Zach’s Vox Blog

This was such an important experience in my life I felt the need to share it with the world. Actually, Dan Lane of roktalk.com requested that I post this. After days of pushing and prodding from my British pals, I finally found my way to trying Marmite. Did I hate it? Is it the gooey nectar of the gods? Watch and find out... ;)

Normally when I receive forwards in my inbox I just trash them, but I'm glad I happened to open this one. DEFINITELY worth a read.

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For anyone who didn't see David Letterman's take on this:

(And it's a true story...)

On a recent weekend in Atlantic City, a woman won a bucketful of quarters at a slot machine. She took a break from the slots for dinner with her husband in the hotel dining room. But first she wanted to stash the quarters in her room. "I'll be right back and we'll go to eat", she told her husband and carried the coin-laden bucket to the elevator.

As she was about to walk into the elevator she noticed two men already aboard. Both were black. One of them was tall... very tall... an intimidating figure. The woman froze. Her first thought was: These two are going to rob me. Her next thought was: Don't be a bigot, they look like perfectly nice gentlemen. But racial stereotypes are powerful, and fear immobilized her. She stood and stared at the two men. She felt anxious, flustered and ashamed. She hoped they didn't read her mind but gosh, they had to know what she was thinking!!! 

Her hesitation about joining them in the elevator was all too obvious now. Her face was flushed. She couldn't just stand there, so with a mighty effort of will she picked up one foot and stepped forward and followed with the other foot and was on the elevator. Avoiding eye contact, she turned around stiffly and faced the elevator doors as they closed.

A second passed, and then another second, and then another. Her fear increased! The elevator didn't move. Panic consumed her. My God, she thought, I'm trapped and about to be robbed! Her heart plummeted.  Perspiration poured from every pore. Then one of the men said, "Hit the floor."  Instinct told her to do what they told her. The bucket of quarters flew upwards as she threw out her arms and collapsed on the elevator floor. A shower of coins rained down on her. Take my money and spare me, she prayed. More seconds passed. She heard one of the men say politely, "Ma'am, if you'll just tell us what floor you're going to, we'll push the button."

The one who said it had a little trouble getting the words out. He was trying mightily to hold in a belly laugh. The woman lifted her head and looked up at the two men. They reached down to help her up.  Confused, she struggled to her feet. "When I told my friend here to hit the floor," said the average sized one, "I meant that he should hit the elevator button for our floor. I didn't mean for you to hit the floor, ma'am." He spoke genially. He bit his lip. It was obvious he was having a hard time not laughing. The woman thought: My God, what a spectacle I've made of myself. She was too humiliated to speak. She wanted to blurt out an apology, but words failed her. How do you apologize to two perfectly respectable gentlemen for behaving as though they were going to rob you? She didn't know what to say.

The three of them gathered up the strewn quarters and refilled her bucket. When the elevator arrived at her floor they then insisted on walking her to her room. She seemed a little unsteady on her feet, and they were afraid she might not make it down the corridor. At her door they bid her a good evening. As she slipped into her room she could hear them roaring with laughter as they walked back to the elevator. The woman brushed herself off. She pulled herself together and went downstairs for dinner with her husband. The next morning flowers were delivered to her room - a dozen roses. Attached to EACH rose was a crisp one hundred dollar bill.

The card said:   "Thanks for the best laugh we've had in years."

It was signed,

Eddie Murphy

Michael Jordan

Does anything say "Summer" better then a rubber ducky chillin in a pool? ;)

Summer time...

We all give Nokia a hard time for their poor strategy, marketing blunders, lack of effective advertising, and lack of market prowess at times but in the grand scheme of things these issues are not uncommon in the world of business. Take the image below for example. For those who don't know, the Melting Pot is a chain of upscale (expensive) fondue restaurants here in the US. The food is amazing but you're lucky if you're in and out of there inside of two hours! The image above is of a brand new Melting Pot location near my office. This area is made up almost entirely of businesses so the location pictured above is bustling during lunchtime hours. At night however, it's dead. Now here you have a restaurant where it takes two hours to eat a meal (too long for a business person to eat lunch there) in a location with barely any evening traffic - which is when they would make their money. I'll take another pic of the space in three months once it has been vacated...

Strategic shortcomings aren't just for Nokia...

You know the other day I was in a store looking at something I wanted to photoblog when I realized... I no longer have anything on my device capable of photoblogging.  WTF!  The Vox app is about to be reinstalled and hopefully I can have some fun with this space that has pretty much been unused until now.  :)

This is a test.

01/18/07