Execupundit has 17 brilliant rules to follow when talking with a new boss.

Unemployment is high so the government must spend more money?  Nonsense.  As the historical chart below makes clear, if an correlation exists between government spending and unemployment, the spending precedes increased unemployment.  It certainly doesn't lead to a decline in the unemployment rate.



Read the post at SayAnythingBlog.

Thanks, Dr. John.

"You aren't busing the tables fast enough."  My brother was explaining that my job was in jeopardy.  I was fifteen years old and had secured my first non-lawn mowing job: busing tables at a local pizza place.

The work instructions were clear:  Walk to the dining room regularly (or when prompted), find the cluttered table without customers and get to work.  The gray bus tub was to be distanced from customers - if possible they shouldn't see inside it.  NEVER place it on the table; always on the chair.  The tables were to be cleared quickly and quietly.  Stack the plates and cups, place the silverware on the side, put trash and food in the corner of the tub.  Wipe the table and chairs clean and get back to the kitchen where Kenny, the dishwasher would take over.

How could I fail?  What could I do more quickly? Better. "Jon says you need to pick it up or he can't keep you," my brother explained, referring to the restaurant owner.  I was at the bottom of the totem pole - busboys were "dirtballs" according to all the other employees.  Master busing and you moved to the grill or pizza table where you could make food.  Get that down and you could work the ovens, cut pizzas, assemble orders for the wait staff.  Get the kitchen down and you might wait tables where you could earn tips and interact with customers.  After that, the sky was the limit.  You could fit into the schedule any day of the week.  You were multi-talented and the world was your oyster. . .but I couldn't bus the tables quickly enough.

So I practiced.  I took pointers from my brother:  "Get all the plates first, then the cups and then the silverware.  Use both hands.  Secure the bus pan with your knees."  I perfected my art.  I busted my ass to get better so that I could make subs and steak sandwiches. . .fry fish, onion rings and mushrooms. . .make all the pizzas, cut them, serve them. . .manage the kitchen.

I never once thought the owner had it in for me.  I never trashed him to the other employees.  I appreciated my brother's willingness to help.  I watched how others bused the tables.  I engaged the owner to understand how he wanted things completed.  I wanted to advance.  I wanted more.  I never once thought that I was owed a certain number of hours during the week.  The system was brutally predictable:  Do well and don't complain and you found yourself working all the hours you could handle;  take lots of breaks, loaf or complain and there was plenty of free time.  In the end, I could perform every function in the place.

We hear about people starting in the mail room and working their way up, one job at a time.  I wonder if it is becoming a thing of the past with required degrees and head hunters and specialists.  It shouldn't.  The message to employees should one of advancement; for employers of promoting within if at all possible.  The line worker who moves into management surely holds real value for a company.  The mail clerk who works through positions gives an important perspective.  I hope that there is always room for advancement.

I am restored.  Now I need evidence that single malts will grow hair.

Thanks, Hot Air.

Andrew Sullivan observes Sarah Palin at the Tea Party Convention and comes up with:

"Do not under-estimate the appeal of a beautiful, big breasted, divinelychosen warrior-mother as a military leader in a global religious war."

Link here.

If you find yourself in a karaoke bar in the Philippines, take a pass on Sinatra's "My Way".

I wasn't impressed with the Super Bowl ads but this was my favorite (plus I like Abe Vigoda):

"I’ve been saying this to my clients for years- to have a successful brand, personal or otherwise, it can’t just be about you, or even your customers, it has to be about something HIGHER than all of us."

Reminders at Gapingvoid.

. . .on health care appears to be in the works. 

John Phillips offers great advice on what will likely become an inevitable requirement for businesses: A policy on social media.  As much as I hate the idea, it seems like a reasonable measure. 

In general, the policy should be common sense.  Our online utterances are very public.  As such they shouldn't detract from our reputation.  But they needn't be boring either.  I have read some corporate sites that are so worked over to avoid any possible controversy that they are sterile.  They are devoid of life.  Perhaps that should be addressed in the policy as well.

I return to my long-held online analogies:  I consider a blog to be like a coffee shop conversation - the parties choose to engage by going to the shop.  Twitter is more like a conversation in a crowded bar with informal comments streaming by, while Facebook is conversation at a private cocktail party since we are invited, and must accept that invitation before engaging in the conversation.  Perhaps that analogy gives us a standard for behavior?

