A Road Trip Adventure Across America – Part Two

In Travels with Charley: A Search of America John Steinbeck writes, “A journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it.” And he could not have said it better.  To remind you of part one of this saga my kids and I had just had a very hot adventure within Death Valley, California and we were heading into Sin City, Nevada for a night’s rest. 

As night enveloped us while driving through the desert we took the back way to Las Vegas.  I was happy to fill up the car with the lowest priced gas I had seen in ages: $1.39 compared to the near $4.00 a gallon before we left home.  Prior to leaving I had made only one hotel reservation and that was for Las Vegas.  I went online using a discount card purchased with one of those coupon savings books that Johanna got roped into buying but it did have hotel discounts. I booked a cheap room knowing we would only be sleeping and showering in what I thought was some small hotel-casino on the outskirts of Vegas on the way to Henderson.  I don’t even think you can book a hotel-only place in Nevada.  I had an image in my head of some mom and pop place, maybe akin to a Motel 6 but with a few one-arm bandits in the lobby.  For $30 a room it couldn’t be that great, could it? To be honest, I’ve only traveled through Las Vegas in a car once and stuck to the interstate and the other times were simply stopovers in the airport so I didn’t really have a feel for the place.   I only knew it through TV and movies. 

We entered the city by a Northwest route and made our way to our destination passing by the Strip.  The kids were fascinated by all the tall themed hotels, such as the one with the Eiffel Tower, the circus one and the place with the Statue of Liberty, which Avery pointed out with glee.  I told them we weren’t staying in any of those fancy places – just some small joint outside of town.  Avery was notably excited because he had never spent a night in a hotel or motel before in his five years of life.  Olivia was an old pro but Avery had expectations so I tried to temper those so he wouldn’t be disappointed. We kept driving and as the Strip faded and the hotels turned to strip malls and fast food joints my conclusions about our night’s stay seemed to be correct…or so I thought.  As we drove I couldn’t help but glimpse at a rather large sign in the distance, with flashy Broadway type lights encircling an electronic display as gaudy as anything on the Strip.  As we got closer I saw the name on the sign: Sam’s Hotel & Gambling Hall.  Ooops!   Seems I didn’t book some out of the way place after all, to the thrill of the two hooligans in the back seat. 

As we came up to the huge monument to all things unnatural it was clear we weren’t on the outskirts of town in some mom and pop type place.  It was like one of those mega churches you see in the South but with lights flashing and blinking everywhere and a congregation of gamblers.  I thought to myself I’d hate to be the guy in charge of changing light bulbs, though you’d always have a job, I guess.

Being on a budget we parked in the garage the large arrow pointed to by ourselves and had to hike it with the luggage for what seemed like a few blocks over to the hotel and gambling hall.  Olivia didn’t know what a gambling hall was and thought it read “climbing hall”.  I thought that was funny.  In her mind there was a large room with one of those rock climbing walls in it.  Anyway, here’s a nerdy Dad dragging luggage and two kids at 9:00 at night walking through rows and rows and rows and rows of slot machines trying to figure out where the front desk was hiding all the while hating the cigarette stench that was pervasive throughout the casino.  It would drive me crazy if I had to smell it for more than a few minutes.  I’m glad I don’t gamble, aside from the occasional lottery ticket and screenplay submission.

We finally made it through the slot maze designed to keep one dropping quarters in machines and stumbled upon the front desk.  The hotel portion of Sam’s was amazing and reminded me of a small Opryland Hotel: Tall glass ceiling made to seem like you’re in some small town.  The place had a very Southern country feel to it with an inside potted forest, animatronic animals, a real waterfall where twice a night they had a light show (we just missed it so I can’t report on how good it was).  Check-in was easy and we quickly made it to our very comfortable accommodations.  Avery was beyond ecstatic and demonstrated this enthusiasm by jumping up and down on the bed until corralled by the strong arm of Sheriff Dad.  But now the bar was set so high he was only headed for disappointment further into the trip when we’d most likely stay at a “real” cheap hotel and not one with rooms subsidized by gamblers.  I did meet a nice couple from Ventura while waiting in line to check in who visit there several times a year with much pleasure.  Small world.

After a short get-acquainted with the hotel room time, we headed down into the lobby to get a bite to eat even though it was late.  The only place to eat was Subway or TGI Fridays.  Olivia chose Fridays.  This was first in a series of her drinking too much Sprite before her food arrives and getting full before most of meal was eaten and infuriating her father.  Avery and food is a whole other issue.  Let’s just say he got a drink and that was about it.  I enjoyed a rack of ribs, though. 

