Cougar

This was the email that was broadcast to the entire company this past Friday afternoon:

"The Town of Madison police just informed me that there was a confirmed sighting of a Cougar in the early morning hours today (1:30 to 2:00 a.m.) The sighting was South of the Coyier Building near the pond on the Old Holtzman Property. I recommend that you not walk the walking path for a few days. Hopefully, it has moved on. When walking on the path, I recommend that you do not walk alone. We will follow up with the Town of Madison police next week for future updates."

I was a little disappointed at the lack of buzz generated by this message--after all, it is not the usual Friday afternoon email. Besides, I had some follow up questions. First of all, who was lurking near the pond on the Old Holtzman Property at two in the morning? How reliable can a person be who is engaged in that kind of lurking behavior? Second, what constitutes "confirmed?" If there is photographic evidence, it should have been attached to the email. That way, with curiosity satisfied, no one will be tempted to walk the walking path to get a glimpse. And, on the subject of the walking path, when choosing a companion, what is the best approach? Someone large and burly who could intimidate the second largest cat in the Americas? Or someone small who could be thrown to the feline in case of an emergency? I have a small friend but she already won't walk the path because of snakes. It is highly unlikely I could talk her into it when there is a cougar stalking and ambushing in the area. (Never mind the obvious question of what kind of friend I am to even contemplete such an idea.)

I plan to stay off the walking path, but I read up on cougars so I would know what to do if I met the critter in the parking lot. Playing dead is a bad idea, and so is running, although outrunning a cougar is not something I ever realistically had in my survival toolbox. I think it comes down to looking menacing and waving a weapon, and I think I could do that--at least if the cougar can't tell the difference between menace and complete panic, and if I could use my car keys in some lethal manner.

It turns out that cougars (or Animalia, Chordata, Mammalia, Carnivora, Felidae, Puma Concolor)don't normally live this far east, so it is exciting to have one move into the area. I really do hope I get a chance to see it--as long as it can be done from a glassed in conference room overlooking the pond on the Old Holtzman Property during normal business hours.

Cobbler

If I ever find myself living in a science fiction movie--the kind where everyone has to survive on their wits--I am heading straight to Peg's house. She can grow food, cook it, spin dog hair into yarn, drive a dog sled, and make shoes from scratch. She also used to be an attorney, and you just never know when that might come in handy. I am not sure what I would bring to the table in a survival situation other than the ability to knit the dog hair yarn into itchy sweaters, but that might be enough.

Anyway, Peg is a person who took a sharp turn in her career and became a shoe repair apprentice. That is apparently the only way to learn the trade these days. It is a bit of a dying art, which may be one reason she has been so successful since starting her own shoe repair business. It is really surprising how many directions "shoe repair" can go. This week one of her jobs is a leather motorcycle racing suit that took the brunt of the damage in a crash, sparing the driver. Before she gets to that, though, she has a whole box of shoes that date from the twenties and thirties that need repairs. They are being worn for the filming of "Public Enemy" and have been too fragile in some cases for the demands being placed on them. New heels, new elastic, glue for peeling soles, but no polish or refurbishing that would make them stand out in the movie.

I wondered initially why a film company wouldn't just make fake period shoes with new materials. When I saw the shoes, it made more sense. Almost 100 years later we have a stylized idea of what shoes looked like in earlier periods--it would be hard to come up with the variety of designs that actually existed. Costume companies collect period garments and shoes--they are unique and totally authentic. Unfortunately they are also old and that's where Peg ("Cobbler to the Stars") comes in. She'll be working most of the weekend to get them done before next Tuesday when filming resumes.

So here are some of the shoes--consider this a little movie preview. I know I'll be looking for them when "Public Enemy" hits the big screen.

Chimichurri

I can't seem to be able to get enough of this condiment/sauce/marinade lately. It is said to have originated in Argentina, but it has certainly spread all over since then. One version I really like came from my friend Mary in New Zealand. I don't know where she found it, so I can't attribute it beyond that, but it is delicious and worth passing on. It is good on fish, or pork, marinated and then baked, or as a condiment to grilled food. It is also very good mixed into rice.

