Reynolds Gets Front Page Treatment on the Other WSJ

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The Wall Street Journal gives front page treatment to Reynolds' moves in the smokeless tobacco market. Here's a lead paragraph that'll grab you:

During board meetings, Reynolds American Inc. Chief Executive Susan Ivey likes to suck on dissolvable smokeless-tobacco strips to get her nicotine fix.

That visual just doesn't conjure up the same, well, sophisticated image as the execs on Mad Men sucking on Camels, which I'm thinking is going to be a marketing challenge for Ivey and her cohorts. I mean if we're going to be honest with ourselves we have to admit that smoking looks a lot cooler than sucking on something, even if it does make you smell like a wet goat.

Please Promise Me You’ll Pull a Hendrix If You Win

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The Winston-Salem Dash are auditioning people to sing the National Anthem this season.  Please, please, please promise me that if you win you'll be more Hendrix and less Roseanne when you perform. From the Dash press release:

Tryouts for the chance to sing the National Anthem at a Winston-Salem Dash game this season.  More than 150 entrants will sing acapella versions of “The Star-Spangled Banner” before a panel of guest judges. 

Tryouts will begin on Saturday, March 27 at noon and will end at approximately 6 p.m.

Where: Hanes Mall, in the lower level plaza near the carousel

For more information, please visit www.wsdash.com

Like an Orange on a Toothpick

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A buddy of mine found this YouTube clip of one of my all-time favorite minor movie characters: the Scottish dad in "So I Married an Ax Murderer." The line referenced in the title of this post is one I use on my kids regularly and virtually guarantees counseling for them when they're old enough for me to not have to pay for it. Enjoy:

Census Response Rate Map – Forsyth County’s Response Better Than Guilford’s

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If you're interested in how many people are actually sending in their completed 2010 Census forms there's a handy-dandy map to use right here. FYI, 16% of US citizens have sent the forms in so far, but in NC only 10% have done so.  In 2000 72% of US citizens completed the Census when all was said and done, and 66% of North Carolinians did so it looks like we're keeping to our underachieving ways.

FYI, according to the map Forsyth County's response rate is currently 15% while Guilford County's is 13%, Mecklenburg County's is 12% and Wake County's is a paltry 4%.

I’d Like to Thank the Vice President

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I'd like to thank Vice President Biden for giving me an easy cover while emceeing the Diamond Awards last night for my day job.  I started the evening by saying "My main goal tonight is to not pull a Biden."  

If you haven't figured it out by now my modus operandi is to set an exceptionally low bar and then crawl over it.

If you live in a cave and haven't heard the (newest) Biden blurt here it is:


The $9 Million (Other) Woman

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Did you know that in North Carolina you can sue the other woman (or man) if your spouse is cheating on you?  Believe it or not you can, and it can even work.  A woman just won a $9 million verdict against the younger woman with whom her husband was fooling around.  From the story:

On Tuesday , a jury awarded Cynthia Shackelford  money for alienation of affections, criminal conversation (legal speak for adultery) and intentionally or recklessly causing severe emotional distress.

North Carolina remains one of a few states that allow someone to sue the person who interferes in a marriage — called alienation of affection. More than 200  such cases are filed statewide in an average year, according to the Rosen  law firm in Raleigh.

Shackelford, 60 , now of Raleigh , sued Lundquist in 2007 , charging that the younger woman’s affair with her husband ruined their marriage.

Convert or Burn in Hell?

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Generally I don't care how people observe their faith.  Want to stand on a street corner and shout about it? Fine by me.  Want to clang cymbals or speak in tongues?  Fine by me.  Want to pronounce your faith to everyone within shouting distance?  Annoying, but okay.  That said, this post by a minister in Lewisville really bothered me when I read it.  It starts:

We need your help. A couple in our church has been sharing Jesus with a woman who is near death in Hospice. Her name is — —-*. She is a Buddhist and if she dies without Christ, she will go to Hell. Will you please take a few moments right now and pray for — to receive Christ?

