The Woman Who Gave Me Hope

I’m home now from what is becoming my new normal: summer in Prague. Two months to teach about news and news video at a small, English-speaking Czech university called Anglo-americky Vysoka Skola – or Anglo-American University http://www.aauni.edu/ for the non-Czech speaking world. Two months which also include a seminar for Czech businesss managers on Presentation Skills or Media Training or Communication – modalities which flow easily from a reporter-anchor-interviewer’s knowledge. Two months to live as Czechs do, in an apartment my husband and I bought several years ago in what I call the Queens of Prague. In other words, in one of the unfashionable but eminently livable neighborhoods on the city’s outskirts where there is lots of greenery, the best park in Prague, and almost instant access to trams, buses and the Metro.

But this summer was different. This summer I could walk again. And run a little. And climb. And carry groceries. And stand for hours. In short – I was me again – as active as I wanted to be, full of energy, bounding up and down the steep hill to our apartment like I would have 10 years ago – before my knee started on its inevitable journey toward replacement.

But I never found the Prague woman who set me on my new path. I wanted so much to thank her, to hug her and show her my new knee scar and even without a shared language – tell her in ways women understand how much she helped me. She found me last summer – both of us working out at the gym. A woman who was maybe 50 or 55 – full of energy and in great shape She saw me limping around and came striding purposely over – pointing to her knee. I knew enough Czech to understand she had had her knee replaced 8 months before and had already returned to her passion – skiing. She even danced a little for me – just to prove what was now possible.

Through the summer and fall I thought about that woman – and how she had gotten her life back. And slowly I began to think that maybe I too could get my life back. Maybe I too could get a knee replacement.

When I came back to Prague – and the gym in June – I looked for her every day I was there. But I never found her. One of the personal trainers who speaks English thought she knew the woman. And said she would tell her for me. I hope she has. I hope this woman knows that without her very kind overture to a perfect stranger (something Czechs, who are a reserved people, don’t usually do) I might still be miserably limping around today – instead of looking at photos of the Czech mountain I easily climbed 2 weekends ago. I hope this woman knows that she changed my life. And I hope that somehow – she knows that I will never forget her.

On Running the Boston Marathon

On Monday my husband will run the Boston Marathon. Every American marathoner’s dream. And I will be there to cheer him on.

We always said as we slogged through our middle of the pack marathons that if we lived long enough we could qualify for Boston. Well a few years back the Boston Athletic Association broadened the time requirements - especially for older runners. And this fall – after running two marathons under that time limit, my husband made it.

He will be running Boston for both of us because my marathoning days were cut short over a decade ago by knee problems. But I managed to finish 28 marathons before the end and I will always be – in my mind and in my job description – a marathon runner. A very slow marathon runner. Who probably would never have qualified for Boston if I lived to be 80 – the most elastic time limit. So it’s OK. I will be there to cheer him on and support him in all ways and my running alter ego will be there a few miles behind him (as always in the marathons we ran together) as he covers the 26.2 miles from Hopkinton to the Copley Square finish. As I said – he will be running Boston for both of us.

But I have my own victory to celebrate as I bounce through Boston this weekend. When I set my total knee replacement surgery date for January 21st, my goal was to be able to walk comfortably around Boston and stand for as long as necessary at the finish line to cheer him in. And I have reached that goal and more.

So this Monday will be a celebration for us both. Frank’s – for making the cut. Me – for recovering from the cut. And there’s something else that makes it special. I was born in Boston and as a little kid – watched the finish of the Boston Marathon as it came past my parents’ music studio windows on Commonwealth Avenue – the old route. I marveled at the men in shorts running (it was all men then). I wondered why anyone in his right mind would ever want to run a marathon.

Well – I’m not sure marathon runners are ever in their right minds. I’m not sure we would want to be. But on Monday April 20th, my husband will be running Boston. And I’ll be there watching. And another of life’s full circles will close protectively around us.

My New Knee

My surgeon stood at the foot of my bed the day I was sent home from the hospital with a new knee. “You’ll lose 10 or 12 pounds; everyone does,” he said, “but don’t worry about it; you’ll gain it back when you get more active.” Since I had regained my appetite about 5 minutes after coming out of anesthesia in the recovery room I didn’t put a whole lot of faith in his promise. And sure enough I never lost an ounce. I blew my one chance in life to eat as much chocolate cake and ice cream as I wanted – gaining back those “lost” pounds.

And that’s sort of the way it went. It’s been almost 3 months now since I had right total knee replacement surgery. I was sure my recovery was going to be spent in a miserable, sleepless haze of heavy duty pain pills. After all that’s what almost everything I read suggested. I even bought a mindless autobiography to read, thinking my fogged-ed up brain wouldn’t be able to handle my usual diet of business and global news. But the pain pills went the way of the walker, crutches and cane before the end of the first week. I had incredible luck -- basically no pain and only moderate swelling. So I was able to start my rehabilitation -- simple exercises and knee bending to restore range of motion (ROM) immediately.

I started to write about my experience about 9 days after surgery – started and never finished. I was in a kind of comforting cocoon where work couldn’t get to me. Time consuming exercises had to be done 2 or 3 times a day followed by periods of icing and lots of catch-up sleep. My body needed to recover from this serious operation – even if my brain thought I was feeling “fine”. I wanted to craft any blog piece about my experience the way I usually do -- because I’m hoping that someday the writing on this page may provide a “published” body of opinion pieces.

But this has turned out to be somewhat different. This is about my life. And getting it back again in a way I really never expected. I want to shout from the rooftops in a very uncrafted way. For weeks now I have been able to walk miles. I can hike with my husband – up and down trails and some pretty steep hills. No I’m not ready to hike up Mt. Washington again -- but that will come. Along with everything else including – in a year or so – running again. I’ve been back at my gym – mixing it in with physical therapy – since the staples came out at 2 weeks. And 3 weeks ago my physical therapist threw me out – after transitioning me to my usual gym routine – slightly modified as I slowly gain back muscle strength in my operated upon leg.

At 9 days out from my knee surgery, I wrote that my brain had almost forgotten how badly my old knee worked – almost totally accepting the piece of metal and heavy duty plastic that replaced it. It is – I wrote then -- truly amazing. And it just gets more amazing as time goes on.

