Dears,
Grandma Letty, in her day, was something of a superstar. Salutatorian of her High School Class (the Valedictorian got an A in orchestra and Grandma Letty got a B in Chorus. That made the difference.) Delegate to Girl's State and elected Attorney General There, State wide debater earning many, many trophies, and a college record that included "Outstanding Woman in Journalism, writing awards, presidency of the class and of her sorority,Editor of the Daily Newspaper, National Debater, Judge on the Student Court,Phi Beta Kappa, Mortar Board, etc etc etc.
You know what? When I flashed that resume, the best job I could get was as an Editorial Assistant. My equivalent, I think, was Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connnor who graduated (at the same time) first in her class at Stanford University Law School and was offered a job (the only one) as a Paralegal. Gender discrimination was such a fact of life for us ladies of the 50's that we just accepted it. In hindsight, we should have raised hell.
I am tickled pink that my smart and savvy grandbabies will be taken seriously. I sincerely hope they aim high. We were cowed. They needn't be.
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Now, It's The Clintons
Hello, dears
Have you noticed? It's no longer "Hillary". It's "The Clintons." Since I did so well with predicting the New Hampshire primary, I'll go out on a limb, again. Since even the really big boys in the media are calling them "the clintons," I think the average American queasiness about the pair running the country, instead of her, means trouble. I'll pick Obama for the winner in Super Tuesday.
Of all the endorsements Barack has garnered, I think Caroline Kennedy's is the most telling: she wrote in the New York Times that he could be the kind of president her father was. WOW. Only I said it louder: WOW.
Isn't this fun? Twice as many voters came out in South Carolina as had voted four years ago. There really is the potential for a new, broader, more diverse coalition in the Democratic party. Obama said he admired Reagan for forging a new vision for Republicans. He DID NOT say he admired Reagan's stance or issues, as the Clintons (there it is again) advertised.
Anyhow, I sent money to McCain in 2000. Today, I'm sending a similar pittance to Obama.
Have you noticed? It's no longer "Hillary". It's "The Clintons." Since I did so well with predicting the New Hampshire primary, I'll go out on a limb, again. Since even the really big boys in the media are calling them "the clintons," I think the average American queasiness about the pair running the country, instead of her, means trouble. I'll pick Obama for the winner in Super Tuesday.
Of all the endorsements Barack has garnered, I think Caroline Kennedy's is the most telling: she wrote in the New York Times that he could be the kind of president her father was. WOW. Only I said it louder: WOW.
Isn't this fun? Twice as many voters came out in South Carolina as had voted four years ago. There really is the potential for a new, broader, more diverse coalition in the Democratic party. Obama said he admired Reagan for forging a new vision for Republicans. He DID NOT say he admired Reagan's stance or issues, as the Clintons (there it is again) advertised.
Anyhow, I sent money to McCain in 2000. Today, I'm sending a similar pittance to Obama.
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Great Fun and Profit
Dears:
Grandma Letty gave a talk today and part of the presentation concerned the early days at America Online, more easily known as AOL, which were guided by a marketing guru of a CEO named Steve Case.
I had written Clues for the Clueless and received a message on my IBM from "Tribe." She said that if I participated in a new Forum (sort of a magazine on line; a quasi-website but located on AOL, that the forum would publicize my book as a quid pro quo. Envisioning Book-of-the-Month Club status, I signed up and went to work. The Forum was AARF, Addiction and Recovery Forum, and it took its format from the ground-breaking Gay and Lesbian Forum, the first place in the nation (that I knew of) where rights and networking were discussed among its adherents.
Begun as a commercial venture, it never yielded much revenue and after some 8 years or so was scrapped, but in the meantime it attracted to the Forum (later re-christened A&R for Addiction and Recovery) a phalanx of brilliant people from early computer nerds (we were doing this in the 90s and AOL had its own programming language) to psychiatrists to addicts of all stripes and shapes, including ground breakers like Kay Sheppard and Joy (? The food lady).
At the time, I lived in a 10-acre spot in the country outside of Orlando and hosted the group for a picnic/program in 94 or 95; I forget which. It was memorable for its collection of addicts. The sugar addicts and the food addicts fought, and one food addict was so heavy she broke my computer chair. Joy, the sharpest of all, had flown in from Los Angeles and the majority were from New York and Michigan and North Carolina, where the group was headquartered. We had never before met face to face; we were the first online company structure that I knew about.
