f/k/a archives . . . real opinions & real haiku

Monica Bay will praise — not scold — you, if you spend part of this (or

any other) lovely Spring day browsing the f/k/a Baseball Haiku Page.

Back on May 1st, Monica noted:

“Beisbol’s on everybody’s minds lately: Check out Omega Legal’s

white paper about how “the business of baseball has reshaped the

rules of law firm productivity.”

 

“infielderf”

 

“And Jeff Angus’ Management by Baseball: The Official Rules for

Winning Management in Any Field, is fresh off the press, from Collins.

It asks the question, “Why are baseball managers like Joe Torre and

Dusty Baker better role models for leaders in business and government

than corporate icons like Jack Welch, Ken Lay and Bill Gates?” 

 (Answer: “Because almost everything you need to learn about manage-

ment you can learn from baseball.”)”

Prof. Yabut wants to point out, nonetheless, Peter F. Drucker’s

cautionary note in Managing in a Time of Great Change (1995; at 15):

“There’s a lot of nonsense in team talk, as if teams were

something new.  We have always worked in teams, and

while sports give us hundreds of team styles, there are

only a few basic models to choose from.  The critical

decision is to select the right kind for the job.  You can’t

mix soccer and doubles tennis. . . .

“The great strength of baseball teams is that you can con-

centrate.  You take Joe, who is a batter, and you work

on batting.  There is almost no interaction, nothing at all

like the soccer team or the jazz combo, the implicit model

of many teams today.  The soccer team moves in unison

but everyong holds the same relative position.  The jazz

combo has incredible flexibility because everyone knows

each other so well that they all sense when the trumpet

is about to solo.”

 

. . . “Though we know very little about it, we do realize exec-

utives must be both managers of specialists and synthesizers

of different fields of knowledge — really knowledges, plural.”

Managing in a Time of Great Change

 

Yes, you do need to choose carefully which sports team model

best suits your firm’s overall situation — as well as the needs of

a particular client or case.   The f/k/a Gang suggests that a bit

of (nonbillable) reflection over our Baseball Page may help in

making wise choices. [beware: they are “real haiku,” note gim-

micky doggerel; we think you’ll find them far more satisfying.]

 

 

 

            Seattle sunset

              Ichiro sends one

               toward the Sea of Japan

 

 

 

 

 

                       fireflies…

                       the smallest boy hits

                       the game winning homer

 

 

 Ed Markowski 

 

 

all day rain

on the playing field

a stray dog

 

 

 

 

 

 

the toddler

runs to third base

first

 

 

 

Tom Painting 

– from the haiku chapbook piano practice  

 

 

crack of the bat

the outfielder circles

under the full moon

 

 

 

 

 

empty baseball field

a dandelion seed floats through

the strike zone

 

 

george swede 

from Almost Unseen  (Brooks Books, 2000) 

 

 

 

called third strike–
the slow roll of the ball
back to the mound

 

 

 

 

two outs in the ninth–
the reliever bangs the ball
against his cup

 

Jim Kacian

 

law office picnic —

the ump consults

his Blackberry

                         

 

 

 

 

squinting to see him —

another generation

sent to right field

 

 

dagosan/david giacalone

 

 

You can hear many baseball

poems by ed markowski, read by Joe Harnett, longtime

radio host of “The Old BallGame” by clicking these

links:  Cut One    Cut Two   Cut Three   Cut Four

 

                                                                                                                                                 

 

The Federal Trade Commission announced its new and improved

Oil and Gas Industry Initiatives website today.  (press release,

May 4, 2006) It looks like a very useful tool for consumers (or

webloggers) who want to do more than whine over gas prices.

Instead, the FTC can help them (a) learn how to reduce their oil,

gas, energy consumption; or (b) become better informed about

pricing and regulatory news concerning the industry (before forming

opinions on those issues).  Commission Chairman Deborah Platt

Majoras explains:

ftc garage

We want consumers to have useful information that cuts

through any confusion and helps them understand what is

happening with gas prices.  The information on the Web page

will provide users with clear and understandable information

about what experts tell us is currently happening in the

petroleum markets.”

The site’s Overview page states:

“The Federal Trade Commission maintains competition

in the petroleum industry, and has invoked all the powers

at its disposal —  including the investigation of possible

antitrust violations, the prosecution of cases, the prepara-

tion of studies, and advocacy before other government

agencies to protect consumers from anticompetitive

conduct and unfair or deceptive acts or practices in the

industry. In doing so, the FTC has assembled vast compe-

tition policy and enforcement expertise in matters affecting

the production and distribution of gasoline.

“This website describes the FTC’s oversight of the petroleum

industry, with special sections on our activities related to

merger enforcement, anticompetitive nonmerger activity, and

gasoline price data. It also features reports and economic

working papers, Congressional testimony, advocacy work,

conference proceedings, and studies. Check it often for up-

dates and information on new initiatives.”

