Fans Of The Game

Shawn Senior (everybody's favorite UBS Financial Consultant) and Nicholas Daniel Senior (aka "superkid") were chosen as Fans Of The Game at the Philadelphia '76s game last night. Daddy Shawn and Nick got to sit on the bench and participate in the warmup. And Nick even got to high five the players as they came out onto the court. By the way, Nick and his sister Alexandra will soon appear on the Sprout children's channel as part of a special holiday feature. But that's another story.

Huckaboom

Huckabee.
It doesn't sound like a President's name but then again we've had a few weird names in the White House. Millard Filmore, Calvin Coolidge and Dwight Eisenhower come to mind. And at least Mike Huckabee has a good, solid, likable first name. After all, he could have been Ulysses or Chester or Herbert or Rutherford. Or he could have been handed one of those dual southern names like Billy Ray or Bobby Joe.
So it's not so much the funny sounding name that worries me.
Instead what really concerns me is the fact that he's a former Governor of Arkansas. A little voice inside me keeps saying: "No more Governors from Arkansas and no more Governors from Massachusetts!"

Let It Be

It's called a Christmas tree.

Please don't call it a holiday tree or a seasonal tree or a family tree or whatever.

And remember that the best Christmas trees reflect the caring attention of those who lovingly decorated them. So, every Christmas tree should be unique and should express something about its owner or owners -- their lives, experiences, hopes and dreams. Since none of us are perfect our tress needn't be perfect either.

In fact, a tree that is too perfect - too symmetrical, too new, too staged - somehow doesn't look quite right. A Christmas tree needs to exhibit some character; something that gives it its own special identity.

So, don't worry if the garland doesn't loop quite right or if a few of the ornaments seem scruffy or if the lights don't seem perfectly even.

It's OK. It's Christmas. Let it be.

The Heavy Toll Of Tolls

You can read my rant against highway, bridge and tunnel tolls in today's Philadelphia Daily News by clicking here: http://www.philly.com/dailynews/opinion/20071203_Toll-gobbling_gluttony.html
The bridges, roads and tunnels belong to the people. Our money built them and we have the right to use them freely.
I'm fixin to start The Movement To End All Tolls (MEAT). Anyone care to join?

Spitting In A River

I recently received a copy of a letter from American Bar Association (ABA) Executive Director Henry F. White which proposes yet another (and a "new") campaign to combat the poor public image of lawyers. Apparently, this letter was sent to executive directors of bar associations throughout the nation.
Under Mr. White's proposal bar leaders would all agree on a particular topic each month and then bar associations all over the country would feed the media news and information on that topic or aspect of the law. As I understand it, the ABA would provide the raw copy which would be forwarded to individual bars for their own tailoring.
As some of us who are specialists in law-related PR know, real improvement in the public image of lawyers can only begin in individual law offices and law firms through the actions of lawyers themselves -- in how they treat their clients, how they do their work and what they give back to the community.
A former Director of the ABA Division of Bar Services, Alan Kurland, once said: "Public relations is doing good things and then telling people about them."
If lawyers are doing good things (and they are) then the challenge is to "tell people about them." That's what bar PR professionals do. That's their job.
But the profession seems to feel stalked by this nagging sense of a poor public image.
Personally, this problem is so vast and so ongoing that I have long felt that only a national, sustained, paid institutional advertising campaign (radio, TV, Internet, maybe print) can even begin to make a dent. Big national associations (but ones that are still smaller than the ABA) have launched such campaigns with a good deal of success.
Anything less than this seems inadequate.
Perhaps some of you have other ideas but I seriously doubt that "a topic of the month" approach will make much of a dent at all.

Sassiest and Classiest

As you might imagine, I know and like lots of Philadelphia lawyers.

I ran into two of my favorites at the recent Chunukah Party sponsored by the Louis D. Brandeis Law Society. Sayde J. Ladov and Louis W. Fryman are two of the most talented people in town. Sayde is the Vice Chancellor (soon to be Chancellor-Elect) of the Philadelphia Bar Association and Lou (who has held every post imaginable) gives new meaning to the term "pillar of the community." At the event Lou received the Benjamin F. Levy Community Service Award.