Once a bath and shower were taken by the kiddos and I got them settled in bed with the TV blaring CNN (always a good sleep aide) they quickly fell to sleep after a long day of adventure.  I was not far behind after watching the news about JamesGandolfino’s sudden passing in Rome.  What a way to end a day. 

With free breakfast passes we got up early and headed to the buffet.  The kids were still waking up so they didn’t eat much even though there was food to feed an army at their disposal.  I pigged out.  We returned to the room and packed up to leave.  For some reason Olivia couldn’t roll her suitcase and so I had to lug all of our stuff – which proved to be fated for trouble.  We dropped the plastic room keys in a box and headed to the car…again having to trudge through the almost empty endless rows of slot machines.  We exited the hotel and passed by the 18-screen movie theater adjacent to the hotel.  This hotel had everything…even a talking bear.

After packing up the car we headed back on the road saying goodbye to Sam’s.  Of course, the kids want to come back. We’ll see about that. Next stop was Hoover Dam, another site I’d never seen and part of that old Disney film.  It was a short 40 minutes or so to the dam and after parking we made our way to the entrance right after they opened.  There must have been people camping out at the door because there was a hell of a lot of people already there.  I get to security and my little Swiss Army penknife was a no no in a Federal facility.  Darn.  Since it doubled as a USB drive I didn’t want to give it up and so without anyplace to hide it we had to walk all the way back up to the parking garage to store it.  When I got to the car and was placing all my pocket items in the car so I wouldn’t have to dump it all in the tray I noticed something was wrong.  Oh God!  My briefcase with my MacBookPro computer was missing.  I was keeping it on the passenger side floorboard but it was not there.  My stomach sunk.  My first thought was that I left it in the lobby of the hotel, putting it down to help the kids with something.  Then I thought I might have left it outside the car as we were packing up and forgot about it.  Either of those two scenarios spoke of doom.  I immediately called my wife Johanna to see if she could call the hotel as we walked back to buy tickets for the tour that was about to start.  Missing the tour would put us way back behind schedule so we kept going.  As I talked with Johanna I realized that while we left the hotel I was pulling two suite cases and so couldn’t possibly have carried my briefcase so it had to still be in the room.  I asked Johanna to call and see if I was right.  She called back as we were waiting for the tour to start to tell me the front desk told her they were sending housekeeping to check and that they’d call me on my cell.  I was on pins and needles waiting to hear.

We sat through the requisite film about the history of Hoover Dam, which was tainted by my nervousness but as we were exiting the theater I got a call from the hotel; they found my briefcase in the room.  Relief.  But…now we had to return to Las Vegas after the tour.  Oh, Mr. Steinbeck, my itinerary was falling about.  I had planned on getting all the way past Monument Valley that day but I knew that wasn’t going to happen.  An unknown plan B had to be set in motion but that could wait.  There was hours on the road before I had to worry about where to sleep that night.

We learned all about Hoover Dam and what it took to build.  They make it seem like it was the savior of the Great Depression but we were all in awe of its grandeur and the hard work it took a small army of people to complete in an era without computers and modern technology.  I was able to avoid the gift shop by telling the kids because we had to go back to Las Vegas and didn’t have time…which was true.  A bribe to eat at McDonald’s also helped.  We got back to Sam’s…this time parking practically next to where our room was…a little knowledge and some daylight helps.  We had to wait a good 45 minutes before housekeeping came down with my briefcase and because it contained a computer I had to show two signs of ID, sign my life away and leave one of my kids…that last one isn’t true but if I was asked that after a long day in the car my answer may surprise you.

Finally back in the car and on the road. The next stop was The Grand Canyon but three hours behind schedule. I knew we wouldn’t make it to Monument Valley so I elicited help from home base.  Johanna scored big time!  She found us a cabin right inside the park and at a reasonable cost. A family decided to cancel last minute and take the presidential suite at some hotel right outside the park. Our benefit. We would sleep in the Grand Canyon that night.  Pretty cool.

(Next on A Road Trip Adventure Across America: Keeping a five year old from falling over a cliff, majestic Monument Valley and trying to make the four corners before dark.)