 

                                                                             

 

Check out the Savings Starts at Home Section, which includes a

new “Garage” e-pamphlet “Fuel Economy: Getting Up to Speed,”

along with information for saving money and reducing energy use

throughout your home.

 

 

p.s. update (4 PM): Both Your Editor and his webserver have

been undergoing an energy shortage lately.  My personal

excuse can be partly found here.  The webserver has been

slower and less reliable than usual, because Harvard webloggers

are en masse moving to a better, faster, more reliable webserver,

thus overwhelming the older one.  See Harvard Crimson on the

Webserver Upgrade, May 4, 2006). The f/k/a Gang has been trying

to migrate, too, but this weblog takes up so much server-space

(due to its many images, and possibly its tendency toward pundit

prolixity) that the migration keeps getting stalled.  Please excuse

any inconvenient lack of access [and RSS feed problems] while we

try to improve our personal and virtual vitality.

 

 

 

from Mom’s to Dad’s

the clickity-clack

of suitcase wheels

 

 

 

 

moving day–

warm rain

on cardboard

 

 

 

 

Christmas Eve–

the hum of power lines

just pass the mall

 

 

 

long dusty road:

I wait by the mailbox

for the cloud

 

 

 

 

watering the grass–

a smile from the man

who passes by

 

 

  alice frampton 

New Resonance 3: Emerging Voices (Red Moon Press 2003)

“watering the grass” – frogpond XXV: 1

“long dusty road” – frogpond XXIII:2

“moving day” – The Heron’s Nest IV:7

“Christmas eve” – beyond spring rain

 

                                                                                              “FTCMasthead”

 

 

In case you’re new to f/k/a, we wanted to point out that we’re not always cranky and dissatisfied around here. Here are a few positive things we saw online today:

Prof. Mark Liberman at Language Log, while discussing

concocted debates and some nasty stereotyping of scholars

(explained by White Bear in “are academics bitchy?“), gives

us all a great reminder of what it takes to make good conver-

sation. Mark says he appreciates discussions — even if

virtual — that have “the characteristics that Russell Baker

identifies as ‘classic conversational etiquette’:”

 

“Both participants listen attentively to each other; neither

tries to promote himself by pleasing the other; both are

obviously enjoying an intellectual workout; neither spoils

the evening’s peaceable air by making a speech or letting

disagreement flare into anger; they do not make tedious

attempts to be witty.”

Mark concludes with a point that the the f/k/a Gang needs to

keep firmly in mind: “The blogging format tends to encourage

speechifying, I guess; but otherwise, the people that I respect

come out pretty well according to this standard of evaluation.”

 

 

Linda Greenhouse reports on a much less argumentative and less

stressful tone at the Supreme Court under Chief Justice John Roberts

(NYT, “In the Roberts Court, More Room for Argument,” May 3, 2006)

The justices are so much more patient with counsel and eachother

in court sessions, that: Practitioner Carter G. Phillips notes “You have

to be ready now to make some kind of affirmative presentation” in the

opening minutes of an argument, he said.

 

 

While we’ve been lamenting the failure of leading politicians to call

for energy conservation, it is very good to see that consumers (at least

the ones who can afford to buy or lease a new car) are doing something

about it: See Washington Post, “Car Buyers Scaled Down Last Month:

With Gas Prices Soaring, Small Cars Trump SUVs,” (May 3, 2006):

“Consumers reacted sharply to rising gasoline prices last month

and turned away from large sport-utility vehicles and other trucks

in favor of small cars and gas-electric hybrid vehicles.”

The Vatican, in what is clearly a gracious act of charity and

other-check-turning, is doing everything it can to make the movie

version of the book The DaVinci Code a huge success. (Reuters/Yahoo!,

“Boycott DaVinci Code film”: top Vatican Official, April 28, 2006) [Ed. note:

Prof Yabut snuck this blurb into this post.]

amazon.com DaVinci Code Store

If you came here today hoping to improve your lawyering at depositions,

while thoroughly enjoying yourself, you win: learn about court reporter

Lucius Friedli in Jacob Stein’s latest “legal spectator” column for the

Washington Lawyer Magazine (May 2006). Weblogger heads-up: you’ll

find lots of quotable material in Stein’s column (as usual).