1 large bunch cilantro
1 large bunch flat leaf parsley
8 cloves garlic, crushed
1 t sea salt
1 T ground cumin
1 T crushed dried red pepper
1 T sweet paprika
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

Mince the herbs, and add the rest, or do the whole thing in a food processor. If using for a marinade, heat gently before pouring mixture over whatever is being marinated. This is a good mixture for kitchen experimentation--whatever you make with it will taste good.

Compensation

This is a big subject and one that I probably shouldn't tackle without knowing more about economics, but really, these days I have to wonder if anyone knows anything about economics. Even in a capitalist society, you have to be willing to feed society at large, because if you don't, who will be able to buy the products and services from which you expect to profit? And you are selling products and services, right? Wait, maybe not--maybe the big profits these days are made in the virtual shell games, not unlike the guy in Times Square with the walnut shells--damn my luck, why can't I EVER win at that?

But I digress. What has really set me off is an article in USA Today about Executive Compensation in 2007. Now, you can call me naive, but I always thought that kind of money was made by the people who had ideas, founded companies, took risks, and worked hard to make them pay off. Every company was founded by somebody, right? I don't begrudge those guys their fortunes. Or take the Nobel Prize winners, the innovators, the maverick geniuses who changed the world. By all means, retire in luxury, and thanks for the big ideas.

But these CEOs--I don't get it. Why are they so special? What makes their MBAs better than the average MBA? Why are they worth millions in a society where almost everyone else is worth so much less? Why are they paid a fortune for walking in the door of someone else's going concern and keeping it going? (Or not-this does not actually seem to be a problem when it comes to collecting bonuses, stock options, and whatnot.)

This is what I have been thinking about. I have approached this from a few different angles to see if I can begin to imagine why pay packages of up to 83 million dollars per year are justified, and I keep hitting dead ends. Here are some of them.

Leadership: Well, 4 of the top 10 CEO packages are for heads of financial institutions (Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, American Express, JP Morgan Chase). If you have picked up a newspaper in the last several months, I don't think I need to elaborate here. One of the headlines in this same USA Today section of newspaper reads "Some firms eye performance-driven pay plans." This rendered me speechless (and temporarily unable to type). What a concept, eh?

Consequence of error: This is something businesses use to figure out the relative responsibility and corresponding pay packages of positions within their companies. I think that the consequence of error for someone who is being paid 83 million dollars PER YEAR would be annihilation of the entire planet. We are still here, so he must be doing a bang-up job. Thank you John Thain.

Risk: This is a somewhat related area. If you are willing to shoulder an entire large company and assume all of the risk of the decisions being made, you should be compensated accordingly. I believe that means the people who really deserve compensation are the shareholders, who have taken it on the chin in a big way while those who fed them to the flames suffered not at all. No, wait, not fair. G. Kennedy Thompson of Walchovia was docked almost 2.5 million from his 18.5 million dollar annual pay package. Time to tighten the belt at the Thompson household!

There are certainly other industries where people are paid large salaries and I don't want to single out business. Within reason, I can kind of see why this makes sense for sports. Athletes can have enormous talent and make a lot of money for a franchise. At the same time, their playing days are limited, their risk of career-ending injury huge. Because sports are for the young, they may have short-changed education and be ill-prepared for other careers. They may need to live on whatever they can earn in their salad days for a lifetime.

Entertainment is similar in terms of shelf life, and most entertainers pay dues for many poverty-stricken years. Those entertainers with star power and the grit and good fortune to make the big time , well I don't begrudge them a more than decent living.

But here is the thing--I can't be Meryl Streep or Brett Favre for a day, or even a minute. But I think I could be the CEO of any company for a day. I don't think the company would be any worse off, and all I ask is the prorated salary for that one day. That, and the name of a good retirement consultant.

Cairn

Next week is the dog's 14th birthday. He is a Cairn Terrier (think Toto, but since he is a midwestern dog he is a little beefier). Although I have never confused him with our children (he does not have a driver's license and he is cheaper to feed), he has a definite personality and is a member of the family. I was reading an article recently about the ability of animals to communicate verbally or using signs. It is fascinating to think about what animals might tell us if we can figure out a way to remove the barriers to our communication.

A few years ago, I participated in a wolf howl. Some twenty of us drove out into the forest in a yellow school bus with a guide. We tiptoed out of the bus and stood in the road in the pitch black night. Our guide began to howl in a wolf-like manner. After several attempts in a few locations it was a thrill to hear a den of juvenile wolves return the greeting, though I couldn't help wondering if humans howl with an accent. If we ever manage to communicate with wolves we can ask.