A Road Trip Adventure Across America – Part One

When I was a kid we would watch Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color on channel 4 almost every Sunday.  On occasion they would present these mini documentary shorts and I recall one of them Tour of the West (first aired July 1955) was about a family’s road trip across the Western United States.  I don’t remember much of the details except for a station wagon driving on mountain roads and a strong desire to see in person all the iconic locations they visited.  Fast-forward from 1966 to 2013 and I finally decided it was time to fulfill that bucket list entry and at the same time add some nice memories to the minds of my kids.   

Everyone, including my wife, thought I was crazy when I proposed the road trip, driving from Moorpark CA to East Texas and then on to Mississippi to visit grandparents, aunts, uncles, and lots of cousins. Then returning.  Even crazier was taking four or five days to get there while stopping to visit cool sites all along the way.  And even more foolish was being stuck in a car for hours on end with a five year-old boy and twelve-year old girl.  I wasn’t fazed by the negativity and knew that this would be a trip that they would remember for the rest of their lives.  I can hear them say to their kids…”I remember that trip we took with our dad way back in 2013…it was awesome!”  And perhaps they will do the same, albeit in some sort of hovercraft or personal air car using hopefully a renewable energy source. 

I researched and created an itinerary for the first leg of the trip: California to Texas.  I decided to document the trip via iPhone video to have a record so the kids would actually know it really happened back in ’13. I packed the Civic with bags of Capri Sun, water bottles, pillows, blankets and plenty of snacks to last days.  Each kid had their own DVD player and a bevy of DVDs and other electronic devices to keep them entertained during the many hours in the car.  As a note: Avery’s choice of movie for the entire trip to Texas was Star Wars Episode III.  I would hear light saber fights coming from behind me hour after hour after hour.  Curse you George Lucas.

We headed out on Wednesday June 19^th with our first stop targeted for Death Valley National Park, a place I’d always wanted to visit.  Out in the middle of nowhere North East of Los Angeles, Death Valley was a good first place to immerse the kids in the world of U.S National Parks.  After taking the “scenic” route, where the term road is used very loosely, we made it to the first inhabited area called Stovepipe Wells, that had a ranger station, a small general store and a hotel.  The first stop was into the store for a cold drink and bathroom break.  We quickly discovered why Death Valley is known as the hottest place on Earth.  The 110 degrees hit us like a blast furnace and even the short 20 feet walk into the air-conditioned store wasn’t short enough to stop the sweat dripping down the brow.  Even before entering I knew the gift shop portion of the store would be problematic with my kids, but as you will hear from further stops, they are obsessed with the need to get something at every gift shop known to man.  This one was no exception.  “Dad, can I get this.  Dad, can I get that.”  I settled on a few trinkets and one snack item each.  Olivia was easy.  She just wanted gum but Avery picked out a chocolate bar. I didn’t think much of it At the time, but if I learned one thing on this trip it was never buy a five year-old a chocolate bar in Death Valley.  We left the store and by the time we got to the car and drove down to purchase entry passes the next building down I discovered the reason why chocolate and 110 degree heat don’t mix.  The bar had to have melted in a matter of minutes or less and you can guess the result: Avery was covered in brown sugary mess – from his face to his hands and a bit elsewhere as well.  It took a bottle of water and a lot of tissues (which I smartly brought along – of course I also brought wet wipes but this job required heavy lubricant) and cleaned off the soiled, yet happy, young man.  Who knows how much chocolate actually made into his tummy but I managed to get most of it off.  To his mom’s chagrin, the fingernails would have to wait until bath time.

The ranger at the station suggested we start out at the Mesquite Flats sand dunes which were just down the road as a good first stop.  The view driving up was amazing – like being in some David Lean movie.  We parked and got out and walked the dunes.  Of course the iPhone 4S was out and taking pictures and video right away.  Avery, as any boy his age would do, was running up and down the dunes pretending to be Anakin Skywalker (Star Wars reference#1).  Olivia was another story – complaining of the heat, which was understandable.  She eventually went back to wait by the car.  Another discovery I found was that an iPhone can actually overheat.  After about 10-15 minutes it stopped working and a warning appeared about excessive heat.  It must be hot if your iPhone stops working.  Curse you Steve Jobs.

Next stop was the Visitor’s Center at Furnace Creek – the main one in the park.  Luck had it that there was one covered parking spot left – which meant a lot as this is where we found out the official temperature was 110 degreess, displayed on a large LED outside the center.  We cooled off inside.  Toured the small museum about the valley and made it out without buying anything in the gift shop.  A tribute to my resolve, though you will see this resolve erode later in the trip.  A ranger was nice enough to tell us about other places to visit that would be easy with the kids and accessible since we only had the afternoon to explore.