I was also lucky in another way; trolling the internet for pre-surgery information, I happened on a British website called BoneSmart http://www.bonesmart.org/public_forum/index.php. It’s co-moderated by a retired orthopedic nurse who just had her own knee replaced and has an amazing store of knowledge. The other co-moderator is about 13 months out from her TKR. People in all stages of recovery share their experiences and provide a body of shared information that helps just about everyone get through what is always a highly individualized recovery. I know the forum helped me understand the process and what was “normal” – a wide range of events and feelings. And now I hope I can help others with some of my own experiences and reactions.

I am convinced I had such a easy time of it because the pain mediation practiced by my surgeon and the hospital was so good. If you aren’t in pain it’s a lot easier to do the exercises and knee bending and muscle stretching that are crucial early on – and key to a good outcome and fast recovery. So I plan to write more about this aspect of total knee replacement. Some surgeons still don’t seem to care about pain mediation – and at this point – there can be no excuse for such callousness.

More – later.

Will It Ever End???

Like everyone else I know, I have been watching my money disappear. The money I worked 14 hour days for. 7 days a week sometimes. For years and years. The money that can’t be replaced with new earnings – because my industry is so changed and diminished. And because my demographic is not – shall we say – desired by my changed and diminished industry. The money that I – and many others on the far side of the moon - may not live long enough to see again.

With every announcement out of Washington, with every “coordinated” action in Europe and Asia, the financial wizards pronounce the panic attack in the markets over. And then traders and investors and most of all the short-selling hedge funds focus on something else – like the real and now so obviously recessionary economy.

Today -- with the U.S. plan in place to invest $250 billion dollars in the country’s banks – and similar moves around the world – the frozen credit markets are showing small signs of defrosting. But also today Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said again it will take time – perhaps quite a bit of time – for things to return to normal.

Bernanke – answering questions from economists in New York – also drew on his expertise as a Depression scholar – saying the economy then – and now are not comparable. And pointing out how swiftly global governments have acted to stem the slide this time – instead of waiting three, bank-failure-filled years, as the U.S. government did in the early 1930’s, before declaring a bank holiday.

He convinced me, anyhow. But that was at noon. 4 hours later as the U.S. market closed – the Dow had plunged 733 points, NASDAQ fell 150 and the S and P was down 90. The single worst day for stocks since the 1987 market crash.

OhmyGod.

Once again the prognosticators are talking about the confidence game. As in “a vote of no confidence”. No confidence that this unholy amount of money the world is throwing at these banks is enough. (Question: how much money CAN governments throw into the pot – until the world simply runs out of money???)

So OK – the retail sales pullback in September proved what everyone already knows. Even factoring out those tottering auto sales, high gasoline prices (slowly falling now), dwindling home values and retirement funds -- and growing job fears have finally convinced the infamous American consumer that maybe those 20 maxed out credit cards aren’t the best way to live right now. We already have warnings from chain stores and malls and shopper surveys that holiday sales this year won’t be exactly stellar. It’s NOT news.

But the market mavens must have selective hearing. And blinders on both eyes. The market moves not on fundamentals these days but on emotion. Mostly on fear. And for the rest of the week we’ll have a lot of 3rd quarter earnings reports from major companies to fear.

Traders down on the NYSE floor suggested hedge funds were still selling off assets to cover margin calls or redemptions. That’s why the losses accelerated so during the final hour of trading. Who really knows.

In the end we are still throwing money at banks and firms and companies who got us into this mess in the first place. Because they’re too big to fail; because the financial system is too crucial to our economy to fail.

When you think about it – what should REALLY put the fear of God into the market is this: the brilliant financial minds who basically screwed up the system –like the former Goldman Sachs CEO, now Treasury secretary Henry Paulson – are now in charge of fixing it. Fortunately the man who may be most responsible for the housing bubble and the pyramid scheme that leveraged it around the world – is not part of the solution right now. That would be Alan Greenspan – the Fed chairman for 18 years – beloved by Wall Street because under his rule -- whatever Wall Street wanted, Wall Street got.

OhmyGod indeed!

Are Unions Still Relevant?

I’ve been a member of two “talent” unions since I was 14 – and working part time as a DJ in Boston, my home town. In those days Boston was run by a powerful Democratic political machine – and it was definitely a union town. Virtually every radio and TV station – and anything shot on film - was union. So even a kid like me had to ante up the initiation fees and dues. I came from a show biz family and was used to it. My father - a pianist – was a member of the musicians’s union during its “don’t mess with us or we’ll bust your head” period under the now legendary national leadership of James Petrillo. My mother – a singer – was a member of AGVA – which covered night club entertainers. And in college - all of us aspiring actors were desperate to get into an Equity summer stock show - because you had to be in Equity to go to an Equity casting call – but you couldn’t get into Equity unless you were hired for a union show. A Catch 22 before any of us had ever heard of it.

Early on I gave up my dreams of life upon the wicked stage for the more prosaic – and attainable dream of network news. As it turned out – I had just enough acting ability to read and talk the news before the mic and the camera. I also had a questioning mind that was a lot more useful to a reporter than to a bit part actor who was only pretending she could also sing and dance.

For a long time, I worked only under AFTRA (www.aftra.org) union contracts. I was covered for medical benefits – and my employers were required to pay into my union-centered pension – whether I worked as a staff employee or was free lance. It was a good – and in a chaotic industry – a relatively orderly life.

Then – along came cable.

And AFTRA chose not to bother with cable -- figuring the money in these then niche networks was so insignificant it wasn't worth the organizing time. I know; I was on the local union board during that incubation period. Instead of dealing with real issues, our board members seemed mostly interested in making long speeches. Which is why I quit; it was a total waste of time.

So --- many years later -- here we are – in an age where unions in general are increasingly powerless and the companies they negotiate with are increasingly all-powerful and demanding. So what are the talent unions doing? AFTRA (the “live” and tape/recorded union) is fighting with SAG (the film union) –although at this point the craft designations have almost no meaning as digital and internet technology roll over all of us faster than we can pick ourselves up. (Granted the foolish fights seem to be mostly picked by SAG www.sag.org).

There are huge cable networks like the one I work for - CNBC - and of course CNN --the most obvious example - which are non-union. That means nothing is paid into the AFTRA pension and health funds.

For freelancers like me this is a terrible loss. Having medical and pension benefits centered in a union so wherever you work you still get benefits was a master stroke by all the talent unions as they began to gain leverage decades ago. But if eventually there are no organized media companies left to pay into them -- what's the point?