It turned out that I had made a trip to Spain with one of the other addict's former husbands (when I was single) and other revelations followed.
There's a lot to be said for anonymity.
We did check it with AA's World Service in New York and they gave it their blessing as we held online AA meetings several times a day. Friends of Bill Wilson meetings were consequently going on AOL chat sessions, but we had rules and conducted ourselves as much like a face-to-face meeting as we could. We were a great boon for shut-ins and those just trying the waters, because the anonymity was total. Our screen names didn't even give us away. We sent many a seeker on to AA meetings in their localities after satisfying them they would be helped (read loved.) It was a heady time.
My book enjoyed a modest success and I was so impressed that all these people were giving their all for free that I bought AOL stock (at $40 a share; sold it three years later at $120 a share and took Dan (husband #2) to Machu Pichu. When I had a little money, my greatest pleasure was to go somewhere. Travel was my reward.......A&R indirectly got me there.
Grandma Letty gave a talk today and part of the presentation concerned the early days at America Online, more easily known as AOL, which were guided by a marketing guru of a CEO named Steve Case.
I had written Clues for the Clueless and received a message on my IBM from "Tribe." She said that if I participated in a new Forum (sort of a magazine on line; a quasi-website but located on AOL, that the forum would publicize my book as a quid pro quo. Envisioning Book-of-the-Month Club status, I signed up and went to work. The Forum was AARF, Addiction and Recovery Forum, and it took its format from the ground-breaking Gay and Lesbian Forum, the first place in the nation (that I knew of) where rights and networking were discussed among its adherents.
Begun as a commercial venture, it never yielded much revenue and after some 8 years or so was scrapped, but in the meantime it attracted to the Forum (later re-christened A&R for Addiction and Recovery) a phalanx of brilliant people from early computer nerds (we were doing this in the 90s and AOL had its own programming language) to psychiatrists to addicts of all stripes and shapes, including ground breakers like Kay Sheppard and Joy (? The food lady).
At the time, I lived in a 10-acre spot in the country outside of Orlando and hosted the group for a picnic/program in 94 or 95; I forget which. It was memorable for its collection of addicts. The sugar addicts and the food addicts fought, and one food addict was so heavy she broke my computer chair. Joy, the sharpest of all, had flown in from Los Angeles and the majority were from New York and Michigan and North Carolina, where the group was headquartered. We had never before met face to face; we were the first online company structure that I knew about.
It turned out that I had made a trip to Spain with one of the other addict's former husbands (when I was single) and other revelations followed.
There's a lot to be said for anonymity.
We did check it with AA's World Service in New York and they gave it their blessing as we held online AA meetings several times a day. Friends of Bill Wilson meetings were consequently going on AOL chat sessions, but we had rules and conducted ourselves as much like a face-to-face meeting as we could. We were a great boon for shut-ins and those just trying the waters, because the anonymity was total. Our screen names didn't even give us away. We sent many a seeker on to AA meetings in their localities after satisfying them they would be helped (read loved.) It was a heady time.
My book enjoyed a modest success and I was so impressed that all these people were giving their all for free that I bought AOL stock (at $40 a share; sold it three years later at $120 a share and took Dan (husband #2) to Machu Pichu. When I had a little money, my greatest pleasure was to go somewhere. Travel was my reward.......A&R indirectly got me there.
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
whoops
Dear Grandchildren,
Like all the heavy hitters, I believed the polls. I thought it would be Obama in New Hampshire by 10 points. Fortunately, only the one or two of you who read this knew I was wrong. Contrast that with "The Best Political Team on Television" and the News Hour Crew. Contrast that with Mark Halperin, the political editor of Time magazine.
Do you know what they told all of America? Donna Brazil (a heavy hitter in more ways than one) and Gore's old campaign manager said at 7 Eastern time last night as the polls closed that "Obama is a tidal wave that can't be stopped." Evidently, among their other skills, the Clintons can stop tidal waves. Mark Halperin didn't even include Arkansas governor Huckabee among the list of real contenders for the Presidency in his new book, and told an Arkansas audience in September that Huckabee had no chance for election. Last night he beat Guliani in a state where the latter had been stumping since last year.
Now I know I'm just a garden variety political junkie who has zilch national standing after a lifetime in the garden variety press, but at least I don't have public egg on my face. Nor did I have a large meal of my words at 10 p.m. Pacific Time.
