If you’re wondering who has been writing the longer features on www.winterhawks.com, that has been the Hawks new PR and Media Relations hire, Graham Kendrick. Graham moved to Portland recently with his wife and has worked in the NBA with the Memphis Grizzlies. Expect to read and hear more from him in the future.
He relocated to Memphis when the Vancouver Grizzlies relocated as well, so he is a Canadian at heart with a passion for hockey. Welcome to Portland, Graham…
They’re ramping up the marketing end of the business. This is a terrific development for the Hawks and portends well for the future. So many things need to be done to get the franchise back on track, not the least of which is the sales and marketing. It all begins, though, with good hiring.
I don’t know the first thing about Graham Kendrick, but I’m guessing he and Mr. Piper go back a ways. How else do you convince a guy to give up an NBA gig to move across the country for a junior hockey gig. Could the Winter Hawk front office become an incubator for future front office talent? The mind reels.
And speaking of spending it to make it, the Hawks ran an ad tonight either during 60 Minutes or King of the Hill (now you know how I spend my Sunday nights). There wasn’t a lot to it. Just advertising Teddy Bear Toss, which is this Saturday night. But still. An ad buy on broadcast TV. Wow.
The 19-inch HDTVs? Gone. The picture frames? Gone. The 32GB USB flash drives, which I didn’t really need, but how could I pass one up for only $29.99? Gone. Not that it really mattered, as there was no way in hell I was going to append myself to the end of that interminable line—assuming I could even find it—all for the sake of such trifles.
“Three hours… maybe four… who knows?” a stunned store clerk estimated when I asked how long the wait might be, and that alone was more than enough to send me home empty handed, no matter how enticing the bargain.
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By 7:30AM I was back at home, a cup of hot tea in hand, browsing for bargains from the comfort of my own living room. Oh look… a 19-inch LCD HDTV, only $199, with free shipping from Best Buy. Sure, it’s a little more money, but it doesn’t require a four-plus hour wait in line. And given my experience this morning, that’s what I call a bargain.
In a nutshell, that’s why I was still in bed at 10am on Black Friday morning. There’s no reason to crawl out of bed to be the first in line to save $20 on something if I have to get out of bed at 3am so I can be in the parking lot at 4 to be in the middle of the pack when the doors open at 5 when I may not even get out of the store until 9. And for what? The same deal will be there in two weeks.
In a church basement on the South Side the week before Thanksgiving. Why do I get the feeling we’re going to be seeing this a lot over the next four years?
Since the government began insuring money market funds, they’ve made $232 million in premiums and paid zero out. We’re still early in this mess, but it’s still interesting.
Citi and GMAC are both offering some pretty nice rates on their cds right now. Both, of course, could use the cash right about now and are willing to pay to get it. What they don’t tell you though is if they fail and the FDIC takes over, the government will be under no obligation to honor those rates.
A 1991 law, the result of the last big banking scandal, says the FDIC may lower a bank’s interest rates to current market levels to make the bank more attractive to potential buyers. That includes CDs, which you might have considered ironclad contracts.The good news, such as it is: If accountholders don’t like the new rate, they can withdraw their money without suffering early-withdrawal penalties normally associated with CDs.
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The interest-rate-change rule only applies when the government takes over a bank. If one bank buys another, it has to honor that original CD rate, Barr says.
At the other end of the spectrum, my credit union has made it very clear they’d like to see me in a new car sometime soon. They’ve mailed me post cards, they’ve stuffed inserts into my statements, and they’ve emailed to let me know they have money and they’ve got a damned good rate. Me! It’s nice to be loved like that. It’s even nicer to know I belong to an institution who stays focused on its members and doesn’t go crawling into bed with the Countrywides of the world.
People in the know about this economic crisis of ours’ point to 1907 as the closest thing to what’s going on now and not 1929. I looked the subject up on Wikipedia last night and found it quite interesting.
Henry Paulson is no J.P. Morgan. Of course, I think Morgan would have been smart enough to avoid this whole thing in the first place.
Starting December 7, Aaron “Geek in the City” Duran and a cast of thousands will be writing and performing live radio dramas each Sunday night on KCMD AM970 (radio home of your Portland Pilots!). The first two plays sound spectacular:
The first play, A.Z. (After Zombies), takes place in modern-day Portland, Oregon, with one crucial difference: the zombies have come, bringing death, bringing despair, and putting humanity’s very existence at risk. A small group of determined survivors must fight starvation, the elements, and each other—knowing that the price of failure is the extinction of the human race. You’ll never view the dark, rain-slicked streets of the Rose City the same way again.
The second play, The Crimson Mist, is also set in Portland, but this time it’s Portland circa 1943. Crime is rampant, corruption is epidemic, and only one man stands between our fair city and the grip of evil…The Crimson Mist. Written in the style of such classic superhero serials as Doc Savage and The Shadow, The Crimson Mist is a return to the elements that defined the radio adventure series: bold, courageous heroes (and heroines!), sinister villains, crackling, fast-paced dialogue, and the satisfying –though suspenseful– triumph of good over evil.
I’ve been priviledged enough to be invited to a few of this group’s gatherings over the last several months. They’ve been kicking this idea around since the spring. I’m glad they’ve finally gotten it off the ground.
Do tune in. These folks are all true radio fans. They’re going to put on a fantastic show.