All of this was just brought home to me very powerfully; I did a one line voice-over as a newsperson for an HBO program more than a year ago. And HBO continues to operate under a pre-existing AFTRA contract. Not only did I get paid what to me is a very large sum for just 5 minutes of work --- I have so far gotten 2 residual checks from AFTRA for only slightly less than I was paid for the initial session.

Now I am a business reporter -- which might make me argue that this type of payment scale may be unsustainable in our new, digitally splintered media world. Except that most of those "splintered" media entities -- internet, cable, digital cable, mobile etc. -- are still owned by the top 10 media companies. Companies which in turn may be owned by even bigger international corporations.

Bottom line to all this: none of us really knows where our industry is going as technology continues to drive change. But as a newsperson it is pretty clear to me that we - certainly - will soon have no separate designations. Print journalists are doing video for newspaper websites; broadcast journalists are writing for websites and taking still photos and of course also increasingly shooting and editing video. We have too many separate unions for this scenario -- where there ARE unions left. It seems to me we have to join forces and our first job should be to unionize as many types of media operations as possible -- even if only for small money. We have to be ready for whatever technology -- and these huge corporations - throw at us.

And second -- we have to be sure our members get something useful out of belonging to a union. Of course salaries matter. But at CNBC, for instance, people get paid pretty much what they would at union operations. And working conditions are reasonable. It's how they’ve kept the unions (no technical unions either) out. So money isn't really the issue. It's benefits. It's some kind of job security. It's provision for medical leave or the like. Etc. But most of all, I think, it's offering ways for members to upgrade their skills at all levels and in all jurisdictions so we can compete with the 22 year old college graduate -- who HAS learned it all and is so comfortable with technology that he or she sees no rough edges. These folks just do whatever is needed and that is what all of us have to learn to do also. Years ago the technical unions used to have something we knew as "one machine, one operator". You ran a tape machine or turned a dial in master control. There were penalties for asking you to do more. Late lunch penalties. "Golden time" penalties.

Non-media companies came in during the 80's and early 90's and smashed that model to smithereens. Now the same thing is happening in the written and spoken media. Actors may be insulated right now -- but they may not be in the future. We are ALL going to HAVE to do more for less money. At least for now. Until our separate and entrenched leaderships realize that only one, huge and united craft union can wield enough power and leverage to fight back for all of us.

A Tear in Life's Fabric

Something is happening. Maybe it happens to everyone eventually. It’s as if there’s a tear in the fabric of life, a break in the force field that holds us to this planet.

My friends, my colleagues, the people who have defined my life for so many years – they’re disappearing. One by one – dropping off like the leaves in the early part of fall. And you know what happens as fall deepens. The leaves become a blizzard. A blizzard of death.

Death. No amount of reasoning about nature and the way it is can make me fear that word any less. And in the past few weeks death seems to be stalking the streets I know, scooping up not only old people whose lives had shriveled up like their bodies – but much younger people who had everything to live for.

My friend and colleague Roger E. Hernandez died over the weekend. He was 53. Chalk up another one for the big C. http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003847809

It’s not that I saw Roger or his wife Dianne every day. Or even every year. They are my neighbors, living with their children just one town over. The people you keep saying you must invite over to catch up – as time speeds up and runs off the clock. How many more friends and colleagues and family members are in that category. How many more people will be gone before I get around to saying hello?

Roger was a funny, nice, straightforward guy. Not someone you would easily forget. When I first met him he was an assignment editor at the TV station I went to work for - more than 20 years ago. He was old enough when he left Cuba with his parents to remember how it was – and to be a lifelong foe of Castro. The stuff of many good - shall we say - discussions. We would laugh at Roger’s slight accent; we could never understand his directions over the noisy police-type radios we all used then to communicate with the “desk” when we were out on a story. Roger, being Roger, would laugh as well. Sometimes.

We became a family at that TV station. Dianne and Roger moved on and got married. Some of us also moved on. But the family bond has held. We used to come together at odd times to see photos of babies just born or talk about new jobs - or old ones. And now – a much older family – we are coming together too often to cry instead of laugh. At wakes and funerals and memorial services.

Like Roger’s.

If he was looking down on us, he might have been surprised at how many people knew him, were shocked at his death and already missed him. Perhaps they too felt a little break in the force field, a tear in the fabric.

Because when there’s a tear here – and a break there – one day the force field disintegrates. The fabric shreds. And not all the king’s horses and all the king’s men (and women) can put Humpty Dumpty together again.

LETTER FROM PRAGUE

July 21, 2008

The sun is just setting here in Prague. It’s Monday night. I’ve been here for almost 6 weeks now, teaching a summer course at the Anglo-American University in Prague (Anglo-americky Vysoka Skola). http://www.aauni.edu/ If you know anything about The New School in New York City --- AAU is that kind of place. Very small classes, lots of give and take between students and lecturers, lots of freedom to run your classes as you wish. A school for the free spirits and thinkers and questioners. I’m right at home.

I’m a TV-radio reporter and producer, not a professor. My “teaching” experience up to now has involved workshops for professional journalists in former Communist countries like Serbia and Albania – mostly working as second banana to a smart, funny and legitimate professor --- now emeritus – from Rutgers University in New Jersey – Jerome Aumente. But I’ve been lucky this summer. I have a very small class – 5 students. 4 of them are American young men, studying abroad for a semester, and mostly, I think, studying the Czech party, beer-drinking and summer rock festival scenes. My fifth student is a young woman from Slovakia --- getting her degree from AAU. No one seems to take the summer semester terribly seriously but then my class isn’t about War and Peace either. I’m teaching an introductory course in Broadcast News and Video – kind of an overview of broadcast journalism and how the internet is changing it. There’s a little about what makes a news story a news story. And how to write the story for TV, radio and the internet. How to shoot for news. And how to edit on a laptop. (I had to learn that myself, from my video editor husband).

I have found it a little odd to be teaching the fundamentals of news writing and production when most of the students (and I myself) have little access to understandable radio or TV news here. Without a yearly subscription to cable or an activated satellite dish --- there is only news in Czech. And one part-time BBC FM radio station. Most of my students don’t even have a TV set in the apartments they are renting for the summer. So it’s all what you seek out on the internet. I speak a little, very basic Czech after many years of coming here, but not enough to understand the fast-paced newscasters. I can, however watch the production. Which is somewhat calmer than ours at home – but otherwise perfectly recognizable.

