Yearly Archives: 2007

Cream of the Crop?

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Over at Freakonomics they’ve posted an interesting item from one of their readers on the subject of military officer promotions.  Here’s an excerpt:

Officers rise through the system without relevance to merit; promotions
are based on the length of time the officer has been in the system. (Up
to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel, anyway — to make Colonel you have to
have done more than serve time.) Enlisted men are subject to a
completely different rule: you see them studying for months, mastering
the contents of a book this thick (makes gesture, thumb and fingers
about three inches apart).

To be an officer you must either have been to one of the military
academies or to college. Because promotion is not based on merit, smart
officers get frustrated and leave for jobs where they can make better
money; less able officers have every reason to stay, since incompetence
is no impediment to career advancement. Since the effect of the system
is to retain the least able, it perpetuates the elimination of the
able: the norm is for smart young officers to find themselves reporting
not to superiors like themselves (the ablest left early in frustration
at the stupidity of the system), but to superiors who a) were not
frustrated by the system and b) feel threatened by clever subordinates
… And that’s how we get the leadership of our defense services.

They ask for input from other readers to see if this is in fact an accurate representation of the military system today.  My guess is that they’ll find this a somewhat simplistic portrayal of the system that is, unfortunately, closer to true than not.  Of course this problem isn’t unique to the military, as anyone who grew up in the DC area could tell you.  There’s a reason a lot of us who were the children of civil servants decided not to follow our parents into the government.  We heard way too many stories about "idiots and a-holes" who’s rise through the ranks seemed to the defy the gravity of their incompetence.  Sure the job security and benefits are great, but how many people want to work for or with a brown-nosing, sniveling incompetent?

Okay I’m a little cynical about the federal government, but I think there’s plenty of reason to be cynical and I’m willing to bet the Freakonomics boys will find as much cynicism regarding the military.   

Member Blogs Create New Issues for Non-Profit Managers

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Cara Michele Forrest is a member of the Homeless Prevention Coalition of Guilford County and also happens to be a blogger whose blog, Chosen Fast,
deals mostly with her advocacy for the homeless.  A link to her blog
was included in her profile on the HPCGC’s member page, but now that
someone has complained to the president of the coalition about her blog
they’ve decided to remove the link.  Cara Michele shares the email
exchange between herself and the Coalition’s president Karen Bridges here, but I’m pasting most of it below for convenience:

—– Original Message —–

From: Cara Michele
To: Karen Bridges
Cc: Mike Weaver ; Travis Compton ; Nancy McLean ; Craig Thomas ; Elizabeth Hedgecock ; Shanna Reece
Sent: Wednesday, May 30, 2007 4:57 PM
Subject: Re:

Karen,

The only place that my blog is linked on the HPCGC web site is on
the member list. My blog is my web site for the homeless advocacy that
I’m involved in. Other members have their web sites listed, as well. Is
my web site the only one that is a problem? What was the nature of the
complaint? If you want my web site removed from the member list, then
you can remove it and provide an explanation for why you’ve chosen to
do so.

Please be advised the all correspondence will be blogged.

Michele Forrest
ChosenFast.com

—– Original Message —–

From: Karen Bridges
To: Cara Michele
Cc: Mike Weaver ; Travis Compton ; Nancy McLean ; Craig Thomas ; Elizabeth Hedgecock ; Shanna Reece
Sent: Wednesday, May 30, 2007 5:27 PM
Subject: Re:

You are the only individual member who has a personal link on the
HPCGC website, all others are service providers. And yes, your website
is the only one that is causing problems. The HPCGC website is not the
place to share your personal opinions and thoughts, particularly ones
that are contrary to the success of the Coalition. No one’s trying to
stop your advocacy, Michele, but you need to use the proper channels.

kb

—– Original Message —–
From: Cara Michele
To: Karen Bridges
Cc: Mike Weaver ; Travis Compton ; Nancy McLean ; Craig Thomas ; Elizabeth Hedgecock ; Shanna Reece
Sent: Wednesday, May 30, 2007 5:56 PM
Subject: Re:

Karen,

I may be the only individual member who has a web site.  There shouldn’t be a penalty for that.

I am an advocate for the homeless in Greensboro. If telling their
stories and telling the truth about homelessness is “contrary to the
success of the Coalition,” then you have a much bigger problem than my
blog.

