You're fired !

 

At some point in our lives, we have all faced a job loss. It may be due to corporate downsizing, mergers, getting a new boss who doesn’t like you, and (on occasion) due to the fact that you screwed up.

 

Although the job loss can be unsettling at the time, it often leads to a new job that is more rewarding. A prime example of that is Handy Dan Home Improvement stores.

Handy Dan Home Improvement was one of the first home improvement retailer chains. It went out of business in May, 1989.

 Bernard Marcus was CEO of Handy Dan in 1978 when he was fired along with company vice president Arthur Blank amid a corporate power struggle with Sanford C. Sigoloff, who led Handy Dan's owner at the time, Daylin Inc. Marcus and Blank went on to found Home Depot.

Daylin was purchased by W. R. Grace and Company in 1979. In 1986, Grace's retail home improvement division, which included Handy Dan and Channel Home Centers, was sold to the division's executives through a leveraged buyout.

Handy Dan played a major role in getting Texas's religion-based blue laws repealed in 1984 by opening on Sunday and using white price stickers for goods that could be sold seven days a week, and blue price stickers for items that could not be sold on Sunday.

After they were fired, Marcus and Blank decided to form their own company.

With the help of merchandising expert Pa Farrah and investment banker Ken Langone, they formed the Home Depot corporation.

The store revolutionized the home improvement business with its warehouse concept. Blank, Marcus, and Langone became billionaires. Marcus served as the company's first CEO for 19 years and also served as chairman of the board until his retirement in 2002. Marcus was inducted into the Junior Achievement U.S. Business Hall of Fame in 2006.

Marus is the son of Russian Jewish immigrants, and Arthur Blank was also born into a Jewish family. Both he and Bernard Marcus have set up charitable foundations, but lank has also acquired some sports teams.

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Marcus

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Blank

 

Although Both Marcus and Blank have demonstrated how to build a successful company, Barnard Marcus is also a poster child for what NOT to do.

Home Depot is  under fire again with social media users calling for a boycott of the home improvement retailer after its co-founder said he was going to support President Donald Trump in the 2020 election. The backlash came after an opinion article appeared on Fox News from Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus explaining why he was supporting President Trump for a second term.

In the article, Marcus said, “President Trump has stared down COVID-19, the biggest threat this country has faced in at least a generation. If re-elected, he will quickly end this COVID nightmare and restart the American dream. Just look at Thursday's record 33.1 percent GDP growth for the latest proof.

“Trump deserves a second term not despite his COVID-19 response, but because of it. While Democrats try to blame Trump for the roughly 220,000 disease victims, far more would have perished if Joe Biden were in office.”

Marcus went on to explain why other Americans should also vote for Trump, concluding the article by saying, “That Trump has held his Republican caucus and base, despite this unprecedented climate, is a testament to his leadership, charisma, and policy agenda. He is truly Ronald Reagan’s heir. He deserves four more years.”

Following the article, calls for a boycott of Home Depot began circulating on Twitter, with users telling Americans to instead shop at Lowe’s. The hashtag #boycotthomedepot began making its way around the social media site as users criticized Marcus for his Trump support. In 2016, he was one of Trump’s largest donors, giving $7 million to his campaign.

 

https://www.ibtimes.com/heres-why-more-people-are-boycotting-home-depot-3075048

$7 million is a lot of money, but it pales in comparison to what the late Sheldon Adelson and his wife have contributed to the Republican Party. Since 2016, the total is $424 million, but his net worth is still $35 billion.

https://www.newsweek.com/sheldon-adelson-donald-trump-republicans-donations-1560883

I’m not a big believer in boycotts, even though we DID boycott Papa John’s for a few years due to founder John Schnatter’s political positions.

In 2012, Papa John's and Schnatter received media attention after he made critical comments about the Affordable Care Act to a class on entrepreneurship. In a shareholder conference call, Schnatter said that he opposed the ACA because "our best estimate is that the Obamacare will cost 11 to 14 cents per pizza".

Schnatter hosted a fundraiser at his home for Republican Party candidate Mitt Romney in May 2012.

Schnatter contributed to Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign and made supportive comments about his administration in January 2017.

Schnatter stepped down as CEO on January 1, 2018, after controversy around his comments that the National Football League (NFL), who had a business affiliation with Papa John's, had not done enough to stop national anthem protests by NFL players, and that the protests had hurt his business. Before he stepped down, his comments had resulted in the NFL cancelling its association with Papa John's.