Although we have just skimmed the surface of journalism, I was determined when I wrote up the syllabus (another newly learned word) that at least one class (and one reading assignment) would be devoted to ethics. After all – ethics are not unique to journalism and I figured wherever these students land in their careers – a dose of ethical living can’t hurt. Our text came from the SPJ http://www.spj.org and RTNDA http://www.rtnda.org ethics codes --- which I distributed to each student and which I hope they will reread now and then. We watched case histories from a special DVD put out by RTNDA. And the students read chapters from the accompanying RTNDA training book on newsroom ethics. We talked and discussed and questioned. I think my 5 students now know what “fair and balanced” really means. Despite its co-opting by Fox News. And they all had good answers to the ethics question on the mid term.

Prague is a fascinating city. It has some of the oldest and most beautiful buildings in Europe. They are meticulously maintained and virtually all survived World War 11 intact. A few hours drive to the north is Dresden --- which had the misfortune to be in Germany. Despite being considered the jewel of Europe – and despite the Germans being basically defeated - the Allies, led by the U.S., carpet-bombed Dresden and left most of it in ruins. My students have grown to appreciate all this – and have learned quite a bit about local politics and issues – thanks to assignments that required them to think in terms of news stories they could actually shoot here in Prague and get on the air that night.

Speaking of assignments -- my American students are all pretty good about doing them and about showing up for class. My Slovak student is somewhat more casual about her schooling. Over here young people typically take longer to get through the university system – dropping out for a year or so to work (or play). They are considered “students” (at least by the city transportation system) until they are 26 – getting cut rate student bus/tram/metro passes until then. Our college students should be so lucky

And then there is the ever rising Czech crown (koruna) and the ever falling dollar. This summer has seen a series of records set against both the dollar and the euro. My students have done the math and then done it based on what the dollar bought in crowns less than a year ago. And euros – because they have all traveled outside the Czech Republic this summer. Another useful lesson about currency trading, speculation and economic crises.

An interesting sidebar: a lot of Czechs have put their savings in dollars, pounds and euros (in Germany) because the interest rates are higher. But now when they need to convert back to crowns – the exchange rate is so low they are all losing money. There are also a lot of Americans, Brits and other Europeans on home country salaries who are really hurting. And many retirees - Czechs who became US citizens and now spend at least half a year over here - are finding their social security and pensions don't buy much at all.

Fortunately I am getting paid in Czech crowns and have a crown account to draw from -- money transfered when the exchange was much better. So I'm trying not to think of what I spend in dollar terms. Because when I do -- I throw up

Starbucks has come to Prague -- and opened not far from my university ---on a medieval square called Malestranske Namesti -- a big tourist area. You would not believe the prices! Forgetting the dollar -- I paid maybe half again as much as I normally do at a Wall Street area Starbucks for a muffin and a small (tall) black coffee. Not to mention McDonald’s which is also outrageous! But tourists love seeing a name they recognize -- and even Czechs will pay without complaint for a famous (and foreign) brand name.

And then there’s the ever-present grafitti, Oh not on the crown jewels – the 14th century churches and palaces in the old city. But everywhere else. It’s so bad even my students noticed – and chose to create a montage of graffiti for their field shooting and editing assignment. Last fall when I was here I wrote a letter to the Mayor of Prague (he has a pretty good, English language city website http://magistrat.praha-mesto.cz/lang/l2 ) complaining about the graffiti. I never got an answer. But just this summer Prague banned littering and introduced a leash law for the huge population of dogs in the city (Czechs simply adore their dogs). Oh – and the city has even banned public drinking in some heavily trafficked outdoor areas – an unheard of idea in a country where people believe having a beer (called pivo) just about anywhere – at any time – is a national birthright. But graffiti??? Not a word. Banning spray paint can sales to underage kids as New York City did in the 90’s? Faggetaboutit.

Wednesday is the final exam and the end of classes. My students must turn in a day-of-air news script for TV – with complete editing instructions. Unfortunately AAU doesn’t have production facilities so that is as far as they can go. There will also be an oral exam. I’ve given each student 5 to 7 minutes to defend their choice of the most important thing they’ve learned in the class. The head of the department will get the “exam” in mp3 files along with each student’s grade. I plan also to video each student and play it back at the end of class for a quick course in public speaking. Having such a small group allows, as I said, for a lot of creative thinking and feedback.

I hope we will all stay in touch through email and Skype. I guess I am enough of a teacher to hope also the class discussions will at the very least make news consumers of these 20 somethings. Having even 5 more news-savvy people in a world which knows less and less every day (despite having so much information at its mouse-tip) might just be the start of something big!

God's Other Son aka Eliot Spitzer

You know it really isn’t the sex. Sure Americans are still fixated on what many consider illicict sex — prostitution, affairs by married folks, cheeky interns and presidents with over-large appetites. In fact — maybe Eliot Spitzer falls into the Clinton catagory in a way — ego plus appetite plus the “God’s other son” syndrome as my long ago former collegue Peggy Noonan so aptly put it. I guess quite a few Presidents (and leaders of other countries too) fall into that “I am so important I can get away with anything” catagory. But Spitzer was different. He was such a zealot in his prosecutions; he was so holier-than-thou in his public pronouncements; he went after people in an almost gleeful way - beyond the legal necessity. You got the feeling he was laughing wildly behind the scenes as he attacked individuals and prostitution rings like the one which finally tripped him up. Even his resignation statement was goody goody two shoes. As if all the tawdryness he has been a part of had never happened.

As I write I am listening to NY Democratic Senator Charles Schumer saying ” your heart has to go out to the Governor and his wife etc.”. No way! His wife — maybe; unless she choses to tell us we won’t know why she stood publically by him for both of his post-prostitution statements. I’m sure there’s much we’ll never know. But if Spitzer hadn’t come on like God’s other son — he might have been able to weather some of this. Maybe he’d still have to resign as Governor; but the shock wouldn’t have been as great and perhaps he could have salvaged something of his public life. I doubt that’s possible now. I think people hate hypocrites most of all. And Spitzer is now the poster child for hypocrisy. Next to him — our former President’s stupidity looks more like - well - just stupidity.

$120 Oil

What's wrong with these people??? All of them. The ones in Washington. In the Bush administration, in the House, in the Senate. In the regulatory agencies. These people.

