AJC > Sandy Springs > Blog > Archives > 2008 > December
December 2008
Epstein: Let’s work together
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Growing up our front yard was the venue for a lot of neighborhood football and baseball games. It was big and flat, with few places to lose an errant ball.
Back then, in the absence of umpires and referees, we settled most disputes with a do-over. Let’s say a ball was hit down what passed for the first-base line. The batter always called it fair, the pitcher called it foul. The end the argument we’d agree to do-over — let the batter have another hack without penalty.
As we grew up we found that do-over’s became less frequent. In the big-people world there was no way to easily clean up a thoughtless comment to a friend, a regrettable one-night stand, selecting the wrong career path — those were part of our personal history forever.
But now our neighborhood and The Epstein School get a do-over. To recap the school wanted to expand its physical plant, add more students and make significant additions to its property. The neighborhood, and I live there, vehemently opposed the expansion plan. It was to have been decided this month by the city, but Epstein has withdrawn its application after discussions with fundraising consultants.
No doubt the school has not abandoned its plans. No doubt the neighborhood will be watching if Epstein re-applies in the future, ready to renew its protest. But here’s the cool part — this sets up both parties for a do-over.
I have no idea where the starting point is but now would be an ideal time for the two parties to sit down and see if and where compromise can be found. Indeed, the city recommended the two parties try and get together to seek some sort of solution before now.
The trick to making compromise work is willingness on both sides. Because while compromise gives all involved a portion of what they want, but it also takes desired things off the table. To get one has to be willing to give.
This has been a contentious period for both sides. Throughout the fall the idea of compromise seemed as likely as my dog Jake being invited to Obama’s cabinet. To date I have not heard anyone from the school, the neighborhood or the city step up with a plan that offers a real measure of common ground. The impasse remains even though the catalyst for it goes into limbo.
So how do the two break the ice? I’m not even sure that a compromise can be reached, but can we all agree that the attempt at a compromise is in order? We did it when we were kids and I always thought age was supposed to bring wisdom. Anybody up for a do-over?
Permalink | Comments (4) | Post your comment | Categories: Jim Osterman
What’s happened to Christmas Tree Lane?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Christmas made its first appearance at our house about a week ago as we pulled the boxes down from the attic and started decking the halls at the Osterman homestead, as my brother refers to it.
The finishing touch every year is getting the yard decorations up and connected — we’re big on yard stuff, but in our neighborhood such doings are few and far between. I was reminded of this when I got an email from a girl I grew up with who saw our display when she was home for a visit. She reminded me of how it used to be.
The people who built most of the houses in our neighborhood had a landscaping plan, so to speak, where just about every yard had two trees out front. One was a magnolia; the other was some member of the evergreen family.
And in December virtually every family on the block would string their conifer with colored lights, creating what we called Christmas Tree Lane. It was a lot of run to see, especially as a kid, and I’m sure that Georgia Power really loved it.
Now the number of folks that do anything holiday related out front in our neighborhood have gotten few and far between. I’m sure for some it’s a practical decision that they are older and the idea of climbing a ladder to put up some lights isn’t the wisest idea. For others it would appear to be style points.
Several years back we asked one of the kids in our carpool if they were decorating their house for Christmas. She said they were but they probably wouldn’t have those “tacky” outdoor lights we had that her mother didn’t like. We laugh about that now, and we laughed about it then.
Another year, while the kids were still young we used some surplus outdoor lights and created a big X on the front lawn to serve as a landing pad for Santa. Then we tossed some seeds and bread crumbs out for the reindeer to nibble on while the jolly old elf was delivering presents.
Truth be told if we had the time, the lights and enough power outlets you’d be able to see our place from the space shuttle. I’m not sure why outdoor holiday decorations have tumbled out of vogue, but I can pledge that won’t ever be the case at our house.
But I have to ask — whatever happened to Christmas Tree Lane?
Permalink | Comments (3) | Post your comment | Categories: Jim Osterman
The Real Housewives of Sandy Springs?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I read this week that “The Real Housewives of Atlanta” reality show is coming back for another season, so I’m developing “The Real Housewives of Sandy Springs” because even I can see the potential gold mine when it’s staring me in the face.
I will cop to the fact I never watched the Atlanta version of the popular Bravo cable network program that followed four Atlanta women and their adventures as they tried to spend a gi-normous amount of money between episodes of shameless social climbing and taking verbal jabs at each other.
I have however, seen the Orange County housewives, and based on promos for their Atlanta sisters it is safe to say that seen one four-pack of trophy wives, seen ‘en all.
Obviously the first order of business for the Sandy Springs version will be to make my show different. I mean how many quartets of rich catty women can we watch before the whole thing starts to appear prurient?
So the first hurdle will be casting. Now I’ve been in Sandy Springs for most of my 52 years, and I know a lot of housewives — young, old, rich, not so rich, married, divorced, straight, gay — you name it and I’ll bet I know someone who fills the bill. So I think that will be the easiest of the to-do’s.
Where I’m stalled out is with the term “reality” series. Because most of the reality shows I see don’t really resemble reality — or at least the life I think most of us live. For example, how do I make the daily traffic jam on Johnson Ferry, that many of our real housewives find themselves sitting in, look visually appealing and provocative? I’m sure I could probably catch one of them flipping another driver off, but that’s pretty tame compared to what happens in Atlanta and Orange County.
Shopping scenes wouldn’t be much better. Atlanta scored all the hot Buckhead shops and the OC version had Rodeo Drive. We have the new Target, three Starbucks and a few antique stores. Not at all shabby, but I think we’re going to lack that aspirational quality. Who’s going to tune in to see BOGO days at the Publix?
And finally there is the tension that exists with the two shows already on the tube. I don’t want to infer that our female Sandy Springsteens are above a good catfight, but I’ve never seen one.
