Jeff's Worth Noting: Worth Noting Pages 6-10

· John Leo Politically Correct Euphemisms

· Third World, the cold-war term for non-aligned nations, now increasingly means "non-white” -- L.A. Times deplored “how the police treat young Third World people in the depressed communities of our city” and Brown U. has a Third World Center used mostly by people from NY and LA

· In advocacy language, the first rule of thumb is: remove the operative word and get the media to use your own term. Pro “choice” was a brilliant verbal maneuver. It avoided the operative and emotive word “abortion” and positioned what is, after all, a killing procedure as a simple matter of preference -- just one more purely commercial transaction in a market economy based on choice

· many schools now refer to their charges as clients instead of students -- they talk of success and accomplishment rather than learning

· staring is visual rape; lying or confusing someone to gain sexual consent is mental rape; educational genocide (the schools are terrible); environmental child abuse (they’re building an incinerator next door) -- in all cases, the aim is to take a perceived offense and attempt to ratchet it up to a more serious category of offense, thus inflaming the issue and gaining more attention.

· “Violence of the tongue”, used by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., has become popular for its linking of vile talk with vile action -- sometimes appears in the improbable form, “tongue violence”

· To the amazement of all, pedophiles and some sex researchers now refer to adult sex with children as “intergenerational intimacy”!

· Idea for Internet/Web browser TV commercial -- “Dancing Mouse”

· Set to Chuck Berry’s, “No Particular Place To Go”

· Idea is best for showing fun, leisure quality of net surfing

· Mouse pointer moves in “follow the dancing ball fashion” all around PC screen

· Behind pointer icon, and in time with music, action follows a variety of fun, hot looking web pages/sites -- the song is the key

· ps. -- campaign since done in early ‘97 by [Chase?] online banking

· Quotes on handling trouble & scandal

· Lyndon Johnson: “Everybody will give you ideas of how to get out of trouble cheaply and fast and they all come down to this -- Deny Your Responsibility.”

· JFK: “An error doesn’t have to become a mistake until you refuse to correct it.”

· On History from Harry Truman:

The only thing new is the history you don’t know.

· On making your own luck:

Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.

-- Colts Receiver, Raymond Berry

· October 7 NY Post: Report on the annual Feast of St. Francis Mass at St. John the Divine

“This year’s menagerie of worshipers included 4,000 humans, hundreds of dogs and cats, assorted household rodents and reptiles, and special zoo guests including a cow, a penguin and a hive of bees.”

· October 18 NY Post: report on Woofstock -- annual Central Park fundraiser for homeless dogs.

· Pet Products tie-in?

· Also in 10/7 NY Post; Robert Vaughn on 1996 Pro Athlete A*#holes -- OJ and Alomar:

(from talk show Politically Incorrect):

Pro athletes have far too much license in every area, whether it’s spitting at umpires or killing their wives.

· Edgar Degas: October 1996 Smithsonian:

· “I have lost the thread of things... I piled up my plans in a cupboard for which I always had the key. And now I’ve lost the key.”

· The concierge once succinctly summed up the master’s apartment divisions for a visitor: “Degas sleeps on the second, eats on the third and works on the fourth.”

· Degas is said to have described commercial galleries as brothels.

· “Degas and Picasso stand back-to-back at the turn of the century, like two sides of the modernist coin.”

· Book Idea

· The Pictionary of Life

· illustrated alphabet/lexicon of life’s treasured experiences from A to Z

· each subject is represented in a neoclassical, romantic, pre-Raphaelite style oil painting

· book is a chronicle of ideals that are passing from the grasp and memories of baby bomers; a deeply cherished legacy of things they desperately wish to preserve for their children -- an heirloom of sorts

· leather-bound, almost biblical in style -- serene, pastoral, utopian

· a style guide for the New Age

· Maxfield Parrish, Norman Rockwell, James Audubon translated for the next millennium

· Quote from The Alienist on the “neural pathways” driving a serial killer:

Vengeance for the child he had been, protection for the tortured soul he had become.

· Notable Quote from Voltaire:

May God defend me from my friends: I can defend myself from my enemies.

· Quote from Alf Landon, Democratic opponent to FDR

Wherever I have gone in this country, I have found Americans

· October 21, 1996 USN&WR Business & Technology, Major Growing Pains -- on “good” and “bad” spending as a source of economic growth

· an increasing portion of what economists call consumption isn’t really choice -- rather it’s defense against social and environmental decline -- to deter crime, Americans now spend nearly twice as much on private security systems as they do on the police (by way of taxes).

· conventional economics assumes that all buying is rational, and that more of it therefore equals greater wellbeing -- yet millions of Americans are engaged in a grim daily battle with themselves to consume less -- eat less, drink less, smoke less, gamble less and just spend less period. Economists call this revealed preference.

· Apostle Paul came closer to the conflicted human reality when he moaned -- “The good that I would, I do not; the evil which I would not, that I do.”