Crude oil futures spiked over $110 a barrel today before closing a few pennies lower. Analysts are now talking about $120 a barrel oil like it's perfectly normal. Meanwhile the economy is tanking and inflation is rising. Higher food prices, higher gasoline prices, higher transportation prices. And sky-high heating oil prices for those of us who have the misfortune to heat our homes with oil.

Why doesn't someone do something?? Why are speculators allowed to bid up at least a third of the crude oil price -- because it's a hedge against the tottering stock market and the moribund financial markets and the swooning dollar?

Capitalism and free markets are all very well -- until they affect the average person's ability to live comfortably -- or even survive miserably. This crazy oil speculation has reached the point where someone has to clamp down on it. Pass a law if necessary that speculation won't be allowed in essential markets when prices reach a certain impossible level. Like now.

Sometimes it seems like the Bush Administration really does want to build a fence around the United States -- not just to keep the illegal immigrants and would-be terrorists out -- but to keep Americans in --- unable to go to Europe or Asia or even Canada and find out how much people in other countries dislike our government. And - since we elected it - us. The dollar has fallen so low against other currencies it now costs nearly twice as much to hop over to London or Paris as it did a few years ago. And if $4 gasoline becomes a feature of the summer driving season -- Americans will be almost literally chained to their homes. Those same ones which have lost so much value because somebody didn't stop the housing speculation and the perhaps criminally creative mortgage industry before the bubble burst.

The other night I heard an economist say what we really have is a financial recession. Not an economic recession. Meaning the overly greedy financial markets brought their current paralysis on themselves by giving people mortgages who should never have gotten them. And then slicing and dicing those risky loans into securities so complicated not even the financial geniuses who rate those securities had the foggiest notion of what was in them. So one day the mortgage market imploded. And started taking the rest of us with it.

All because nobody did anything to stop it.

Beauty and the Beast in Prague

The last time I saw Prague (to paraphrase a classic song) it's heart was great -- and glorious. The old part of Prague is a storybook city -- dating back to at least the 12th century. Its buildings are so incredibly beautiful it is as if you had stepped into the pages of a fairytale -- complete with the fanciful illustrations common in the 18th and 19th centuries.

My husband and I have been spending time in Prague since just after the 1989 Velvet Revolution peacefully ended the Czechs' long Communist nightmare. As in many post-Communist cities -- with fear of Big Brother gone -- graffiti soon marred many buildings; democracy -- as we have heard many times - is messy.

But that was nearly two decades ago; The Czech Republic is now a member of the European Union and its economy is arguably the most successful of the newer entrants. So why, suddenly, has the graffiti on buildings and walls gotten worse? Early on, it was understandable. People who had just freed themselves from a restrictive government and ideology were eager to explore that freedom in any and all ways. And most buildings looked so bad anyhow -- a little scribbling didn't make much difference.

But today - greater Prague has turned from a mostly crumbling brown and white concrete city into a sparkling, multi-colored, cared-for place. Buildings have been painted in bright colors. The infamous Communist "panelak" buildings (with pre-fabricated concrete panel exteriors) have been refurbished. And there are almost as many flower boxes on window sills as you see in Germany. Apartment building lawns are actually being mowed. For the first time in the Hostivar neighborhood where my husband and I now own an apartment, I actually saw someone clipping the hedges!!! and parks are now just beautiful. (They were scraggly and overgrown for years after Communism because people felt no personal responsibility for them and because no one seemed to understand who SHOULD be responsible for them.)

But marring it all is this awful graffiti! We've complained to lots of different Prague residents about it; no one seemed to care. Not even to agree that, yes, it's awful but what can we do? (A frequent answer when I complain about something obvious). In fact one friend who lives in the upscale Vinohrady section of Prague told us that school children are taken to a nearby park by their teacher and actually encouraged to draw on the park walls -- as a lesson in creativity!!!

I got so upset by all this that I actually wrote a letter to the Mayor of Prague - Pavel Bern. How foolish of me to expect an answer: Communism may be long gone -- but bureaucrats and politicians still don't respond to much except a mass protest. And, apparently, certainly not to a mere American.

So why does a city with a very good sense of itself as a flourishing economic center and hot tourist destination see nothing wrong with graffiti?? WHY don't building owners, local police/officials, apartment owners clean it up and try to stop it? WHY isn't there a city-wide crackdown? And most of all -- WHY do the people of Prague -- who have now traveled abroad and seen how lovely other "world" cities are -- continue to shrug their shoulders????

Back in the '90's when Rudy Giuliani (he of the failed Republican Presidential campaign) was Mayor of New York City -- he cracked down on major crime by focusing first on what he called "quality of life" crimes -- public urination, homeless people sleeping on doorsteps, even j-walking. And yes -- there was a major effort to wipe out graffiti. Anyone who was caught was required to clean off his graffiti and/or repaint the area (which worked because graffiti "artists" like to see their work and show it to others.) And spray paint can sales were restricted to people over 18. (As is still the case today in NYC). The campaign didn't totally wipe out graffiti. But it got rid of most of it.

So - Mr. Mayor of Prague -- why don't you start something like that? You've scaled Mt. Everest and lived to tell the tale; you should be able to take on a few undisciplined youths who just need to have their heads cracked together.

Blogs, Journalism and Buzz

I am getting really tired of blogs. They're the new black. Or chocolate. Or the Rosetta Stone. Suddenly no one is a journalist anymore. We're all supposed to be bloggers. On the same page as a kid chronicling her oh-so-ordinary 15 year old life on MySpace. Well count me out.

"Blog" to me is just another buzzword. And the media world has gone crazy over the buzz because 50-something executives think this is the way to get 20-somethings to watch TV news and read newspapers. And if you can put three words together you can blog and your thoughts and opinions are just as valuable as the knowledge and research and talent of a reporter or columnist with 30 years of writing experience. And why do the media companies care so much about blogs and bloggers? Because media companies survive on advertising and the ad agencies (largely staffed these days by 20-somethings) are convinced no one over 35 ever tries any new product. Never mind that baby boomers (now hitting 60 in ever fatter waves) have all the money and all the curiosity and have always tried every new thing that ever came along. Nope. Old is old is dead.

Thus the blogs -- and the media companies' year(s) of magical thinking.