Has it occurred to any of you that I’m not the enemy? If you’ve
actually read my blog, then you know that I haven’t written about the
most damaging things that I know. I’m not your enemy. Perhaps you
should stop acting as though I am. I thought that the goal here was to
serve homeless people. Why don’t we stop the pointless posturing and
backside-covering and shananigans? I’m weary of it.

Michele

This case points up an interesting new conundrum for non-profits:
what to do when a member or volunteer has a blog, links to it and then
other constituents find it offensive?  There will always be
disagreement between the various constituencies within a non-profit’s
community but until recently there wasn’t really a platform that
individuals could use to easily get their viewpoint out there in the
public domain for all to see.  Now you have blogs (and wikis and
Facebook profiles, etc.) that individual members can include as part of
their contact info.  What kind of policy, if any, should a non-profit
have to deal with this?

Ed Cone, another Greensboro blogger, posted about Cara Michele’s dust-up
and in his post and in the comments to his post there are some
interesting points made about the appropriateness of Cara’s blog in
this case in particular, but those same points also highlight the
considerations that should be made when thinking about whether or not a
member should be allowed to link to her individual blog.  From Ed’s
post:

Bridges is correct that the Coalition site is not the place for
Michele’s personal opinions and thoughts, and if Michele was using the
Coalition site thusly the HPCGC would have a legitimate complaint.

But such is not the case — Michele merely links to her own site as
part of her personal identification, much as member organizations
include links to their sites.

Ed’s absolutely right.  While the coalition owns its own site and
should police it, if one of their members chooses to link to her blog
as her form of identification then they should honor that.  In his
comments, Ed continues:

It seems to me that there are two issues in play here.

One involves politics within the community dedicated to helping the homeless and fighting homelessness.

The second involves reasonable standards and expectations for links and other details of online publishing.

The second issue is one where common ground might more easily be
found, and one that applies in a far broader context than the HPCGC and
its members.

The politics drove the second subject into public view, but perhaps
the issue of linking can be resolved independently of the political
particulars — and any such resolution can provide a context for
addressing some of the politics as well.

Again, Ed’s correct.  Invariably non-profit’s will have members,
board members, volunteers who don’t see eye to eye and in some cases
literally dislike each other.  The key for those running the non-profit
is to create a level playing field and to treat all constituents fairly
and equitably.  Along those lines the proper approach for the Coalition
would have been to inform the complaining parties that Cara was allowed
to link to her blog because that is part of her contact information and
they are welcome to do the same.

This case is fairly straightforward in that Cara Michele’s blog is
applicable to her role on the Coalition.  It may not have been as
straightforward if her blog had been about her pets, her travel plans,
etc.  Still, as a policy it would probably be best to just say that
blogs are the same as a person’s email address or a company’s website:
it’s a point of contact and if that person wants her blog to be her
point of contact, no matter how inane that blog may be, then that’s her
choice.

Cross posted at Lowder Enterprises, LLC

Comment on a Blog and Help Type a Book

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There’s an initiative afoot to kill two birds with one stone: secure websites and get a book written in the process.  Here are the details from CNN:

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have discovered a way to
enlist people across the globe to help digitize books every time they
solve the simple distorted word puzzles commonly used to register at
Web sites or buy things online.

The word puzzles are known as
CAPTCHAs, short for "completely automated public Turing tests to tell
computers and humans apart." Computers can’t decipher the twisted
letters and numbers, ensuring that real people and not automated
programs are using the Web sites…

Instead of wasting time typing in random letters and numbers, Carnegie
Mellon researchers have come up with a way for people to type in
snippets of books to put their time to good use, confirm they’re not
machines and help speed up the process of getting searchable texts
online…

Many large projects are under way now to digitize books and put them
online, and that’s mostly being done by scanning pages of books so that
people can "page through" the books online. In some cases, optical
character recognition, or OCR, is being used to digitize books to make
the texts searchable.

But von Ahn said OCR doesn’t always work on
text that is older, faded or distorted. In those cases, often the only
way to digitize the works is to manually type them into a computer.

Von
Ahn is working with the Internet Archive, which runs several
book-scanning projects, to use CAPTCHAs for this instead. Internet
Archive scans 12,000 books a month and sends von Ahn hundreds of
thousands of files that are images that the computer doesn’t recognize.
Those files are downloaded onto von Ahn’s server and split up into
single words that can be used as CAPTCHAs at sites all over the
Internet.

