Author Archives: Jon Lowder

Apartment in Paris Locked for 70 Years, Houses Amazing Portrait

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One of those stories that highlights why life truly is stranger, or at least more interesting, than fiction:

Behind the door, under a thick layer of dusk lay a treasure trove of turn-of-the-century objects including a painting by the 19th century Italian artist Giovanni Boldini.

The woman who owned the flat had left for the south of France before the Second World War and never returned.

But when she died recently aged 91, experts were tasked with drawing up an inventory of her possessions and homed in on the flat near the Trinité church in Paris between the Pigalle red light district and Opera…

But he said his heart missed a beat when he caught sight of a stunning tableau of a woman in a pink muslin evening dress.

The painting was by Boldini and the subject a beautiful Frenchwoman who turned out to be the artist's former muse and whose granddaughter it was who had left the flat uninhabited for more than half a century.

Hybrid Animals Kinda Freak Me Out

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I'm not a big fan of hybrid animals.  Flying squirrels?  Rats with long poofy tails are bad enough, but when they can fly they become downright repulsive.  Fish that can walk across land? Scary.  Fish that can fly? They just keep me from wanting to get into any kind of boat that's not armored.  Even if you don't agree with me you have to admit that this is kinda freaky:

Case Study on Good Corporate Twitter-care

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Last week the organization I work for (Triad Apartment Association) hosted its regular monthly dinner meeting and it was one of the most successful meetings we've had in a long time.  The topic was social media and it featured a presentation on the "Top 10 Things You Need to Know About Social Media" and was followed by a Q&A session with some social media experts from the apartment industry. One recurring theme that evolved from the presentation and the Q&A was the importance of being active in the social media sphere, and being prepared to engage with customers and prospects via Facebook, Twitter, etc.

I thought of that today when I observed the interaction between one of my coworkers, Rachel, and Enterprise Rent-A-Car.  Enterprise told Rachel that they'd be at our office to pick her up at 2 p.m.  At 2:15 she called them to see where they were and they indicated that the driver had left on time and knew where he was going so he should be here any time.  Rachel waited a few more minutes and then wrote this on Twitter at 2:21:

Hey Enterprise, remember when you said "We'll pick you up at 2!" That was awesome. Except. You didn't. #tickfreakingtock

Obviously she was being funny, but it's also obvious she's getting a little annoyed. Well, someone at Enterprise is on the ball because within 20 minutes @enterprisecares Tweeted the this:

Have you called re: the delay? If you need anything else follow us & I'll DM my contact info to get details (Elizabeth)

Needless to say Rachel was impressed and is currently a very happy Enterprise customer.  BTW, the driver showed up just a couple of minutes later; he'd gone to the wrong address which is not uncommon for people coming to our office since it's a kind of weird location. 

Here's a screen shot of my Tweetdeck showing the interaction. Very well done Enterprise:

TwitterCustomerCare
 

Clapper’s New Position

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I found it fascinating that Rob Clapper, who recently left his position as president of the Greensboro Chamber of Commerce for what he termed a great career opportunity, is landing at the Prince William Chamber of Commerce in Northern Virginia. It's fascinating to me because Prince William County is where I lived for close to 10 years before moving to the Piedmont Triad, and Clapper's move reinforces for me just how much has changed in Northern Virginia in the last 15 years.

Until very recently Prince William was a sleepy bedroom community for Washington, DC and the various chambers in the county reflected that stature. If you'd have told me in 1996 that someone was leaving the role of president of the chamber of one of the biggest cities in North Carolina to take over a chamber in Prince William, and that he'd see it as a step up on the career curve, I'd have asked you what you or he was smoking. 

Fifteen years later the population in Prince William has exploded and lots of companies have chosen to plant roots there; just from 2000-2009 the population and number of non-farm jobs each grew by about 35%. Add to that the merger of the smaller chambers to create one large chamber and you have a pretty attractive job for someone in Clapper's position. 

