Jane Genova: Speechwriter - Ghostwriter

Suicide: We know to be prepared, but still devastating

In 12-step programs, from the get-go they warn us that there will be suicides.  When it comes to the sorts of things human beings join 12-step programs for, the options are do it right, or kill yourself, go insane, or spend most of your life in prison.

Warned, yes. But we were not prepared for the suicide of one of our members in a North Haven, Connecticut 12-step group.  Seven days a week he was at a meeting.  He gave out anniversary coins at the Thursday evening meeting.  He talked the good talk, which maybe should have tipped us off that he was in trouble.  That included saying he was managing the blow that during the divorce process, his former wife had lost her job.  At their age, there would not be a comparable one.  So, he was saddled with alimony he did not expect to pay.  He worked that out to protect his pension.  The financial horror could become less horrible when his daughter, who he was helping pay for her Master's degree, received it this month. 

Last night at our Monday night speaker's meeting we found out that he had committed suicide.  Perhaps he did not share his suffering enough?  Perhaps two years in the rooms were not enough to get a handle on that suffering?  Whatever.  The disease of alcoholism claims another fine human being.

Sweet Caroline Has Competition: Chelsea Clinton dominates media

The Chelsea Clinton Brand, when it comes down to presidential daughters, might trump the Sweet Caroline Kennedy Aura.  After all, this is the era of Leaning In.  Our focus is on females with big career ambitions and accomplishments, no apology accepted.

Sweet Caroline has been a player in the nonprofit sector.  Busy she has been giving awards to this achiever and that achiever.  Eventually she could be appointed an ambassador to this or that.  But that is still within the realm of nonprofit. 

Chelsea is involved with businesses which monetize.  Just look at her involvement in the world of broadcast. NEW YORK Magazine chronicles her career paths.  One wonders if Sweet Caroline envies Chelsea? 

Nelson Chatman: Sweet Caroline, et al. acquit him of allegedly selling crack

Caroline Kennedy, only surviving child of John F. Kennedy, has a law degree.  So we have to assume she helped her fellow jurors come to the just verdict in the case of Nelson Chatman. He was being tried for allegedly selling crack to an undercover cop.  The jurors acquitted him, reports the NEW YORK POST.

"Mad Men" - Don can't hold it together

We know the Don Draper type.  We went to college or graduate school with them. Despite being screwed up they did well professionally.  Because they did they attracted an attractive mate.  Then came the limitations of middle age.  They began to hit walls and couldn't handle all that. Those walls included the women on the side no longer so eager to please them.  Their core competence, be it creativity as with Don or leadership as with others, falters.  They turn to dabbling with drugs as Don is doing.

Some make it out of that transition from golden boy to limited middle aged men.  Most don't.  To exit this emotional and physical limbo Don will need the support of a real human being. It could be his daughter Sally.  It could be his former soulmate the psychologist.  It could be a compassionate Peggy.

The suffering is palpable on "Mad Men."  The bravado seems forced.

Rajat Gupta Remains Enigmatic: NYT MAGAZINE updates puzzle, doesn't provide new pieces

This week the court will hear Rajat Gupta's appeal for a new trial.  No surprise, this enigmatic character is being deconstructed yet again in brandname media.  THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE has a long feature by Anita Rghavan on him.

However, it doesn't offer any new pieces to solve the puzzle of who this square-jawed striver is.  Rehashed are the details about his rise to influence, which wasn't enough for him.  Financially he had plateaued at being a millionaire and chased being a billionaire. Not new either are the legal details.  Those following the indictment, trial, and conviction already know that the evidence was circumstantial.  Not once had he been heard on the government wiretaps of former hedge fund Galleon allegedly providing non-public information that could lead to trading gains.   In addition, it again presented, as did so many other media properties, the Machiavellian talents of Galleon head Raj Rajaratnam to discern what people like Gupta emotionally needed, provide it to them, and therefore be able to take them over.

The article, however, does present some small updates on what once dominated the news - business, legal, and general.  For example, it tells us that Gupta now sits in his Westport, Connecticut home library overlooking the pool working on his appeal. Also, it speculates on the odds of a comeback. That betting is risky stuff because, with changing social values and digital tools, many more options are available to reinvent a powerful and profitable new identity.  Disgraced Henry Blodget oversees commercial success BUSINESS INSIDER.

One wonders if Gupta will continue to be a platform for supposedly insightful articles and books, like the Kennedy dynasty.  Or will he fade like former New York governor Eliot Spitzer. It could be the former.  After all, I took the time to pore over what Raghavan had decided to add to the pile of Gupta deconstructions.

 

Facebook: Turning up ugly underbelly underneath cute kitten/family gathering photos

Let's cut to the chase. I have a hunch that I am not alone.  One of those accidental acquaintances on Facebook turned so sour that I had to call in legal help - and more.  What we tend to forget is this: Underneath all those cute photos of kittens/family gatherings is the ugly underbelly of mankind as the species exists.  Some of that is horrific.

I will continue posting on my wall on Facebook. Thanks to this social network I have resumed friendships with Seton Hill, Greensburg, Pennsylvania Class of 1967 members such as Lee Harrison, Irene Nunn, and Charlotte Toal. They were there for me on my 68th birthday as well as my two biopsies for breast cancer.

