September 26, 2002
Got our office copies of the November-December issue. Magazine looks very strong, especially the cover, although the Holiday Gift Guide (10 pages) makes the issue look ad heavy. Concerned about that.

Bob Brink came in and calmed me down (economy jitters). Among the gems:
• “Kathy’s instincts are right, we need to throw some baggage out, but at the same time we can’t slow down.” (once again, everybody is about half right).
• “Every business could be working smarter. It isn’t just us...” (that was quite freeing)
• “We’ve got a strong plan for 2003 and we need to stick to it.” (Don’t look down, keep your eye on the goal.)
• “We need to do a complete internal audit of the biz. Where can we save money without cutting people?” (he was adamant that we have a great team in place and we are not going to cut any personnel).

I had many adventures in Cody and as I have time I’ll catch you up:
On Monday as I was waiting for the plane in Cody, I went into the small cafe and had a salad and wrote a half-dozen postcards to the people I love (did you get it?). I noticed a big, black rapper kid sitting about three tables over and he was arguing with his girlfriend about a song in a Patrick Swayze movie (I didn’t quite catch which one, maybe “Ghost,” but I’m not sure). They railed back and forth. Finally his girlfriend says, “Mister, hey Mister!” and I looked up and they were both looking at me. “Who first recorded ‘Unchained Melody’?” I looked over my glasses and said confidently, “That would be The Righteous Brothers, in 1965.” The young girl squealed: “I told you so!” The rapper shrugged and said, “I knew it was one of those brothers or sumthin’.” At first I was quite proud and felt rather “hip” until I glanced over at another table and saw a grandmotherly type woman smiling at me, as if to say, “I remember that song too. I got a hickey from Duwane Seemore after the dance. You and I are older than dirt!” Then I realized that the kids might as well have said, “What was it like being at Lincoln’s funeral?” That took the wind out of my sails.

More news later. Got to run.