Our Cairn is a pretty good communicator. A short sharp bark means he wants to come in from outside. A long volley of barks signals a squirrel or the mailman. The other night he sat at my feet and emitted a growling, groaning sort of sound that clearly said "I want to throw up and I need some help finding a good spot to do it." (We finally settled on a place outside by the fence). He has a greeting for when I come home from work which involves tail wagging and two figure eights through my legs. On weekends when I sleep in and he sees me for the first time, the traditional greeting is a touch of the nose to a foot. He is becoming an elderly dog and I will miss him when he is gone.

My daughter talks about bringing her young dog, Rayo, here from El Salvador, but I think the culture shock would be too severe. She says they have two types of dog toys in El Salvador--those that don't squeak (rocks) and those that do (chickens). I don't think a chicken chasing dog who is used to looking for fun with his dog posse in the quebradas would be happy in a country of licenses, crates, leashes, and brightly colored fake fur toys. The Cairn agrees with me.

Crocus

It has been a hard winter here.  We had record-breaking snows, alternating with sub zero temperatures from the first of December until very, very recently.  The number of inches of snow has been exceeded only by the number of times I have complained about this winter to anyone forced to listen.  And I am not alone.  The collective sigh of release and relief whistled around the city this weekend like a March wind in April.  This weekend the crocuses bloomed.  Between Saturday when the color began to unfurl, to today when the petals opened in full display, we have been rapt in our appreciation of this Spring milestone.

So when my friend Annette described the devastation of her crocuses as "heartbreaking," I didn't think she was overreacting.  There they were this morning, her favorite deep purple variety.  This afternoon while she napped, unsuspecting, something snipped them off an inch from the ground.  She thinks it might be the neighborhood rabbit that has been living on birdseed and (she admits) apples tossed into the yard when the snowfalls were especially deep.  

Spring bulbs are an act of faith.  They are like the little paper flowers I loved as a child--the shells that are dropped into water that produce a paper bloom, except that the payoff takes six months instead of six minutes.  I raced home to make sure that my own crocuses were intact.  They were, but as I stood there looking at them, I began to wonder if the rabbit didn't have a point.  We plant them for beauty, the rabbit eats them for survival.  Doesn't the rabbit have more of a claim?  Did the act of tossing apples into the yard create a sense of entitlement? (just kidding here).  The real question is, when we mess with nature by helping a rabbit survive the winter, we should perhaps not be too outraged when he eats our crocuses in the Spring?

Creativity and Constraint

Blogging is a daunting idea. When you can write about anything, where do you start? In my case, nowhere. I have a lot of interests, maybe too many, and I tend to flit from one thing to another and then back again. The wide-open possibilities of blogging paralyzed me.

Many years ago I read an interview with an architect who had just won a major award for a small chapel. The part of the story that stuck with me was the architect's explanation for how he had come up with his design. The site was beautiful, but difficult, and the budget was small. The limitations imposed upon him allowed his imagination to take up the challenge and create something unique.

It took me no more than two minutes to find the details on the internet. The architect was E. Fay Jones and his chapel, Thorncrown, (http://www.thorncrown.com/index.html) sits in a forest setting on a hill in Eureka Springs, AK. It is as impressive as I remembered. E. Fay studied with Frank Lloyd Wright and that influence shows in the marriage of the structure and the site. The wood and stone were produced locally, and everything had to be small enough to be carried along a narrow track along the hillside. These constraints influenced both the design and and the actual methods of construction. According to E. Fay, none of this would have been possible had he been handed carte blanche and a big budget.

For me, the story of Thorncrown Chapel provided the catalyst to actually put ideas into print.  All I needed, in fact, was a constraint.  I am not sure why the letter C appealed to me, but once I limited myself, everything opened up.  So, as silly as it seems, I will write about subjects that begin with the letter C.  If there is something I want to write about, and I can't come up with a CWord to describe it, then I have failed the challenge I have set for myself.  I will see how far I get without cheating.  I do believe this is more than a gimmick--we need challenges to succeed, and cheating is an exercise in how we meet challenges versus manipulating the rules to suit ourselves.  Contemplate that at whatever level it suits you.