If enough users decipher the CAPTCHAs in the same way, the computer will recognize that as the correct answer…

Von Ahn approached the Internet Archive to get help in developing the
new system, but it has not been put into use yet. Theoretically, von
Ahn said the new book-based CAPTCHAs could be used in place of any
CAPTCHA currently on the Web.

A Travel Agent for $10.95

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When we were in France last week we decided that it might be a good idea to stay nearer the airport on Friday night than where we’d been staying the rest of the week.  We had an 11 a.m. flight on Saturday morning so we would have had to leave Champtoce-sur-Loire at about 4 a.m. to make our flight in time.  I tried to get online and book a room near the hotel, but because the online access was so spotty at the chateau I kept getting knocked offline.  That’s when I looked at my original travel itinerary from Travelocity and noticed their 800 service number.

To make a long story short I called Travelocity’s customer service number using the calling card I’d purchased at the airport the day we landed in Paris, got a live operator, told him I needed a room near Charles de Gaulle on Friday night and how many people we needed to sleep. He couldn’t find a single room that would fit all five of us within an 80 mile radius of the airport, but he found a Holiday Inn Express with two rooms available about 5 km from the airport in Roissy.  He was also able to tell me that they were the cheapest rooms in the area and they cost me only slightly more than a single room in the DC area has cost me on my recent business trips.  He booked the rooms for me, gave me my confirmation number and we were done.  It took about ten minutes and cost me a grand total of $10.95 plus whatever their normal fee is on room reservations.

I’ve used Travelocity for years and have never had a problem, and in fact I’ve always been very pleased with their service.  This experience only solidified my positive feelings for their service and at $10.95 I feel like I just got service from the world’s least expensive travel agent.

Driving in Paris and Why I’m Pissed at Wachovia

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A week ago Saturday (that would be May 19) we woke our kids, packed the car and headed for PTI.  Our ultimate destination was a place called Chateau du Pin near the small town of Champtoce-sur-Loire in France. Having a checkered history with flights out of PTI I was not at all sure that we would make it to France in less than three days, but thankfully our flight to O’Hare went without a hitch and we made our flight bound for Charles de Gaulle outside of Paris without a problem.  It was when the wheels hit the ground in gay Paree that we started to have an “interesting” trip.

We made our way through customs smoothly and headed to the Hertz counter to pick up our mid-sized family sedan.  All was going swimmingly until they tried to process our credit cards and all were declined.  This was interesting for two reasons: first, all of our bills are paid and with the credit limits on the cards we should have been able to buy the car (not saying we can afford it, just that Wachovia keeps upping the credit limit in an effort to get us to accumulate enough debt so that we’ll stop paying all of our bills in their entirety and thus depriving Wachovia of interest on our debt), and second we had called the bank before we left to let them know that we were going to be in France so that they wouldn’t put a security hold on our transactions.  Because I could only find an 800 number for Wachovia the folks at Hertz couldn’t call them so we trooped off to figure out what to do.

Originally we thought we might take the TGV train out to the chateau and figure things out when we got there, but when we went up the escalator to get back to the terminal and head to the TGV station we found a log jam at the top.  The police were beginning to cordon off the area for some reason and at the same time a small woman speaking Spanish blocked the top of the escalator while she tried to get someone, anyone, to tell her where her gate was.  I started pushing my way through the crowd and Celeste and the boys were right on my tail, but Erin got caught in the crowd.  Eventually a woman was pushed down the escalator, letting out a blood curdling scream as she fell, and at this point Erin started to cry and get a little panicked.  In my infinite wisdom I shouted the following to her: “Hold it together until you get to us!”  How sensitive of me, huh?  Anyway, that seemed to light a fire in her because she made like Larry Czonka and pushed through the crowd to get to us and then collapsed in her mother’s arms while sobbing and cutting me some not-so-nice looks.

So now we’re stuck in between the crowd of folks trying to get away from the police scene and those trying to push their way in the other direction.  This lasted for about 20 minutes until we heard a loud whistle and then an explosion, which we found out was the police blowing up a suspicious package. Once the crowd thinned out a little I told Celeste that I was going to buy a phone card to call the Wachovia 800 number to see if I could get our card situation worked out. I figured it would be easier to do that than to make a two hour train ride and then a cab ride and still be without our car and then have to get the car from a satellite Hertz office in Angers.  (Note to self: invest in a mobile phone with a SIM card before traveling overseas again).