Of course one of the main reasons my wife and I moved our family out of Prince William County was that the growth was just too much for us. The growth was happening so quickly, and with such poor planning, that day-to-day life was becoming unbearable.  Because the road infrastructure didn't keep up with the residential and commercial development the traffic came to be a defining factor in how we lived, and according to my in-laws things have only gotten worse.  

So my congratulations to Mr. Clapper on the new gig, but also my best wishes in adjusting to the ever growing beast that is the DC metroplex.  As for the Greensboro gig, well I'd say to any candidate considering the position it's a pretty sweet opportunity.  The Piedmont Triad's a great place to live and I think there's a lot of opportunity to do great things here as we move beyond the recent economic apocalypse.

BTW, I received an email sent today to all Greensboro Chamber members letting us know that a search committee has been formed, and telling us that if we know anyone interested in the job to have them contact Ingrid Hopper at ihopper@greensboro.org. So there you go.

A Cover Letter I’d Love to Have the Guts to Write, and, Journalism Hasn’t Changed Much in 50 Years

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Hunter S. Thompson wrote an incredible cover letter to accompany his application for a job with the Vancouver Sun in 1958.  You can read the full in all its glory here, but I offer this excerpt as evidence that journalism apparently hasn't changed much in 50 years:

The enclosed clippings should give you a rough idea of who I am. It's a year old, however, and I've changed a bit since it was written. I've taken some writing courses from Columbia in my spare time, learned a hell of a lot about the newspaper business, and developed a healthy contempt for journalism as a profession.

As far as I'm concerned, it's a damned shame that a field as potentially dynamic and vital as journalism should be overrun with dullards, bums, and hacks, hag-ridden with myopia, apathy, and complacence, and generally stuck in a bog of stagnant mediocrity. If this is what you're trying to get The Sun away from, then I think I'd like to work for you. 

Soft Serve Chicken

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Chickstrawberrysoftserve
 Via the Fooducate blog:

Folks, this is mechanically separated chicken, an invention of the late 20th century. Someone figured out in the 1960’s that meat processors can eek out a few more percent of profit from chickens, turkeys, pigs, and cows by scraping the bones 100% clean of meat. This is done by machines, not humans, by passing bones leftover after the initial cutting through a high pressure sieve. The paste you see in the picture above is the result.

This paste goes on to become the main ingredient in many a hot dog, bologna, chicken nuggets, pepperoni, salami, jerky etc…

The industry calls this method AMR – Advanced Meat Recovery.

Just think about that picture the next time you get ready to bite into a hot dog.  Yuuuum! 

Proving the Prudes are Full of Sh-

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From an article about the 2010 Ig Nobel Awards:

Peace prize

Awarded to psychologist Richard Stephens and others at Keele University for confirming that swearing relieves pain. Stephens, who began the study after striking his thumb with a hammer, found volunteers could tolerate more pain if they repeated swearwords rather than neutral words. He suspects that "swearing induces a fight-or-flight response and nullifies the link between fear of pain and pain perception".

Man, do I have a plethora of experiences I could use to back up these findings.  Exhibit A: When I was a freshman in college I played soccer for a small Lutheran college in Nebraska.  Before one home game our coach told us that his wife was disturbed by some of the language she heard from us on the field and he asked us to watch our mouths.  Well, we all thought he was full of crap but me being a wet-behind-the-ears freshman I decided to do my best to honor his request.  I was doing fine until midway through the second half when an opposing player absolutely demolished me with a late tackle.  He hit me so hard I did a full flip and landed on my back, and since these were the days before shin guards were required I had no protection where he hit me.  As soon as I hit the ground I spewed out so many f-bombs and unique combinations of every curse word known to man that I'm sure I made even the saltiest people in attendance blush.  When they dragged me to the sideline I stole a glance at the coach's wife and she looked like she'd been sucking on a bagful of lemons, but I couldn't have cared less because my leg was half broken and the cussing really did seem to help.