To brew or not to brew...Starbucks' brave new world

Someone at Starbucks might want to read a book or two about brand management.  It is a short book. In fact, some authors write only two paragraphs. The first paragraph is very simple: (words to the effect) "NEVER EVER do anything that weakens the perception of the brand, in particular, never ever ever dilute or confuse the main product".  VERY SIMPLY, don't futz around with something that is good and make it, in your customer's eyes, LESS GOOD.  Paragraph #2 is of course re-read paragraph #1 a few thousand million times and then, when you think you can go ahead and do it after you pretend that your product is your significant other and you are asking him/her permission to cheat on him/her and replace him/her with what could be termed an inferior product.

Instant coffee is a world unto its own. Read up on it some. Usually made with lower quality beans, the bitterness component is most usually cited. Starbucks says it is using good stuff. Notice they didn't say they were using great stuff but "good stuff"...that means in ad parlance that we are using something almost as good as....and that ladies and gentlemen is the issue....ALMOST.

AW BEANS

The National Parks

There are a number of them that I wanted to visit in my lifetime and Mr. Burns' documentary has turned up the heat to venture forth as we all should as like tomorrow, it will never be the same as today.

I finally "got it" last night viewing one of the episodes.  I wondered why there were so many vignettes with persons who were remotely connected to the establishment(s) of the system.  I think he wanted to convey to us that there is the physical "park" and the "visitors" park. That the parks themselves truly come alive when we humans - certainly minor actors on a much bigger stage and the parks reality is in the viewing by us. Certainly the old saw of if a tree falls in the woods and no one is there to hear it, does it make any noise.  The flip would be if the beauty of these parks, so well caught in Burns' work, isn't viewed, visited and enjoyed, they would in effect be silent.

Outside forces at play - our little universe.

No college Saturday night experience is complete without that "universe/electron" deep discussion...for all of you who didn't have that one, it is in a small scene of the National Lampoon Animal House where Donald Sutherland explains the idea that our little solar system is really just an atom with 9 electrons  and part of a much bigger scheme of things and if we could look closely at the electron, we would find it to be just another solar system and so on.  Men in Black  did a little of the same with the galaxy within Orion's Bell (not belt) and the locker at the train station that contained a micro colony etc.

I read a short sci-fi story in the late 50's...I think it was by Robert Heinlein but that was 50 years ago...called Fesseden's Worlds.  A guy set up this elaborate micro galaxy in his basement and watched it develop.  At one point he or someone couldn't help "playing God" and poking a developed planet with a pin...watching the horror and panic.  I'm not sure of the moral lesson although there must be one.

I sit with traders all day who are, in essence, looking at universes within universes and magic pins or something suddenly appearing in the sky. I suspect a special mindset does this although I'm not sure what kind..but it is infinitely patient and then quick to react.

Part of my job is to think about what makes a good trader..what mental makeup.  I foster the opinion that it is someone who plays chess on a high level and prefers the 3-D version of it...multiple layers so to speak. He/she is quite happy with the slice/size of the universe they inhabit and don't necessarily look with awe or fear at the larger and smaller sizes that surround them. They are very much into the "what if" philosophical school yet their lives are filled with practicality and reality.

Interesting mix.

David Brooks mentions Calvinist Restraint and Economic Values

Mr. Brooks opines that we have lost some of "founding fathers" type restraints...and notes the Calvinist Restraint that he feels was a guiding principle in this country. Oh contrare.  It appears that Mr. Brooks has been reading some stuff that came out in the backwater report (backwaterreport.com/?p=105) which pits Calvinism economics as the antithesis of socialism and communism.

Mr. Brooks appears smart enough not to quote this claptrap directly but frames his opinions around the central current argument that the current administration is really socialist at its core. Again. Not credible.

I am always alarmed when persons write about the economic trends in light of social discord or the "loosing of values" as if there is some movement afoot that is quid pro quo.  Beware.

Roman Polanski...not his day was it

I won't run a picture of him.  I think...again, my personal opinion and not representative of anyone or any other entity..strictly mine...is that he deserves a visit to the River Styx.

I saw a horribly inane interview with some rep from the festival that was going to give this guy an award.  He decried how anyone could consider jailing a guy with this much talent and achievement. Bull.

Talent and achievement are one thing.  Molesting a 13 year old girl after drugging her is obviously another. How in the world do the two relate?  You can be good at your job for a lifetime but that doesn't erase the act which, according to interviews, he freely admits committing and he has the affrontery to be pissed off at the judge for backing out of the plea bargain.  What plea bargain?

The public in general doesn't get all this in my opinion.  If it were you or me we would be looking at hard time and rightfully so.  Think of your daughter and then think of this and see if any other conclusion holds water.

That this indulgent ass and some around him think that putting out a film like the Pianist (which I own and watch often as a masterpiece of storytelling) gives him some sort of lifetime pass from being a creep. 

I can watch the DVD while he sits in jail for the rest of his life with absolutely no moral regret.

Yom Kippur

As a midwest Lutheran, occasional backslider, yet something of a spiritual person, I am continually taken by some of my now good friends here who are Jewish.  This being the eve of Yom Kippur and watching the mental preparations in my midst, I'm treated to the understanding that there are things, rituals, beliefs, observances etc., of which I know little but have been surrounding me my entire life.

I have always had Jewish friends but I never thought of them as such or they me as a Lutheran. We were just friends.  One, a musician who had and has a famous career in the Israeli Philharmonic, I've known now for half a century and whenever I think of certain pieces of music we performed together I think of him and perhaps he does the same. Regardless of how or why, he is in my thoughts as are his family.

I'm learning a lot here and for that I am thankful.  It is a very good thing to realize what it is that is good and pure and perhaps not well understood for no good reason.  It reminds one to be curious and to ask and listen. 

I just read this - "The confession is recited silently, and with each sin that we confess we lightly knock our chest – the domicile of the heart, the seat of our passions and impulses..." 

waiting for the other shoe to drop......

Do you believe in coincidences?  Do you believe in the tooth fairy?  I long ago gave up the idea that things "just happen".  Somewhere back a bit a butterfly flapped its wings in India and then an eventual ill or good wind blew my way.

I'm perplexed that today's banner headlines highlight a heretofore hidden reactor in Iran.  It just happens to be "found or disclosed" when the President is at a G summit in Pittsburgh.

I harken back to the suddent terror alert surrounding Citibank right after the John Kerry's nomination. We now know that wasn't a coincidence.  Now we have all this "news" that, when the onion skin is peeled back, seems to have been known for a bit. So why now - why today?
What is happening at the G-summit or elsewhere that we need this shoe to drop......

There is an old civil war story of Union troops having a casual lunch when all kinds of deer and small game suddenly ran through their camp space.  The veterans took cover while the new recruits just admired their good fortune of pentiful game for the next meal.  "Why are you hunkered behind that tree Jeb, them just deer and rabbits...they won't hurt ya' a bit".  "I ain't hunkered here for fear of a deer sonny, I'm hunkered here because of the Reb army that's drivin' 'em".