Next stop was Badwater and the one spot in the valley I wanted to visit.  It is the lowest point in North America, 282 feet below sea level.  They even have a sign up on the overlooking ridge so you can realize how low you really are.  Again, my adventurous son wanted to run all over and explore while the sensitive daughter was complaining about the heat and wanted to go back to the car.  We didn’t stay too long but it was memorable none the less.

Next was a jaunt down and around Artist’s Drive with a lot of interesting geological views.  The kids got mad that I kept stopping to take pictures.  Tough.  I probably would never be there again so they can just… After the drive we headed to one of the highest parts of Death Valley – Dante’s View with a stop at Zabriskie Point along the way which gave great views of the valley.  I’m glad I remembered the Ranger telling me that on the last half mile to make sure to put the car in 3^rd or 2^nd gear because it was quite steep.  The views were superb but we also had our first “owee” incident when Avery tripped over a rock and skinned his knees.  Luckily, I was prepared for the need for triage and had Neosporin and Band-Aids on before you could say, “I’m stuckon Band-Aid brand ‘cause Band-Aids stuck on me.”

With the sun quickly falling down behind us we drove out of Death Valley and on the way East to our first pit stop: Las Vegas, NV.  The lights, the glitz the smelly smoke infested casino.

(Next on A Road Trip Adventure Across America: Sam’s Town, Hoover Dam and the tale of the lost briefcase.)

Rich Burlingham  copyright 2013

How Roger Ebert Changed My Life

Thursday morning the announcement came that famed film reviewer Roger Ebert passed away, or in his own parlance, “took a leave of presence”.  We meet a lot of people in our lives but very few actually affect your life in great ways.  First, and foremost everyone’s biological parents have the greatest effect since they gave you life and their genes, whether they remain in your life or not.  The parents or those who raised you, your siblings and others very close are huge influences, teaching you life lessons that determine who you are as an adult.  Most of us have teachers or coaches who motivated us or molded us or pushed us into a certain career or direction in life that would determine a lot of what would happen the rest of our lives.  Then there are people, many of which we may have never met in person, who sway us in a way that causes us to do things that we may never have done without their influence – Roger Ebert was such a person for me.

I did meet Mr. Ebert and spent an evening with him, along with actor/director Dennis Hopper (Giant, Easy Rider, Apocalypse Now, Blue Velvet) and David Carradine (Kung Fu, Kill Bill).  It was 1982 and I was working with the USA Film Festival in Dallas.  I was a film student at Southern Methodist University and after working for the festival since I was a Freshman I was able to get the coveted student position as a driver – we got to drive around movie professionals in donated luxury cars.  Not a bad gig. For film students this gave you unprecedented access to those who could possibly help your career or at least share a story or two. 

For a couple of days I was assigned Dennis Hopper, who was promoting an independent film that he directed called Out of the Blue.  David Carradine was also screening a film that he directed, staring himself and Barbara Hershey called Americana and Roger Ebert I believe was either acting as a host or mediating Q&A or a panel of some sort, I don’t remember.  Somehow the three arranged to go to dinner that evening and Mr. Hopper invited me to join them, which I thought was cordial of him.  Through our conversations I learned that he had been out of rehab and off drugs for about a year but that it had been a tough road.  I had great respect for Mr. Hopper after that – he was very intelligent and respectful of others and understood that he had a disease he had to fight the rest of his life – addiction. 

Joining us for dinner was Shannon Wynne, a Dallas club and restaurateur whose father developed  the original Six Flags Over Texas amusement park.  He had invited himself, I believe, and asked to come along with us in the car, trying to act as a host of sorts for the City of Dallas.  We ended up at the San Francisco Rose, a bar-restaurant with a back room where we ended up not too far from the campus.  I don’t recall how the others got there; only that Ebert was the last to arrive.  It’s been a long time so my memory is sketchy about the conversation that evening but I do remember David Carradine was very odd – soft spoken and quite personable – but went on and on about different topics in a kind of stream of consciousness manner that probably only made sense to him.  I have no idea if he was high or not but something told me that he just had that kind of quirky personality where you weren’t sure if he was a genius or simply off his rocker.  Gary Busey’s behavior on Celebrity Apprentice this season, reminds me of how Carradine acted that night.

