Jane Genova: Speechwriter - Ghostwriter

Camilla - Will we be reading "her story" in AA's "Big Book"

It's an axiom in 12-step program  Alcoholics Anonymous [AA] that there are three guaranteed paths for an active alcoholic: Jail, a mental facility, or death.  Camilla, Prince Charles's wife, might be headed straight to the third destiny.

In the January 12, 2009 edition of GLOBE, we find out that a boozy Camilla "attempted suicide by throwing herself down the same staircase where Princess Diana tried to take her own life."  She survived - but barely.  Her injuries had to be treated as an emergency.

If Camilla decides to surrender, admit her disease, and embrace recovery, we might find her story in an updated version of the global bible of AA "The Big Book."  Her identity won't be disclosed but I think the details of her downward trajectory and her journey to the light will tip most of readers off who was the joyful recovering alcoholic.

Michael Roston, unemployed, 31, "I feel like I'm waiting for a sign," quoted in NEW YORK Magazine

Manhattan, once the land of opportunity, has become the land of lost jobs - and the lost professional class.  Since August, reports Mara Altman in the current edition of NEW YORK Magazine, 33,000 in the city have been laid off.  Altman profiles seven of them. 

To paraphrase Tolstoy, each of these unemployed are sidelined from the game in his or her own way.  Former online editor of the now-gonzo NEW YORK SUN Michael Roston, 31, for example, admits he feels "like I'm waiting for a sign."  Former director of diversity at Citigroup Denise Durham Williams, 50, is more focused and says, "I'm reinventing myself."  Former IT director at a financial-services firm Max Perez, 40, two months into a job search with no results begins to view his situation as "just depressing."

What these profiles don't reveal is who these seven and the many more who will be laid off in the first two quarters of 2009 will be after this ordeal.  A bout of unemployment, especially during uncertain, volatile times, usually transforms us - for the better or for the worst.  I have never interviewed anyone who lost a job and returned to the workplace the person who had been forced out of it.

Those transformations for the better are the ones in which we have been able to put that experience to use.  That wounding, observes Mark Matousek, becomes "power."  In his book "When You're Falling, Dive," Matousek chronicles how suffering can liberate us from what's been holding us back, e.g. fear.  We close old doors.  New ones seem to magically open.  Not that the whole thing has been a day on the beach. 

My journey from being professionally lost at 58 to a whole new career was something I wouldn't wish on anyone.  But I have to concede:  That's what it took for me to follow my talent, wherever.  Here is that tale Download Geezerguts.  Many who have read it call it "raw."  For me, it was my closest encounter with reality.  My earlier successful, lucrative career path had insulated me from life, particularly its opportunities.

Then there will those who return from a bout of unemployment broken.  Instead of being released from the worst of fear, they seem to find that state their new status quo.  Actually, they seem to have made an emotional connection between being afraid and being safe.  Thanks to this new paradigm for their lives, they will attempt to convince everyone else to be appropriately afraid. 

I suspect my parents were in that category.  They preached the gospel of fear of everything - The Man, sickness, aging.  Until 2003, I was their most faithful disciple, and didn't know it. 

Can being broken be prevented?  Will this Gen of New York unemployed break that cycle?  Could they have the sophistication and emotional strength to extract the good from this experience and apply it to what's next? Altman can revisit these seven in five years to find out what happened

"CSI: Miami" - Repeat Monday, Hurrah!

Tonight was Repeat Monday on "CSI: Miami."  And although I had seen the pedophile episode before, I sat through it again.  Somehow last year's run of "CSI: Miami" seems so much better than this year's new fare.

For one thing, Alexx is still the Medical Examiner.  She cares and maintains the dignity of the victim, even in death.

H is younger and more into the role.  This year he seems to have defaulted into a stylized version of H.  Also, last year there was more hair on his head.

The scripts are better written.

All series run out of gas.  This year that seems to be exactly what is happening to "CSI: Miami."  Or, maybe I am just a nostalgia freak and I can't adjust to post-Alexx and post-a younger David Caruso.