 

 

update (May 3, 10 PM): This is too good to wait until tomorrow: You can get a

sneak peak of “Antitrust in the USA, A Primer,” by Albert Foer, president of the

American Antitrust Institute, at the AAI website (AAI Working Paper No. 06-04,

May 3, 2006). The Working Paper is a draft chapter in a book to be published by the

Indian consumer organization CUTS – CCIER (Consumer Unity & Trust Society

— Centre for Competition, Investment and Economic Regulation), to be titled

Competition Regimes of the World – A Civil Society Report (Pp 670, Rs.1500/

US$150, ISBN 81-8257-064-6). The book “is a compilation that maps out com-

petition regimes around the world from the civil society perspective.” It covers

more than 100 countries. (brochure)

 

“quotemarksRS”

Foer’s 12-page (pdf.) AAI Working Paper provides an introductory overview of

antitrust in the U.S.A. [You can find annotated links to many other antitrust

primers in the AAI’s Guide to Antitrust Resources on the Web, at its Primers

Page].

 

 

 

 

spring rain
a bruise on my arm
from donating blood

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

lengthening shadows
a stray dog
joins the picnic

 

 

 

 

 

cherry blossoms
today the courage
to speak to her

 

 

 

 

 

almost dusk
an open door
to the lighthouse

 

 

 

long shadows
many places
to cross the creek

 

 

paul m from The Heron’s Nest

“sping rain” (April 2004)

“lengthening shadows” – (May 2004)

“cherry blossoms” (April 2003)

“long shadows” (Dec. 2003)

“almost dusk” (Dec. 2003)

The “conservative” Republicans won’t do it. 

Neither will the “conservationist”-environ-

mentalist Democrats.  [see WashPost,

“GOP looks for Plan B on Gas,” May 3,

2006; NYT editiorial “Foolisness on fuel,

May 3, 2006] Not one politician currently

in office (and planning to run again) is telling

the American public:

“We all must use significantly less

energy to solve our Nation’s energy

crisis.”

“pbsPoliticsPumpG” PBS News Hour

politics and the pump

 

         Yesterday evening on The PBS News Hour, Jim

Lehrer didn’t even bother to ask about reducing demand

and energy consumption, in a lengthy interview with Sen.

Rick Santorum (R-PA) and Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA).

(“Politics and the Pump: Solving Gas Prices,” May 2, 2006). 

All that the Senators seemed to care about was winning

political points with voters — with their stated goal of ob-

taining and maintaining the supply to meet our national

demand for oil and gas.

Frankly, I expected much more from Sen. Cantwell, and

went to her website, to see if she might have more to say

on the topic there.  Sadly, there was nothing about reducing

energy consumption — as opposed to reducing our need for

foreign sources of energy.  In an April 6, 2006, Press Release,

I found her joining a call last month for a National Energy Sum-

mit.  That press release ends by proclaiming:

“Cantwell is the chair of the Senate Democrats’ Energy

Independence 2020 national campaign working to break

America’s overdependence on foreign oil, protect working

families from skyrocketing energy costs, stop unfair market

manipulation by energy companies, and invest in reliable

sources of affordable fuel.”

As I said above, not a word about the need to conserve.  No

courage to call for changes in our lifestyles that are the only

true hope for meeting the Nation’s “energy challenge.”  (see

our prior post, Open Letter to Gas-Whiners, April 26, 2006;

and see gas pain?, which points out the instant, significant

savings from merely driving more slowly on highways)

 

“pbsPoliticsPumpN”

 

 

 

Key West heat–
the kitchen staff’s
chained bicycles

 

 

 

 

 

crossing the bridge —
the shadow of a gull
I never see

 

 

 

long before daybreak
the local rooster
starts warming up

           

 

 

Making change

the conductor

shifts his toothpick

 

 

 

 

slow conversation

a passing bus fills

the diner window

 

 

 

 

Distant tail lights
in the dark
nostalgia

 

Barry George

“crossing the bridge” – The Heron’s Nest (Sept. 2002)

 “long before” tinywords (2003/09/05)

“slow conversation” – A New Resonance 2 (2001)

“making change” – the loose thread: RMA 2001; Modern Haiku XXXII:1 

“Distant tail lights” – from Haiku Spirit 

“Key West heat” – Frogpond XXII:3 (1999)

      

 

         Haiku Wars 

Like Prof. Lanoue’s prior haiku novels — Haiku Guy (2000;

our mini-review), Laughing Buddha (2004) [both from

Red Moon Press], and Dewdrop World (online for free,

2005) — Haiku Wars was fun and enlightening, and filled

with fine haiku by Kobayashi Issa and by David Lanoue.

Here are a few from David Lanoue:

the green jello-

gives a wiggle

earthquake

old friends

in the rice field

Mars and the moon

dark swirls  

in tombstone marble

I want ice cream

old man in the waves 

looking like

he lost something

the only cicada

without a girlfriend . . .

dusk

…… by David G. Lanoue from Haiku Wars (2006)    

…….. potluck

If you’ve been following the great Curmudgeon “instant cult classic“ puffery

debate, see our sunday buffet update.  The Curmudgeon’s Guide to Practicing Law