The Five for May 24, 2020 – Chess, Old-Fashioneds, Fishing and More

The Five returns with some more Sunday reading. Let’s get to it.

1. For several months, my nephew Roger has played chess with Liam once a week over the computer. Roger loves chess and is trying to introduce Liam to the game. I will read this story to Liam and I bet Roger will enjoy as well. The headline says it all: “From Homeless Refugee to Chess Prodigy, 9-year-old Dreams of Becoming Youngest Grandmaster.”

2. Ever since Liam and I started the first Harry Potter book, I’ve been fascinated by the author J.K. Rowling. Technically, I was fascinated with her before but even more so now. So when I came across this story about Rowling tweeting a question about bitcoin, while drinking old-fashioneds (plural), how could I resist? Elon Musk makes a cameo as do the CEOs of “prominent” bitcoin companies.

3. If I could bait a hook, I wouldn’t be writing a blog called Bobproof. I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve gone fishing, and each time it took a fishing village to help me with each aspect of the sport (save for casting). Even so, I’ve always enjoyed reading about fishing and admired the patience, dedication and skill it takes. As a kid, I do remember with much help catching a couple of bluegills, and perhaps that’s why I enjoyed this article about how, “shore fishing for bluegills takes on a new shine.” You could also substitute the fishing in here for most other hobbies and it would still resonate.

4. Is the baseball card boom of the late 80s and early 90s coming back? Probably not, but it is interesting to see how no MLB combined with nostalgia is driving up the value of rookie cards for players such as Ken Griffey Jr.

5. Perhaps because I only saw him on those great Lakers teams, I’ve struggled to believe that Kareem Abdul-Jabbar played for the Bucks. I mean I know he did, for six season no less, it just always seemed implausible that he started his career in Milwaukee. This was a fun look at how his skyhook helped the Bucks win a classic game in the NBA Finals.

Diane Boldt Is The Best

A friendly smile, genuine warmth, a hearty laugh and, in winter, a rush to hang your coat.

That is the friendly greeting each and every guest receives when they walk through the doors at Public Communications Incorporated (PCI). The woman behind that smile is Diane Boldt, PCI’s receptionist, who recently celebrated a milestone birthday.

Her birthday had me reflecting on how much she enhanced my experience at PCI. The first time I visited PCI for a job interview, the first person I saw was Diane. Instantly, I could sense that not only was she a good person, but that she was rooting for me. That meant so much.

When my son Liam was born, it almost felt like Diane was his grandmother she was so happy. I would sometimes bring home little knick-knacks that I showed Diane and she always asked the next day how he liked them.

Diane not only befriended each person on staff but she made quite an impression on clients. It was not uncommon for me to go to a client meeting and for someone to ask how Diane was doing or comment how much they enjoyed chatting with her when they called PCI.

In a polarized world, we can all agree that Diane is the best. Happy belated birthday, Diane, and hope you enjoy some thoughts below from some current and former colleagues.

Jill Allread – Diane thrives on bringing joy to others through her loving smile and caring words offered every day despite what’s happening in her life. In her desk, she keeps a box filled with hand-picked greeting cards so she’s prepared to help the PCI team send condolences, congratulations or birthday messages in an instant. Diane is loved by all, and is a touching example of how one can live in grace and with gratitude and inspire others. I appreciate her so much and the light she shines on the world.

Sara Conley – What amazes me about Diane is the size of her heart. She cares so deeply about so many people. I feel very lucky that she has made room for me in her heart over the years. I've almost never seen Diane as happy as the day I told her I was going to be a mom. She couldn't have been happier if I was her own daughter. As the years went by, Diane wanted every bit of news she could get about our little guy. She saved every holiday card we made with his pictures on it. W

When I received a package at work and the contents were for Luca, I would open it at her desk so she could see his new outfit or toy or book. She got such a kick out of being a part of his life, even though it was from afar. And when he came to the office to visit, we got a first-hand glimpse of what it must be like to be one of Diane's grandchildren and adored beyond belief. When Diane started at PCI I was answering the phones and I taught her how to use the phone system. I can't count all the things that Diane taught me over the years but they include the importance of a positive attitude, the power of a smile and the happiness that caring for others can bring to us all. 