I'm beginning to think being inconsequential is a good thing.
Love to you all
Your grandma
Like all the heavy hitters, I believed the polls. I thought it would be Obama in New Hampshire by 10 points. Fortunately, only the one or two of you who read this knew I was wrong. Contrast that with "The Best Political Team on Television" and the News Hour Crew. Contrast that with Mark Halperin, the political editor of Time magazine.
Do you know what they told all of America? Donna Brazil (a heavy hitter in more ways than one) and Gore's old campaign manager said at 7 Eastern time last night as the polls closed that "Obama is a tidal wave that can't be stopped." Evidently, among their other skills, the Clintons can stop tidal waves. Mark Halperin didn't even include Arkansas governor Huckabee among the list of real contenders for the Presidency in his new book, and told an Arkansas audience in September that Huckabee had no chance for election. Last night he beat Guliani in a state where the latter had been stumping since last year.
Now I know I'm just a garden variety political junkie who has zilch national standing after a lifetime in the garden variety press, but at least I don't have public egg on my face. Nor did I have a large meal of my words at 10 p.m. Pacific Time.
I'm beginning to think being inconsequential is a good thing.
Love to you all
Your grandma
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
a black, a woman, and a jew
Dear Grandchildren:
This could never have happened before. First, a black and a woman are vying for our presidency, and now it looks like Mayor (multimillionaire) Bloomberg of New York will enter the race if he thinks he can displace the nominees of both parties. That rounds out the collection of people "who can't win". Who's next? Maybe Georgia Senator Max Clelland, who is a disabled veteran. Or with all the maiming our current president has accomplished, maybe Clelland is just too mainstream.
The early election results certify that Oprah was right, as usual. If Obama defies the odds and carries the election, will he make her Ambassador to Kenya, his turmoil-ridden ancestral country? They certainly need her there. Who was the Washington taste-maker who became an Ambassador? Ethel Merman played her on the stage in "Call Me Madame." Maybe someday a Merman Wannabe will play Oprah in a similar drama! (It just came to me, slowly, as things do nowadays. It was Perle Mesta, the hostess who created congeniality in Washington and was sent as Ambassador to Luxemboug (where she could do no harm.)
Keep up, little ones. Obama's message is for the young, and the young can change the world. We did, for a short two years., a long time ago.
This could never have happened before. First, a black and a woman are vying for our presidency, and now it looks like Mayor (multimillionaire) Bloomberg of New York will enter the race if he thinks he can displace the nominees of both parties. That rounds out the collection of people "who can't win". Who's next? Maybe Georgia Senator Max Clelland, who is a disabled veteran. Or with all the maiming our current president has accomplished, maybe Clelland is just too mainstream.
The early election results certify that Oprah was right, as usual. If Obama defies the odds and carries the election, will he make her Ambassador to Kenya, his turmoil-ridden ancestral country? They certainly need her there. Who was the Washington taste-maker who became an Ambassador? Ethel Merman played her on the stage in "Call Me Madame." Maybe someday a Merman Wannabe will play Oprah in a similar drama! (It just came to me, slowly, as things do nowadays. It was Perle Mesta, the hostess who created congeniality in Washington and was sent as Ambassador to Luxemboug (where she could do no harm.)
Keep up, little ones. Obama's message is for the young, and the young can change the world. We did, for a short two years., a long time ago.
Saturday, January 5, 2008
Ruminations About the Disintegration of ATT/Yahoo at SBC
Dearest Growing (boy baby coming in January in Phoenix, courtesy of Sarah)Audience:
Your grandma Letty participated in the deregulation of AT&T in the late 1970s when it surrendered its monopoly status. (That means that up till then it was the only phone company in the country. It was sued and the Federal Trade Commission said it had to break up into four "Baby Bells" and compete with Sprint and a few others which wanted to begin as national phone companies.) A man named deVries was it's CEO, and an assemblage of engineers, most of them on the verge of retirement, gathered in Orlado to offer rebuttals to the government's case.
We often, we 5 editors, worked into the night for this goal of stopping deregulation. Our weapons were words turned out by long-term, spoiled, AT&T project engineers who had seniority simply because, like committee heads in the US House of Representatives, they had been around a long time doing very little. In corporate America in the 50s and 60s,an AT&T job was prized for that very reason. High pay, few demands, a veritable comforable couch of a job: that was AT&T.
