15 Minutes a Day

Archive for the ‘Opinion’ Category

I first heard about this book on NPR’s Weekend Edition in an interview with the author. As weird as this premise sounds, Seth Grahame-Smith makes it work. He writes from the perspective of a wanna-be writer who gets handed the gift of the long-lost private diaries of Abraham Lincoln. These journals start with his ambition to “kill all of the vampires in America” and lays out the tale of how that led him to the White House. Grahame-Smith writes a wonderful story that explains some of the mysteries in American history and how it shaped the country.

If you like to read…

• Pure History: you will like the way this work of fiction weaves real historical fact into the story.
• Vampire Lore: you will like this book because vampires permeate this story. You  may need to suspend a bit of belief because some of the good guys are vampires. A vampire purist may not like this yarn because after the first century, vampires can walk in the sun.
• Well written and imaginative fiction of any kind: then you will like this book because it’s a wonderful yarn and will make you say (with a wink and a nod) “Ah, that explains it!”

Have you read this book? If yes, what did you think? If you like history (any kind or era), vampire lore, or alternate history, what books would you recommend? Please feel free to share here. I’d love to hear YOUR recommendations!

The only constant in the Universe is change and yet it is the most reviled thing in the Universe. So many people long for the days of yester-year when this or that was “perfect” and is no longer that way today. The World War II generation complained about the Baby Boomers who now complain about Generations X and Y. Each worries that the next generation will ruin everything they have worked so hard for and yet each successive generation talks about how the prior generation screwed up the world for them. Change happens. To complain about it and continuously look back is useless except to learn from past mistakes. Holding grudges, picking nits, prolonging arguments; these are no way to live.

I tend to be a person who embraces change and rolls with the punches that change throws my way. I don’t say this to brag, but to advise. Change is going to happen. As leaders, we need to work hard to prepare our followers for the coming changes. If we know there is a reorganization coming, then as leaders we need to help our workers shine so they find a place in the new organizational structure. If we know there are layoffs coming, we need to prepare our followers for that inevitability so they can land on their feet and keep going. I would also hope that leaders in this program will also stress the need for followers to educate themselves. Not everyone is cut out to pursue a graduate degree, but a culture that values education is one that can innovate its way out of tough situations. That’s my two cents…

I know I’m coming into this discussion a bit later, but I’ve been sitting back and watching as things unfold. My interest is not intense enough to take sides, but is enough for me to comment. As I see it, each of the three parties involved have made some pretty poor decisions in the last several years to make them a non-comical laughing stock now.

Jay Leno, The NBC Fail Whale, & Conan O'Brien

Conan O’Brien’s Mistakes

When Conan O’Brien negotiated his contract in 2004 he got greedy and insisted that he deserved the Tonight Show. Jay Leno had been the host of the Tonight Show for 17 years. Before that, Johnny Carson held the reigns for 30 years. Jay Leno was not ready to retire and Conan felt he was justified in forcing Jay out. He got greedy rather than waiting his turn when Jay retired.

NBC’s Mistakes

NBC is guilty of having screwed up priorities. Jay Leno had been #1 in his time-slot on the Tonight Show since he took over from Johnny Carson. Conan O’Brien may have done well in his time-slot, but he didn’t have the audience that Jay Leno had simply because not as many people stay up that late. Also, Conan’s humor appealed to a younger audience than had been watching the Tonight show for nearly 40 years.

NBC had the choice of letting O’Brien go or screwing with Leno. They ended up doing both because now O’Brien is leaving and Leno was forced to give up the Tonight Show before he was ready. They also decided to dump their dramas for a cheaper-to-produce stand-up show rather than paying for dramas that their audiences had enjoyed and talked about for decades.

Jay Leno’s Mistakes

Jay Leno had kept the Tonight Show #1 in its time-slot for 17 years. Yet when NBC came to him and said they wanted him to give up the Tonight Show there was no apparent fight. He stepped aside graciously and even acceded to NBC’s lame attempt to keep him from going to another network by hosting the Jay Leno show in the 10:00 p.m. time-slot. He just let the network push him around. Now he’ll be handed back his show, but he will have lost part of his audience because of the clash between himself and O’Brien. He’s become damaged goods.

Conclusion

Leno, O’Brien, and NBC have screwed up a fantastic franchise and tarnished it for the foreseeable future. The sad part was that if any of them had avoided their individual mistakes, this whole conflict would not have happened – or if it had, it would not have been as dramatic or damaging. Anyway, that’s my opinion… What’s yours?

Image Credits:

• NBC Fail Whale Logo Image was retrieved on January 26, 2010 from TwitPic (posted by @studionashvegas).

• Jay Leno image was retrieved on January 26, 2010 from Jay Leno Fun Fan Blog Fotos using Google Images.

• Conan O’Brien image was retrieved on January 26, 2010 from Bill Brioux’s TV Feeds My Family using Google Images.