I do journalism (or what these days passes for journalism) for a living. And I think blogs are just another way to add to our workload. When you are researching a story and need as much material as you can find, the better blogs which are written by people with specialized insight and knowledge can be useful. And the story behind the story can be fascinating. But a lot of blogging is more like "dear diary". I really don't care about someone whom I don't know and don't want to know baring all --- every moment of life, every hour-by-hour experience. Not at 15, not at 50. Nor do I care about that someone's preferences in food or last night's blind date. Y'know??? When you're working hard and hitting 24/7 deadlines that didn't exist a few years back and trying to hit those deadlines with a well-researched, accurate story -- you really don't have time to read the blogs, never mind write them ---UNLESS you have something really important to say.

There is something to be said for the old gatekeeper method of making editorial decisions. Decisions based on an understanding of what everyday working folks need to know to run their lives and vote intelligently enough to keep the country running properly. Everyone who can type out a blog is NOT qualified to be a journalist!!! I almost feel politically incorrect saying all this. But the Internet can be a terrible time waster unless you are searching for specific information and know how to find it. With all those YouTube and MySpace videos and blogs and the 1000 new best friends this all generates -- when do the denizens of these online communities have time for studying, working or - God forbid - actually interacting with real people in the real world? You know -- something beyond text messages and IM 's. I know people who work in next-to-each-other cubicles --- who email and text and never think of standing up and just talking over the divider.

So get a life, you bloggers. A real, not a virtual life. Walk outside, say hello to the guy behind the fruit stand. Look -- really look at your office mate. Maybe you both can take your sandwiches outdoors for the five minutes that passes for lunch these days and talk about the Red Sox (OK -- I'm from Boston. Forever.)

And maybe the next time you think everyone on the Internet really needs to know what you think about life, liberty and the pursuit of the American dream -- you'll skip the blog and have a discussion with someone. Real voices. Real arguments. Real interaction. And leave the journalism to the people trained to ask the questions and get the answers. The accurate answers.

Ode to a Dean with a Doctorate

There are some things which just have to be said – in a very loud voice and with total conviction. You’ve probably heard the phrase “publish or perish” – the mantra of successful university professors since the first days of Gutenberg. Well now you have to add “advanced degrees”. And while studying under a professor with a string of initials after his or her name may make sense for a philosophy major – it makes no sense at all for a journalism or media student.

Journalism is a word game; you need to write with color and at least reasonably correct grammar. And today’s multi-fingered media world requires also that you learn to use a camera and a website uploader. And then there’s the ability to interview well. And craft a TV script. And act like an anchor on your live shot. And mixed in somewhere – you’ll need historical context and an understanding of ethics in covering the news. And long, blond, straight hair won’t hurt either.

Gee—I don’t see anything in that job description about an advanced degree.

And so – my ode to the acting Dean of my alma mater – as follows:

Dear Dean,

I have to take issue with the message in your letter -- which thanked me for a donation to the alumni fund -- and then promoted the quality of the current faculty. With the emphasis on "advanced degrees" and "highly regarded academics with doctorates in related fields". The working professionals who serve as adjuncts and guest speakers were more or less relegated to afterthought status.

As a working professional broadcaster without an advanced degree I believe it is academic bias like this that turns out J-school grads who haven't the foggiest notion about the real world or the needs of a real world job. I work all the time with interns and grads (many with Master's degrees) in their first jobs. Many of them have no contextual knowledge of history or its relation to current events, don't know how to write, and don't have any idea how to apply the lectures on ethics and the like. We even have one recent hire at my TV news operation who recently asked a colleague -- "What's videotape?" Now maybe that's not the end of the world -- but that’s from a broadcasting and communications graduate of a "good" school.

I have been fortunate to co-lead a number of journalism workshops for professionals in former communist countries. The participants range from quite young to seasoned journalists. I focus on the nuts and bolts -- the "how to's" and the "why's". Last July I was co-leading several business journalism workshops in Serbia. We worked on using the internet for research and information and on the basics of economic, financial and business practices in a capitalist society. We had real case studies suggested by our participants -- who are struggling to report intelligently on the privatization of everything from factories to the media. In the end I would have hired most of them gladly back here in the US. And some of them never made it past secondary school.

What I'm trying to say -- in what I realize is a somewhat wordy effort -- is that while some theoretical knowledge can be useful -- I would much rather learn my profession from someone who is IN that profession. If someone has a gift for teaching and cares enough about the future of our profession (and our world) to work with students - that person should be welcomed -- not pushed away because he/she hasn't an advanced degree.

I fully admit that the most influential professor of my time at the university was a Ph.D. But it wasn't his theoretical knowledge that drew me in. Murray cared. About the profession - yes. But most of all about his students -- about helping us find ourselves as people -- as well as communicators. He didn't need his Ph.D for that.

At some point down the road I may want to do some adjunct teaching. I have a long and varied career and a lot of knowledge which could help students. But letters like yours push me further and further away from even trying. Why even make the effort -- if someone is going to say - snidely -- sorry -- that advanced degree you didn't get 30 years ago is much more important than the decades-worth of knowledge every journalist of a certain age has absorbed.

I realize you have a Ph.D -- which you no doubt need to be even an interim Dean. So I'm probably wasting my words here. But that has never stopped me when I get really angry. And as a graduate of “our” school -- I'm really angry.

The CEO's Secret Weapon. Really!

Now I know why I never quite made it to mega million CEO status. It wasn’t because my eyes glaze over when I see numbers. Or because I don’t own the requisite tailored black suit. Or even because I am heedlessly aggressive rather than the more P.C. “assertive” -- as well as being totally lacking in basic political smarts.

All that and more could have been overcome as I rocketed into the fast lane. But now I know I was missing a vital link that could have spun my dross into solid gold.

What was my fatal flaw? Are you ready? I never had an executive coach! I never even knew they existed until I heard one speak recently at a networking session. And I certainly never knew that executive coaches are a top manager’s secret weapon. The “dirty little secret”, as this practitioner put it, of the corporate world. All the really successful corporate officers have one, she said. Really.

An executive coach, it seems, is not a mentor. Everyone (how déclassé!) has one of those. An executive coach is someone who understands the corporate jungle because he or she has survived and prospered in it. An executive coach is an objective advisor who is not connected with your old company or your new company. Someone you pay by the hour or the day or on retainer to be there to interpret your every hiccup. Who rehearses that big job interview with you. Or deconstructs that crucial meeting before it happens. Or even dresses you for success. You can have this totally honest relationship with your executive coach because he won’t go running to anyone else in your company and tell on you because he isn’t part of your company.