· John Maynard Keyes once observed that thrift is a private virtue that had become a public vice. To pull the world out of Depression people must spend more. Today, the tables have turned -- what appears good for “the economy” in general increasingly spells misery or misfortune for individuals who compose it -- it should come as no surprise that more and more Americans are seeking to disengage.

· Merk Family Fund survey found: 28% of respondents had voluntarily changed their lives in a way that meant less income -- driven by the desire for a more balanced life or to spend more time with their children.

· On Worrying from Sir Winston Churchill, Painting as a Pastime :

Worry is a spasm of the emotion; the mind catches hold of something and will not let it go.

· Campaign Idea: About Celebrating A Big Victory

· When something really great happens, it’s almost better to celebrate alone -- because nobody knows better than you how difficult it was, or how much work you put in to get there.

· “Enjoy Your Self”

· Campaign Idea: About Organizational Confidence/Corporate Hubris

· Risqué, sight gag humor

· Men and women briskly, assuredly going about everyday business in the office --

· but these workers have a big difference -- TWO big differences. All appear to have enormous balls, as in the expression: “Man, you got some biiiiiiig balls.”

· Handled with humor, idea can speak to empowered women

· On Brain Chemistry

· Just asking: How is it that joy or euphoria feel different by context? Why does success in a big meeting feel different (but no less great) than great sex? Is the brain hard-wired to read a “success” hormone? It’s not just adrenaline.

· Related campaign idea: “You know the incredible feeling you feel when you ______? It’s like nothing else. You enjoy ______, you enjoy _______, and you can enjoy _______, but it’s nothing like ________! If you don’t know what I’m talking about, then you don’t ________!!

· New Magazine Idea

Title: “Lyrics” or “Words” (p.s. before online lyric sites)

· contract/purchase rights to print

· current/not-so-current/ hot/ important song lyrics

· illustrated, artist bios, themed issues/departments

· 4x a year

· difficult for song words to enter pop culture unless song is incredibly popular/familiar

· most songs, with lyrics worth listening to, aren’t that popular

· teens and many new age adults would consider this a must read to understand music and life

· “Cliff Notes for CD’s”

· What the Public wants from Government in the 90’s: “Smarter and less costly, leaner but not meaner”. 2/6/95 USN

· “Art is the bread of the Soul.” Robert Henri

· Bar Restaurant Idea: Joe Jackson’s or Costello’s [Elvis] -- restaurant and bar styled after old supper clubs and piano lounges.

· famous host/owner-singer/songwriter, Joe Jackson or Elvis Costello

· celebrity hangout

· nightly stage performances

· a genuine club

· Italian expression for old age [from Donnie Conti]: “Mezzamorte”

· Another funny expression for old age:

These guys are livin’ on god’s sense of humor.

· Italian Quote: “Bell’arti parrari picca.”

To speak little is a beautiful art.

· From Christ Is An Ad Man:

· the advertising business is a trinity -- client, agency, media

· the strongest selling proposition is “Amazing, New”

· Supporting Literacy: Discovery Channel 8:00 AM Thurs. 4/6/95

· stack learning so kids get same information from many sources school can’t access free time that home can -- restricted by set curriculum and 1-year time goals -- school can’t replace what child gets at home

· good illustration of how O-I strategy to support kids might work -- particularly for Alphabet Tater Tots

· Tools for stacking learning in the home:

· alphabet placemats

· alphabet bath sponges

· alphabet magnets/trays

· signs on bedroom door, refrigerator, etc.

· Step 2: Reinforcement

· label child’s environment at their eye level -- e.g., “ Charlie’s Bed”

· powerful way to learn “sight vocabulary”

· phonics by contrast is a “mediated strategy” that allows a child to move from sight to spoken vocabulary

· problem with teaching sight learning in school is there’s not enough reinforcement time

· put labels in the house and even the cats will recognize them over time

· rotate new words at home to expand the vocabulary

· Remember Reinforcement -- it takes 70 repetitions for concept to become knowledge/memory -- “once is not enough”.

· “To” and “With” and “By” -- book, words, book

· Title Journey Into Literacy

· CD-ROM Idea: Chronology of a Home Sale

· graphic, interactive journey through home buying process/experience

· marketable to buyers, sellers, agents

· p.s. - pre-dates real estate web sites

· Online Investment Game: Bulls vs. Bears (p.s. before online competitions)

· rotisserie league for investment bankers and hackers

· styled after bettor’s analysis in newspapers, TV, etc

· recent record, betting line (spread) ...

· goal is to challenge people where to put their money -- just like bookmaking

· Publishing Idea: Special Interest Horoscopes

· written in astrological column style with “readings”/content that’s relevant and specialized to a field or interest

· e.g., financial, gardening, travel, parenting

· From Power of Myth, Joseph Campbell:

· word root of “religion” is “relige” or “link”

· rituals are “reenactments of myths”

· AUM - sound of energy of the universe: A - opens mouth; U - fills mouth; M - closes mouth. All words are fragments of -- AUM symbol of all things in the universe.

· virgin birth - Greek in origin; from Gospel of Luke -- symbolic birth, mythic birth