Twenty Two: Open Letter to Callaway

Dear Mr. Fellows:

Having read the feature piece on you and ELY in the April issue of The Economist, I must express my sincere hope and desire that you fail miserably in your plans. I am devoted amateur golfer. At the age of 56 and after a lifetime of playing, watching, and learning the game of golf, I have gotten my index to 11.4. I enjoy everything about the game: Being outside with nature; camaraderie with friends and others I have never met; knowing that once I step onto the course, I will be isolated from the outside world for four hours; submitting myself to the rigorous rules; and perhaps most importantly, committing myself over a prolonged period to becoming a better golfer and person.

As I understand your philosophy, you want to change the game of golf to better support your company's balance sheet. Your backwards approach is precisely why you will fail. Instead of ELY serving "the game," you believe the game should serve ELY. It is one thing to manufacture equipment and clothing which golfers need and want. It is quite another to infect the game with non-golfers to line your own pockets.

Golf is not a "mass consumer" business in the traditional sense. It is more of a niche market, closer to the religion industry than to the deodorant and tampon business. It was probably a mistake for ELY to go public. Had the company stayed private, it would likely have provided a comfortable livelihood for its owners and employees, not to mention supplying good equipment for golfers. Now, you are beholden to hedge funds and quarterly profits, rather than the rules of the game.

Twenty One: Steinway For Sale

Since I have never had a single response to any of the prior posts here, I thought I'd try something different. No politics, golf, business, or parental whining. This is a personal ad.

Steinway, Model B, concert grand, ebony, vintage circa 1987 (what was known as the "CBS" period), for sale. Piano has never been moved since delivery to the Chicago area, and was maintained up to pitch until about 2001. Since then it has not been played, and thus will require some work. The instrument was a bonus from Steinway to me for my work at CBS Musical Instruments (Steinway, Fender, Lyon & Healy, Gemeinhardt, Leslie, Rodgers).

Interested parties can send a comment to this blog, or email me directly at todonnell@od-law.com.

Twenty: CBS (Probably) Dumps Couric

The obvious question is: What took so long? I suppose the first thing to understand about network "news" is that these productions have extremely minimal "news" value, as they are primarily entertainment and editorial in nature. The days of the media as a "reporter" of facts and events are long gone. As is commonly understood, the primary purpose of the "news anchor," whether on a national or local show, is to attract a certain demographic of viewer, thereby allowing the media company to charge proportionately more for its advertising. A secondary purpose, depending on the media outlet, is to present the "news" in such a way as to invisibly sway public opinion, while appearing to be neutral.

When CBS hired Ms. Couric, it was also widely understood that she was being hired because she was: a) female, b) a household name by virtue of her role as a host of the Today Show on NBC, and c)inoffensive (and hopefully attractive) to the desired advertising audience. Unfortunately for the inept and incompetent network managers at CBS (and of course CBS shareholders), the majority of the audience of the CBS Evening News and the other network news shows, has yet to comprehend that the producers of these "news" shows don't give a rat's behind about the news, and instead are simply trying to shove pretend "news" down viewers throats, while drug companies try to convince the same viewers that they need a lot of drugs to be happier, healthier, richer, and better looking. So the objectives of the network execs and the advertisers are both totally frustrated, because the audience still thinks they seeing and listening to an objective presentation of the news. And what the audience does fully comprehend, is that Katie Couric has as much connection to serious news as the the average Joe has to brain surgery.

So the CBS bald-faced attempt to skip the charade of pretending to present "news" has failed because the audience they think is too stupid to listen to real news and form their own judgments and opinions, has done exactly that.

Nineteen: Goodbye, Elliot (and good riddance)

So, another hypocrite bites the dust, and unfortunately all Elliot's victims are left with is ashes in their mouths, a bitter result. What goes around, comes around. Do unto others... Those who live in glass houses... What's good for the goose... The adages and folk wisdom seems so true, and in this case so apropos.

The press reported that Mrs. Spitzer was the party encouraging Elliot to try and stay in office. Where on earth do men find these women?