My first husband, a very winning personality, was recruited by AT&T for his first job in Kansas City, so I know in decades what I say. He also had Navy service, and AT&T promised to make up the difference between his Ensign paycheck and his original ATT paycheck. We got hundreds of dollars for months because they didn't know he had only worked for them for 6 weeks so was entitled to 6 weeks worth of difference, if that's clear. The place was so big and unwieldy they didn't know what they were doing much of the time. Being an honorable man, he wrote his old superior and asked what to do. The superior said "keep it." Bob sent it back.
Flash forward to divistiture, which is what it was called when the FTC said "split up". It was a true boondoggle, but it kept these fellows paid until they all retired. It all came to nothing. Hence: Sprint, Nextel, and now, back again, AT&T.
Flash forward to my ATT/Yahoo Account, masquerading as SBCGlobal.net. Because the whole deal of our changing from 2 phone lines, John's and mine, to one (John's) we caused an international flap, from India to Kansas City. It took 8 tech support calls to AT&T which all started with an anoying series of canned questions to a guy in India. Now I respectfully submit they are superior to us technically in Bangalore. I also submit that as troubleshooters they are idiots. I recently had trouble with a Dell power cord and all the guy could do was keep sending the same thing. A tech guy here solved it in two seconds. But I digress. After talking to Tier 1 technical support, as they are called, I had done everything they told me to do before calling so they surrendered me to Tier 2. Enter Kansas City. We'd fix it immediately, after a little tweaking, and then SBC would stop my account. Even after I had been rerigistered twice, they said I wasn't registered. Nothing would convince them otherwise. We went hopefully to an ATT phone store. They didn't haveTHE PHONE NUMBER OF TECH SUPPORT AND COULDN'T FIND IT ON THE WEB. The manager of the store said he would call customer service for us. We waited the usual 15 minutes and left in discust. I finally found a supervisor (after a letter of apology from AT&T for messing us up) and wrote her that I didn't want apologies, I wanted solutions. I heard, typically, nothing back.
Now I know I'm no computer guru. I also know after doing my own troubleshooting, including taking the battery out of my laptop, then putting it back in (that worked after Tier 2 gave up) but the Bangalore gang is really useless for anyone who has some experience. Not for nothing have I been trying to work computers from the old Compaq days throgh a Community Leader with AOL to now where, for heaven's sake, I have a blog. Can't AT&T had a tier 2 helpline immediately for us old guys?
Work hard on your computer skills, evereyone. The guys in Bengalore are lost if it isn't rote.
Your grandma Letty participated in the deregulation of AT&T in the late 1970s when it surrendered its monopoly status. (That means that up till then it was the only phone company in the country. It was sued and the Federal Trade Commission said it had to break up into four "Baby Bells" and compete with Sprint and a few others which wanted to begin as national phone companies.) A man named deVries was it's CEO, and an assemblage of engineers, most of them on the verge of retirement, gathered in Orlado to offer rebuttals to the government's case.
We often, we 5 editors, worked into the night for this goal of stopping deregulation. Our weapons were words turned out by long-term, spoiled, AT&T project engineers who had seniority simply because, like committee heads in the US House of Representatives, they had been around a long time doing very little. In corporate America in the 50s and 60s,an AT&T job was prized for that very reason. High pay, few demands, a veritable comforable couch of a job: that was AT&T.
My first husband, a very winning personality, was recruited by AT&T for his first job in Kansas City, so I know in decades what I say. He also had Navy service, and AT&T promised to make up the difference between his Ensign paycheck and his original ATT paycheck. We got hundreds of dollars for months because they didn't know he had only worked for them for 6 weeks so was entitled to 6 weeks worth of difference, if that's clear. The place was so big and unwieldy they didn't know what they were doing much of the time. Being an honorable man, he wrote his old superior and asked what to do. The superior said "keep it." Bob sent it back.
Flash forward to divistiture, which is what it was called when the FTC said "split up". It was a true boondoggle, but it kept these fellows paid until they all retired. It all came to nothing. Hence: Sprint, Nextel, and now, back again, AT&T.