"The Unit" - What's not to love

Last night's episode of "The Unit" dealt with the death of a solider in action.  What grabbed our attention was the solidarity between members of that elite group of soldiers and how they mourned their dead brother.  You don't get that much today in the workplace.  Makes us want to become a part of something where our co-workers care about us vs. competing with us to the point of doing us in.

"The Unit" also offers diverse versions of dysfunctional families.  Not one family is "normal."  What's the pull force is that, to rephrase Tolstoy, each of these families are dysfunctional in their own ways.  Makes our own family lives seem tame stuff.  And that makes us feel good.

"The Unit" also provides a weekly parade of old-fashioned values such as devotion to a cause, bravery, and selflessness.  Makes us want to return to a time that seemed more certain.

My hunch is that "The Unit" is a keeper on television.

Hear the one ... Humor back in biz

Even the most buttoned-down biz types can't help but laughing.  They have to: Things are, yeah, that bad.  Humor is the ultimate pain-reliever. 

As Liz Alderman in THE NEW YORK TIMES, our earnest nation of capitalists has been a receptive market for cracks about the economy, about people losing everything, and about how embedded corruption is.

This has a precedent.  During the Great Depression, entertainment took off like a rocket.  It was not only a distraction but, in its indirect way, provided a way to frame and cope with what was.  Charlie Chaplin might not have made it so big had he not timed his Little Tramp and film "Modern Times" so perfectly.  Here was this lowly character, a nobody, who somehow had figured things out.

The unemployed and underemployed would be shrewd to dish the humor.  However, there doesn't seem to be any particular urgency.  The downturn ain't going to end for a while.

Those Trophy Kids - They're living out Baby Boomer Fantasies

The Millennial Generation aka Trophy Kids have grown up, well, at least in number of years on planet earth.  But as they enter the work force they are getting away, at least so far, with comporting themselves just the way their Baby Boomer parents imagined the workplace should be.

In his book "The Trophy Kids Grow Up," Ron Alsop tells us all about this amazing play-out of Baby Boom fantasies of "being yourself" at work in America's most powerful institutions: Corporations, BigLaw, BigAccounting, and BigPR.  This gen, born between 1980 and 2001, has the sheer numbers, educational credentials, and self-assurance to pull it off.

At job interviews, they tell prospective employers what they want.  That includes frequent feedback, continuous learning experiences, work-life balance, and a casual environment.  They still get hired.  After all, someone has to fill those slots.  That will be even more the situation when we Baby Boomers retire or shift down to part-time.

Once on the job, they push push push for the ability to perform their tasks in ways in which they are most comfortable.  That includes communicating via digital gadgets versus in-person, not being tethered to the cube during normal business hours, having the project spelled out to them vs. dealing with ambiguities, and dressing in jeans and flip-flops.

With the exception of the truly talented - the next Steve Jobs or Rupert Murdoch - these behaviors could sideline most of the Trophy Kids's careers.  That's why the executive coaching business will boom.  The shrewd among them - or their Baby Boomer parents -will conclude that the Millennial's assumptions about how to work aren't the ticket to the BigTime.  Just like they flocked to outside services for assistance with college applications, they will seek out professional counseling about breaking away from the herd and doing what it takes to advance in their careers. 

Meanwhile they and their parents can check out my site on career advice.  Here is also an e-book [free] on boosting emotional intelligence in the workplace Download CUsersjasneDocumentsjg.

Question:  Will the Trophy Kids conform to professional realities?  Well, we Baby Boomers did just that during the recession of the mid 1970s.  We dropped the populist rhetoric, bought suits, cut our hair and caved to The Man. Those who didn't such as Abbie Hoffman eventually self-destructed.  After all, we are operating within a capitalistic framework.  Winners in the system are well-rewarded.  Losers are cast out.

Caroline "seemed less like a candidate than an idea of one," NYT, 12/27/08

Can wealth and pedigree bordering on royal render a human being incapable of hustle?  Could be.  Thanks to his marriage into wealth and the Upper Crust, John Kerry came across as effete.  We never cottoned to Prince Charles as a hands-on reformer.  And now, THE NEW YORK TIMES describes Caroline Kennedy as seeming "less like a candidate than an idea of one."

Never have I witnessed such a poorly orchestrated campaign.  Clearly this woman who seeks to prove she would be an asset to New Yorkers in Hill's Senate seat feels uncomfortable with the political necessity of being out there.  Her body language is rigid and aloof, not welcoming.  Her mannerisms are over-refined, as they would be from a lifetime of private schools and independent wealth.  She ain't breaking a sweat hashing out policy.

Caroline could be rewarded for her work in the Obama campaign by being shipped off, like her grandfather Joe, as an ambassador.  She will fit right in at the ceremonial dinners and other irrelevant rituals.  There's no place in a tough Northeastern state with growing unemployment for someone who only knows how to reflect "an idea" of being their representative in the U.S. Senate.

Meow! - Caroline "Princess" Kennedy Looks Older Than Plain Jane Me

Maybe it's the difference in our weight.  Caroline "Princess" Kennedy is rich-thin.  I am working-class-background stout.  After a certain age, being too thin can make a woman look older than her years.  Or it could be our different ethnic strains.  The Irish tend to wrinkle more quickly than we Italians. 

Whatever.   In photos, such as those taken when she gave an interview to media at that Upper East Side diner, The Princess seems older in years than I do.   My chubby cheeks don't fold into lines when I speak or smile.  Around my eyes the lines which do appear seem shorter than hers.

Not that this makes me feel superior than Kennedy.  It simply makes me wonder if being a Kennedy makes it a life lived in dog years. 

The Store - Made an anachronism by digital

The Store is in trouble in terms of profits - and its future.  Yet, digital Amazon had a banner year in profits - and in being a model for how to operate a successful enterprise. 

The lousy earnings of 2008 and the worst ones expected in 2009 for brick and mortar stores will probably make "going shopping" an anachronism.  Somehow we will conjure up other ways to entertain ourselves, change our mood, get out of the house, or find a suit for a job interview.  

The Gen following Next will likely wonder why The Store captured the hearts and pocketbooks of so many Americans.  The Smithsonian might house replicas of Sears and even Big-Y Supermarket.

Meanwhile the following industries will blossom in e-world: Fulfillment, shipping, supply-chain-management for virtual businesses, and public relations/marketing communications for everything web-based. 

Regarding the latter, Manhattan communications expert Bob Dilenschneider will have a game-changer of a book out there this spring.  Dilenschneider contends this: Those with an intuitive grasp of the digital medium and the operational know-how to navigate the web will control everything.  Those who don't will keep losing influence, power and eventually their wealth.  

Dilenschneider draws an analogy with when television was also an emerging new medium.  Those who recognized its potential and how to manipulate it - Bill Paley, John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, Procter & Gamble - thrived.  Those who ignored it never became part of history. 

Dilenschneider has already published more than a dozen books.  His public affairs firm The Dilenschneider Group is headquartered on Park Avenue in New York, right upstairs from Grand Central.  This book is being published by the American Management Association.

Meanwhile readers have here my [free] e-book on how digital communications has already blown up the WASPy model of decorum in conducting business Download Savingsoulsonparkavenuekstreet. 

Those insights are helping Gens X, Y and Next play the new game well enough to get jobs, yes, in 2008.  Gens over-50 might first want to read this [also free] e-book on transcending the age obstacle in America The Beautiful and Youthful Download Geezerguts.

Tony Soprano et al. - Did for Jersey accent what JFK did for Boston one

Now when folks hear my thick [yeah, even after all these years in WASPy Connecticut] Jersey accent, they link it to that artistic masterpiece "The Sopranos."  What used to be considered a liability in polite and professional circles is now considered part of the iconic small-screen achievements of Tony Soprano et al. 

It's not at all a stretch to say that Tony Soprano did for the Jersey accent what JFK and his brother Bobby did for the Boston one.  Before Camelot, we were encouraged to speak Upper Crust lockjaw and Midwestern no-intonation. 

Who will come along and make a Southern accent among the prestige dialects?