May 15, 2009
Kathy worked late last night so I turned on the TV to catch up on the news and even though we must have at least a dozen sources for news (CNN, ESPN, Fox News, CNBC, BBC World News, The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, plus the four local affiliates), after about five minutes I just had to turn it off. Everything is so negative and sensationalized (What you eat may kill you!).

So, in these Negative Nabob-erson Times, it's sometimes refreshing to hear some positive news, like this:

News From The Front Lines
Floyd Cranford from Shawnee, Oklahoma left a rather grumpy message this morning saying that when he got his June issue of True West magazine today it was all torn up and he wanted to know if we could send him another one. He said if we didn’t send him one that we could cancel his subscription when it ran out.

I put the June issue into an envelope with Floyd’s address on it and then called him. Floyd was delighted to get a call back! He explained that he truly loves getting True West and was so disappointed when his June magazine came to him pretty much illegible, with tears and crumpled pages. Floyd told me that he is 89 years old (and he’s the baby of the family, he has a sister who is either 99 or 100) and has been a subscriber for as long as he can remember. He reads every issue from cover to cover and then gives them to his son, who also reads them and then saves them in his home library. The son has every issue his father has given him from way back when he first subscribed.

He was so happy to get my call that he jokingly asked to speak to my boss because he was going to get me a raise!
—Lynda Gager

Thanks Lynda, I'd love to give you a raise but it might kill me.

"Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm."
—Sir Winston Churchill