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He loved his wife.
He loved his children,
his grandchildren, and
his great-grandchildren.
He loved his church.
He loved his camp.
He loved his country.
He loved to play cards and
won his share of nickels.
He was never late for dinner.
He always ordered the same thing and
he always tipped a dollar.
He always struck the same pose
for pictures but
he never struck a pose
for people.
He loved his sports;
from Bob Feller and
the Big Red Machine
to the surprising summer of ‘90.
And of course he loved his Buckeyes
– all of them –
and he raised a grove
of his own.
He drove 35 on 22
and 55 on 71 but
he loved the rolling roads
through the small towns best.

He didn’t say much,
mum but never
mysterious.
Mark Twain once said
it’s better to keep your mouth shut
and be thought a fool than to open it
and remove any doubt.
But Bus was nobody’s fool,
and didn’t suffer them gladly.
His way was simple and sound;
he was always glad to see you
but the rest he left up to Liz.
He was old-school taciturn
and some would say
hard to know
but he is and always will be
easy to remember.

The first time I met Bus — I didn’t allow myself to call him Bus until I was well over 50 — I made the drive to Lancaster to “meet the parents.” I showed up at the door – a junior in college – with a fuzzy goatee and met the mom.

Promptly at 5pm, mom, Carol, her four siblings and I, gathered around the kitchen table. In walked Bus, sat at the head of the table and commenced to eat Chili… on a plate!… with no onions (he didn’t like onions). That was a first for me.

On a subsequent visit, feeling my oats over dinner, I made a college boy derogatory comment about labor unions. I was abruptly advised that he was a proud member of the pipefitters union. I never brought that subject up again. Surprise! He allowed me to take his daughter’s hand.

One thing sure, when I visited the Hales, there was always a game on the TV… the Reds, the Buckeyes, the Bengals or Browns. I remember him most, sitting… sitting in his big Barcalounger for the games… sitting on a bench outside a shop at the mall… sitting at the head of the table… sitting in the driver’s seat – he loved to drive. In 2006, he took us out in the big Ford on a driving tour of the back roads of Fairfield County, pointing out where he and others grew up, hung out, went to school; and where a drunken uncle or two stumbled their way home. I loved that tour. I felt like after all those years, I knew a little about the man, and that’s what I’ll remember.

Three seemingly disparate things converged earlier this week. (1) I bought a new MacBook Pro computer, (2) I installed a “word of the day” program that launches when I boot it, (3) The word on Tuesday was Sprezzatura (an archaic Italian word for being able to conduct your craft without a lot of visible effort…more on that later), and (4) Seth Godin’s blog that day was on Sprezzatura.

I don’t think it’s any coincidence that Seth’s blog was on this word. He very possibly is a Mac guy, and the word resonated with him (as it did with me). However, I don’t think it would have resonated so loudly had I not seen it earlier on my WOTD and had a chance to reflect on it before seeing his blog. And I certainly would not have seen the word had it not been for the WOTD program resident on my new Mac. Coincidence? You be the judge…

Sprezzatura. What an interesting concept. We all strive to demonstrate expertise in our work by accomplishing tasks without a lot of visible effort. Smoothly. Seemingly effortlessly. But at the same time, we cannot appear to cruising through our jobs unconsciously or else our supervisors and clients may not value our work. A fine line. Godin describes it as a combination of elan, grace, and class…sort of the opposite of the loud grunts you hear on the tennis court, or the visible flurry of activity and stress sometimes evidenced when you help out a customer.

Do you have sprezzatura? Do you know people who do? Would you prefer to have an attorney or a CPA with sprezzatura; or one without? I know I would.

So focus on those areas where you can show off your sprezzatura. Reach inside and uncover those skills you have where you can effortlessly pull it off. Bring it to the surface. Your customers will value it. Your peers will envy it. And your confidence will build on it.

Sprezzatura. Don’t leave home without it.

“Be hungrier than anyone else, but never LOOK hungry. That’s the trick.”
— Chris Brogan, blogger extraordinaire

Follow me on Twitter @FdSvsU

Every year on the Sunday closest to my birthday, we throw a party and guess what, a Super Bowl breaks out. This year they called it XLIV. All the regulars showed up minus Leslie (we missed her) and plus Brian (welcome to the tradition!). Food was prepared and consumed; money changed hands. It was a beautiful day and a great good time was had by all. Not only that, the Saints triumphed over the mind numbingly boring team from Indianapolis, faux Colts. WHO DAT! WHO DAT! Who dat say dey gonna beat dem Saints!

We swapped last year’s Bacon Explosion for piles of veggies. That stuff in the jars is my home made pickled cauliflower and carrots. Here they are on their way to the dining room… betting central.

Not that we didn’t have meat, we had plenty. That’s a Burgers’ Smokehouse “City Ham” from Missouri. I made a K-Paul Meatloaf and macaroni salad with a barbecue flavor. Now that was good, and it’s a good thing because we had enough to eat for a week.

We didn’t make everything… here’s Paula with her deviled eggs and Sarah with her chili. After a taste of Sarah’s chili, one need an egg to cool down one’s palate.

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Weirdness prevails…

You must think I haven’t changed clothes in five years. I did think about what to wear for my picture, but didn’t consult the 2005 license. Well, the 49ers tee shirt is the same. The blue shirt is a Polo Ralph Lauren shirt I bought last year.

I think the 2005 shirt is the food.com shirt that Tom gave me. I pitched it about a month ago.

The DMV experience is a whole ‘nother story.

