Petey's
Pipeline E-zine
Issue #37
September 4, 2006
Contents
Business
First Good
Things and Bad Things
Random Ramblings & Miscellaneous Musings
The Case for Hemp Legalization: Textiles
Write Thinking Punctuation
– the Marks of Professionals (the Question Mark)
Business
First (Editorial)
Good
Things and Bad Things
When
you're panning for gold, more often than not you'll have to
wash a lot of gravel before you ever find one of those elusive,
precious nuggets. Such was the case on July 28th, when e-mail
bearing an unlikely subject line landed in one of my e-mail
boxes. I didn't recognize the sender's name and, had it not
been for a Web site-relevant subject line, I would have deleted
it along with all the spam.
As
it turned out, it was a real nugget, definitely e-mail worth
saving. For added context, I've included a copy of the original
e-mail, sans postscript (not relevant to this discussion) but
with a couple of commas, live links and Italics that were not
part of the original. The wording, however, remains exactly
the same:
Dear
Petey,
My
name is Yolanda Carden and I am a publicist at FSB
Associates. I am representing a new book that may be of
some interest to you. Written in the form of a blog, Anonymous
Lawyer, by Jeremy Blachman (Henry Holt; July 2006;
$25.00US/$34.00CAN; 0-8050-7981-5), is a novel about a high-powered
lawyer whose shockingly candid blog
about life threatens to destroy him. Ripping away the bland
façade of corporate law, Anonymous
Lawyer offers a telling glimpse inside a frightening
world. Below you will find some more information.
I
would be happy to send you a copy of the book for review on
your site.
I
look forward to hearing from you.
Best,
Yolanda
Carden
Publicist
FSB
Associates
Needless
to say, Yolanda heard from me on the next business day, a Monday.
After a couple of e-mail exchanges, she sent me a copy of Anonymous
Lawyer, which arrived on Thursday of the same week.
By Saturday I'd finished reading the book; by Wednesday of the
following week I'd written a review of the book and posted it
on my Web site.
By now you're probably wondering what it was that I got out
of this deal besides an unpaid reading and writing assignment.
Okay, I'll elaborate. You decide if it was worth it.
First
of all, I got a publisher's first edition (currently valued
at $25.00) of a book that, with the right promotion, is capable
of making it to The New York Times bestseller list. The
payoff also included an introduction to an author previously
unknown to me, and to a book I might not otherwise have read.
But
maybe the most valuable parts of the payoff came in the form
of other intangibles, things like goodwill and publicity for
my business. Yolanda indicated that she liked my review, and
hinted that there would be other opportunities in the future.
Does
any of this prove anything? Well, it proves that if you stay
in business long enough, someone's bound to notice. Only time
will tell if it proves anything else.
• • •
To
those of you who are wondering why this issue was delayed I
can only say that getting it out on time became impossible when
an evil creature of one sort or another took up residence inside
my computer. It might have been a virus or a worm, a Trojan
Horse or an adware demon. Whatever it was, it kept my computer
from responding to my commands in any way that might have implied
that I was in control.
The
computer wouldn't boot up properly, programs wouldn't open,
and shutting down the computer was an agonizing process that
often caused everything to lock up, necessitating manual shutdown.
Life
is a bitch when you have to hack your own computer to accomplish
what double-clicking the mouse can normally do. After a few
false starts I was able to run my anti-virus program, which
revealed and eliminated a single virus. Because the problems
persisted, my next step was to run Microsoft's anti-spyware
program. Unfortunately, it was an outdated version that no longer
worked, but it invited me to download the latest iteration,
appropriately called Windows Defender. And that's when
things really got interesting.
Before
I could download Windows Defender, I would first need
to install Windows XP Service Pack II. No problem! Except that
it was a problem, and for the better part of a day I jumped
through Microsoft's hoops and went around in circles, only to
find myself back where I started. It turned out to be a refresher
course on the most valuable lesson I've learned in five years
of doing business online: There is no task too simple that it
can't be rendered incomprehensible by a bored computer geek
writing an 8-page instruction manual supported by a thousand
Web pages when a simple paragraph would suffice.
After
investing a couple of hours on the following day I finally managed
to start the download process for SP II. Microsoft warned that
it would be a lengthy download, requiring just less than six
hours using a dial-up connection and a 56K modem. Well, the
devil is in the details, as they say. My 56K modem, which normally
runs at 46.6 Kbps, never ran faster than 31.2 Kbps during the
download, thus adding another four hours or so to the download
time. It didn't help that my ISP broke the connection before
the installation was finished.
