Thank Goodness It's Monday #332

STILL TALKIN’ TURKEY

FOUR DAYS AFTER THANKSGIVING

Is there a turkey sandwich in your immediate future?

Or does the thought (or sight) of even more post-Thanksgiving turkey make you groan?

Either way, perhaps you should know about Gerry Thomas.

Although he died in 2005 at the age of 83, it’s particularly appropriate to revisit his claim to culinary fame on this Monday after a l-o-n-g weekend of coping with Thanksgiving leftovers.

Plus it provides us with a great life lesson.

Here’s the story: During World War II, Thomas was a U.S. Army intelligence officer and was awarded the Bronze Star for his work in breaking Japanese codes. After the war he went to work as a salesman for C.A. Swanson & Sons.

In 1953, the company overbought turkey for Thanksgiving.

You think you had leftovers? Swanson had 260 tons of “left-over” turkey.

What to do? They had no room to store the excess, so they loaded the half a million+ pounds of poultry into ten refrigerated train cars that had to keep moving continuously so the electricity would stay on.

Clearly, this wasn’t the most efficient solution.

So, as Gourmet magazine reports it, the Swanson brothers challenged their employees to come up with an alternate use for the meat.

Although there is some dispute about the depth of his contribution, for years Gerry Thomas maintained he came up with –

The solution: Package it with side dishes as frozen dinners in aluminum trays.

Swanson TV Dinner
circa 1954 

Talkin’ turkey: Thomas said he designed the company's famous three-compartment aluminum tray (the dessert didn’t appear until 1960) after seeing a similar tray used by Pan Am Airways. He also said he coined the name "TV Dinner" … brainstormed the idea of having the packaging resemble a 50’s-era TV set and … contributed the recipe for the cornbread stuffing.

Historical sidebar: Gerry Thomas abstained from the quickie frozen meals. According to the BBC, Thomas’ wife admitted that he was a gourmet cook (lucky for her) who never ate the dinners.

Thomas later said he was uncomfortable with being called the "father" of the TV Dinner, because he felt he just built upon existing ideas. In 1999 he also observed, “If it were today, we'd probably call it the 'digital dinner'."

In 1954 it was an immediate success: Swanson sold 10 million of the dinners -- at 98 cents each -- in part because they took "only" half an hour to heat up.

The company quickly expanded the line to other meals, which some say Thomas tested on his own family. In the late 1960s he reputedly helped adapt the meal to a new kitchen appliance -- the microwave oven -- which cut prep time to about 5 minutes.

Now, according to the American Frozen Food Institute, the average American eats 72 frozen meals a year, making frozen foods a $22 billion industry.

The Library of Congress says the history of the TV Dinner is murky, but notes that frozen dinners existed several years before Swanson made the idea famous. Pinnacle Foods, which currently owns Swanson, still credits Thomas with proposing the TV Dinner concept.

In an interview with the Associated Press news agency Thomas recalled, “I think the name made all the difference in the world … It’s a pleasure being identified as the person who did this because it changed the way people live.”

Changed the way people lived? If you’re not old enough to recall, that’s actually pretty accurate.

Due to Swanson’s brand notoriety, expansive advertising campaign, and catchy concept, Swanson’s TV Dinner altered the way people approached frozen food.

And that rippled out to have wider societal repercussions.

The great liberator: The TV Dinner gave women (who were predominantly the family cooks) more free time to pursue jobs and other activities while still providing a hot meal for their families.

IMO -- In My Opinion: Gerry Thomas was and is a great example of the EHFTB-FTWMIH credo -- “Everything Happens For The Best—For Those Who Make It Happen.”

TGIM ACTION IDEA: Confronted with a challenge, he drew on skills he had developed and observations he had made and applied them to the situation at hand.

TGIM IDEA IN ACTION: With a marketer’s “find-a-need-and-fill-it” mindset, he took apparently disparate information he had absorbed (perhaps even unconsciously) in his routine – air travel, kitchen skills, awareness of trends in popular culture, emerging social developments – and snatched victory from the jaws of defeat.

Then he brought the elements together and applied the Useful Rule of a Successful Product or Service: Be first, best or different.

Can you do the same?

Of course you can. The EHFTB-FTWMIH concept argues simply that you must take action for anything to turn out “For The Best.” You must be ever alert for opportunities to triumph in the face of adversity.

It’s not easy. You can’t be a passive bystander. You must be always preparing for the future. And, when challenges arise, you must rally that preparation and confront them. It isn’t enough to want the best. Continually challenge yourself to know what you’re going to do to get to where you want to be. Effort makes achievement.

Talkin’ Turkey—and makin’ the effort to make it happen.

Geoff Steck
Chief Catalyst
Alexander Publishing & Marketing

8 Depot Square
Englewood, NJ 07631
201-569-5373
tgimguy@gmail.com   

P.S. Dining with the TV on? “I find TV very educational. Every time someone switches it on I go into another room and read a good book.” Groucho Marx said that in 1984. And speaking of viewing habits --

Watch this: A. C. Nielsen recently determined that the average American watches about 34 hours of TV per week -- practically a full- time job's worth of hours. I’m not clear how much of that is time shifted or on computer screens or via other not-purely-“traditional” viewing. If you want to dig deeper, feel free. As for me, the unadulterated statistic alone is enough to get me to start my list of –

TGIM 2012 Resolutions: Be very discriminating in TV viewing in the New Year.

Thank Goodness It's Monday #331

PARTAKERS IN PLENTY --

WHAT ARE YOU THANKFUL FOR?

Maybe you don’t much feel like a “partaker in plenty” as Thanksgiving approaches this year.

 Times continue to be difficult, no argument. And from many points of view, the outlook is cloudy, at best. So it wouldn’t be surprising if you felt there was less to be thankful for this Thanksgiving season.

But …

You could have been at Plymouth Plantation in 1620.

The First Thanksgiving at Plymouth.
By Jennie A. Brownscombe (1850-1936)

Jennie Brownscombe’s popular interpretation of the First Thanksgiving has become a symbol of the holiday for many Americans. It reached a wide audience and influenced the national understanding when it was printed in Life magazine.

Thumbnail history review: Despite the pictures of colorful turkeys and stiff colonists in pristine white collars and brightly buckled shoes we recall from our early childhood, the reality is quite different.

I'd like to take this opportunity to recount a little Thanksgiving history -- a bit more than I remember learning decades ago. Then let's see if we can find an empowering lesson in it.

Thanksgiving as it was NOT taught. In August of 1620 a band of Puritans left the relative comfort of their European homeland to pursue the freedoms of life in the New World.

They set sail on two small ships, the Mayflower and the Speedwell. Not long into the journey the Speedwell proved unseaworthy. Most of her passengers and crew then transferred to the Mayflower.

The intended destination was Northern Virginia.

They missed by hundreds of miles. After months of rough sailing, the 102 travelers making the voyage sighted land (Cape Cod) on November 9. After some exploration what was thought to be a suitable site was settled at what is now Plymouth, Massachusetts. (The port of embarkation had been Plymouth, England.)

There was nobody they knew there to greet them. There were no homes to move in to, no stores where they could buy supplies.

Ill-prepared they endured a winter of great hardship. At one point only six people were well enough to care for the sick and dying. Half the settlers died of scurvy and exposure. It’s been calculated that in that first year they made seven times more graves than huts.

The Mayflower sailed back to England in the spring of 1621.

Despite the hardships of the winter, none of the 53 remaining “pilgrims” returned with the ship.

And the following October the settlers managed (with the help and participation of the Native American neighbors – the Wampanoag -- with whom they peacefully coexisted) a "Harvest Home" celebration.

This was the precursor of the Thanksgiving we now commemorate and emulate.

Here’s a description of that first celebration. It comes from one of the only two primary sources for the events of the autumn 1621 in Plymouth; a letter colonist Edward Winslow sent to a friend in England.

It was first published in London in 1622 so the Elizabethan-era English can be a bit difficult (so I’m giving you a modernized spelling). But the message -- especially the second paragraph -- is a wonderful articulation of what we celebrate even when times are “difficult.”

THE FIRST THANKSGIVING

Edward Winslow
(1595 - 1655)

"Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, so that we might, after a special manner, rejoice together after we had gathered the fruit of our labors. They four in one day killed as many fowl as with a little help besides served our company almost a week. At which time amongst other recreations, we exercised our arms, many of the Indians came amongst us, and among the rest their greatest King, Massaoyt, with some ninety men whom for these three days we entertained and feasted; and they went out and killed five deer, which they brought to the plantation, and bestowed upon our governor, and the captain and others.

"And although it be not always so plentiful as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so far from want, that, we often wish you partakers of our plenty."

TGIM Takeaway #1: Few of us will know the degree of hardship that small band of freedom seekers endured. It's difficult to even imagine what those days in 1621 were like.

Our modern lives seem easy. Our small successes pale in the light of their perseverance. In the abundance of our contemporary culture, we often forget that we have so much for which we can be thankful.

Or perhaps, because we have so much, we forget to be thankful.

TGIM Takeaway #2: The Pilgrim lessons of Thanksgiving are still relevant – maybe even more so when times are tougher. They had, in a phrase that’s probably been over popularized –

“An Attitude Of Gratitude”

• They were grateful for survival. The winter had been desperate. Many had died. Whether they could continue and support themselves in this New World was a real challenge. Yet they remained optimistic.

• They were grateful for the kindness of strangers, the original inhabitants of the land, whose generosity and wisdom, knowledge and intelligence were vital to their survival.

• They were grateful for the potential of the land that was now their home. They were grateful for the hope in their hearts.

• They were grateful for their community and the ability they had to work together to help each other to survive.

• They were grateful for the qualities of character – the willingness to work hard, courage, emotional and physical strength, resilience, persistence, ingenuity – that had helped them survive.

• They were grateful for freedom and the right to govern themselves – the search for which drove them on their dangerous and trying journey far across the sea.

Thanksgiving Day is not a religious holiday. Although in the USA we reference its Puritan origins, it is a national holiday observed on the fourth Thursday of November.

But while crowds will gather for a parade or to experience a football game in a stadium, the spirit of the day is realized as most of us gather together on a more personal scale around a harvest home table and –

Give Thanks

What are you thankful for? The Pilgrims were grateful for the many things that give life meaning and joy … the things that matter no matter what our economic or social circumstances … the things that bind us together as –

A human family. I trust -- no matter how difficult current circumstances seem -- that Thursday you will find some of the First Thanksgiving spirit. I certainly don't imagine most of you will busy yourself with e-mail. So I’ll take this TGIM opportunity to –

Thank YOU, one and all: For your generous acceptance of these TGIM e-mail/blog post messages. Thanks for sharing the ones you like with folks you think will enjoy them or benefit from them. We're pleased to make their acquaintance.

And thanks for your feedback, both critical and favorable.

I appreciate your views and the effort you make to convey them. I learn from what you have to say and hope that TGIM can continue to be a conduit for sharing that wisdom and understanding.

I hope this message finds you far from want ... that life is always plentiful for you ... and that once again on Thanksgiving Day you will use the occasion to resolve to be thankful every day of the year.

Thankfully,

Geoff Steck
Chief Catalyst
Alexander Publishing & Marketing

8 Depot Square
Englewood, NJ 07631
201-569-5373
tgimguy@gmail.com   

P.S. “Thanksgiving Day comes, by statute, once a year; to the honest man it comes as frequently as the heart of gratitude will allow.” Humorist, journalist, essayist, writer, and editor Edward Sandford Martin (1856 – 1939) said that.

Thank Goodness It's Monday #330

WHO WAS THAT MASKED MAN?

A CREED TO LIVE BY

OK, Ke-mo sah-bee. Granted, it’s been a while since The Lone Ranger was in regular circulation. But it seems The Legend of The Lone Ranger has –

Staying power. In casting about the World Wide Web lately, I keep encountering references and images (perhaps because it was announced that a Disney/Johnny Depp movie is on track with a projected 2013 release date).

But it’s the early (1949 – 1957) television iteration I recall most vividly and fondly. And my memory of those days is that, in addition to the action depicted in those “westerns”—

Worthwhile life lessons were being conveyed. So I backtracked a bit and here’s some of what I came up with:

The Legend began in 1933 -- the heyday of radio serials, at station WXYZ in Detroit. The show aired three times a week, 52 weeks a year, for 21 years.

Clayton Moore as The Lone Ranger
Jay Silverheels as Tonto

There were also 221 television episodes produced.

These, coupled with several big screen movies, cartoons, serials, video games and a variety of ink-on-paper-products and tie-ins represented The Lone Ranger as a rugged individualist who triumphs over evil.

With the help of his trusted Indian companion Tonto, and trusty white stallion Silver, the masked man uses courage and cunning to right wrongs … never shoots to kill … and leaves a silver bullet behind as his mark.

The long-running appeal of the character and his adventures can be linked in part to radio station owner George W. Trendle and the writer hired to create the stories, Fran Striker. Together they drew up guidelines which embody who and what the Lone Ranger is.

For example:

• The Lone Ranger is never seen without his mask or a disguise.
• With emphasis on logic, to avoid his being unmasked, The Lone Ranger is never captured or held for any length of time by lawmen.
• The Lone Ranger never uses slang or colloquial phrases, but instead uses perfect grammar and precise speech.
• The Lone Ranger never drinks or smokes. And what in other westerns would be saloon scenes, are usually interpreted as cafes, with waiters and food instead of bartenders and liquor.
• Criminals are never shown in enviable positions of wealth or power, and they never appear as successful or glamorous.
• Adversaries are never other than American to avoid criticism from minority groups.
• His adversaries are usually groups whose power is such that large areas are at stake.
• Names of unsympathetic characters are carefully chosen, never consisting of two names if it can be avoided, to avoid even further disparaging association. (Often a single nickname is selected.)
• When he has to use guns, The Lone Ranger never shoots to kill, but only to disarm his opponent as painlessly as possible. (He uses only silver bullets to remind himself that, like his silver bullets, life, too, is precious and not to be wasted or thrown away.)
• The Lone Ranger never wins against hopeless odds; i.e., he is never seen escaping from a barrage of bullets merely by riding into the horizon.
• Even though The Lone Ranger offers his aid to individuals or small groups, the ultimate objective of his story never fails to imply that their benefit is only a by-product of a greater achievement—the development of the west or our country.

And, because The Legend originated on the radio, the creators also created someone for their good guy to talk to; someone who could ferret out wrongdoing, present it for action, and help develop the plots – the faithful Indian companion, Tonto. Despite being criticized for speaking broken English, this Native American was portrayed as an intelligent character, almost an equal partner to the Ranger in his work.

From the early going, “premiums” were developed as a connection to sponsors of the broadcasts (often bread companies).

Among the fan club enticements such as badges, masks, photographs of the Ranger and secret codes, was a document written by Fran Striker – slightly sexist in focus now, but don’t be distracted by that – that spelled out principles that would serve us all well, even today.

It was called –

THE LONE RANGER CREED

I believe...

That to have a friend, a man must be one.

That all men are created equal and that everyone has within himself

the power to make this a better world.

That God put the firewood there, but that every man

must gather and light it himself.

In being prepared physically, mentally, and morally to fight

when necessary for that which is right.

That a man should make the most of what equipment he has.

That “this government of the people, by the people, and for the people”

shall live always.

That men should live by the rule of what is best for the greatest number.

That sooner or later ... somewhere ... somehow ...

we must settle with the world and make payment for what we have taken.

That all things change but truth, and that truth alone, lives on forever.

In my Creator, my country, my fellow man.

TGIM ACTION IDEA: Actors Clayton Moore and Jay Silverheels who starred in the TV episodes I remember so fondly both took their positions as role models to children very seriously and tried their best to live by this creed.

TGIM IDEA IN ACTION: Maybe we can, too. Be inspired by “the daring and resourceful masked rider of the plain.” As the announcer used to intone, “Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear.”

"Hi-yo, Silver! Away!" (Imagine the William Tell Overture playing.) Let’s you, Ke-mo sah-bee, and I make sure The Lone Ranger rides again.

Geoff Steck
Chief Catalyst
Alexander Publishing & Marketing

8 Depot Square
Englewood, NJ 07631
201-569-5373
tgimguy@gmail.com   

BTW: Ke-mo sah-bee (or any of various other spellings) is a real Indian word. It originated in the show because Camp Ke-mo-Sah-Bee was the name of a boy’s summer camp owned by a relative of the director of the early radio program. That, in turn, is linked to the language of the Potawatomie Indians who lived in and around Michigan. It is said to mean “faithful friend” or “trusty scout.”

Thank Goodness It's Monday #329

SHAKESPEARE & CO.

CAN THE BARD BOOST YOUR BOTTOM LINE?

The new movie, Anonymous, presents – once again – an argument that Shakespeare wasn’t the author of all things Shakespeare.

Rest easy. I’m not going to go into that issue today (sighs of relief all around) other than to say, the idea in all its variant forms has long been debunked.

Shakespeare's funeral monument
in Holy Trinity church, Stratford-Upon-Avon.
Installed after his death, it is,
along with the Droeshout engraving from the First Folio,
the only officially accepted face of Shakespeare. 
Created by Gerard Johnson, it pre-dates the First Folio of 1623,
since it is referenced in the Folio as 'thy Stratford Moniment'. 
Rendered in modern English the poem beneath it reads:

Stay, passenger, why goest thou by so fast?
Read, if thou canst, whom envious Death hath placed
Within this monument: Shakespeare, with whom
Quick nature died, whose name doth deck this tomb
Far more than cost, sith all that he hath writ
Leaves living art, but page, to serve his wit.



However (uh, oh) --

Let’s take this opportunity to consider the question posed in today’s headline:

Can the Bard of Avon reveal some “new” strategies you can use to boost your bottom line?

No lesser authority than the son of the late, great Shakespearean actor Sir Laurence Olivier thinks so.

Richard Olivier, at one of the UK’s major business schools, Cranfield School of Management, teamed with Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre and taught a course that mines the playwright’s work for advice on climbing the corporate ladder. (Should work for entrepreneurial types as well.)

The Olivier-led workshops at the Globe were two-day affairs, focused on one particular Shakespearean play. Also included were some basic acting lessons.

Speak the speech, I pray you… “This is not about teaching people to speak in verse … but simply about the power of speaking well,” Olivier was quoted as saying in an Associated Press report.

Participants learn to make rousing speeches and project confidence, useful life and leadership skills.

“Business leaders are, more and more, having to manage companies like kings and queens were managing nation-states 400 years ago,” Olivier adds. “Shakespeare’s plays deal with people in positions of power and responsibility. They explore how human nature copes with those stresses.”

For example? Olivier suggests that newly promoted leaders can find parallels with Shakespeare’s Henry V, who struggles to gain respect in his new role as king.

To weather acts of betrayal, you might turn to Julius Caesar, writes reporter Mara D. Bellaby.

The Winter’s Tale might be just the ticket for coping with midcareer changes.

Macbeth cautions about becoming obsessed with power for its own sake.

Hamlet can provoke discussions about the harmfulness of indecision and the necessity of action.

IMHO: Perhaps one of the greatest historical leadership feats recounted in a Shakespearean play is the triumph of Henry V at the Battle of Agincourt.

The play tells us Henry’s forces were outnumbered five to one on that St. Crispin’s Day – October 25, 1415. Yet, again by the play’s counting, 10,000 opposing forces were slain while Henry’s losses numbered fewer than 30.

Wow! Can it be so? More objective historians don’t dispute the triumph in the face of overwhelming odds. They do say that Henry’s success was due mainly to the superiority of the English longbow men over heavily armored knights on horseback, and this victory demonstrated the obsolescence of methods of warfare thought proper in the Age of Chivalry.

TGIM ACTION IDEA #1: Don’t say “C'est la guerre.” Translated as “This is war,” the sense of the phrase is a shoulder-shrugging attitude of resignation and inevitability; that “this cannot be helped.”

TGIM IDEA #1 IN ACTION: Say “C'est le V” -- Henry V, that is. Follow the Shakespearean leader and be like Henry V. Luck favors the technologically prepared. Are you keeping up? Or are you chivalrously clinging to strategies that will lead to your downfall?

Getting back to the Bard. In Shakespeare’s version of the Battle of Agincourt events, it’s the speech that Henry makes to his troops before the battle that inspires the victory.

Of course it’s the speech. That’s what plays are about. It begins with Henry suggesting that their small force is not a great disadvantage.

“The fewer the men, the greater the honour,” King Harry tells the assembled.

TGIM ACTION IDEA #2: Even if you and the Bard didn’t have the best of relations when you were supposed to read him, don’t be put off.

TGIM IDEA #2 IN ACTION: Read just the speech (Act IV, Scene III) with an eye to understanding the skills the king displays in just a few lines.

Known as the “Band of Brothers” speech, it acknowledges the difficult battle before them, envisions their triumph, and concludes inspirationally:

This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered-
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now-a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.

Or, Take Five. Minutes that is, and enjoy Kenneth Branagh’s inspired and inspiring presentation here: Band of Brothers speech.

Putting it all together: Let’s give Shakespeare -- whosoever he may be -- the last word:

King Henry V: All things are ready, if our minds be so.  

Westmoreland: Perish the man whose mind is backward now!

Geoff Steck
Chief Catalyst
Alexander Publishing & Marketing

8 Depot Square

Englewood, NJ 07631
201-569-5373

tgimguy@gmail.com   

P.S. Hey! It’s Monday. There’s a week full of opportunity ahead.

                               Now, soldiers, march away:

                               And how thou pleasest, dispose the day!