After stepping down as CEO, Schnatter remained chairman of the board of directors until July 2018, when it was revealed that, during an internal sensitivity-training May 2018 conference call, he pointed out that Colonel Sanders had used the word "nigger" without backlash. Schnatter resigned when the comment became public, but has since maintained that the board conspired against him and unfairly forced him out of his position.

Now that Schnatter is no longer running the company, Papa John’s is the ONLY pizza that Sharon eats on a regular basis.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Schnatter

In a lot of ways, this story provides proof that the hurdles we all face in life are not the end of the world, since they can be overcome. However, this story is also a reminder that you have to be VERY careful about who you share your political views with. (As of February 11 of this year, 18 retailers have stopped selling My Pillow products).

 

 

 

 

wake up and smell the coffee

 

If you’ve been a regular reader, you may remember that people have been drinking coffee for roughly 1000 years, and it was originally discovered by Muslim goatherds in Ethiopia in the 9^th century. Because it was considered a “Muslim drink”, it did not appear in Europe until around 1600.

https://tohell-andback.blogspot.com/2009/03/muslims-and-dancing-goats.html

 

Although it has generally been considered an ordinary beverage, variations of the stuff can be very expensive. The most expensive variation is something called Kopi Luwak, which can cost as much as $600 a pound.

https://tohell-andback.blogspot.com/2012/07/this-coffee-tastes-like.html

 

The most expensive coffee that I have ever tasted personally is Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee, which costs about $40 a pound. Mine was a gift from an insurance friend, who was born in Jamaica.

https://www.jamaicancoffee.com/collections/blue-mountain?msclkid=b79eee86812c12b81cc18ff2adb87df6&utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Jamaican%20Coffee%20Campaign&utm_term=jamaican%20blue%20mountain%20coffee&utm_content=Jamaican%20Coffee

 

I don’t remember if it was much better than what I usually drank, but it was MUCH better than the Army coffee I drank in the National Guard, and also better than the store brands (Folger’s and Maxwell House) that my parents bought.

Like many beverages that we consume, there are a variety of opinions about whether coffee is safe to drink, or even good for you. Given that there can be as many as 1000 carcinogens in a cup of coffee, those are valid questions.

However, according to the Journal of American Medicine, coffee in moderate quantities can actually be good for you.

In addition to creating a lower risk for cardiovascular disease, it also can provide protection against Type 2 diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, and a variety of liver conditions, and it can also lower cholesterol.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/13/style/self-care/coffee-benefits.html?referringSource=articleShare

 

How the coffee is prepared, though, can result in different results. Experts warn that boiled coffee is not as healthy. Examples of this include the plunge-happy French press, Scandinavian coffee, or Greek and Turkish coffee — the kind commonly consumed in the Middle East. (When poured, the unfiltered grounds settle on the tiny cup’s bottom like sludge. To peek into the future, elders in the region have a tradition of reading the sediment of an overturned cup, like a crystal ball.)

However, the oil in boiled coffee has cafestol and kahweol, compounds called diterpenes. They are shown to raise LDL, the bad cholesterol, and slightly lower HDL, what’s known as the good kind.

To the list presented by the experts, I would also add the percolated coffee that we all drank in the 1970’s. It definitely was not good stuff.

When I was a kid, my grandparents on the farm in Hastings, Minnesota used to boil a pot of water on their wood burning stove, and toss in an egg and a cup of coffee. The idea was that egg would absorb the coffee grounds, but allow the flavor of the coffee itself to come through. That was before I drank coffee, but I remember that, at the very least, it smelled good.

The Vietnamese have created their own variation of egg coffee.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egg_coffee

 

An egg coffee (Vietnamese: Cà phê trứng)^[is a Vietnamese drink traditionally prepared with egg yolks, sugar, condensed milk and robusta coffee. The drink is made by beating egg yolks with sugar and coffee, then extracting the coffee into the half of the cup, followed by a similar amount of "egg cream"⁠ ⁠— egg yolks which are heated and beaten, or whisked.

The legend goes that fresh milk was in short supply during the war so whisked egg yolk was used as a replacement.

The drink is served in cafes throughout Vietnam, though it originates in Hanoi. The Giang Café (Vietnamese: Cà Phê Giảng) in Hanoi is known for serving the drink, which it makes with chicken egg yolk, coffee powder, condensed milk, and, optionally, cheese. The cup is sometimes served inside a bowl of hot water or set upon a small candle to retain its temperature. The son of the café's founder Nguyen Giang claims that his father developed the recipe for the drink when milk was scarce in Vietnam in the late 1940s, replacing the dairy product with egg yolk.

