In Case You Were Wondering What I Was Thinking

In Case You Were Wondering What I Was Thinking

• Why do airlines charge more at the last minute when they should want to fill empty seats, and less far in advance, when they’re giving people more choice and options?

• Hotels are more frequently using independent audio/video companies, which are separate profit centers, so you’re dealing with more expense and less flexibility. I was recently cited a charge of $25 “to connect your music to our sound system.”

• Seriously, your mattress is looking better and better as a depository, since banks are now charging monthly fees merely to hold your money, pay no interest, are eliminating free checking, are strangling new credit, and even charge for deposits in many cases. I might buy an old Holiday Inn just to let people keep money under the beds. At least they won’t be losing any of it while it’s there.

• The reason that awards categories now include “best revival” is that the originality in the theater has diminished to an all-time low. I’m waiting for “best derivative work not obviously stolen.”

• People who scurry to buy url addresses that they think they can resell later to someone whose work is related to the name, remind me of scalpers who buy good seats with the intent of reselling them at a premium later. That’s illegal in a lot of places, and it’s not exactly a huge value-contribution to society.

• Be careful. With the advent of the iPhone and social media platforms, the odds are that both a video camera and audio recorder are present, and what they record can be instantly broadcast.

• If you tell one other person, you no longer have a “secret.”

• The expectation of retirement at 65 is absurd, not because of finances and recession, but because it’s so boring and useless.

• In Italy, you don’t take your shoes off going through security, nor take out liquids. Are they daredevils, ahead of the US technologically, or merely less paranoid?

• Watch the new show “Pan Am.” That’s very much how it used to be. Pan Am was a client, and I often had stewardesses in my training programs. I can remember flying a Pan Am 747 from New York to San Francisco in first class at a special rate because they were introducing the new plane on that route. Flying to Australia, we all used to rush up the stairs to the piano bar to grab a couch seat. I kid you not.

• If you’re not sure where you’re really headed, stop trying so hard to get there, and spend some time identifying your personal destination. (Note to the airlines: “Final destination” is redundant.)

• When I was young, the leading industries were steel, auto, rubber, and textile If you think that’s an aberration, think of newspapers, banks, and airlines today, powerhouses no more.

• When every prospect attempts to get a deal from you, or refuses to call you back, then you’re doing something wrong, not them. When every CEO the board chooses turns out to be a disaster at Hewlett-Packard, it’s the board’s deficiency, not the candidates’. The entire HP board ought to be prosecuted for malfeasance.

© Alan Weiss 2011. All rights reserved.