I bought a phone card at the American Express window (20 Euro got me 120 minutes anywhere in the western world), found a pay phone, muddled my way through the French instructions (I don’t speak or read a word of it) and called the 800 number only to find that it had been changed.  Because I’d left my bag with Celeste I didn’t have anything to write on so I had to remember the new number, which wasnt’ easy considering I hadn’t slept on the flight over so we’re talking serious jet-lag and sleep deprivation.  I went through the whole process again and eventually got through to a live human being at Wachovia.  She was very nice, but what she had to say wasn’t.  Here it is (I’m paraphrasing):

Mr. Lowder it seems that our system is down for routine maintenance and as a result all accounts have a $400 credit limit on them at the time.  I’m sorry for the inconvenience, but there’s nothing I can do until the system comes up.

This was bad enough, but the Hertz lady had already tried to rent the car to me for one day in an effort to get me the car and allow me to get to my destination and then get the card issue resolved from there.  That amount was less than $400 I’m sure, so I asked the lady at Wachovia if her records showed that we had called and were going to be in France.  She said that yes her records did show that, so I asked if she could tell me when my cards would be usable.  She said that she was told the system would be up by 7 a.m. eastern time which was 1 p.m. where I was sitting.  I was on the phone with her at 11 a.m. Paris time so that meant I had a two hour wait.  Since I couldn’t think of anything else to do I thanked her and hung up.

I found Celeste and the kids and decided to see if our cards would work.  We got back to the Hertz desk and a new woman was working and she tried my card and miraculously it worked.  I’m now pretty well convinced that Wachovia either screwed up with the whole security thing, or they simply decline your cards to make you call them so that they know for sure it’s you overseas and then flip the switch to approve your usage.  Honestly whether or not the story about the system being down is true they still put me in a bind at a time when I was exhausted and had an exhausted family on my hands.  To say I was (am) irked would be putting it mildly.
PhotoIt gets better.  Unfortunately for us the car we’d reserved was now gone as was the last of their portable GPS units and the only thing left of the size we needed with a built in GPS was a BMW 5-series diesel, which was gonna push the price higher than we wanted to go.  So the lady mentioned that if we dropped the optional insurance then it would cost the same as the Peugeot we’d originally reserved.  Thinking that our insurance is pretty good and covers us for accidents on rentals, and being in a WTF mood thanks to our escapades with the card I just signed the dotted line.  It wasn’t until about a 1/2 hour later as I navigated the A10 outside of Paris that it occured to me that I wasn’t entirely sure our insurance covered collissions outside the US (note to self: check the insurance before going overseas again).

But before we got to the A10 I had one last obstacle to hurdle: I had to figure out how to start the damn car.  You see, I drive a 2001 Saturn and I drive in the state of North Carolina in the good old US of A, which means I’ve not encountered an ignition system that requires you to stick the key fob into it. You know, the thing that has buttons that you push to unlock your door and pop your trunk?  Well in a BMW in Paris you stick the whole damn thing into the slot that normally takes your ignition key and then you push a button on the dash that says “Start”.  I did both things, but it still wouldn’t start so I grabbed a Hertz technician walking buy and asked him to help.  He spoke no English and I spoke no French and so he literally got in the car and put his hand on the brake pedal to indicate that I needed to have my foot on the break when I pushed the “Start” button before it would start. Thankfully I was too tired to be really embarassed and we were off to the races.

When it hit me that maybe my insurance wouldn’t cover me in an accident I started to think that my childrens’ chances of going to college were entirely dependant on my not totalling the car.  Since we were staying in the French boonies it really wasn’t a problem for most of the week we were there, but of course we had to return to Paris and Charles de Gaulle last Saturday to catch our flight home.  We decided to get a room by the airport on Friday night since our flight out of Paris was scheduled for 11 a.m. on Saturday.  We left Friday morning and went to Versailles at the request of our oldest, Michael, before heading to the Holiday Inn Express in Roissy.
PhotoThe drive into Versailles was uneventful, but we didn’t leave until about 5 p.m. to head to the hotel so that meant we were going to be in Paris rush hour on a Friday.  The GPS had us on the highway in no time but before long it informed us of a wreck ahead and re-routed us, and the damn thing sent us through the heart of Paris.  That means I did the roundabout at the Arch de Triomphe at 6 p.m. on Friday and I’m hear to tell you that it is the craziest thing I’ve ever driven through.  It makes Manhattan seem like a sedate drive through the mountains of NC by comparison, and for my friends and family in DC let me tell you that you could combine all the circles in Washington and you wouldn’t come close to this monstrosity.