However, I will invest less time on that social network.  After all, no new assignments for my ghostwriting/speechwriting business have come from years of keeping up with the growing gang of photo-posters.  Where I will invest a lot more resources, including money in premium services, is LinkedIn.  Without all the photos, it provides an it's-all-business platform for developing new contacts, updating our professional lives with current ones, participating in community discussions, and winding up with high-traffic links.

The bad taste in my mouth from my recent Facebook disaster will be there for a while.  Hopefully, like all suffering, it will be a teacher.  What am I learning? Beware the possible wolf in wholesome family-style clothing serving wondrous family-style dinners on national holidays.  Maybe that had penetrated my subconscious as much as the sugary programming of the Eisenhower era like "Father Knows Best."

Connecticut - Metro-North commuter train, symbol of success, crashes

The Metro-North commuter train from Westport, Connecticut to Grand Central Station in Manhattan is a symbol of success in that iconic novel "The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit."  Today, it has joined the other tragic events in the state as being associated with tragedy. 

THE NEW YORK TIMES reports that yesterday during the evening rush hour the train heading back to Connecticut crashed with another Metro-North train.  About 60 were injured, 5 critically.  Those tracks which carry the Masters of the Universe from their suburban homes to the money pits are damaged. Never again will anyone board that train, start working on their laptops, and assume they will arrive at their destination safely.

Watergate 2.0: Take it from survivor of Watergate 1.0, there will be tremendous loss of productivity

It's not Watergate 2.0 yet, Bob Woodward tells POLITICO.  For example, there's no clear line to the White House on the IRS' providing extra scrutiny on the tax-exempt status of conservative organizations. 

However, take it from a Baby Boomer who survived Watergate 1.0: Productivity will take a hit.  The hit will be bigger than when the Watergate 1.0 hearings were broadcasted on television.  That's because there are so many more venues for presenting the news and opining.  Name one person who will not be caught up in this?  I will be hitting all my three syndicated blogs, tweeting, and commenting on Facebook.

Back during Watergate 1.0, everyone took the time to express thoughts about government, human nature, power, the GOP, Richard Nixon, all the president's men, and Everyman.  In addition everyone caught snippets of the hearings. Sometimes in university towns like Ann Arbor, Michigan, where folks have flexible schedules, we had Watergate-hearing parties. 

Watergate 2.0 will bring the nation a nice pause after so much tragedy.  If there is no Watergate 2.0, there will probably be great disappointment throughout the land. 

Mirror Neurons: Why man the social animal is returning from virtual

In the presence of each other, a number of species, including us human kind, affect each other cell by cell. Some of us always knew this.  For example, our moms told us to stay clear of "bad companions." The transmission process happens across the species. My dog Molly Mittens could pick up that I was depressed before I did. The vet, part Dr. Phil, told me she had been hanging on despite her bad heart trying to keep me together.  

But how we resonate off each other was confirmed by researchers such as Marco Iacoboni on mirror neurons in Italy. He made all that science user-friendly in his book "Mirroring People: The New Science of How We Connect with Others.  Last night at the New Haven Zen Center in Connecticut we discussed why meditating together in-person can center us so quickly.  As a guiding teacher noted, we feed off each other's strength.  The same principle operates in 12-step programs such as Alcoholics Anonymous.

No surprise, we are returning to in-person speeches, meetups, chats by the water cooler, author presentations at bookstores, and church services. Virtual social networks were fun but they left us, well, unconnected.

For the past four months, although I was doing my time virtually on Facebook and LinkedIn, I would get attacks of extreme alienation. They were brutal enough to dry up the creative processes as I tried to write.  When I packed up the laptop and went to the public library in North Haven, CT, the juices started flowing again.  Clients raved about what I had created there.  Blog posts done there went viral. The help-wanted I answered there brought in good assignments.

We need other human beings around us. They don't have to even actively interact with us. For this very reason, we speechwriters have been busy preparing what speakers are delivering in the flesh, not on webinars. Social networks have proved to be unable to transmit from mirror neurons.

Staples, The Baby Boomer, Windows 8 - Still small business' best friend

Back in the end of the 1980s, millions of us middle-aged managers were downsized (now called "rightsized") out of corporate America.  We hung out our shingle.  And we flocked to Staples for everything. In its aisles we agonized about buying the kinds of office supplies we had received free in our days as fat and happy wage slaves.

Now, Staples has become our best friend in another way.  We're lots older now. The angst isn't over the choice of mailing envelopes. It's keeping up with technology.  Yesterday I had to make the giant leap forward from the PC I had purchased light years ago, at least in technology time (not all of us can get by with smartphones and tablets). Since Staples was my comfort zone as a small business and since I knew from writing on stocks it was now in the consumer electronics space, I bellied up to the Easy Tech desk. 

Easy Tech associate Ron Lima explained the new configuration of Windows 8, the options in hardware including space on hard drives versus battery life, and how Staples could have that all set up within hours.  His manager Dennis Troiano oversaw what was a giantic transition for me.  At 5:46 P.M. I was back in business.

The marketing folks at Staples should position it as the sanctuary for small-business Baby Boomers.  Statistics show we are the fastest growing and the most successful group of entrepreneurs.