Eighteen: Hillary & Power

Most, if not all past U.S. presidents, and their families, have found the post-presidential years to be variously relaxing, fulfilling, fun, profitable, and stress-free (relatively speaking). Think of our recently retired presidents:

Clinton – globe-trotting speaker in search of six figure appearance fees to pay legal bills and replenish family finances. Also gets him away from Hillary, which comports with their notion of a “business marriage.”
Bush the Elder – spending time with family, parachuting, enjoying life.
Reagan – riding horses, enjoying life.
Carter – building houses, writing books, being a sanctimonious twit, enjoying life.
Ford – hitting people with golf balls, definitely enjoyed life.
Nixon – writing books, legacy repair.

After having what must be the most demanding job on the planet, ex-presidents (and their families) seek refuge wherever and however they can or wish. But not the Clintons. They want more. Why? One reason and one reason only. Power. Shear, unadulterated, unfettered, unadorned power. Bill of course, just wants to party, which comes with the power thing. But Hillary is driven and obsessed by her belief that only she can make decisions and allocate resources in the best interests of all Americans. It’s the same kind of thinking which allows her, for example, to at the end of the Texas debate say she is “honored” to be on stage with BO, and then less than 12 hours later, thrust a stiletto between his shoulder blades. It’s the same sort of thinking which allows Hillary to crow about her “lifetime of experience” (which incidentally consists of being a marginally competent lawyer, and then First Lady) while insinuating that BO has been teaching daycare his whole life, when in fact he has a much longer record of public office holding.

If Hillary is elected president, we will have the closest regime to a dictatorship than anything ever experienced before in the history of the U.S.

Seventeen: What Has Hillary Offerred Obama?

First Hillary just assumed that because she is smarter than 99% percent of the rest of us, the Democratic nomination would be handed to her as her political birth rite. Next, she assumed that because we are all desperate to have her idiot husband back in the White House, she would be showered with cash and endorsements, and any other interloper's campaign would shriver up for want of money and attention. Finally, she resorted to simply spewing outright lies about her record and Obama's which, of course, most Democrats believe (just like the "vast right wing conspiracy"). So far, the political judgment of the Clintons has proved amazingly (for them) unsuccessful.

But the Clinton arrogance and self-absorption knows no limits. After trying all of their other tactics, and unleashing all of their political attack dogs, they must certainly now be trying to buy off Obama. The question is: What are they offering him? VP? Cash? Guaranty of the 2016 nomination? You can bet your boots that Hillary has already tried extortion. So buying him off is really the only option left, provided of course that she does not somehow steal Ohio and Texas in the next 48 hours.

And after all, isn't this really the definition of politics, using public assets and resources for one's own personal gain? That is certainly the Clinton definition, of course justified by a smug sense of superiority.

Let's hope that 48 hours from now, this great country will finally get a reprieve from the Clinton curse.

Sixteen: MOT v NOK - a Tale of Two Telecoms

On January 21, 2007, I wrote about the miserable state of affairs at MOT. Nothing has changed. Yes, Zander is out and Brown is in. But from all appearances, Brown does not have the inclination or gumption to do what needs to be done - spend the next two to five years selling off MOT assets. In other words, liquidate the company. There is simply no way for MOT to recover from the past decade of mismanagement.

MOT stock is today valued at the same price as it was in 1996. NOK, on the other hand, is valued at roughly 1,500% more than 1996. What's the difference? People. The people at MOT opened the door for NOK in the mid-nineties when what was then AT&T (ATW) Wireless wanted in to the cell phone business. ATW first went to MOT and asked for specific phones at specific times. MOT did what MOT has always done, at least for the past 30 years - they dissed the customer, telling ATW what MOT would provide and when. ATW said "thank you very much" and walked down the street to NOK and made the same request for phones and delivery times. NOK said, "Yes Sir and Yes Ma'am!" NOK has never looked back, except to see MOT choking in NOK's dust. MOT has never understood, and perhaps never will understand, the concept of "the customer is always right."

So, what's the future? MOT will be the equivalent of an Alzheimer's patient in a nursing home - slowly but inevitably withering away.