bankruptcy, divorce, crime, war and the like are emotional issues, not TAGS!

My blog commitment has been to make you laugh and to offer you something useful, so today I am including a PDF that you can print and hang by your laundry machines. It is a Guide to Home Laundering and Dry-cleaning Symbols. The reason you may need this is twofold: 1) You may find that when you launder your clothes, someone has removed not only the neckline tag with laundering instructions, but they may have removed the additional tag sometimes found elsewhere on the clothing. 2) You may discover that the laundry instructions are written in size 2 font and in universal code. Take a look at these instructions; you may be amazed at how often you have misinterpreted a symbol.

Now for a short discussion about Web 2.0 Tags and Labels: I will make this short and sweet. You can read a lot about labels / tags, as they relate to blog posts. I will only offer you my very simple observation. Tags and labels have always been important in our day to day life, even before we had the world wide web. Think of it this way. The tag/label is an identifier, it guides the reader to more information about the subject matter within your historical blog posts and it perhaps provides just a bit of information that will make your life easier in the case of Web 2.0 allowing your blog to be found by more people. If you really want to understand this in greater detail, contact Webconsuls’ Social Marketing guru…Darin McClure, because I have to go do the laundry!

P.S. I know I took 599 words to enlighten you today. Happy Saturday!

Reading Time: 4 minutes

To think that 20 years ago I was a Vice President for Indian Head Bank North, New Hampshire (now owned by Fleet Bank), sitting in a private office equipped with a private bathroom, a vault, and right outside my office sat my “secretary” (now referred to as an Administrative Assistant) with a typewriter (no computer). Dilbert, the syndicated cartoon by Scott Adams, was making its debut (April 1989). Most working people found this cartoon to be really very funny and perceptive, to the point that it was almost as if Scott Adams was secretly infiltrating corporate America to obtain material on which to base his cartoon.
In 1997 I returned to California and was hired as a Senior Business Analyst by the IT Department of Mercury Insurance Services. I soon found myself living in a cubicle in a room shared by 40 other IT gurus. I was now part of Dilbert’s world. We always read Dilbert, we regularly cut the strip from the newspaper and hung them on the inside and outside of our cubicles. Some Sunday strips were so apropos that I even framed them to hang on my cubicle “wall”. Here you can enjoy the Dilbert strip from my first day at Mercury and the one for the day I gave my notice.

I have now learned from visiting the Dilbert website that: “The Dilbert web site, dilbert.com, was the first syndicated comic strip to go online in 1995 and is the most widely read syndicated comic on the Internet.” And yes, Scott Adams has a blog on dilbert.com. Amazing! Why do I share this with you? For no other reason than it is Saturday and everyone deserves to take a break and laugh on Saturday. We spend a lot of time talking about Web 2.0 and now Scott Adams’ new book “Dilbert 2.0” will be available in October. Great holiday gift for the techies in your life.

Reading Time: 7 minutes

It was 1986 when Dennis and I purchased a country inn in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Our goal at the time was to live the lifestyle of Bob and Joanna of “Newhart” fame. You may remember this television show which takes place in Vermont and follows the goings-on of the innkeepers, their guests, employees, neighbors, and contractors (think Larry, Darryl and Darryl). We owned and operated Cranmore Mountain Lodge for eleven years. Someday I might write a book about our experiences as innkeepers, but today I want to discuss how marketing our inn would have been easier, if only we were able to communicate instantaneously via a blog. Keep in mind when we first purchased the inn our only means of immediate communication was the telephone line (and in this small town you “dialed” four numbers to call your neighbors). We did not own a personal computer, in fact, most people in 1986 did not own personal computers. We owned a standard typewriter!!