I hasten to add that while I work very hard to avoid both the boring and the offensive, CO is a personal site, in no way connected to my wonderful employer.

Today will be a good day.  Shoes will be shined.  A Suitable Wardrobe explains why we shine and how to darken shoes.  Don't forget the edge dressing.

The term is 'cognitive fluency'.  In essence it means that people gravitate toward things that are easier to grasp:  A clearer message, easier to read fonts, a simpler layout, less jargon.

I picked up on the concept from the always interesting Managing Leadership blog.  The idea seems so patently obvious yet we meet up with the people who want to complicate things or the sales guy full of jargon the auto mechanic who acts as if we could never understand.  I believe many of these people thrive on confusion.  They believe their worth is demonstrated in your belief that they "get it" even if you don't.  In truth, the value comes from bringing clarity to a situation - from taking all of the mumbo jumbo of seemingly disparate ideas and shedding some light on them in a way that our audience understands.  The truly valuable sales person wants you to get it.  The mechanic who can explain the problem clearly is a gem.  The teacher who can impart knowledge is the real deal.

Be sure to read the Boston Globe article here.  Our challenge every day is clarity.

Thanks, Jim.

On Tuesday Sade will release her first new album in ten years - Soldier of Love.  Here is an article on the release from The New York Times.  Here is the title track video (Has Sade ever done a James Bond opening credit song?  She should.):

. . .I am such a child. 



Thanks, Larry.

We've had some snow.  Ben measured ten inches of the stuff this morning.  Went to pick up Henry this morning and saw this great scene.



No weather can keep Maddie from the horses so we four-wheeled it to the barn and Maddie even gave Slew a quick ride.



The scenery at the barn is breathtaking and the snow makes it even more so.



Tim stopped over and secured yours truly a kick-ass snow blower.  We made quick work of the driveway.



Henry's snow fort caved in so he decided to do some climbing instead of burrowing.



Success.

"Liberals have dismissed conservative thinking for decades, a tendency encapsulated by Lionel Trilling's 1950 remark that conservatives do not 'express themselves in ideas but only in action or in irritable mental gestures which seek to resemble ideas.' During the 1950s and '60s,liberals trivialized the nascent conservative movement. Prominent studies and journalistic accounts of right-wing politics at the time stressed paranoia, intolerance and insecurity, rendering conservative thought more a psychiatric disorder than a rival. In 1962, Richard Hofstadter referred to 'the Manichaean style of thought, the apocalyptic tendencies, the love of mystification, the intolerance of compromise that are observable in the right-wing mind.'"

Gerard Alexander looks at how liberals see conservatives.  When I read pieces like this I am always taken back to my college days.  Reagan had just "survived" the economic recession and was preparing to blow up the world.  My professors reacted to conservative views with attitudes ranging from puzzlement to disgust.  In my Capitalism Versus Socialism class the socialist viewpoint was ably represented by a former SDSer; the capitalist viewpoint was butchered by a professor with views barely to the right of the socialist prof.  It wasn't that they couldn't understand conservatism; they had no interest.

Thanks, NLT.

. . .at Randy Lust Photography.  I could watch the slide show all morning.

Steve Layman has photos of buildings designed by Louis Sullivan at Anderson Layman's Blog.

My father's architectural firm once occupied the second story of the Newark Sullivan building.  My Saturday job was to clean the place.  I rarely missed an opportunity to sneak through a door off the landing between the first and second floors to look at the wall designs that remained in the storage space.  I wonder if they have been preserved?

Mark Steyn explains how weak evidence and speculation becomes a religion:

"But where did all these experts get the data from? Well, NASA’s assertion that Himalayan glaciers “may disappear altogether” by 2030 rests on one footnote, citing the IPCC’s Fourth Assessment Report from 2007.

In fact, the Fourth Assessment Report suggests 2035 as the likely arrival of Armageddon, but what’s half a decade between scaremongers?They rate the likelihood of the glaciers disappearing as 'very high'—i.e., more than 90 per cent. And the IPCC was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for that report, so it must be kosher, right? Well, yes,its Himalayan claims rest on a 2005 World Wildlife Fund report called 'An Overview of Glaciers.'"

Read the rest here.

Thanks, David.