Roger Ebert was very talkative and dominated the evening’s conversation.  He fawned all over Hopper, treating him like an anointed prince of film.  I could tell Hopper was annoyed but he never said anything.  I remained mostly silent, soaking it all up and enjoying the free steak – which for a college film student used to eating Kraft Macaroni & Cheese made illegally on a hot plate in the dorm room – was a great thing not to be taken lightly.

Also that evening I arranged with Mr. Ebert to pick him up at his hotel early the next morning in order to transport him to DFW Airport to catch his flight back to Chicago.  I had to get up extra early in order to pick up the Mercedes that had been donated and then get downtown to the hotel by 6am.  I got there an extra 20 minutes early only to discover that Mr. Ebert had already checked out and had taken a cab to the airport.  Boy I was pissed because we had talked in person about the arrangement and he knew I was going out of my way to help him. 

I had been a fan of Roger Ebert, along with his screen partner Gene Siskel, from their original PBS show Sneak Previews, which later turned into the syndicated show Siskel & Ebert At The Movies.  The next bit of influence Mr. Ebert had on me had to deal with a film review show that was a direct rip off of his show that appeared on the SMU campus cable channel and starred one of our professors, Roger Burke, and the School of the Arts public relations director – that show was called Movie Scoops.  A year later I took over as producer of the film review show but wanting to put my stamp on it changed the name of the show to Let’s Go To The Movies.  I know, I know, I probably should have kept the original name.  I loved movies and that show, inspired by Mr. Ebert, was my first adventure into producing a television show.

It would be years later that Mr. Ebert would change my life again when I began writing movie reviews for some both print and online publications.  I tended to write reviews in a similar style as he, being informative and straightforward, never pretentious.  He became America’s film critic.  Somebody who could let you know what films to go see and though he loved what many would call high-brow or intellectual films, he not only wrote the screenplay to Beyond the Valley of the Dolls for Corman but many of his favorite films were populous, popcorn movies made for the masses.  And really isn’t that what movies are for – everyone. 

Reality TV and Bocce Ball

A couple of things moved my brain today.  The first occurred while I was in the middle of my 3-mile power walk – hey, I’ve lost 14 pounds so far.  Anyway, while walking past our local neighborhood park I noticed something different.  Next to the tennis courts are two bocce ball courts.  In the seven plus years that I’ve lived here I’ve never seen anyone playing bocce ball and for that matter, I’ve only seen bocce ball being played in person once before in Grapevine, Texas by some great grandfatherly Italians.  Today I witnessed not only a few, but a whole club playing competitive bocce.   A couple of the players came over and told me they meet every Friday morning.  I was stunned.  I had always wondered why they had bocce ball courts at this park.  In my opinion it was similar to having a shuffle ball court or croquet field…who knew there were bocce ball aficionados around here.  Maybe I should take up bocce – is it the next big craze.

Well, I doubt that Mark Burnett is developing a TV show around bocce ball, but the other thing swirling around my head is reality television.  I was listening to an interview on Marketplace the other day where they were discussing advertising in this new fragmented audience era.   The expert compared the number of people watching network TV in 1971 with today and it is staggering that a hit show on an average night back then was more than all the combined TV broadcast networks today…on a very good night.  With the internet giving us so much freedom to watch whatever we want at anytime it’s no wonder that broadcasting and the advertising that supports it are in deep trouble.

That’s why network executives are going to reality TV more and more, and especially live competitive shows where people want to watch as it’s happening so they don’t accidentally find out results before they watch the show while viewing the web or be able to join the social media conversation, posting comments on social media during the live show – hence the new instant digital water cooler.  This means they are also more likely to view the commercials that run during the live telecast.

Myself, I’m not that big a fan of reality TV, but tend to choose competitive shows over any of the other genres.  I just don’t understand why anyone would care to watch the antics of housewives, teen moms, bearded duck hunters or especially superficial 20-somethings from New Jersey (I’m from Jersey myself so I know).   My favorite reality show is The Amazing Race, not only because I have a love for travel, geography and seeing people sleep in airports, but because I would really love to run the race myself. (I applied many years ago to go on with my mother-in-law) I think the show is popular because it’s one of the only reality shows where almost anyone can feel like they could be a contestant – not just a show for chefs, fashion designers, models, overweight folks or those who look good in a bathing suit while back stabbing and not bathing for weeks.  Almost anyone likes to be a tourist and see the world or at least Disneyland.  Dancing with The Stars also is popular for the same reason because a lot of people THINK they can ballroom dance or would like to learn or have fantasies of being Fred Astaire, only if they would get their ass off the couch.