One of these legal luminaries is the sassiest and the other is the classiest. Can you tell which is which?

What difference does it make? I love them both!

Enough?

When is enough, enough?
That's the question that comes to mind as I consider the return of Dom Imus to radio (and RFD-TV) tomorrow, Monday December 5.
Imus made a complete fool of himself eight months ago and he provided those of us who teach and practice public relations with a vivid lesson in how not to make friends and influence people. The repeated Imus mea culpas that followed only seemed to make things worse. It was one of those situations where you wanted to cry out: "Go away, go away; go far, far away."
And thankfully Imus did go away, for awhile.
But I suppose the cranky old blabbermouth still thinks he has something to prove. And there are still people who are willing to pay him to try. The free market doesn't always please all of us. And free speech (such as it is) is sometimes not very pretty.

They're Baaack!

They’re big. They’re everywhere. They’re full of hot air. And they're back.
No, I’m not talking about all those bloviating presidential candidates.
I’m talking about those garish Christmas inflatables that pop up everywhere this time of year. These bloated intrusions on our landscape include the ubiquitous Santa, his elves, reindeer, penguins, and polar bears. Ranging in size from about four feet to more than 20 feet tall they also depict cartoon characters such as Mickey Mouse, Snoopy, and Elmo. And now the newest inflatable rage seems to be snow globes and revolving carousels.
I hate these gassy excuses for Christmas cheer. I hate them during the day when they go flat like big ugly pancakes on lawns and porches all over the place. And I hate them even more at night when they blow, glow and gloat with a trashy confidence that’s positively scary. And that’s just one part of Christmas that I’ve come to hate. I'll list more here as the days grow closer to Christmas.

Deal Or No Deal?

The hottest rumor in Washington these days is that Barack Obama will soon pull off a hat trick, picking up a potent triple-endorsement. The way the story goes, Obama will be anointed by Teddy Kennedy, Al Gore and John Kerry all in one fell swoop. If it happens it is bound to make Big News. And let's face it, there is no love lost between Gore and the Clintons or Kerry and the Clintons. As for Teddy, at his age he may as well throw his hat in with the younger generation. But even if the endorsements do occur, would they really make any difference? All three of the presumed endorsers lost bids for the presidency. In the end, I still feel Clinton will be hard to stop. But it would be a lot more fun (and way more interesting) if events proved me wrong.

Bleeding Red

Just in time for Christmas New Jersey's wacky Governor Jon Corzine is planning to choke business further in the debt-ridden state by signing a 10-week family leave bill over the near-unanimous objections of the business community. As the Camden Courier-Post has rightly editorialized: " New Jersey's business climate, with its high taxes and plethora of regulations, stinks, and New Jersey business owners know it." In fact, businesses and residents are fleeing the state. The New Jersey Business and Industry Association's just-released annual business survey found that businesses are giving the state poor grades, with the leading worries being property taxes and health insurance. Most of the business people who responded expect state economic conditions to weaken further next year. In this climate you would think that Corzine would cozy up to business. Fuhgettaboutit!

The tax-happy Governor is ready to slap an additional $1.00 per week onto the disability insurance deduction that workers pay. If only one-third of the workers take advantage of the 10 weeks paid leave it will not take long to bankrupt the fund. All this for a state that is already drowning in a sea of red ink. And speaking of that red ink, Corzine says he’s prepared to stake his political future on a loony plan to tackle the state’s $32 billion dollar debt by forming a non-profit agency that would manage toll roads and issue bonds to generate cash for the state. The plan is called monetization but the fancy title simply means higher tolls. How much higher? At least 150 percent higher on state toll roads.

Reality bites. But somehow New Jersey's "I know better" Governor never feels the sting.

Dollar sign art print: Andy Warhol