Ashley (Mattys) Biladeau – My favorite memory of Diane is how she thought I should create an album of my whistling! I would whistle to myself when I was in the kitchen (not even realizing I was doing it) and she would comment and say how beautiful it was and how I should make an album. What a ray of sunshine she is. :) 

Beth Schlesinger – What really sticks with me about Diane is not something specific she did or said, but how Diane made you feel. First, Diane is the most genuine, sincere person I have ever had the opportunity to work with. She truly cared about each and every PCIer and client. She made you feel special. She recognized every individual and his/her talents. She would tell you how impressed she was with your creativity and leadership. Knowing that I had a 1 1/2 hour commute to the office every day and had two school-aged sons, Diane would often say to me, “I don’t know how you do it.” It meant a lot to know Diane, as a mother herself, understood and appreciated what it meant to be dedicated to your career and your family and do all that you could to succeed at both. If I had to describe in one word how Diane made each of us feel, that word would be “cherished.” And we, in turn, cherish Diane.

Dorothy Pirovano – As I plant lover, I felt compelled to bring in six-foot long window planters filled with healthy green plants to warm up the north-facing windows at the office. When we decided to discontinue the service that provided and cared for our large potted plants, they left them behind and I took it upon myself to make sure they were watered, dead leaves removed and pruned back when needed. I'd do it as early as I could on Monday mornings when the only other person likely to be in the office was Diane.

She decided plant watering should be her job, not the CEO's, and lugged gallon containers of water from one end of the office to the other. It took at least four trips to do the job and Diane carried those heavy gallons with a smile on her face. No matter how early I'd try to be there, she would beat me and I'd have to hustle to fill up containers so she didn't have to do it alone. It was our social time and we began the week by catching up on what happened over the weekend and celebrating the birthdays, anniversaries, performances and special events of each other's families. It also gave her a chance to tell me the news of various people who regularly came to the office - a promotion, retirement or job change for her regulars: the postal worker, UPS or FedEx delivery persons, the building cleaning and security staff. Diane knew them all and cared for each one, just as she cared for the plants (and me).  

Free Pizza

Some of it is generational.

Some of it, I maintain, is common sense. Others, may characterize it, perhaps correctly, as cheapness.

When I worked in downtown Chicago, I sometimes ordered lunch online. No matter how busy I was or what the weather was like, I always walked to pick it up. I could never justify the cost of delivery.

If pressed, or even if not, I felt pretty good about myself – maybe even a touch smug – when I would observe delivery people taking lunches to office buildings throughout the city. 

Of course, if I really wanted to save money, I could have made my lunch at home or limited my 7-Eleven runs. But the point of this post is not my financial inconsistencies, it’s food delivery people!

Which brings us to one of my favorite articles of 2020. It involves food delivery, arbitrage, the peculiar incentives of startup economy, zero interest-rate policy (ZIRP) and demonstrates that there may, indeed, be a free lunch after all.

Or at least free pizza.

Ranjan Roy, one of the co-authors of the Margins Newsletter, wrote a fun, creative and brilliant article. He opened it this way. “If capitalism is driven by a search for profit, the food delivery business confuses the hell out of me. Every platform loses money. Restaurants feel like they’re getting screwed. Delivery drivers are poster children for gig economy problems. Customers get annoyed about delivery fees. Isn’t business supposed to solve problems?”

Roy proceeds to tell a story about a friend of his who owns pizza restaurants. The friend, by choice, did not offer delivery. So why did he receive complaints from customers who said their pizza was delivered cold?

It turned out, without his permission, DoorDash had created a delivery option on his Google Listing. The friend asked Roy what he knew about DoorDash and he replied with this classic line about the business model of many 21^st century aspiring tech disrupters. “Raise a ton of money, lose a ton of money, and just obliterate the basic economics of an industry.”

It gets better.

DoorDash charged $16 for the same pizza the owner listed as $24. Roy writes that based on the way the restaurant’s website was set up, it appeared DoorDash mistakenly used the price for a cheese pizza and applied it to pizza with multiple toppings.

Roy said it was time for his friend to start making pizzas, selling them to DoorDash and start booking $8 of profit per pizza.

He convinced the owner to place an order for 10 pizzas with instructions to deliver them to a friend. The owner charged $160 to his credit card and a DoorDash driver arrived at the restaurant and paid $240 for the pizzas. Roy joked with his friend that he should, “run this arbitrage over and over. You could massively even grow your top-line revenue while netting riskless profit, and maybe even get acquired at an inflated valuation.”