The most prevalent reality show genre is the singing or talent competition and has been popular all the way back to when radio was king, with Ted Mack’s Amateur Hour and then later on TV with the Ed McMahon hosted Star Search and others.  But it took some Brits to modernize the genre and turn it into a ratings blockbuster – I speak of American Idol.  Now, I must admit that I’ve been watching portions of the show since it premiered as, what was once called, summer replacement programming.  It did fairly well that first season, but wasn’t a super smash hit like the game show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire that also premiered as a summer show.  It really took the rapid success of first season winner, Kelly Clarkson to make Idol a hit and then the success of Carrie Underwood several years later to add a boost to keeping it a ratings juggernaut.  I hope Simon Fuller, Ken Warwick and Nigel Lithgow, as well as Fox Television, are very nice to Ms. Clarkson, Ms. Underwood, as well as Oscar winning Jennifer Hudson for making the show so successful.  Audiences like success stories and watching young talent develop before their eyes.  I think that’s one reason season X winner Taylor Hicks never really hit it big because he was already who he wanted to be while on the show and never changed.  There was nothing to blossom. 

The Voice, another popular singing competition show, has yet to produce a legitimate mega star and so once the gimmick runs its course will probably fizzle out here in the next few seasons unless that changes.  Survivor has had its share of stars develop from the show including host Jeff Probst who has his own talk show and Elizabeth Hasselbeck who was a contestant and now a long-time host of The View on daytime TV.   Another reason why I like the Amazing Race is that though they’ve had memorable teams, including some couples from other reality shows, there are no big names coming from the show.  Even host Phil Keoghan is so unassuming and down to Earth that I doubt he’ll ever be on TMZ punching out a photog or being the subject of a true Hollywood story.

Back to Idol – this season has really pointed out the decline of the show and without any more big stars born from it these last few years I don’t see it lasting too much longer.  This year’s new judges just don’t have the chemistry of the originals and there has yet to be a real replacement for Simon Cowell, who left to start his own show The X Factor that hasn’t been the big thing he promised and ranks below the The Voice in ratings.  Without the show producing a mega star it won’t last too long, either.   The top 10 contestants on Idol this season are fairly bland and though decent singers don’t seem to have whatever it is that makes people follow them religiously and buy their music on iTunes.  The same could be said from last year’s crop, as well.  For even though the show needs a Clarkson and Underwood to keep the momentum going, the second tier stars help as well.  The Clay Aikens, the Daughtrys, the Kelli Picklers, the Fantasias and others are popular entertainers with successful careers who also came out of the Idol machine and are somewhat household names. 

I’ll watch American Idol the rest of the season.  I’ll pick out a few contestants to root for and hope will become successful, even if they don’t win.   But it’s becoming harder each season without some pieces of coal that we can watch turn into diamonds.  We need a Clay Aiken transformation or the wonder of seeing Carrie Underwood’s almost certain anointment to Queen of Country even as a no-nothing girl from small town Oklahoma.  Maybe it’ll happen, there’s still time but if it doesn’t I look for another reality competition show to WOW me and grab my viewership.  Perhaps it’s American Bocce.  Hmmm…I need to call Mr. Burnett about this.

College Admission Should Be Based On Merit Only

I was listening to OnPoint on NPR yesterday and the guest was Carolyn Chen, director in Asian American Studies at Northwestern University who proposed that Asian-American applicants are discriminated against at Ivy League schools.  She stated some statistics to make her point, including that Jews make up only 2% of the general population but 25% of Ivy League university student bodies while Asian-Americans constitute 5% of the U.S. population and about 18% of those same elite private schools.  Two things caught my interest – the fact that there were enough Jewish students to even make up that large percentage and two how is 18% that much different that 25% - they’re both a lot larger pools than their general population percentages.  The rest of the  hour-long discussion  was spent talking about admission policies at U.S. private universities, with other guests who were either admission officers or related to the topic in other ways with a variety of information about the process and callers with compelling questions.  The one question that I was most interested in was a mother of a mixed-raced daughter who was half white and half Asian and she wanted to know which race box her daughter should check that would give her the best chance of getting admitted to her choice school.  Two things struck me from her question.  One solidified my hatred of racial hyphens.  I just don’t like labels such as African-American or Asian-American, one because it makes no sense in a racial or cultural way because not all Africans are black, et al.  It’s a geographic distinction, not a race or cultural one.  A white kid born in South Africa should be considered African-American but I doubt that they would call themselves that here in the U.S.  The other issue is that our country became great based on us being basically mutts and not homogenous.  Of course, we have had problems getting along throughout our existence as a nation – some issues bigger than others, but it’s that notion that we are inheritably diverse that makes us different than most other countries in the world.