By some miracle we survived the traffic circle (my son informs me that I was given the French finger several times) and when we got back on the highway we passed an accident involving a motorcycle and my family had the unfortunate opportunity to see the EMTs picking up the body of a dead man to put him on a gurney.  Once past the accident we were starting to make progress towards the airport and the hotel in Roissy when the skies opened up with a deluge that created nice little lakes of water everywhere.  Again thinking of my childrens’ education I started to drive like an 85 year old retiree on a Sunday drive to church.  I swear I could have been passed by a four year old on a bicycle at that point.

Eventually we made it to the hotel and I informed my family that we either were going to eat in the hotel or starve because I didn’t want to go anywhere until we left for the airport the next morning.  All agreed and we had a great, over-priced meal together before going to bed.  The next morning the GPS pulled its first “brain fart” of the week and almost managed to get us lost in the 5 km between Roissy and the airport so we decided to ignore the thing and follow the signs to the airport.  When we pulled into the Hertz rental lot the nice man who greeted us asked if the car had performed adequately and I informed him that it had and gladly handed him the keys.  I loved the car, but I’ve never been happier to get rid of anything in my life.

So here are the lessons I learned:

  1. Never have all of your credit cards through one bank.
  2. Either travel with a mobile phone with a SIM card or make sure you have some form of back-up communications plan in the event of a snafu with your cards.
  3. Live within your means. If you’re not a BMW guy, don’t rent one.  The headaches just aren’t worth it.
  4. BMWs go fast. Really, really fast. It is fun.

BTW, the trip was great and I’m sure I’ll have many posts about it in the near future.  In the meantime you can check out these pics if you want.

We’re all happy to be home and if you see a tall goofy looking guy driving around Winston-Salem in a little blue four-cylinder Saturn and he has a huge grin on his face you’ll probably be able to guess it’s me.

What Does Niger’s Embassy in Rome Have to Do With Us?

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What does a petty robbery of Niger’s embassy in Rome in January, 2001 have to do with us?  Plenty it seems:

The case is a simple one: Thieves broke into the apartment-sized
embassy of Niger, located on the northern cusp of Rome’s historical
center, while the staff was away the day after New Year’s in 2001. The
intruders made off with a few seemingly unimportant items that included
a few sheets of stationary and a stamp with the country’s official seal.

More than two years later, the case for taking the US-named War on
Terror to Iraq was made based on forged documents made from those items
– the falsified information behind US President George W Bush’s now
famous 16-word State of the Union claim that "The British government
has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities
of uranium from Africa."

That Iraq never sought uranium from Africa is now well known. But
the tale of how the claim came to be made still offers new and relevant
lessons.

The case is detailed in a new 250-page book – "Collusion:
International Espionage and the War on Terror" – written by Italian
investigative journalists Carlo Bonini and Giuseppe D’Avanzo. The book
points a finger at disgraced former Italian secret agent Rocco Martino
who allegedly forged the documents and sold them for cash to his former
bosses with the Italian intelligence agency SISME, with no idea how
important they would become.

Also to blame is Silvio Berlusconi, who in 2001 was Italy’s newly
elected prime minister eager to curry favor with Washington and its
allies. Berlusconi’s government passed the information on to London and
from there it made it to the White House. It was not thoroughly checked
out at either stop.

Source: ISN

It seems the information wasn’t thoroughly checked out at its destination either.  You know, if this was a movie no one would believe it because they’d assume that there’s no way that three governments could bumble so badly.  I think one of the byproducts of growing up in Washington is that I absolutely find it believable. One rubber stamp, plus one moronic ex-spy, plus three western governments equals the death of tens of thousands?  If you’ve been in Washington for more than 10 minutes you know that it’s more than possible, it’s probable.

Justin Turns 11

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Justin, our youngest, turns 11 today and it’s kind of hard to wrap my head around the fact that he’s just a step or two away from teenager status.  It’s also hard to believe that he’s less than a month away from ending his elementary school days, which means we as a family will be done with elementary school.  Yikes.