On
day three I finished installing SP II, which took about 2 ½
hours, then devoted another three or four hours to downloading/installing/initializing
Windows Defender. All told, I had about 20 hours invested
in installing computer security software. It's a small price
to pay for peace-of-mind and hassle-free operation.
The
good news is that once again I'm in control of my computer.
The bad news is that I'm still behind, and the hurrier I go
the behinder I get. There's a slight possibility that I'll be
caught up in time for the next issue, but that sort of depends
on whether or not I can get my blog fixed.
If
it's not one thing, it's something else.
• • •
For
an occasional dose of insight and opinion, read Petey's
Pipeline Blog.
You're
invited to comment on e-zine articles or Petey's Pipeline Blog
postings at any time. Whether you agree or disagree, your thoughtful,
carefully considered comments are welcome. However, anything
suggestive of a temper tantrum, psychotic episode or hysteria
will be deleted.
Address
article comments to the editor.
Send your blog comments c/o
Petey.
Running
a spelling check on your text before posting comments is strongly
encouraged. Perfect Text, Petey's Pipeline E-zine and Petey's
Pipeline Blog exist, in part, to make all of us better writers.
Let's not defeat that purpose by being hasty or becoming careless.
The
Case for Hemp Legalization: Textiles
by Phil Hanson
Two
fiber types—cotton and synthetics—have dominated the
apparel side of the textile industry since the ban on hemp was
implemented nearly 70 years ago. Both have their advantages,
but each has disadvantages, too.
For
example, cotton fiber is relatively lightweight, fairly absorbent,
and easy to manufacture, making it ideal for summer clothing.
However, for winter clothing, cotton leaves much to be desired.
It falls short in the qualities of strength, absorbency, insulation,
durability and softness that give hemp a clear advantage.
Unlike
hemp, which has a marked tendency to restore the soil it grows
in, cotton is destructive of the soil, quickly depleting nutrients
and requiring heavy inputs of synthetic chemical fertilizers
(petroleum derivatives).
Cotton
is also susceptible to various kinds of insect infestations,
demanding frequent applications of insecticides to maintain
healthy growth. Unfortunately, what's good for cotton is harmful
to the environment. In comparison, hemp has few natural enemies
when it's grown under natural conditions, overzealous DEA agents
notwithstanding.
The
synthetic fibers (nylon, rayon, Dacron, et al.) have an excellent
strength to weight ratio, although clothing made from them has
a pronounced tendency to tear when snagged on sharp objects.
Rot and mildew resistance is excellent, abrasion resistance
is good, absorbency is nil, and insulating abilities vary, depending
on other factors.
Disposal
of worn-out clothing is a major drawback for garments made of
synthetics, hardly a problem for clothing made of cotton, and
no problem at all for clothes made from hemp. Synthetic fibers
can't be recycled, and they aren't biodegradable, which causes
lasting problems for the environment.
Of
the three types of fibers, hemp enjoys a huge advantage when
it comes to recycling. Hemp cloth can be recycled into paper,
which can be recycled into paper (in a process that can be repeated
30 or more times).
In
quality, hemp compares favorably with linen fibers spun from
flax, making it an obvious choice for bed sheets and blankets,
plush towels, underclothes and diapers.
Superior
wear characteristics make hemp ideal for outerwear, work attire,
rugs and carpets, upholstery, tents (not for backpacking, though,
due to weight), and scores of other products.
Making
U.S.-grown hemp available for industrial uses could save the
environment, reduce the federal trade deficit, lessen our dependency
on imported oil, help end Middle East conflicts, bolster local
economies, create many thousands of new jobs, and restore profitability
to family farms.
How
many more reasons do you need before you, too, champion legalized
cannabis hemp?
Copyright
© 2006 by Phil Hanson
All rights reserved.
Write
Thinking
Punctuation – the Marks of Professionals
Getting
punctuation right is critical to making your writing intelligible
and coherent. As with misspelled and misused words, misused
or missing punctuation takes your message off track and confuses
your readers. To help you avoid the avoidable, the next few
installments of Write Thinking deal with punctuation
marks, in all their many forms, with example sentences provided
for clarification.
The
Question Mark
A
question mark follows all direct questions:
How
far is it to the rally?
Would
you like to go with us?
An
indirect question is usually followed by a period:
She
asked if you are ready to go.
In
a sentence containing more than one question, the question mark
goes at the end of the sentence:
To
get to the rally, do we turn right at the crossroads, or must
we turn left?
Use
a question mark when only part of a sentence is a question:
You
must tell me, when do you plan on leaving?