Although this type of coffee does not sound that appealing to me, “The Voice of Vietnam” proclaimed that it made the list of the top 10 drink list in 014.

 

Before I turn in for the night, I always load up the coffee pot in the kitchen, and set it to start brewing about 4:15. Not only does it serve as my alarm clock, the smell of freshly brewed coffee is a wonderful way to start the day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Father knows best

 

Father Knows Best is an American sitcom starring Robert Young, Jane Wyatt, Elinor Donahue, Billy Gray and Lauren Chapin. The series, which first began on radio in 1949, aired as a television show for six seasons with a total of 203 episodes. Created by Ed James, Father Knows Best follows the lives of the Andersons, a middle-class family living in the Midwestern town of Springfield. The state in which Springfield is located is never specified, but it is generally accepted to be located in the Midwestern United States.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Father_Knows_Best

 

The television series debuted on CBS in October 1954. It ran for one season and was canceled the following year. The series was picked up by NBC, where it remained for three seasons. After a second cancellation in 1958, the series was picked up yet again, by CBS, where it aired until May 1960.

When the show transitioned from radio to television, the character of Jim Anderson, the insurance agent, became less sarcastic and more understanding. In both the radio and television series, hie wife Margaret is portrayed as “the voice of reason”. On television, she was often seen wearing heels, a dress, and a string of pearls, even though few housewives at the time dressed like that on a regular basis.

In a way, “Father Knows Best” was similar to other shows at the time. Among them were the Ozzie and Harriet Show, My Three Sons, the Ed Sullivan Show, and the Lawrence Welk Show. All of them avoided conflict as much as possible, since they tried to be family-friendly shows. 

In January of 1968, “Laugh In” premiered, followed three years later by “All in the Family”. Although “wholesome” entertainment can still be found today, there are lot more shows today that are more open to controversy, and the Jerry Springer Show, which premiered in September of 1991, was the polar opposite of the shows of the 1950’s.

 

Those of us who are dads try to do the best for our kids, and usually we are smart enough not to be too controlling. Then again. James Parnell Spears is not like most dads. His temper, as well as his alcoholism, eventually led to two divorces.

His daughter Britney signed with Jive Records in 1997 at the age of 15. Two years later, her first two studio albums certified diamond, and she became an overnight success. Today, she is worth nearly $60 million.

Since having too much money at too young an age has not been a good thing for too many young performers, Mr. Spears got himself appointed as his daughter’s conservator in 2008, when she was 26 years old. Mr. Spears sought control over his pop-star daughter’s life and business, citing her mental health struggles and substance abuse. By 2008, she had been married and divorced twice.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Britney_Spears

For more than a decade, Britney Spears bristled behind closed doors at the court-approved control her father, James P. Spears, held over her life and fortune.

Now, for the first time since 2008, Ms. Spears, 39, will be without her father’s oversight, a Los Angeles judge has ruled, as the singer moves toward terminating her conservatorship altogether.

At a hearing on Wednesday, Judge Brenda Penny granted a petition by Ms. Spears’s lawyer, suspending Mr. Spears, 69, from his position as overseer of his daughter’s $60 million estate — a move Ms. Spears was pleading for, her lawyer said.

Although Mr. Spears had long maintained that the arrangement was voluntary and necessary to protect his daughter’s well-being — crediting the conservatorship with saving her life and revitalizing her career — he filed earlier this month to end it entirely, citing Ms. Spears’s wishes and recent shows of independence. (Ms. Spears said in June that she had not known she could move to end it.)

“This man does not belong in her life, your honor, for another day,” Mathew S. Rosengart, who took over as the singer’s lawyer in July, argued in court. “Please hear the plea of my client.” He said that it would be a “disaster” for Mr. Spears to remain in her life.

 

 

If you are the parent of a child with substance abuse issues, it can be difficult to know what to do.

I just finished reading Hunter Biden’s book, “Beautiful Things”, which details his struggles with drugs and alcohol. Although his dad tired to help, what finally got him back on the wagon was a chance meeting in California with a woman who would subsequently become his second wife.

Joe Biden did the best he could – and so did James Parnell Spears.

Although her fans are delighted by her new found freedom, the truth is that her dad did the right thing in 2008, proving (once again) that father knows best.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/29/arts/music/britney-spears-court-decision-conservatorship.html