P3080264
We actually kicked off his birthday celebration last night with a party for him and about 15 classmates at Bounce U, an indoor facility that contains lots of the blow up "moon bounce"-type slides, obstacle courses, dodge ball arenas, tug-of-war, etc. activities.  The kids spent 1 1/2 hours in the activity area and then retired to a private room for pizza, soda and cake.  Bounce U assigned two assistants (two girls from West Forsyth High School) to our party and they monitored the kids during their play time, served up all the food and drink, lit the candles on the birthday cake , led the singing of "Happy Birthday" and coordinated the gift opening for Justin.  They even made a gift list for us so we could do thank you notes afterwards.  If you’re going to give a party for over a dozen 5th grade boys Bounce U offers a great place/way to do it.

What made last night particularly great was that for some reason we can’t put our finger on we haven’t had a "party-party" for Justin in years.  We’ve always seemed to end up doing a little something for him, but we haven’t had a big blowout in years and, bless his heart, Justin has not once complained. Watching him go nuts with his buddies was a real thrill for me and Celeste.

Justin is a great kid, a voracious reader and possessor of a quiet and subtle wit.  Whenever we visit other homes, or go to large parties people always ask "Where’s Justin" because he’s so quiet and he tends to disappear into a corner so he can read his latest book of choice.  He can be the same way at home, but just as often he’s the source of the most surprising comments and comedy in our household.  It seems that every day he says something that causes his parents and older siblings to say, "How does he know that?" or "Where did he learn that?"

To give you an idea of what kind of kid we’re talking about I can share a couple of details from the party last night that says it all: two of the boys gave him gift cards to Barnes & Noble.  They know how much he loves to read and he was thrilled to get them since in his mind they’re as good as cash.  On the other hand Justin looked just a tad uncomfortable when he was opening gifts.  He doesn’t like being the focus of attention  and if he had his druthers he’d have retired to a corner to open his gifts while everyone else partied.  That’s just the kind of kid he is.

Part of me is sad that we’re quickly saying goodbye to the "little kid" phase of our parenthood (I know Celeste is really hating it), but the other part is really enjoying the view as our kids blossom into pre-adults.  Yeah, they drive me nuts sometimes but nights like last night really drive home how special the kids are.  If Justin is half the man that he is a boy then he’s going to set the world on fire in his own quiet way, but I’m in no hurry to see it. For now I’m looking forward to enjoying his 11th year.

Happy birthday J.

SB1006: Why it Matters

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Winston-Salem Journal managing editor Ken Otterbourg has a great post today on why SB1006 is important here in North Carolina:

I want to get on my soapbox for a few minutes and talk about SB1006,
which is making its way through the General Assembly. It’s another
example of the slow and steady erosion of North Carolina’s
public-records laws. The bill, sponsored by Sen. Tony Rand, of
Fayetteville, carves out an exemption in the public-records law for
public hospitals when they buy private medical practices.

These purchases have been going on for some time, and are part of
the general consolidation in the medical/health care industry, with
hospitals having primary care practices. Forsyth/Novant has these
arrangements. So does WFUBMC, the other 800 lb gorilla at the opposite
end of Hawthorne Road. These are both private, not-for-profit entities,
and, the argument goes, that public hospitals need the same sort of
privacy if they are going to be able to compete.

It’s a common-sense solution, supporters say. To me, the key word in
this debate is public. A hospital that is owned by taxpayers is a
different entity. The money, the assets, the reputation, it’s all owned
by us. If a private hospital wants to overpay for a clinical practice,
that’s OK. But taxpayers ought to know how public officials are
spending their money.

Yep.

Coaching Done Right

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I want to give a public shout out to Justin’s (my youngest son) baseball coach, Dale Slate.  Dale’s enthusiasm and dedication to the boys is infectious and it is telling that the two boys with the least experience on the team for their age (Justin and another boy) are thriving and having a good time.  Dale’s approach is not to baby the boys, but to demand 100% effort from them and for them to play to their ability.  It doesn’t mean he expects a kid who normally has a hard time hitting the ball to come out and go 2 for 3 every game, but he does expect that kid to swing.  He doesn’t expect a kid just learning how to throw to go out and pitch a no-hitter, but he finds spots in the game for that kid to get a chance to take the mound and give it his best shot.  He doesn’t penalize failure, but he expects the kids to pay attention and hustle.  The long and the short of it is that he’s the best youth coach I’ve ever been around.

On top of doing all the on-the-field stuff, Dale also puts out an email after each game that’s written like an article in the sports page.  He makes sure each boy is mentioned and he does it after every game.  Here’s the latest:

Rattlers Slither by RiverDogs 6-5
Rattlers hang on for 8th straight victory

On a hot day in a well-played game between two of the top teams, the
Rattlers managed to end the Dogs’ rally in the bottom of the last inning
with the tying run on third base. On a day when the Rattlers’ top of the
order was shut down, the rest of the team stepped up to secure the victory
to remain in first place.