As the years went by we did purchase a PC and a dot-matrix printer! Around 1990, I came up with the idea of creating a newsletter. It was called Inn-Ovations. I was the reporter, editor, photographer and publisher. Twice a year we would create the newsletter with the assistance of a local graphic arts company, Express Graphics (but there was nothing express about the turn around time). When the newsletters were printed and ready to mail, we would struggle to print the mailing labels, debate first-class mailing vs. bulk mailing, and then we would gather with our employees to prepare the newsletters for the post office. Our usual distribution was around 2500, with the postage cost (first class) ranging from $700-$800 and after printing and prep costs each distribution totaled about $2500. And hopefully we reached 2500 American households!

While our newsletter served us well at the time (our repeat guests loved the newsletter and would actually call us to check when they could expect the next issue), the bottom line is that this process was time consuming, expensive, and really not timely. Today I am wondering how our stint as innkeepers would have been enhanced if we were to have had a “blog”, that is, a way to instantly communicate, interactively, with our guests and prospective guests. I can only imagine.

If there is any question as to the marketing efficacy of having a blog, I invite you to watch a video of the July 21, 2008, NBC Nightly News segment called “Bloggers-in-Chief.”

If you are having trouble viewing the video, you can see it here.

And in the meantime, I can report that many of our clients now have blogs and the Google page rank for these blogs quickly jumps to a 3 or 4, in short order. Some clients use their blog to share news about their businesses, some for commenting on local or national news items, some to post short and timely articles about their field of expertise. I regularly read some of our innkeeper clients’ blogs and I have come to learn the award winning Lodge at Moosehead Lake is “going green” by installing an outdoor wood furnace which will greatly reduce innkeepers Linda and Dennis Bortis’ dependence on heating oil; Alice and Len Schiller, owners of the Inn at Stockbridge, just completed their 14th summer as innkeepers and over at Hartstone Inn their sous chef, Zeph Belanger, was named first runner up in a state-wide Maine lobster cooking competition, while innkeepers Michael and Mary Jo Salmon celebrated their 10th anniversary as innkeepers this past May. All great stuff from these innkeepers, each a blogger in chief.

Since I am Webconsuls’ Saturday blogger, I like to provide you with some lighthearted humor. In preparing my blog I decided to see if Cranmore Mountain Lodge’s present innkeepers have a blog. Guess what? They do. Here is a link to their blog. Enjoy!

Reading Time: 6 minutes

For years I was a fan of the television show “Everybody Loves Raymond”. Even today if I just want to take a break I might tune in to watch a rerun of this show. One of my favorite episodes was #171 which first aired in 2003. If you are a fan, you might remember “Robert’s Wedding” as a day when Marie Barone (Robert’s mother)interrupts the wedding ceremony as the minister asks if anyone knows of a reason why Robert and Amy should not be married. Later at the reception Raymond is asked to give a toast which was probably one of the most touching scenes of the entire series. Referring to his mother’s interruption of the wedding ceremony, Raymond opens his toast by saying: “I think I know one thing that can make this day all better…editing. When all is said and done we will only remember the good stuff. I think you’re gonna remember about today what you want to remember.”

Editing as defined by Websters means:1 a: to prepare (as literary material) for publication or public presentation b: to assemble (as a moving picture or tape recording) by cutting and rearranging c: to alter, adapt, or refine especially to bring about conformity to a standard or to suit a particular purpose .

Editing as it applies to your website can be critical. Your text, photos, videos, and documents should all be carefully reviewed. This process takes time and almost always requires the efforts of more than one person, as we all know after you look at text long enough your eye doesn’t catch all of the misspellings, grammatical mistakes, etc. The same applies to photo and video editing. Photos and videos are powerful. Original unedited photos or videos can make us laugh out loud or cry. Perhaps that is why Google videos and YouTube are so successful. We can see people at their best and worst, for the most part unedited.