So why don’t we take that basic concept – that we are all mutts – and put everyone in one box.  I would love to see a major private university such as Harvard come out and say we will not consider race or any personal data in our first round of choosing applicants.  It would be sort of like the TV show The Voice where the first round contestants are judged solely on the quality of their voice in a blind selection.  I say delete all personal questions from college applications seen by admission officers.  Why should that woman caller’s daughter have to even worry about what box to check (that leads to a whole other topic dealing with why people of mixed race parents are always considered to be the race of the minority parent).  I believe all college applicants should be accepted by merit only – no race, geography, legacy, financial status, if parents are big donors or other such nonsense.  Accept kids based on the fundamental question: Will this candidate be successful at the school, graduate and contribute to society in a meaningful way?  From that pool then other criteria can be used but, again, it would have to be based on merit.  I say let the cards fall where they may and if you get a lot of kids with Asian backgrounds well then they deserve it because they studied harder or bring more to the table.

I say let all personal data be voluntary.  Let candidates decide what they want to use to help them give a leg up.  If they want to disclose they come from immigrant parents, then let it be on their terms.  A lot of information about a candidate can be had through application essays.  Just word questions in a way, such as: How has your background formulated your future aspirations?  It is up to the applicant to disclose personal information, such as race, body type, cultural background, etc.

Until a major private university changes its policies then the system will remain the same.  I understand that there are other reasons to why universities select the students that they do.  Major universities are businesses, even though they’re essentially non-profits.   They are not only in the business of educating.  They have large research institutions that need funding and rightly so and in such they must build their brand.  All brands to be successful must court not only new users but keep existing one’s happy.  For a university that means keeping alumni happy, which constitutes giving their kids preferential treatment.  It means propagating enthusiasm for the school through sports because successful teams bring in big TV dollars.  That’s why legacies are so important because they keep a university in the hearts and minds of families.  My brother-in-law and his wife both went to the University of Mississippi.  They continue to follow their football team and even return to the school several times a season to attend games.  Their house is full of Ole Miss memorabilia and they would really encourage their children to attend their alma mater, even if another school would be better.  I guess it’s an inclusion thing – people like to be feel part of a group of like-minded people and I understand that but at the application level – I think even that white middle class kid, who may be top of his class from an average high school in a middle American city, should be able to apply to Harvard or Princeton or Brown without feeling like he or she could never get in because they’re not black, Asian, Hispanic or a farm kid from the middle of Kansas.   

I really think if you could sweep a giant hand across any high school in America and grab whatever group of kids was walking across campus and send them to a top private college that you’d get the same success rate than from the current application process.   Let’s not worry about what color their skin is or if they’re poor or rich or from Montana or fat or skinny or red haired or in a wheel chair.  If they’re passionate about learning, helping the world, have proven study skills, top GPA and willing to take on challenges then accept them and help them become great human beings.  They need all the help they can get.

The Downside of Downsizing

You can’t seem to miss these days the front-page stories about Hewlett-Packard and Best Buy slashing thousands of jobs with talk of downsizing in order to remain competitive. You know, you just don’t see national front-page stories about companies hiring people by the thousands. Oh, sometimes in the business section there will be stories about manufacturing plant openings or corporations moving headquarters that talk about job additions but certainly not on the scale of the layoffs and they’re usually regulated to local or regional news outlets, not lead stories in the New York Times or the CBS Evening News with Dan Rath…I mean Bob Shief…ah…Katie Cour...no…Scott Pelly.

It seems that corporations need to figure out the basic principles of business survival and if they gradually add jobs as their company grows that the same has to happen in reverse if they want to remain stable and vital. I’m sure many companies do this and we just don’t hear about it. They realize that boom and busts do occur and are cyclical.  It is their job to forecast the future and to have plans in place to reduce a work force slowly in order to keep their company from falling by the wayside. To see how not to do it, take a look at what Ford and GM went through a few years ago. The problem is that you don’t hear about the “smart” companies as they prosper no matter how the economy or markets fluctuate.