Flash forward to my ATT/Yahoo Account, masquerading as SBCGlobal.net. Because the whole deal of our changing from 2 phone lines, John's and mine, to one (John's) we caused an international flap, from India to Kansas City. It took 8 tech support calls to AT&T which all started with an anoying series of canned questions to a guy in India. Now I respectfully submit they are superior to us technically in Bangalore. I also submit that as troubleshooters they are idiots. I recently had trouble with a Dell power cord and all the guy could do was keep sending the same thing. A tech guy here solved it in two seconds. But I digress. After talking to Tier 1 technical support, as they are called, I had done everything they told me to do before calling so they surrendered me to Tier 2. Enter Kansas City. We'd fix it immediately, after a little tweaking, and then SBC would stop my account. Even after I had been rerigistered twice, they said I wasn't registered. Nothing would convince them otherwise. We went hopefully to an ATT phone store. They didn't haveTHE PHONE NUMBER OF TECH SUPPORT AND COULDN'T FIND IT ON THE WEB. The manager of the store said he would call customer service for us. We waited the usual 15 minutes and left in discust. I finally found a supervisor (after a letter of apology from AT&T for messing us up) and wrote her that I didn't want apologies, I wanted solutions. I heard, typically, nothing back.
Now I know I'm no computer guru. I also know after doing my own troubleshooting, including taking the battery out of my laptop, then putting it back in (that worked after Tier 2 gave up) but the Bangalore gang is really useless for anyone who has some experience. Not for nothing have I been trying to work computers from the old Compaq days throgh a Community Leader with AOL to now where, for heaven's sake, I have a blog. Can't AT&T had a tier 2 helpline immediately for us old guys?
Work hard on your computer skills, evereyone. The guys in Bengalore are lost if it isn't rote.
A guaranteed Audience of 27
Dears:
Pity the poor first-time blogger who sends wisdom into the ether and it is like a Billboard in the woods: No one ever sees it. All 27 of you grandchildren, and perhaps your mommys and daddys and step mommys and step daddys could, possibly, take and interest.
The first thing I have to tell you is that I'm vastly encouraged by the election results in Iowa. Your grandmother was a sort-of hippy who worked for Kennedy 1 and sees a Black Camelot on the Horizon. (Ask your parents what that means. You should find out.)
Jackie and John Kennedy were not afraid of excellence. Take Pat Nixon, who called in a decorator from California to furnish the Oval Office (the Place where the business of our country is done in the White House.) Then they were so proud of it they replicated it in the Nixon Library in Fullerton California. It is simply awful/terrible. I shuddered at the sight. Compare that was Jackie Kennedy who took a run-down White House and called in Museum Heads and International Furniture Experts to fix it. Not a decorator, I suspect, in the mix. Or if one existed, they deferred to taste-makers of great reputation.
Or take the Kennedy Cabinet. Not a yes-man in the herd. It was a time of challenge and ferment, and it was exciting after Eisenhower. When I met Mamie Eisenhower she was mainly interested in lipstick shades. Not a good sign.
Well, darlings, I'm sure I'm taxing your interest. What do you care about Camelot and who in ned was Mamie Eisenhower? Find out, and you'll grow big and strong. And informed.
Loving all of you
Grandma Letty
Pity the poor first-time blogger who sends wisdom into the ether and it is like a Billboard in the woods: No one ever sees it. All 27 of you grandchildren, and perhaps your mommys and daddys and step mommys and step daddys could, possibly, take and interest.
The first thing I have to tell you is that I'm vastly encouraged by the election results in Iowa. Your grandmother was a sort-of hippy who worked for Kennedy 1 and sees a Black Camelot on the Horizon. (Ask your parents what that means. You should find out.)
Jackie and John Kennedy were not afraid of excellence. Take Pat Nixon, who called in a decorator from California to furnish the Oval Office (the Place where the business of our country is done in the White House.) Then they were so proud of it they replicated it in the Nixon Library in Fullerton California. It is simply awful/terrible. I shuddered at the sight. Compare that was Jackie Kennedy who took a run-down White House and called in Museum Heads and International Furniture Experts to fix it. Not a decorator, I suspect, in the mix. Or if one existed, they deferred to taste-makers of great reputation.
Or take the Kennedy Cabinet. Not a yes-man in the herd. It was a time of challenge and ferment, and it was exciting after Eisenhower. When I met Mamie Eisenhower she was mainly interested in lipstick shades. Not a good sign.
Well, darlings, I'm sure I'm taxing your interest. What do you care about Camelot and who in ned was Mamie Eisenhower? Find out, and you'll grow big and strong. And informed.
Loving all of you
Grandma Letty
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)