Brooklyn Bridge / Genius Marketing

  I have an idea for selling sneakers to girls, what with girl-power and all. But to simply advertise my new product is expensive and time consuming. Wait, I have an idea!  How about if I have a nine-year-old girl with a complicit father write me a letter first and ask why she can't buy the shoes in her size.  I'll bet that will garner loads of free publicity in a matter of hours.  The public loves human interest stories  like that.
   If they were enthralled by the huge cow story, they'll buy into anything. I don't think there was a single media outlet that didn't feature the huge steer. Over 6 feet tall, it was said. A gigantic steer towering over the other cattle, too big to be slaughtered. But why is  a lone Holstein in a field with a herd of lesser brown cows, of a breed known to be small in size.  Where did big cow come from?
   A number of years ago, there was a trailer at the Schaghticoke Fair featuring a giant cow. It cost a dollar or so to go in and view "the largest cow you've ever seen." I remember because to one of my kids that was the year's top attraction. He would hit anyone up for a fistful of quarters so he could run up the ramp into the trailer and see the massive animal.  Of course, there were scores of very large-sized cows  in the regular cattle barns, probably of about the same size. But since everything is relative, a cow standing in a trailer will appear to be of a more impressive size than if standing in a stall among many other similarly sized cows. Just as a single large cow will look immense when pastured with a breed of small cows.  Or puppies.

Private problems. Publicly aired.

    I had so many calls to make today that I haven't even gotten to the only bright spot of my day--the Cryptoquip.
    Call #1 was to John Ray about unwanted fuel delivery. Rep saw there was a Delivery Stop  on March 24.  She doesn't know what to do about it. She'll ask  somebody, who is to Call Me Back.
    Call #2 was to Mirabito.  Why  my online bank check was returned for insufficient information she couldn't say. They will send me a statement, and  I should call the bank and ask.
    Call #3 was to Omnicare Prescription Co. about responsibility for charges, She knows nothing about the source, can't help me. Call the VA, or VVH, anybody but them.
    Call #4 was to VVH about prescription responsibility. She'll have Allison  Call Me Back, but in meantime call Finance Director.
   Call #5 was to VVH Finance Director.   I left message. He is to Call Me Back.
 While I wait, I'll address the Cryptoquip.

Fate

   Bill's close friend during their childhood years in Kingston was his cousin Jim, Jr.  Their lives would separate when Bill entered the military and would settle across the country, where he raised his family, which included 6 children.  His cousin took over the successful family liquor distribution business, and raised his family of 3 children.

    Both cousins' first-born were sons, born within a few years of each other:   Paul and Jay.

    One had the reputation of "not taking very good care of himself," and recently succumbed at the age of 60.

    The other was an avid and driven four-season athlete, a competitive swimmer in his youth.  He was known for 4-hour daily physical workouts and his activities: biking, hiking, kayaking, skiing, mountain climbing, had climbed all 35 Catskill mountain peaks. He regularly rode his bike 125 miles from Woodstock to his summer properties in  Lake George. Four years ago, he died at the age of 54. He'd choked while eating dinner with his father at a restaurant.  

   We who survive attempt to attach consequences for lapses in judgment in taking care of our mortal coils, and statistically with some rationale.  But in the chaotic stream of life, taking control is often only a metaphor for whatever happens.  (Both fathers are now in their 80's, apparently not that committed to any particular regimen.

Scrooge-itis

   I'm watching my first Christmas show of the year. It started off with Pentatonix and has gone steadily downhill since, if that's even possible. Talk about phoning it in. But who likes those old holiday songs anyway? Unless of course Hoda is dancing with Al.
***Today the John  Ray fuel truck stopped and made a delivery. Odd enough, because I'd called them last spring saying to stop deliveries because their price was too high. Polsinello, now Mirabito, filled our tank Nov. 12, and price was $3.179 per gal. Average NYSERDA quote was about $3.14.  John Ray's price today was $4.299 per gal. Tank only took 50 gal. because it was recently filled.  So I'll call John tomorrow---looks like he owes me 50 bucks.
    I could gripe some more--there are issues---but I'll stop and count my blessings. There are some.
    Gotta go---Jingle Bell Rock is on.    O, Lordy, the annoying kid and the puppet, AND, no less than Howie Mandel grotesquely embarrassing people while pimping his show, and John Legend with the worst lip-synching performance in the history of TV.  I wonder if the Christmas Tree will be blood-red.
 

Paul

April 27, 1968

Phillip, Paul, Thomas      (3 little cowboys)                                                                       
 Bottom, Far right--Paul, (Eric) Thomas, (Tammy) Philip   Nov. 22, 2018   
     (Herman F. Schroder April 12, 1908--November 18, 1977   Age 69)                       

What's going on in there?