Jane Genova: Speechwriter - Ghostwriter

Nice Work If You Can Get It: Mia/Woody Son Ronan Holbrooke's liaison to NGOs in Pakistan

That son of Mia Farrow and Woody Allen, once called Sachell, is now 21, a recent graduate of Yale Law School, and just appointed by Richard Holbrooke as his liaison to NGOs in Pakistan.  His current name is Ronan.

Politico journalist Laura Rozen reports that Ronan is supposed to be a genius type - for example, admitted to Yale Law at 16.  An activist like his mother Ronan deferred that education to help Holbrooke out with this and that and be the UNICEF spokesperson for youth.

This seems a hybrid case of unusual intelligence, the right activist background, and the right parents.  However, those of us with a chip on our shoulders - and I have a boulder - would think about something former mayor of Providence, Rhode Island Buddy Cianci had to say.  He said there were two types of people: Members of the Lucky Sperm Club and those like himself who were not members.  In the case of Ronan, we would have to ask Cianci if being a member of the Lucky Sperm Club just referred to the family contacts or also what was in the sperm - e.g. double dose of high intelligence?

Diseases of the Soul - Medical tourism to Switzerland

The latest in medical tourism is journeying to Switzerland to address diseases of the soul.  Available there are humane options for those who can't find solutions in the U.S. 

In WIRED, Matthew Honan explains that in Switzerland is available a package of services for despair.  That starts with counseling, by a third party who has no investment in the outcome.  Many suicide plans stop there.  If the counseling doesn't deter those with a death wish, there is assisted suicide and attending to the post-death details for $10,000.

While that might seem like a lot of money, the Swiss model could yield cost savings to U.S. budget-strapped local government and hospitals burdened with suicide attempts.  Throughout the U.S. suicide for mental reasons remains illegal.  In Oregon and Washington it is legal only for physical ones.

Tourism Derailed by Black Swan Swine Flu? - Business plans, gods laugh

The global Great Recession derailed the higher-end tourism business.  Sure, the younger generation, mostly jobless, still took the Grand Tour.  But it was a la Grand Cheap, including bunking at hostels. 

The hopes of a recovery for the travel industry could be dashed by the threat and growing panic over Swine Flu.  In fact, that pandemic could be one of those Black Swans which financial-markets expert Nassim Taleb describes in his book by the title.  Black Swans are unexpected developments which can and do have profound impacts.  Think the Internet.

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL reported that the Saudi tourism business associated the seasonal Muslim pilgrimage has been hit hard by fear of contacting Swine Flu.  Will other areas of the world also become travel wastelands because of the pandemic?  In addition, popular tourist locations could be settings for anarchy if the system cannot deal efficiently and effectively with the crisis.

Last January former client The Dilenschneider Group [DGI], a public relations boutique, expanded its tourism niche business.  One result was that it acquired the government of Seoul Korea as a client.  One has to wonder if that growth strategy was premature, given all the interrelated variables that make for success or failure in the tourism industry.  Time will tell.  Meanwhile, DGI might ramp out its specialty in crisis management.  

Incidentally, while waiting for the bus in one of those transportation shelters in New Haven, Connecticut, I coughed several times.  The couple next to me exchanged anxious words in another language, smiled nervously, and relocated themselves to wait by the bus near the curb.  No one took that seat near me.

Business plans.  The gods laugh Download Geezerguts.

"The Firm" - Where's the human face of the business, particularly in the tourism category?

The Dilenschneider Group [DGI] has recently developed a tourism niche.  It tells us all about that in the July 2009 edition of O'DWYER'S PR REPORT, page 20.  Among the accounts are VisitDenmark, Seoul Metropolitan Government and Harrah's Cherokee Casino. 

Congratulations certainly is in order.  With global aging there will be plenty more travel.  With global joblessness, youth will see the Grand Tour as a better option than matriculating for another degree.

Odd, though, that in this category which communicates the message of hospitality, pleasure and exploration ["Eat, Pray, Love"], DGI would refer to itself as "The Firm."  Paragraph two in O'DWYER's begins, "The Firm brings its travel clients ..."

Isn't this a digital era in which business has a human face?  The Firm conveys not only not-human but perhaps something, well, eerie, something out of a John Grisham mystery ["The Firm" 1991].

This isn't the first time I bumped up against The Firm.  The DGI website also has repeated references to The Firm.  Social media experts might want to review that whole site.  I find the approach puzzling and can't connect the dots.

Another seeming oddity is that the experts tell us everyone from employers to clients to customers want to see at the max 10 years of experience.  Yet on the website is a long list of Principals and Counselors, with a notation about their 42 [Richard Z. Chesnoff], 40 [Joel S. Pomerantz], 35 [Robert L. Dilenschneider] years of experience. 

Full Disclosure:  For 14 years, on and off, I did freelance assignments for The Firm.  That ended 1Q '09.  Recently, I created this social-media proposal for Turkey Tourism  Download Socialmediaturkey.  Sea Turtles on YouTube and the Turtles's own blogs/tweets/Facebook page might provide a pull force toward Turkey.

Different Breed of Wedding - We're registered at Petco

Social value change.   Those of the same sex now have their commitment ritualized in a wedding.  And those of us whose significant others are our pets should have our love also blessed.  We can register for gifts at Petco.  Only pet owners realize how much a three-floor scratching house can set us back.  Such a simple ceremony can liberate us from the stigma of "being single."  Just like the smug married in "Bridget Jones," we won't be pitied during the holidays. 

Is Providence, RI The Affordable P-Town?

No one can afford Provincetown, MA any more.  So, the cutting-edge culture has been cut off for most of us.  That's been such a loss.  Even those like myself with a boringly straight sexual orientation long to be on the fringes of the P-town scene.  But there may be an equally fascinating place, that's affordable, and closer to home for those of us clustered in the New York Metro area.  It's Providence, RI.  And the last time I checked the real estate section, there were studios near the beach available for $75,000.  In THE PROVIDENCE JOURNAL,  reporter Mark Arsenault has put a call out for those with alternate sex orientations around Providence to contact him for interviews.

Edwards, Sheehan - The Republicans Just Don't Understand

"Her morbid excesses" is how Florence King describes Elizabeth Edwards' grief over the sudden death of her son Wade.  King reviews Edwards' book "Savings Graces" in the December-January issue of Conservative THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR.