I’m not knocking Pillsbury or their marketing efforts. The person responsible for the Dough Boy deserves kudos for the idea. From a marketing standpoint, anything that successful at creating brand recognition is deserving of all the congrats in the world. However what I’m wondering is if that cartoon image didn’t sell us on the idea that being overweight was okay; right along with some of the products that could help make it happen.

We already had images like Santa Claus; Mr. “Bowl Full of Jelly” himself, as well as other plump and joyful cartoon characters.  Doesn’t all that somehow plant the idea that fat people are automatically happier? Get fat = be happy? I don’t know. I’m not trained in any of the areas of psychology. Maybe it’s just a coincidence but . . .

I do know that when I was in school in 1961, the same year the Dough Boy was introduced, in a student body of 1500, I could count the number of overweight kids on my fingers. Today you can’t do that in one classroom  of 30, much less an entire school.

Perhaps it’s just a coincidence. And I’m aware there are a lot of other factors involved. We’ve had everything from misinformation provided by the government to child psychologists indirectly encouraging our kids to get fat and be happy. But I still have to believe that good old Dough Boy deserves part of the blame, or credit.

Every one of us is in business in some way. We’re our own corportion, “Me, Inc.”, and the sooner we learn that, the better. If you work for someone else, it still applies, because, “You, Inc.”, is selling your time and talent to another business.

Say for instance that you’re a plumber working for a plumbing contractor. You wouldn’t think that position required ‘better business communication’ skills, but it does.

You’re selling your time to the plumbing company. The plumbing company is selling the collective time of you and your fellow employees on a job to another company or individual. Say it’s a general contractor. That contractor is then selling the work of the plumbing company, along with the electrical company and the framing company and the roofing company and anyone else involved to yet another company – a real estate investment company for instance. In this case, everyone involved is in business in one capacity or another and every one of those people needs to have good communication skills. The grab-ass, “Wass-up,” style that served you well as a juvenile won’t cut it in the professional world. Good communication skills are what marks the  professional from the amateur at any level. You’re selling yourself and if yourself doesn’t communicate professionally, you won’t get professional recognition ($).

If you’re working for someone else and want a raise, a “wass-up” attitude and the ever climbing cost of living as an excuse for a pay increase most probably won’t do it, and in fact, may mark you as the first to be cut if things slow down. However, if you go to your boss and quickly enumerate the skills and value you bring to the company, that shows you understand the company’s business and your professionalism. You might not get the raise you’d hoped for – getting a promotion and pay hike instead. Again, you’re selling yourself and sales is all about communication.

The same need for good communication is also critical to the success of any business when dealing with it’s employees. If you can’t tell an employee exactly what is expected of them without talking down to them, you’ll wind up with work done incorrectly, or an unhappy employee, or both.

Even a person that is retired, or for some other reason not working, has to have business communication skills, especially when making a big budget purchase of any sort.  A smooth transaction depends on both sides completely understanding the needs of the other.

Make this the day you decide to improve your communication skills. “Toastmasters” is one avenue. Many community colleges offer business communication classes through their Continuing Education programs. And if they don’t, communicate to them that they should!

What I don’t understand is why there’s little or no mention of this in the media. In my estimation, this is a feat worthy of a ticker-tape parade. Yet even the people of Orlando, where the flight began and ended, are more concerned with blood and guts and a crooked Governor in Illinois – like that’s anything new . . .

What sort of message does it send to our children when we give all our attention to people living outside the law and someone that does something as admirable as what CarolAnn and Carol have done gets honorable mention at best?

Think about it . . . . .

Of course part of that success requires everyone to go to the ALS website and clic on the ‘Donate’ button. http://www.alsworldflight.com/index.php
Remember, CarolAnn and Carol are financing this trip out of their own pockets in an effort to raise awareness of ALS, and the funds to further research into the cause and cure.

If two little ladies can do something as awesome as fly around the world in a single engine aircraft, would you please reward them for their effort by helping them reach their financial goal.

They departed Chiang Mai in Thailand and after crossing Burma, India, and a whole lot of water, landed to refuel in Salalah, Oman. Then it was on to Ambouli International Airport in Djibouti in the Republic of Djibouti. For those of you without a globe or world atlas at hand, that’s near the gulf of the Red Sea in far East Africa. The next part of their journey will take them across the widest part of Africa and then they’ll be flying across the Atlantic back to their point of origin in Florida.

To follow their flight, and help raise the funds that are the primary purpose of this trip, please go to the “Dash for a Cure” website: http://www.alsworldflight.com/index.php

They departed Orlando, Florida last week and have been in the air almost continuously since then. Now, while they get some much needed rest, their Mooney is being serviced and prepared for the final legs of their journey.

Aside from their desire to break the existing record for a flight of this type, CarolAnn and Carol are raising funds and awareness of ALS, or as it’s know in Europe,  MND. Most Americans, especially baseball fanatics like myself, know it only as, “Lou Gehrig’s Disease.”

To learn more about their couragous journey and how you can help, please go to their website to track their progress: http://www.alsworldflight.com/index.php

I’ll also be keeping folks updated on my Blog Talk Radio Show, “On the Bright Side.” http://www.blogtalkradio.com/On-the-Bright-Side

Today is the birthday of John Montagu, better know as the 4th Earl of Sandwich, and the reason this day is known as “Sandwich Day”. You see it was John’s idea to put some salted beef between two slices of bread so that he could eat without getting up. While there is no doubt as to his being involved in the creation of the sandwich we know today, there is some question about what he didn’t want to stop doing. Some say that the noted gambler was involved with a high-stakes card game and others, while admitting that the Earl was a heavy gambler, say that his job required long hours and that he didn’t want to stop working for the traditional dinner hour of four in the afternoon. Either way is fine by me. I think I’ll have a PBJ for lunch in the Earl’s honor.

It’s also “National Brandied Fruit Day” and if there’s any of that brandy left over, maybe I can find a quiet corner to reminisce about those days when I had to keep a comb in my pocket. And that might account for why tomorrow is “Babbling Day.”

1803 – The United States Senate ratifies the Louisiana Purchase

1820: Spain gives Florida to the United States.

1906: Lee De Forrest, the father of radio, was given a patent for the vacuum tube.

1961: The TV sitcom about police, “Car 54, Where Are You?” premiered, and ran till 1963.

 1884: Bela Lugosi, Hungarian-born actor, most famous for portraying Dracula (Some sources 1888)

1890 – Jelly Roll Morton, American composer (d. 1941)

1905: Mystery author Ellery Queen (Frederic Dannay)

1913: Country singer-musician Grandpa Jones (Louis Marshall)

1922: Herschel Bernardi (actor: Peter Gunn, Arnie, Love with the Proper Stranger, Irma La Douce; voice: Charlie Tuna TV commercials, Jetson characters)

1925: Columnist Art Buchwald

1928: Psychologist Joyce Brothers, America’s first media psychologist. In the mid 1950s, she appeared on the quiz show The $64,000 Question and won in the category of boxing.

1931: Mickey Mantle, baseball great who played for the New York Yankees

1932: Actor William Christopher (Father Francis Mulcahy on MASH)

1942: Actor Earl Hindman (“Wilson Wilson” on “Home Improvement”)

1946: Southern humorist Lewis Grizzard.

1953: Baseball All-Star Keith Hernandez