No tension, no drama, no viewers.
Clearly I’m going to need my Christmas break to get this puppy fleshed out before I take it to the Bravo people. But I’m open to ideas.
Permalink | Comments (6) | Post your comment | Categories: Jim Osterman
Hey Congress, I need a bailout too!
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I’ve heard that success is a lousy teacher; that the great people in history have learned more from their failures than they ever did when things went right. Apparently failing has also become lucrative.
By now I’ve lost count of the exact number but it looks like all those corporations that screwed up for various reasons and were circling the drain are the ones that are going a slice of a multi-billion-dollar pie from the Federal government.
All you have to do is admit to being incompetent enough to put your company in peril and you qualify for a big lick of folding green. And to think of all the years those big-time business executives wasted by spinning their stupidity when they could have been cashing in.
I was really getting the old knickers in a twist over all this — after all that’s my tax dollars — until I realized — jeepers, why not me?
For starters, back in 1999 I started a consulting company. Year one was great, year two was pretty good but by year three it was taking on water.
My target audience was getting pounded by the economy back then and I wasn’t very good at new business.
So if the banks, auto companies and other major players are in line for billions in Federal bailout cash I figure I’ll settle for $5 million — and I promise not to go off to some tony corporate retreat. I may take the family to Disney World, but we’ll stay in one of the cheaper hotels and I’ll get the kids to chip in for the gas.
Now that I think of it back in high school — my senior year — we tried to raise money by selling toothbrushes door-to-door. I think they were $2 a piece. The problem was that the brushes were not a brand anyone had heard of and our sales force — me included — weren’t very motivated. So we took a bath on that one. Let’s say that’s another $2 million.
And there were similar failures with popcorn sales for the Latin club (I joined for the extra credit), band candy and tickets to the Boy Scout Jamboree. Instead of breaking those down individually I’ll be happy to fold all three fiascos into one failure and take $3 million.
So the whole bailout for my various business failures will cost the taxpayers a paltry $10 million, a bargain compared to the $700 billion that led to this whole new perspective on chasing the American dream.
What a country!
Permalink | Comments (1) | Post your comment | Categories: Jim Osterman
Where’s my piece of the $700 billion bailout pie?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I’ve heard that success is a lousy teacher; that the great people in history have learned more from their failures than they ever did when things went right. Apparently, failing has also become lucrative.
By now I’ve lost count of the exact number, but it looks like all those corporations that screwed up for various reasons and were circling the drain are the ones that are going to get a slice of a multi-billion-dollar pie from the federal government.
All you have to do is admit to being incompetent enough to put your company in peril and you qualify for a big lick of folding green. And to think of all the years those big-time business executives wasted by spinning their stupidity when they could have been cashing in.
I was really getting the old knickers in a twist over all this — after all that’s my tax dollars— until I realized — jeepers, why not me?
For starters, back in 1999 I started a consulting company. Year one was great, year two was pretty good but by year three it was taking on water. My target audience was getting pounded by the economy back then and I wasn’t very good at new business.
So if the banks, auto companies and other major players are in line for billions in federal bailout cash I figure I’ll settle for $5 million — and I promise not to go off to some tony corporate retreat. I may take the family to Disney World, but we’ll stay in one of the cheaper hotels and I’ll get the kids to chip in for the gas.
Now that I think of it, back in high school — my senior year — we tried to raise money by selling toothbrushes door-to-door. I think they were $2 apiece. The problem was that the brushes were not a brand anyone had heard of and our sales force — me included — weren’t very motivated. So we took a bath on that one. Let’s say that’s another $2 million.
And there were similar failures with popcorn sales for the Latin club (I joined for the extra credit), band candy and tickets to the Boy Scout Jamboree. Instead of breaking those down individually I’ll be happy to fold all three fiascos into one failure and take $3 million.
So the whole bailout for my various business failures will cost the taxpayers a paltry $10 million, a bargain compared to the $700 billion that led to this whole new perspective on chasing the American dream.
What a country!
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment |
Too attached to your cell phone?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I never thought about how attached I have become to my mobile phone until recently when a story popped up on the Internet about an Arkansas man suing McDonald’s.
He had left his phone at the fast-food haven and naughty pictures of his wife that were on the phone surfaced on the Internet.
To digress a moment, I have no salacious material on my phone, but if I did I’d duct tape the thing to my hand. And if I was going to take such pictures, or pose for same, I don’t think a cell phone camera is the best device.
But naked stupidity aside, you should pardon the expression, it did get me thinking about how screwed I would be if I ever lost my phone — which got me thinking about the wisdom if being that attached to any sort of appliance.
Like a lot of people I pulled the plug on my wired home phone because people knew they could reach my faster on the mobile line. So if I’m separated from my cell I’m unreachable. I know there is a way I can check my messages from another phone, but I don’t know how.
Likewise I lose my phone book, which has taken me years to collect. Not that one would find Angelina Jolie or Usher in my book, but I’m awfully attached to some of those numbers. Like the 24-hour pharmacy two minutes from the house on Roswell Road — a number that has come in handy several times.
Not to mention the phone numbers of friends, like me, who only use a mobile phone and as such are not listed in any directories.
And I also need my phone to text our college kids who don’t always check their email or voicemail.
For better or worse I lose my phone and I’m not going to be a happy camper.
Back to the guy in Arkansas for a moment. He’s suing McDonald’s because the nude pics of his spouse ended up on the Web. So if I ever do lose my phone and you find it you will see the following things in my photograph file — a tiger, our dog Cody and a clipper ship I saw in San Francisco.
Feel free to post them on the Internet. I won’t have my phone, so how would I call my lawyer?
Permalink | Comments (2) | Post your comment | Categories: Jim Osterman
Services »