After the Rattlers were retired in order to start the game, Fernando pitched
and retired the first batter on a pop-up. The RiverDogs then pushed across
two runs on four straight hits. In the top of the second inning, the
Rattlers bats came alive. Bobby continued his recent hitting streak with a
single off of the kid pitcher. Connor, Fernando and Blake all followed with
hits to tie the score. Cody then grounded out but drove in the third run in
the process. Keyon’s ground out moved Blake into scoring position, and
Justin drove him in with a sharp single with two outs. Fernando pitched well
in the second inning, holding the RiverDogs scoreless thanks to two great
plays by Justin. He got the first out when he stopped a hard grounder and
threw to Dakota at first. After Fernando struck out the second batter,
Justin managed to hold on to a pop-up at third base just as he was getting
clobbered by a hustling Fernando.

The third inning was rather quiet, as the Rattlers went down in order and
the RiverDogs scratched out only one hit against Dakota. Bobby got the third
out when he caught a blooper at second base. In the fourth inning the
Rattlers got two VERY important runs to push the lead to 6-2. Bobby again
led off with a line drive single off of the kid. Connor and Fernando then
ripped singles to get Bobby home, and Cody drove in Fernando with a key
two-out hit. In the bottom of the inning, the RiverDogs managed to scratch
across one run on a sacrifice fly that Fernando ran down.

In the fifth Kyndale ripped his second hit of the game off of a kid pitcher,
the 6-3 lead. After getting the first batter on a pop-up to Bobby at third,\u003cbr /\>the next two RiverDogs ripped a double and homerun to cut the lead to one as\u003cbr /\>the pressure was building (at least for the parents and coaches). Fernando\u003cbr /\>then made a terrific play on a grounder to first base for the second out\u003cbr /\>that seemed to settle everyone down – momentarily. But then the RiverDogs\u003cbr /\>batter ripped a double and stole third to get everyone back out of their\u003cbr /\>seats. With the parents holding their breaths when the RiverDogs coach came\u003cbr /\>in to pitch to the next batter and Coach Slate digging a trench in front of\u003cbr /\>the dugout as he paced back and forth, Coach Corn stayed cool and said\u003cbr /\>everything was going to be okay. When the coach\’s last pitch went by the\u003cbr /\>batter and settled in Blake\’s mitt for the final out, everyone was able to\u003cbr /\>breathe a big collective, sigh of relief and the Rattlers remained tied for\u003cbr /\>first place.\u003cbr /\>For the game Connor, Bobby, Fernando and Kyndale were all 2 for 2. Fernando\u003cbr /\>and Cody led the way with 2 RBI each. While Cam, Davis and Dakota were held\u003cbr /\>hitless, none of them got to bat off of me and all of them hit the ball hard\u003cbr /\>- the defense just made the plays to get them out. The Rattlers managed 5\u003cbr /\>hits off of kid pitchers – Bobby and Kyndale had two each and Fernando had\u003cbr /\>one. The Rattlers pitchers had a good day against a good hitting team, only\u003cbr /\>allowing their coach to come in six times in the five innings.\u003cbr /\>Next up will be the Grasshoppers, the team that dealt us our only loss thus\u003cbr /\>far. Game time is 9:00 next Saturday on field # 4. The kids should be at the\u003cbr /\>field by 8:15. We will have a practice on Friday night at 6:00 at Reedy\u003cbr /\>Creek. Directions will be coming in a separate email.\u003cbr /\>Happy Mother\’s Day to all! Go Rattlers!\u003cbr /\>\u003c/div\>”,0]
);
//–>but was stranded on base. Cam came on to pitch the last inning and protect
the 6-3 lead. After getting the first batter on a pop-up to Bobby at third,
the next two RiverDogs ripped a double and homerun to cut the lead to one as
the pressure was building (at least for the parents and coaches). Fernando
then made a terrific play on a grounder to first base for the second out
that seemed to settle everyone down – momentarily. But then the RiverDogs
batter ripped a double and stole third to get everyone back out of their
seats. With the parents holding their breaths when the RiverDogs coach came
in to pitch to the next batter and Coach Slate digging a trench in front of
the dugout as he paced back and forth, Coach Corn stayed cool and said
everything was going to be okay. When the coach’s last pitch went by the
batter and settled in Blake’s mitt for the final out, everyone was able to
breathe a big collective, sigh of relief and the Rattlers remained tied for
first place.