Has an executive search firm come calling lately? Well don’t worry. It’s apt to have an executive coach ready to help you get that top job -- and to help you make a smooth transition into the new corporate culture. He or she will even stand behind you for as long as 6 months -- ready to nudge or even shove you in the right direction! But after that, apparently, you’re on your own. With his or her parting words – and I quote - “Always have an exit strategy because how you loose a job is often more important than how you win a job”. Right.

As I said earlier, now I know why I never climbed the success ladder high enough for the Securities and Exchange Commission to slap me with a corporate indictment. On the other hand, maybe the top officers of - say - Enron, World Com or Health South didn’t know about executive coaches either because they certainly could have used an exit strategy. Several of them.

I’ve never had an exit strategy – unless it was to wear padding because the door kept hitting me on the way out. But I at least can still collect unemployment. Kind of tough to make that weekly phone call to insist you’ve been looking for work… when you’re in jail.

Ode to Ed Bradley

Ed, I apologize. I didn’t go to your memorial service today. I thought about it. A lot. Half of me wanted to go to pay you tribute. The other half – the sad, shy, lost half – said no. And truthfully I have attended too many memorial services and funerals these past years. For colleagues, friends, and most of all – family. Like yours, most memorial services (including the one for my father) are supposed to be ‘celebrations of life”. But the reality is – even as we laugh at the funny, sweet stories -- they are being told only because their subject is no longer in the room. In any room.
It has always seemed strange to me to laugh at someone’s funeral. And don’t let anyone tell you differently; a memorial service is still a funeral. Just look at yours today – which through the good offices of CBS News (the switched camera feed) and C-SPAN I was able to watch as I tried to work here at home. It was hard enough to listen to your friends and family say goodbye to you. In words so intimate and so full of grief I sometimes felt outsiders like me and many of those sitting in Riverside Church shouldn’t be hearing them.
But it was some of the music that really did me in. Wynton Marsalis marching up the aisle – New Orleans style – playing a plaintive blues. And at the end – “When the Saints Go Marchin’ In” (or just “The Saints” as I grew up hearing it called) -- courtesy of a real New Orleans jazz band walking through the aisles. After the minister explained the tradition, the church was a sea of waving white handkerchiefs as your mourners waved your spirit up to heaven.
It was a three hanky memorial, Ed. But unlike those Saturday afternoon B-movies I grew up with – yours was an A+ life. Our paths crossed so briefly. Two dates when we were both young – and then again in the hallways when we had both made it to the pinnacle of our dreams – CBS News. You – always the consummate gentleman – insisted you remembered those dates. But I’m sure you didn’t. I was just another in a long string of girls – until you finally found the woman who became your wife.
But you were not just another guy. I remember you asking when you called after mutual friends fixed us up. “You know,” you said, “I’m black.” “So?” I said. I had grown up in a big city – an underaged kid hanging out at the slightly open stage door of a storied jazz club – worshiping the great musicians who occasionally smiled at me as they finished their sets. I dreamed of playing drums and when Louis Armstrong’s drummer showed me how to play basic time, I don’t think his first thought was “Gee, this girl’s white”.
But on that first date – both of us well dressed in business clothes – I found out what all those years of hanging with jazz musicians didn’t tell me. I found out what it really meant to be black. Even in Manhattan. We were cutting through a theater district parking lot, this handsome, educated, sophisticated man and I, when a middle aged man yelled out “Boy! Get my car!” I wanted to scream and yell and punch him out but Ed only smiled and said “Forget it”. And we walked on. I never forgot the lesson Ed. I never forgot my feeling of being violated. And I never forgot how you just put it aside as you must have put aside many similar slings and arrows – and kept your focus on the prize – your life as you planned to live it.
Probably no one will read this. It’s on my blog but no one knows how to get here. But nothing written down is ever truly lost. It’s from my heart, Ed, not the kind of polished prose I try to put here. But I wanted you to know. As you go on into that other existence, that other world whatever it is, where none of us can follow.
You made a difference, Ed. Not just be being Ed Bradley of 60 Minutes. That too of course. But a difference to that 20-something girl so long ago. A difference I have tried to remember in my life and my career. I think what you taught me is something as simple as respect. And although I haven’t always respected everyone and everything on this earth – I really do try.
It’s not a bad legacy, Ed. To add to the huge legacy you left the rest of the world.

We Are NOT Going Quietly Into the Night!

If Ben Bernanke – the Federal Reserve Chairman – says it – then you know the impending retirement of the 78 million baby boomers in theUS is a real economic problem. Like many other economists -- Bernanke worries about Medicare and Social Security – programs he warns will be unsustainable when the boomer wave breaks over them.

But wait. Who says the boomers are actually going to retire? Survey after survey finds the bulk of boomers plans to keep on working -- many full time. The latest study -- from the Pew Research Center -- reports 77 percent of today’s workers will keep at it ---not just because they need the money but because they want the stimulation. And baby boomers are a huge, 40 percent slice of the current workforce.

They’re also a group which has famously spent its way through life. Which means little or no savings –when planners say to retire at 65 you’ll need enough money for at least another 18 years. At the boomer level of living – that’s a long time without a paycheck.

So get used to it Gen X, Y and Z. There won’t be much room at the top – until, perhaps, you hit the big 6-5.

Is There a Four Letter Word for "Functional"?

“You’re functional, right?” he said. “What?” “Functional”. I just looked at him. This doctor who had written a book about knees, Who was supposed to help mine. Functional! Sure it functions and so do I. I can walk and do most everyday things. I guess that’s functional to an average couch potato. But I was a marathoner. 28 finished … a few more not quite. I was a hiker – Mt. Washington and some of the other White Mountains. I skied (poorly). And tap danced (sort of). And never turned down an assignment because it was physically taxing.
Functional! A knee in this state is not my idea of functional!
Oh but he must have looked at my birth date. Old. Not worth saving. Perfectly functional for someone her age; what does she expect anyhow? She’s just another knee replacement candidate. Functional indeed.
Well damn-dumb-doctor-with-your-10-minutes-for-nearly-$400-no-insurance-accepted -- “functional” isn’t good enough for me. How dare you throw me away like your trash with a word like “functional”?
I have more energy than you do; I learn more new information each day; I drive a racing car at 50 on the 25 mph curves. I function all right. Like someone half my age. And you want to take all that away from me and lump me in with fat old ladies who are “functional” if they can get themselves a cup of tea without spilling it.
How dare you!
Ok. I’m a journalist. Let’s try to be fair. You didn’t actually say it. You just implied that because I’m not 25 or 35 my knee -- and I – don’t matter. But once before – when I was just 40 and struggling with my first major athletic catastrophe – another doctor did say it. Bluntly. “You’re over 40”, he intoned. “You don’t need that ACL. You’re never going to be an athlete.” Only the fact that I was interviewing him in the studio of a major radio network kept me from decking the man. And I have often wished I could find him again so I could take all my 28 marathon medals – and all the others from various shorter road races – and swing them – all together – hard. Against his thick head.
Functional indeed.