For the next experiment/arbitrage/pizza order, they prepared pizzas with just dough. This would increase the profit even more, provided DoorDash did not catch on.

Surely, DoorDash would, right?

Tear up your trusty econmics texbook and read the whole thing to find the answer. Roy walks us off with what may well be, "the greatest ZIRP story ever told."

The Five for May 21, 2020 – Full Ride

1. Gillian Gosman, my sister-in-law, is the type of English teacher you want teaching your kids. Since 2014, the students of Carmen School of Technology (Northwest Campus) have benefited from Gillian’s love of language. As a teacher and adviser, she strives each day to help give all kids a better chance to succeed.

Two of those students were featured earlier this week on today's TMJ 4. Lio Navarro and Sunny Nguyen, friends since middle school, are their class’s valedictorian and salutatorian, respectively. They will be first generation college students at the University of Iowa where they plan to share the same dorm room.

The kicker? They earned full-ride scholarships. Bravo!

2. As you can surmise, Gillian and Mike are quite the power couple! Mike was quoted in this Journal Sentinel story highlighting ACTS Housing’s work to help low-income renters became first-time homeowners. Be sure to check out the photo gallery as well.

3. Wright Thompson does it again. If the “The Last Dance” documentary only whetted your appetite for No. 23, check out this remarkable feature.

4. This was such a good tribute for the great Fred Willard from some of his peers at Hollywoodreporter.com. Steve Martin tweets that Willard was always, “my comic hero,” and Steve Carell said that Willard was, “the funniest person I’ve ever worked with.” What high praise for someone who was also regarded as a wonderful person. In Hollywood, that might put him in as select company as his comedy did.

5. Less you surmise (twice in one blog!) that Mike and Gillian’s children are slacking off, Roger and George know how to find the limelight as well. Their shoveling skills were featured several years ago in a photo gallery in the Journal Sentinel. Not only are the pictures great (5 and 6 in the photo gallery), but the caption in No. 6 is an all-timer. Thank you to Roger and George for taking time out of their schedules to walk us off.

Emma Girl

Even though she’s a teenager now, she’ll always be Emma girl to me.

Emma Einhorn, 15, is my cousin Dan and Terese’s oldest. For so long at family gatherings – of the group that stayed in or near Milwaukee – my brother was the youngest.

Then came Emma.

Maybe it was that she was so much cuter than Mike, but she had an instant place in my heart.

There’s a lot kids vying for attention at family gatherings now. For those three years, though, it was just Emma. I loved holding her, playing with her, and watching her grow.

At age 3, she was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia and endured two years of chemotherapy. Thankfully, she’s been in full remission for a decade and is happy, healthy and just completing her freshman year of high school.

While she was sick, the Einhorn family connected with Make-A-Wish. Emma knew instantly what her wish would be.

“Disney World was the first thing that came to my mind,” Emma said. “There was no hesitation, only excitement.”

Shortly after completing chemotherapy, Emma and the family were off to Orlando and Disney World. Emma was excited to see the princesses, and she was treated like one for the next week. The family stayed at Give Kids The World Village (GKWV), where ice cream is served any time of day and Minnie Mouse has been known to tuck kids in at night.

At the Disney Parks, a GKWV button provides access to an alternate entrance so families can enjoy the rides and attractions with minimal waiting. 

“They make it as easy as you can imagine,” Dan said. “It was an amazing experience for Emma and our family.”

The Einhorn family became supporters and volunteers for Make-A-Wish-Wisconsin.

This year, Dan and Terese were asked if they would be interested in serving as chairs for Wish Night, Make-A-Wish-Wisconsin’s signature gala, on April 2. Dan and Terese said yes, and it became something of a family joke that Emma should host as well. Even though Emma is not one for the spotlight, this morphed from a joke into a reality and she was poised to be on stage with her parents kicking off the gala.

“Emma is reserved like me but she loves Make-A-Wish,” Terese said. “I was so proud of her for doing this.”

Of course, that was before everything changed with the COVID-19 Pandemic. As a result, Make-A-Wish-Wisconsin elected to transition Wish Night to a virtual gala. Remarkably, thanks to stellar work by the Make-A-Wish-Wisconsin team, a beautiful video was produced and the event managed to raise more than $600,000, not too far from the pre-pandemic goal; if you’re interested in helping that number grow, you can donate to Make-A-Wish-Wisconsin here.

So on March 22, Dan, Terese, and Emma were in their beautiful home, ready to record their big speech.