For the game Connor, Bobby, Fernando and Kyndale were all 2 for 2. Fernando
and Cody led the way with 2 RBI each. While Cam, Davis and Dakota were held
hitless, none of them got to bat off of me and all of them hit the ball hard
– the defense just made the plays to get them out. The Rattlers managed 5
hits off of kid pitchers – Bobby and Kyndale had two each and Fernando had
one. The Rattlers pitchers had a good day against a good hitting team, only
allowing their coach to come in six times in the five innings.

I think I saw what makes Dale tick the week before last.  That Thursday I flew in from New York and got to Justin’s field in the middle of the game.  When I walked up I saw Justin taking the mound for the first time in his life and I can’t tell you how thrilled I was for him.  After the game I mentioned it to Dale and his eyes lit up with excitement.  I think to him that story symbolizes what Little League, or any youth sport, is all about.  He knew I didn’t care if Justin struck out anybody, or even if Justin threw a single strike.  I just cared that Justin got to try, that he got to feel what it was like to stretch his boundaries and most importantly that I (and the rest of our family) got to share that moment with him.  And it says a lot about Dale that he was also excited for us.

Dale and the other coaches on the team do try to win games, but I can tell you that the emphasis is on how the boys play, not the score.  The result is a team of boys who are having a ball and learning how to play in the process.  It’s been a lot of fun to watch.

Mother’s Day, Lowder Style

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Yesterday was Mother’s Day, which until Saturday I was pretty sure was an event invented by the folks at Hallmark.  Then I read that the genesis of Mother’s Day was as a kind of peacenik revolution started in 1870 by some ladies who didn’t want to see a repeat of the carnage of the Civil War.  Thus another gap in my education has been revealed.

In our home yesterday this is how our mom-in-residence was celebrated:

  • My daughter Erin presented Celeste with a necklace that featured a stone she’d found in a mine during a school trip.  The trip was about a month ago and the stone was found because Erin and a friend brought their own money and decided to upgrade from the $5 bucket to the $10 bucket so they’d be guaranteed a better "find". She found what looked like a cut diamond and on the spot decided it would make a great Mother’s Day gift.  I was away on business so she emailed me to ask if I would help her get it set when I got home from my trip.  Last week we went to Davie Jewelers in Clemmons and after I was assured the stone wasn’t in fact paste (ends up it was aqua) we had it set in a white-gold pendant and bought a white-gold necklace for it to be worn on. Erin joked that she provided the labor while I provided the capital.  That girl’s going places…she already knows in business you only risk other people’s money!  Of course Celeste was moved to tears.
  • Our youngest, Justin, hopped out of bed and decided to wake his mom up by presenting her with a card he’d made at school.  Actually it was more like a booklet made from a brown kraft paper gift bag and some linen-like paper.  Each page had a reason that Justin appreciated Celeste and of course that moved Celeste to tears as well.  My personal favorite was page 5.  At the top it says "You take care of me when I’m sick" and then in the middle Justin drew a picture of a note from the school.  The note says "Note from the school.  Your child has:" and then it gives the following choices:

A. Thrown Up
B. Something Else

And then there’s an entry that has been erased, but is still faintly legible:

C. Died

Ah, the value of a good editor.

  • Proving that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree my oldest son woke up and was oblivious to the fact that it was Mother’s Day until his sister told him what she’d done for their Mom.  Quick as a flash he hunted Celeste down to give her a hug and a heart felt "Happy Mother’s Day" while we exchanged that look known to men everywhere, that "Holy crap I almost forgot" look tinged with the "I’m sure she’s fine just knowing I love her, and she doesn’t need a gift to tell her that" gleam in the eye.  I also suspected a hint of "Dad you hung me out to dry" in his look, but I can’t be sure.
  • Me, with my 40 years of practice dealing with Mother’s Day, came through with a nice dinner out at New Town Bistro.  This was planned while sitting in the Lowe’s Hardware parking lot after we spent a couple of hours pricing out potential materials for a basement renovation project we’re planning.  Just color me romantic!  I was feeling pretty good about things until I remembered that this is the same woman who got me a large screen TV for Father’s Day a few years back.  And I come up with…dinner?

Yep, it was a pretty typical Mother’s Day in our house.