Recently Webconsuls was asked to make some videos of the mariachi performers at La Fuente Restaurant in Tucson, AZ. The stage area is almost completely surrounded by dining tables and walking paths for the waitstaff and guests. Try as I might, everytime I would try to shoot a video people, other than the musicians, would come into the field of view. But I videoed about eight songs and sent them to our SMO specialist to “edit.” Much to my surprise he decided to put up all of the videos on Google videos and one in particular is very comical. The song being performed is Guadalajara. As you watch this “unedited” version you will see patrons and staff cross in front of the stage, then suddenly the parking lot security guard comes into view and stops in front of the performers to “check out” the tip basket. It gets better. Within a few seconds, Dennis, my husband, gets up from his table and proceeds to walk to the tip basket to make a donation! By now I just keep shooting only to see the security guard come back through camera’s angle of view “dancing” to the music.

To appreciate the art of editing, I invite you to preview both videos. Here is a link to the unedited version and here is a link to the edited version of this performance. Editing…only remembering the good stuff. This weekend we will update La Fuente Restaurant’s website to include the “edited” version of Guadalajara. I hope you will visit their site. La Fuente has been in business since 1959 and has a colorful history.

Reading Time: 9 minutes

About a month ago I sat in on a Social Marketing Optimization (SMO) Training Seminar. The obvious purpose of this seminar was to teach a company’s employees the importance of SMO, which is how to get involved by setting up a Stumble Upon account, becoming a regular user of Stumble Upon, writing blog entries, posting comments to blogs, etc.

The trainer took a few minutes to explain that Social Marketing or Social Media is not a new convention, in fact all of us have and continue to participate in Social Marketing activities in our everyday lives; however, this participation traditionally may not have occurred on the web, but instead in our daily contacts with friends, neighbors, co-workers, storekeepers, etc. As the trainer explained this phenomena, if you need a recommendation for a plumber you might first call your trusted next door neighbor, before searching the web for plumbers in your neighborhood.

At the time I thought that this was a clever analogy, but it came to me later that a closer analogy to the anonymity of web SMO might be the traditional Service Station proprietor.

Do you remember the old-fashioned Service Station owner? I have fond memories of a particular Service Station owner ~~ my father, Joe, who owned a Service Station from about 1955 until 1963. When my father first leased the station it was a Wilshire Service Station located at the corner of 7th and E Avenue in National City, CA.

Looking back I now realize that Joe was an original and natural social marketer. How he came to own the service station is another story, but suffice it to say the service stations, as we knew them then, offered anyone, who ventured into the station, a wealth of assistance and information. And while my father had a good number of regular customers, for the most part the daily customers were strangers to my father. And yet these strangers, not unlike today’s web social group members, depended on him for more than gasoline.

If the customer needed driving directions, no Mapquest, just ask Joe or one of the service station attendants. If you needed a local or state map, they were provided by the service station at no cost! Need a suggestion for a good restaurant, again no IPhone with Google maps, just ask Joe and he might send you to the El Juan Cafe for Mexican cuisine (still in business) or Keith’s Family Restaurant (still operating) for home-made fried chicken. Looking for a particular church, Joe only had to point you across the street to St. Mary’s Catholic or just down the street to St. Matthew’s Episcopal. Need to know what was playing at the local movie theatre, Joe could tell you the current film and show times at the Bay Theater (built in 1944, the building is still there but for sale for $2.7m.)

And let’s not forget that service stations in years past did not have mini-marts, but they did offer you a clean restroom, a soda machine, they could fix a tire, tune your car and if you needed a phone, just come on in and you were given the opportunity to use the business phone. No payphone on site and certainly no cell phones.

One of my favorite memories of Joe, as a social marketer, was him serving as an impromptu employment agency. Frequently local people would stop by looking for work and if Joe didn’t have an opening, he would know which businesses in the neighborhood were looking for employees. Over the years, Joe employed many family friends, offering them part-time positions to help make ends meet. No Hot Jobs or Monster.com…just stop by and talk to Joe.

And there were even days when a complete stranger would come into the station, ask for a fill-up; however, when payment was requested suddenly they would indicate they had no money. These strangers would then barter with my father leaving a watch or something else of value promising to return later with cash to redeem their item. I don’t know, you might call this a little credit union, pawn shop, or even pay day advance.