Anna, Emma’s younger sister, served as director, courtesy of a camera she received for Christmas. Anna, who has a flair for drama, relished the opportunity and particularly enjoyed reminding people that she expected, “quiet on her set.”

The plan called for Emma to kick it off and throw it to her dad. After Dan completed his portion, it would go back to Terese, then to Emma and finally Dan would close it out.

Not going to lie; it took more than one take.

Anna had high standards, of course, except for the time a perfect take was happening and she giggled out of nowhere.

The final clip product, though, is beautiful, and starts at the 2:00 minute mark at the link below. It’s genuine, real, charming; Emma, Terese and Dan’s personalities all shine through. Dan also came up with a light way to end the video that reflects his sense of fashion and his sense of humor.

Today, we are honored to have Emma, Terese and Dan walk us off.

Transcribing History

I was charmed by this story in the Washington Post.

The article details how museums and research libraries are reporting huge increases in volunteers who are contributing transcription services to add to the historical record.

One way to look at the internet is that it is a microcosm of society. It gives people a platform they would never have enjoyed previously to spread disinformation, contribute negativity and worse. On the other hand, it also enhances our ability to connect by opening up possibilities that were  previously unimaginable.

Pre-internet, in a pandemic, volunteer activities at cultural institutions would plummet. Today, they surge. The Smithsonian gives its digital volunteers an opportunity to transcribe documents from the most consequential collection in our nation.

The story reported that the Library of Congress has seen a fivefold jump in new transcriber accounts since mid-March. The Smithsonian has gone from 100 to 200 transcribers per month to more than 5,000.

From the Washington Post article, here are a few examples of the subject matter people are transcribing:

·        World War II diaries

·        The papers of astronaut Sally Ride

·        Recipes from Rosa Parks

·        Depression-era menus

·        School yearbooks

The story also noted that history/social studies teachers have signed up their students. Talk about taking abstract history and making it real, tangible and lasting.

English teachers are also getting into the act. The article highlights how the Library of Congress had an online event with the National Council of Teachers of English to discuss how Walt Whitman’s works could be used in the classroom.

Whether you are a student or a senior, young, old or somewhere in between, you can discover more about volunteering for the Smithsonian here.

As I reflect on Whitman (note to self to save this sentence for posterity), I thought his quote about sunshine and shadows was apropos to our current situation.

Walt Whitman walks us off with some timeless words of wisdom.

The Five for May 18, 2020 – We Are Marquette and We Are Not Fans of 3-D Shapes

1. Sheena Quinn was one of the first people I worked with at Public Communications Incorporated (PCI). She was smart, savvy, strategic, fun and funny. How’s that for a combination? She definitely eased my transition from journalism to PR and communications

It was always clear she was going places. After more than a decade at PCI, the White Sox smartly hired her as Director of Public Relations. She also married a musician, Peter Purvis of Gaelic Storm fame, and they now have two beautiful children.

Sheena, a Marquette University graduate, was featured in an excellent video the school released Sunday for the Class of 2020. On the video, Sheena joined a list of heavy-hitting alumni that included Dwyane Wade, Glenn “Doc” Rivers, Steve Novak and Jen Lada (those were just the sports ones)!

Have watched this multiple times and it so good. Hope you enjoy as well.

2. I laughed (often hysterically) my way through Waiting for Guffman in the movie theatre. Fred Willard, a master straight man and comedic actor who died at age 86 on Friday, hit it out of the park in that mockumentary. As was pointed out on Twitter, see if you can count how many consecutive dentist jokes he rips through in ten seconds.

3. As part of Liam’s e-learning today, the teacher asked parents to help their child identify 3-D shapes around the house. I’m willing to do just about anything for Liam, but I draw the line at spheres and prisms. As for cones and cubes? Out of the question!

4. Still reeling from the 3-D shape request, I tried to relax by reading the New York Times. Instead, almost as if it was taunting me, I came across a feature for the publication’s tile matching game that was described as “soothing,” and “may help you de-stress.” There is nothing soothing about tiles, especially when combined with matching! Of course, given the unique nature of Bobproof’s brain, you may find it zen and chill. Let me know what you think if you give it a try.

5. Can’t end on a stressful note. Let’s close strong with two of Sheena’s favorite Gaelic Storm songs. Gaelic Storm plays us off with “Lover's Wreck” and “Samurai Set.”