* I wasn't comfortable using her name in this post.

I do understand that he and the members of his flock mean well, and I also think they sincerely believe that they're endeavoring to save this woman from an eternity in hell, but man I cringe when I think of someone who is in the final stages of life, who is likely in extreme discomfort, being proselytized and told that her own religious belief is going to condemn her to hell.

Personally I think they should pray for her just as they should pray for the well being of anyone, but I don't buy the need for the deathbed proselytizing. I used to get a similar feeling when I had some pretty heated debates with the (very conservative) principal of my Lutheran high school.  He just couldn't convince me that God would condemn any good person to hell, no matter their faith. I guess that's one opinion I haven't changed at all over the years.

Split Google Loyalties

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Today I attended the Linking Winston-Salem luncheon and part of the program was a plea to support the Winston-Salem effort to get Googled. Winston-Salem is a little late getting started with its public push, especially when you compare it to Greensboro's weeks old effort, but I guess it's better late than never, and since I live in the Winston-Salem burbs I'm happy to see them going for it.

On the other hand thanks to my job and my long-time interest in the Greensboro blog community I've also been invited to participate in their various Google-wooing efforts.  Typical of Greensboro they've been working out the kinks in public, but they seem to be making decent headway.

I've been thinking about this and I've come to the conclusion that I can't be the only one who's in this situation.  I'm guessing that since this isn't an election I can vote for as many municipalities as I want, but I'm also guessing that Greensboro and Winston-Salem could be missing an opportunity.  Wouldn't a consolidated, regional effort for the Triad make a lot of sense to Google?  I haven't studied the requirements in depth so I don't know if this is even an option, but if it is I can think of a lot of compelling reasons for a Piedmont Triad effort:

  • The combination of all the higher ed institutions in the Triad is pretty impressive (Wake, UNCG, Winston-Salem State, NC A&T, High Point U, Salem College, Greensboro College, UNCSA, etc.)
  • The combination of all the large, public corporations between the two cities
  • Each of the cities is doing some pretty cool economic development on its own (FedEx and HondaJet in Greensboro, PTRP in Winston-Salem) but when considered together the efforts seem even more impressive

That's just three positives off the top of my head, and I'm sure that there are people who will let me know if I'm all wet, but I still have to ask if a joint effort has even been contemplated?

I do realize that Google's basic info page says "We'll offer service at a competitive price to at least 50,000 and potentially up to 500,000 people" and that even if you combined only Greensboro and Winston-Salem you'd be awful close to the upper limit so the entire Triad would obviously exceed it.  Still, if Google's going to wire multiple mid-sized cities wouldn't it be of interest to them to do a couple in close proximity for purely logistical reasons?  And if that's the case wouldn't it make sense for the various players in the Triad to throw in together to make a really, really compelling case with Google?  Just askin'.

Less than Zero

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Before I start let me please ask one thing: family and friends who know me well, please try to keep the snickering to a minimum as you read this.  Here goes.

One of the requirements of my day job is working with our finance committee to figure out how to manage the association's money.  Cash management is a given for any company, but like many non-profits we have emergency reserves that we have to manage and make sure they will indeed be there for a rainy day.  (The thought of me managing emergency reserves is what probably has my family and friends snickering since I'm the same guy who in college, and the ensuing years until marriage, managed his checking account via ATM. If there was money there I took it and if there wasn't I just shrugged, wondered where the hell it had all gone and resigned myself to eating peanut butter until the next payday arrived). The association's bylaws limit what we can do with the reserves so there's really not a lot of thinking to do.  We just have to find the best possible return in money market funds or CDs and we have to make sure they are structured so that they're fully insured. Here's the rub: CDs and money market funds currently have rates that range from zero (that's right, nada) to one or two percent.  Unless inflation stays that low then our money is effectively losing value as it sits in the bank.

All that's to say that if you have financial reserves with which you need to play it safe then you're going to have to accept break even as a good deal for the time being.  Along those lines Fred Wilson has a very pertinent and must-ready post here.