our Olympic Gold connection

This good news comes from an old standby business-systems supplier of ours, Client Marketing Systems (The Leader in CRM Software Since 1985) in Pismo Beach, California. Our cousin Katie Smith is at the Olympics on the women's basketball team (and blogging it, too), and now here comes another outstanding women's Olympic connection, Stephanie Brown Trafton.

Dear Tim,

Since you are part of our Advisors Assistant family, we want to share our excitement over Olympic Gold Medal Winner Stephanie Brown Trafton.

Stephanie Brown Trafton is the sister of one of our programmers, Nate Brown, who has worked for our company for 12 years.

Stephanie won the GOLD MEDAL in the womens' discus competition in Beijing on Monday.

It's the first womens' discus Gold since 1932.

You've probably seen Stephanie on TV already. She's been all over the news and on the TODAY show. She was the underdog. She came from behind to win the Gold, and they're saying it's the biggest upset of the 2008 Olympics.

We're so excited and happy for Stephanie. We've been watching her work very hard for many years - and it really paid off.

Hip-Hip Hurray for Stephanie Brown Trafton!!!!!

Warm regards,

Carol Dempsey
Client Marketing Systems, Inc.
880 Price Street
Pismo Beach, CA 93449
800 799-4267

the debut of Peterman's Eye

Sweet Smell of Pig Peterman's Eye -- One of our older Hoya boys is J. Peterman, down in Lexington (Kentucky, that is). He's an entrepreneur whose progress, and ups and downs, I've followed for years. He's an arbiter of taste, a connoisseur, and an incredibly curious Renaissance man; the Jesuits built us all on the same basic frame, so now we have a worldwide mutual admiration society; we like us. We may not always be totally right, or politically acceptable, but we're all pretty much on the same page and share common mythologies. There's a camaraderie in having been raised by Jesuits. I'd imagine Romulus and Remus would tell you just about the same thing.

Check out Peterman's Eye. (John has built his business on his "eye" for what we all want, knowing intuitively, instinctively, and just somehow what merchandise looks like in the Platonic world of forms.) Peterman's Eye is a combo effort at interactive blog, news aggregation, and topical research. I think he's doing whatever he wants to do, which is pretty much what I do here, for the most part, as the spirit moves me. It's salutary.

Welcome, J., to the blogosphere. Do you think it's time for you to MeetTheBloggers?

While you're at it, check out the mission statement, or purpose:


About Us
Welcome.

My aim is to build a marketplace for ideas. A place where we can educate, entertain and discuss with each other topics we find interesting.

I'll lay out some thoughts, you join in, points of view will accumulate and alter, new topics of interest will emerge...

I don't know where it will all lead. But I'm confident there will be a certain feeling of creditability and openness. A wonderful chaos where actual facts and real opinions collide without apology.

(Frankly, the "media landscape," as they say, has gotten a bit loud. Most traditional outlets want us to believe they are unbiased. Some Internet voices want us to believe they alone hold the truth. And, sometimes search engines feel like mousetraps shuffling us endlessly here and there.)

I've traveled a lot over the years. Met lots of folks, from ranchers to maharajas. Made lots of mistakes. Laughed. Argued. Learned, a lot. Been lucky, but mostly curious. Pull up a chair; I'm sure we can find something interesting to discuss together.

"If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples," G.B. Shaw said, "then you and I still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas."

Amen.

[J. Peterman]

Peterman's Eye
1001 Primrose Court
Lexington, Kentucky 40511