"no scientific evidence or environmental concern is going to find fertile ground in the compost of your thoughts."
kenneth bay
Dear Sir,
It has come to my attention that the publishing house may need to
intercede in the editor’s offices. Currently and unbenowst to the managing editor in
charge, the staff has been involved in a rather tawdry standoff dividing equally
those for and against a certain color prototype and style of totebag sporting the
deaddrift logo emblazoned on the side in fuscia and key lime largo green.
It is not the usual routine for the editing department to confer, worry,
bother, hassle, or discuss this type of problem, which i agree is strictly the domain
and resolution of the editing department with you and your offices and staff. Yet
this is one of those unforseen dilemmas that I face everyday, life is full of decisions,
you provide the answers ( if i interpret the forge contract dated 8/23/98 correctly}.
The key discussions seem to focus on the overuse of fuscia in the
background and some want to use a rather starker approach and just go full largo
green without the key lime. Now that is really just how it started. From there the
spiral in staff moral seemed to deepen the mood until those choosing sides were
seating themselves in the cafeteria in opposite areas, leaving many empty tables
between the groups that no one would clean up until a large wall of unfettered lunch
garbage built up over the weeks, from heaps to piles to large unmanageable waste
pits that the custodial staff refused to deal with. You see some of my problems here.
So far my office has followed a don’t look, don’t ask policy as stated in the
company manual and reinforced by the emergency memo from the publisher 9/8/99.
Many of my powers of course as manager come from my contract of course
and my close friendship with the publisher. The legal department is not getting into
this as they want larger totebags to hold laptops and the discussion here is about
totebags that are smaller, more for the beach, just cotton. I know, the company is
for all hemp products. But know that the supplier was stopped at the border last
month and our cheap supply of hemp cloth totebags and the whole shipment is still
being held by customs. I have been in constant communication with my Mexican
friend, Raul, who works in customs and he says maybe three to four months till the
case comes to trial and the cloth will then be released to us.
Until then we have been using long staple egyption cotton 50/50 blend
purchased in Naples (bulk lot container), shipped to Holland, delivered to New
York, railed to Chicago, trucked to Omaha, and I just usually send in George from
delivery to pick it up.
Many of the staff are still broken up emotionally in the change over to
cotton. Refer to memos: 4/6/00 and the more intriging and puzzling memo sent to
you the morning of the walleye tournament when the boat broke down mid-day. I
believe you said your copy got wet and was unreadable. I will send copy when my
secretary comes back from her sabbatical at My Lady of the Miraculous Healing
Center and Ashram. We all feel this is best she goes now before the Christmas rush
season which is difficult to book time at My Lady etc. Seems the holidays were
always her favorite time to go too. That deepened her depression and she at the last
there was a shadow of her former robust health. And then the totebag question
came up and she just snapped. Too much pressure after the hemp debacle for her i
am afraid. Just changed over night. Wouldn’t even participate in casual fridays or
bring her dog, Ska, to work on wednesdays anymore. She said she felt sad the dog
had to sit there at her feet and not play with the other office dogs. But the dog
fought continually with the other office dogs on Wed. and he was overweight for
his frame and well, he wasn’t Lassie if ya know what I mean. But I believe she and
Raoul had exchanged a few too many emails if ya know what I mean.
But i digress,
I realize your time is precious to you between the fishing expeditions, the
promotions tours, the opening of La Scala in Oct., and the many things you tell me
you do and your staff memos me that you do, and of course i follow the European
press of the travels and lunchdates in Brussels. I follow the paper trail here with aid
from finance and I see you still have that penchant for Viennnes silk products from
that little shop outside Tuscany. They are fine stuff, but of course on my salary out
of the question.
Actually, the whole flap of the totebags and color came down to I wanted
the exact shade used by the group that put out the last dylan tour t-shirts that come
out of Vancouver of all places. It is stone-washed kinda blue green and fits our
demographics of yuppie buying tastes I read about in a Cosmopolitian my wife read
to me at breakfast. Real cutting edge shade.
Sending you color swatches and if you could get back to me ASAP as our
computer aided design dept. is attending that seminar on snowboarding in Vail.
You may want to check the voucher’s on that group. They overtip. A Penny Saved
is A Penny Earned I have heard you say that at each director’s meeting. My staff
here follows that faithfully as it is engraved over the entrance door like you said too.
Please check the swatches. Production here is down till you make the call.
Sincerely,
Kenneth D. Bay, Managing Editor, Midwest Division, Deaddrift.com
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