I had the car on Thursday to take the former kitchen and bedroom TVs to recycle. After dropping those off, I went to the DMV to renew my driver’s license. When folks reach a certain age, folks have to take the written exam again. I have reached such an age. I’ve been reading the DMV Manual that I got on line as a PDF; been a while since I took the test and it would be embarrassing to flunk, not to mention a waste of time.

It was pouring rain as I drove around the DMV parking lot for 15 minutes looking for a space. When I was able to park and go inside, I saw wall-to-wall people… I could barely get in the door. I heard the words, “Systems are down.” Screw that, I went home. Wait for a nice day, scooter to the DMV and take the test. (Turns out the systems were down statewide.)

The next Wednesday was sunny and nice cool, so I scootered to DMV… 2pm, wait for my number to be called… eye test – guy says my eyes are good!… picture… 3pm, in line for written test… oops, I have to take the motorcycle test as well… didn’t study for that. Passed the auto test with flying colors… the motorcycle test, flunked. Y’know they ask like what you do when you swerve. Well shit, you just swerve, it’s intuitive and only takes a second or less. Swerve right: press down on right grip, keep body straight, don’t lean, brake before or after the swerve, not during. Jeez!

Anyway, I downloaded the DMV Motorcycle Manual, read it and took the test again on Thursday. Aced it.

Want to get a head-start on next year’s holiday shopping and get the hot gift for Xmas 2010 now? Well, you’re going to have to wait a couple weeks because it says here that it’s going to be the new Apple tablet computer (reported to be called the iSlate). Uncle Tom, who consistently scores highest marks among the Rectorati for finding kool stuff on the web recently sent out this link to a demo of things to come for mags and newspapers once the new tablets come out later this month.

But wait, don’t tablet computers already exist? Well, yes, tablet PC computers exist but if a quick perusal of tabletpcreview.com’s most recent “best of” list is any indication, they’ll soon look about as attractive as an old flip-fone in today’s iFone age. Assuming that tabletpcreview.com knows a thing or two about tablet PCs, comparing the state of the art in that category (and “still #1″ according to their rankings) to what is shown in the Time magazine clip is like comparing apples to Calvados.

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This morning I downloaded a list of critically acclaimed films from 2009.  First on the list was Summer Hours. HUH? I looked it up and found it was released in France in late 2008, and in America this past year. I don’t recall it ever playing in ATL, so I went to Netflix to see if they had it. But of course! Not only that, but it was available as a streaming INSTANT selection. So I watched it this afternoon…

What a simply charming and mesmerizing film! Oh the country estates! The wine! The smoking! The art! The great old Paris buildings! A film about families and life — so typically French — where you are immersed into the pure art of the film, never certain where it’s going, and often unsure even after it’s over. It’s a film where you can easily imagine yourself as one of the characters, enjoying life and family as we often never do in the same way in the US.

I can’t say I would place it as FIRST in a list of the best films of this year, but it would certainly be in my top 10. I suspect most (or all) of you have Netflix so I highly recommend you watch it. Or put it in your queue for the DVD when it is released this year. I am confident you will enjoy it.

MEMBERS SCREENING: THIS IS IT
Saturday, December 19
Premiere Theater
Letterman Digital Arts Center

There are just a handful of seats left for our year-round members screening of Kenny Ortega’s This is It, presented by the Variety Screening Series. Kenny Ortega is expected to be in attendance.

The screening is on Saturday, December 19, at 2:00 pm.

MY TAKE – I knew nothing. This was a Variety Screening Series film and we were invited by the San Francisco Film Society. For the SFFS screenings I like to go cold because they are often on subjects that I might not choose to see. I didn’t know it was Michael Jackson.

What a surprise! I was never into Pop music or Michael Jackson and he has been out of sight or embroiled in court cases for at least 10 years… not making music. Here, he is totally on form as Ebert describes, and the singers, dancers and musicians in the cast are the world’s best. The film shows that they put out a world wide casting call and over 2500 auditioned. The dancers were most impressive. They and MJ were in perfect union through impossibly difficult moves, stops and starts. I thought of La Danse, a story of behind-the-scenes at Russian Ballet – I haven’t yet seen it, but Jon Carroll wrote about it – this dancing has to equal or surpass ballet. Awesome. And the hot blonde guitarist… also awesome as she jams with MJ and he says, “This is your time… hit your highest note.” Another revelation – through this show and the Q&A with Kenny Ortega, I realized that when Michael sings about love, he’s not singing about boy-girl or man-woman, he’s singing about mankind. This was a profoundly moving experience.

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A dark road, Inglorious Basterds and Quentin Tarantino

SFFS YEAR-ROUND
MEMBERS SCREENINGS

The Film Society is pleased to invite its year-round members to the Variety Screening Series.

These screenings have extremely limited seating and are for year-round Film Society members only (no guests, sorry).

Inglourious Basterds with director Quentin Tarantino expected to attend
Monday, December 7
6:15 pm pre-screening reception
7:15 pm screening
Stag Theater at Skywalker Sound
Skywalker Ranch Rd, Marin County

So said the invitation, I responded and we were awarded passes to attend. Hadn’t seen Inglourious Basterds, but it’s been in theaters for a while and on my list for a while. I’m also eager to see Skywalker Ranch, George Lucas’ famed center of creativity. Carol arranged to get off work at 4, and we left the house at 5.

That’s all the address they gave, and there’s no “directions” on the Stag Theater website, so we got a map to Skywalker Ranch Road. The Google Map said 29 miles, about 41 minutes in light traffic. Get off 101 at Lucas Valley Road, go 7.8 miles to Skywalker Ranch Road. That sounded easy enough. The traffic was fairly heavy but moving so we turned off 101 with over a half hour to go that 7.8 miles. We figured Skywalker Ranch is a pretty big deal and lots of people work there, so it should be well marked.

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