It seems like it’s almost a crime for these corporations to do what they end up doing and in some circumstances they have indeed broken the law. In my opinion these so-called business leaders are not only not leading but have cocooned themselves in these little Teflon societies where they feel as though they are immune to the ills of the rest of the country or the world. Most of them eventually get caught with their pants down, such as Ex-Tyco CEO Dennis Kozlowski and the Enron boys, but only after dismantling not only once valid and worthwhile companies, but also the lives of thousands of Americans who do not have a nest egg to live off of while trying to put the pieces of shattered lives back together.

I believe the American entrepreneurial spirit is what made our country great but I also believe that smart management is also needed for a stable economy that leads to a happy existence for all. I think our universities have been churning out too many business executives who have never gotten their hands dirty and have only learned about dealing with people, both employees and customers, from textbooks and university professors. There are far and few “working from the mail room up to the board room” stories anymore and it’s a shame because when you are just one of the guys or gals punching a clock and then happen to move on up where you’re in a position of power, you realize how the decisions you make can affect the lives of so many. It’s a huge responsibility and I don’t believe that the top executives of today’s largest corporations understand or even care about this issue. All they see are spreadsheets and all they hear is the voices of major stockholders.

If only it was a requirement for every CEO of every Fortune 500 company to be stripped of their executive privileges and access to their personal wealth and have to survive on their own, working an hourly job for six months. Perhaps it could be the next big reality show, The Real World: Wall Street or we could put the top fifteen executives in a sealed off house and watch how they battle each other for domination. Now that’s entertainment.  

Marathon "movie" Man or How Fringe Changed My Life

The marathon was an Ancient Greek creation and involved running for mile after mile after mile - a feat of endurance.  Upon the invention of moving pictures the "movie marathon" began during the heyday of theatrical films where all day affairs showed movie after movie after movie of the same genre or actor.  The same concept moved easily to the small screen and soon independent television stations during the 60's and 70's would show monster movie after monster movie after monster movie.  With the advent of cable - the Super Station and countless genre specific channels - the need for programming bred an endless amount of marathons but now old television shows fit into the mix.  You could spend a weekend watching episode after episode after episode of Gilligan's Island, and they still wouldn't get off that darn island.

Then came DVD/BLU-RAY - where a whole film series or an entire season of a hit television show could be purchased and a new phenomena was born - the Box Set Marathon.  Did you miss the first season of this year's Emmy-winning drama (Homeland)?  No problem.  Buy the box set or subscribe to an online service and watch the entire season in a day or two.  This is a new viewing habit that will most likely change viewing habits more than HD screens or Tivo.  But will it be for good or evil?

I must say that I have been affected by the marathon bug...sort of.  For some reason I never sampled the show Fringe when it first appeared on national television five seasons ago.  Last year, while visiting relatives I began watching the show with my brother-in-law who had watched it since its inception.  He caught me up somewhat on the previous three seasons but Fringe is a very complicated show full of obscure scientific concepts and wandering story lines.  I tried to read up on past seasons and thought I had a grasp on the show that would allow me to enjoy the episodes to come.  My interest was piqued and I became a fan of the show even without having watched the first three seasons.  Then the Science Channel began airing episodes from the first season with episodes also available online.  I caught the pilot and a few succeeding episodes and found myself enlightened -  not only having the show make more sense because of new knowledge about characters and story lines but the feeling like I finally belonged to the club.  Before I was just a visitor, a mere spectator into J.J. Abrams and company's surreal world but now I was a card carrying Fringer who had the metaphorical keys to a serial kingdom. 

I have yet to spend an entire day or weekend watching a single season of a show - impossible with a wife and two kids - but in the course of a week or so I have watched the entire first season of Fringe, sneaking episodes in between shuffling kids to school, doing laundry, playing with Thomas the Train set, proofing letters for my wife and writing script proposals.  I see the fascination and the intoxicating affect of watching episodes of a serialized drama one after the other after the other.  It actually makes the story make more sense, in a way, and seeing character arcs in motion - more like watching a feature film but one that lasts 20 hours. 

In this age of MTV and Smartphone rapidity where we want everything fast and furious it's interesting that people sit on couches for hours and hours watching a screen only breaking for the bathroom or bowl of favorite junk food.  All I can say is that the marathon lives on.  You can scoff of those who participate or you can join the new age and try it yourself.  Go ahead.  Haven't you wanted to see the first season of Breaking Bad or Royal Pains?  As they say - just do it.  Just don't make it a habit - you still need to exercise, eat right and have a life.