Sometimes the service station would serve as a small used car lot. Local people would ask to park their cars with a “for sale” sign posted on the car. My father bought more than one of these used cars over the years, the most memorable being a seven+ passenger Cadillac Limousine, circa mid 1940s. (see the photo of my dad in front of the black Cadillac taken in 1960, wearing his Wilshire shirt, with my then four year old brother, Michael, sporting his own Wilshire shirt.) Could this have been the precursor for CARMAX?

I like remembering my father and his service station. He took good care of his customers and he was always willing to provide recommendations, not unlike today’s blogs, and other on-line social media and marketing vehicles.

Click here to learn more about:

the history of service stations or to enjoy photos of the Bay Theater.

Reading Time: 7 minutes

From 1986 – 1997, my wife Judy and I, along with our two sons Aaron and Daniel, owned and operated a New Hampshire bed and breakfast inn, Cranmore Mountain Lodge, in the White Mountains. During the evenings, I would often play piano and over time, these “mini-concerts” became a regular inn “feature.” If I were not at the piano after dinner, the lobby Innkeeper buzzer would usually be pressed by 8 PM and I knew exactly what that meant.

The guests seemed to prefer the music of Broadway, the big shows, like Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserables, Man of La Mancha, Cats, Fiddler on the Roof and others. Scores from popular films or background music such as Love Story, Unchained Melody, the Godfather (Speak Softly Love) and romantic ballads were always requested. Eventually I recorded a tape cassette and when CDs were introduced, I recorded and offered CD s for sale as well.

Daniel, Dennis, Judy and Aaron, circa 1992

The setting was a beautiful common room with fireplace and this wonderful baby grand piano. Over the years, this room became the favorite of our inn guests, typically folks who enjoyed experiencing New England at a traditional and historic bed and breakfast. It was a wonderful time, with guests singing, humming or simply relaxing in easy chairs and rockers, as the treasures of Broadway and film were being played for them. Occasionally, a guest would ask me to accompany them and they would perform. On rare occasion, the vocal range and star quality were magnificent. Unfortunately, more often than not, some soloist requests, (and the thumbs-down performance that followed ), occasioned fear of “early guest checkouts” in me. Fortunately, inn guests tend to be rather “forgiving” and just seem to giggle a lot. At Cranmore Mt. Lodge, music was part of the inn’s character. The common room made the travel experiences memorable for the guests.

The style and interpretation of the music was mine and “the common room” became my stage. I was its star soloist and performer. Why, come to think of it, I even owned the theatre. For the guests, sharing stories and experiences of their day, (with my music providing the background to give those tales “color and drama”), added something intangible to their trip. The inn became theirs. They were comfortable. They knew they were coming back. When the day of checkout arrived and they would say their goodbyes, they usually had a CD packed for themselves and a few others as gifts. The White Mountains National Forest area will always be known for its beauty, its foliage, and spectacular vistas. Tourism will always be its major industry. We were able to add another dimension to their trip.

I have long since sold the inn and with it, my wonderful baby grand. I miss that piano, the feel of the keys, the shiny black finish. I think back (ten years already) to those times at the keyboard, with my captive audience in attendance. All those people and yet, in a strange way, always feeling alone. I had found my place and life was truly wonderful. I have never had a piano lesson. I am self-taught. My CD, Dennis Inn Concert, the Sounds of Cranmore Mt. Lodge has never gone Silver, Gold or Platinum. It ain’t going to get any special recognition either or referenced on the Juilliard School web site. Yet, “somewhere out there” that CD is playing.

I am older now and many miles distant. It is nighttime in Newport Beach CA and as I sit in my home, I close my eyes and see the common room, the fireplace, the couples, the families. The piano is still shiny black and my fingers can feel the wonderful smoothness of the ivory. I am still their Innkeeper and they will be my special guests forever. The “Memory” feels good. Yes, the sounds of that time are alive and well… both for my inn guests ….and for me.

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Category: Judith-Helfand

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