Dream On!

The electric car is dead, right? Sony is distributing a documentary this summer that painstakingly details the car's murder at the hands of GM and the like. But apparently the film's director never heard of a little motor car company in California called Tesla Motors whose chief investors include Google guys Larry Page and Sergey Brin.

Why Tesla? Well -- Nikola Tesla pioneered modern electrical engineering. And his namesake car company has juunveiledled its sole product -- a 100 percent electric sports car.

The Tesla roadster demo car is bright red. With Lotus- designed styling that rivals the legendary Corvette and a zero to 60 profile to match -- four seconds. Its makers claim it gets the equivalent of a hundred 35 miles a gallon with its lithium-ion batteries -- the same kind used in most laptop computers.

A few drawbacks. You will have to charge the roadster every two hundred 50 miles. And if you order one -- figure on paying at least 90 thousand bucks for it.

When Worlds Collide: Freedom vs. Religion

This week a bunch of European newspapers published a set of Danish cartoons satirizing Islam’s Prophet Mohammad as a terrorist. The cartoons had been floating around since September when a tiny Danish newspaper gave them a platform. But their wider dissemination across much of the Western world outraged ultra-religious Muslims who have rioted and protested and demanded apologies. And now our State Department has barged into the controversy – essentially saying freedom of religion trumps freedom of speech.

As a broadcast journalist, I find this a difficult issue. I feel very, very strongly about press freedom and freedom of speech. I also feel very, very strongly that we long ago crossed over into PC-land in the US -- which doesn't help foster understanding among differing cultures. But I am not sure what the purpose of publishing the cartoons was -- simply to lampoon? Or to insult? Or were the editors just basically heedless of the tempest that might be triggered? There are such problems surrounding the growing Muslim population in Europe that without living there -- I hesitate to pass judgment.

Major dailies here have NOT printed the cartoons, preferring to talk around them.

ABC in its evening news story showed them – but not in great detail. NBC and CBS told staffers it was network policy NOT to show the cartoons.

This issue I don’t find difficult. Once something becomes a story -- it needs to be fully vetted. And pictures are what TV does. I'm for letting it all hang out, as it were, for a true and honest discussion of issues. Covering up the truth – be that in words or pictures – is never the way to settle differences. But from a network/publisher standpoint I would imagine this was more about fear of boycotts or worse rather than a true editorial judgment.

As for the State Department jumping in -- well we all know the Bush Administration doesn't exactly love and respect a free press. Plus the Administration is desperate to dispel Muslim hatred for the US. Since we can't just pull out of Iraq and say it was all a mistake, sorry for the death and destruction and for unleashing the genie from the bottle --- we are trying the propaganda method (remember the US payments to the Iraqi news organizations to publish favorable stories written by the US military).

These are not easy issues. There are many nuances that need to be debated – calmly and rationally. Like so many big issues today -- there are more shades of gray than black and white.

Alito, Democracy, Freedom, Privacy, America

So it’s now Associate Justice Samuel Alito. What will become of my America now?

What will become of the checks and balances the founding fathers (mothers were considered chattel in the “good old days”) so carefully constructed in the Constitution? That very same Constitution Alito and his fellow strict constructionists profess to revere? The current White House occupant has stretched the concept of the Imperial Presidency to its zenith; President Bush obviously thinks can do anything he wants to do – just as long as he can tie it – however tenuously – to national security, the war on terror, al-Qaeda. And a newly right-tilting Supreme Court is unlikely to tighten the leash on even this runaway Presidency especially if Alito – who has upheld executive branch power in his lower court rulings – becomes the deciding vote.

And what of privacy in a world where the White House thinks it can eavesdrop on any American’s phone conversation without court permission – just on some low level operative’s suspicion there may be an insipient terrorist supporter on the other end. Next will be e-mail; the Bush Administration has already asked the FCC to force internet providers to build the equivalent of wiretapping code into their software. The Justice Department has already demanded search companies turn over millions of websites scanned by users – a demand only Google is resisting. This time our names are stripped off the searches; next time they won’t be.

And oh yes --- there’s that other privacy issue. A woman’s right to control her own body. Otherwise known as Roe v. Wade. Will we be forced back to the future --- and have only dangerous back street abortions again or desperate, botched wire hanger attempts in our bloody bathrooms?

Is this the America I signed up for? Stop the world; I want to get off.

You Can't Google This

In a way Google has become a synonym for everything the internet can offer. How many times a day do you say “I’ll just Google it” when you need to know something, anything? I’ll bet Gen Y-ers don’t even know that “to Google” isn’t really a legitimate verb.

So what’s going on with Google? First – the California search company resists a Justice Department subpoena for tons of web search data. And then it complies with China’s censors and deploys a stripped-down search engine for Chinese web surfers that won’t pull up sites devoted to human rights, or freedom of speech, or even sex.

Google of course isn’t the only company kowtowing to China. The continuing accommodation of ALL companies to China's communist government is extremely worrisome to free speech advocates. Companies are so desperate for China's business -- because of the market's size -- it seems they are willing to do almost anything to get it.

It is particularly ironic that Google was the only search company in the US to resist DOJ's subpoena for search results (with names stripped out) -- an admirable stance at a time when the Bush administration wants to get its hands on more and more personal information. And it seems rather inconsistent -- until you look at Google’s stock price. It went down on resistance in the US last week -- and up yesterday morning on the prospect of more Chinese business.

Since the short term focus of the big investors and hedge funds drives almost all business decisions these days --- you can see where all this is heading. Right to a world where the really important things in life like human rights and free speech will be blithely jettisoned -- when and if they get in the way of making more money! Just my not-so-humble opinion.