Category: Fourre-tout

“Unlimited choice is paralyzing. The Internet has made this form of paralysis due to option overload a standard feature of comfortable modern life.”
Susan Orlean

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You are thinking of getting a new mouthwash (too much alcohol in the old one), but what brand should you purchase?
You want the best available product of course, but again which one is the best?

Well, you were not born yesterday… You know the routine. You will query the Internet.
“Hello T.A. (trusted advisor), which is the best mouthwash on the market?”
And your computer will obligingly present you with at least 10 different brands that all claim to be the best.
How could that be?
In any contest, there can be only one winner. That’s what Pierre de Coubertin decreed a long time ago.

So, who decides which is the best product anyway? Some learned old man or some pimply kid masquerading as an expert?
Don’t laugh. Kids who just started to shave now run the world.
If you don’t believe me, go to a movie theater nearby and check out The Intern with Anne Hathaway and Robert de Niro.
The kids are running the show. It is frightening and sobering at the same time.
And who by the way is carrying the nuclear “football”? Another kid?
Jiminy Cricket! I don’t want to think about it…

I could of course ask Tamara (she knows), but overreliance on a single adviser (e.g. Grigori Rasputin) can be addictive, even dangerous.

So you will have to do your homework. Sift through all the claims and try to find an elusive consensus.
You will need a little patience and maybe a few cups of coffee (or a few shots of “White Lightning”) for sure.

In the old days though, it was much easier.

“Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black.”

 So said Henry Ford (a noted SOB) who knew that too many choices could be paralyzing.
I agree. That’s why by the way I hate to see a restaurant menu with over 50 items.

As a child my family’s menu consisted of two choices: take it or leave it.
Buddy Hackett

The good old days…

But don’t get me wrong. I want to have choices… but I want impartial experts (are there such animals?) to agree on what is what.

Is it asking too much?

Alain

Creative thinking inspires ideas. Ideas inspire change.
Barbara Januszkiewicz

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Hey Starbucks, you got it all wrong.
Don’t ever believe that people come to your establishments just for a lousy cup of coffee.
They come to escape work-induced stress (or home monotony) and to momentarily forget about their problems.
The cup of coffee is just an excuse.

Patrons certainly don’t come to you for an overpriced cup of java, stale pastries and unsmiling “baristas”.
People end up there because there have practically no other alternatives.

Starbucks snuffed out its threatening competition by first buying them out and then dumping them like a bag of dirty laundry.

What people really want (often without knowing it) is not a dull, charmless coffee shop but a French or Italian style café where you can leisurely watch the world go by while maybe munching on a French pastry.
A café should be a home away from home not a homeless shelter.

Howard Schultz supposedly got his business epiphany while travelling in Italy but what he brought back was just a weak ersatz of a European café.
He seems to be more interested in making money than pleasing its hapless customers.

I think that the time is ripe for somebody to start a competing business that would truly appeal to people instead on concentrating on making money.
I suggest that pleasing customers should be their primary goal and making money a derivative of that goal.

You need to keep in mind that Big is the enemy of Good. The larger the outfit, the likelier it is going to screw you.

Personally, I don’t give a flying fig about coffee, but I still want to have a friendly place where I can laze around while seeking inspiration for future stories.

Starbucks, don’t look back. Somebody might be gaining on you.

I fervently hope so.

Alain

“The occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way.”

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Life is unpredictable.

All the weather forecasters were formal: it was going to rain on Sunday.
In that case, instead of participating in the last tournament of the season (and getting soaked), I decided to forgo that event and stay home to count my bullions.

As a matter of fact, when I looked outside that morning, I noticed that the pavement was wet. Even my crazy cat seemed reluctant to go out.
So it was settled: I was not going to play.

My wife and I went to the Rustic Bakery for breakfast and later on went grocery shopping.
On our way back, we decided to stop by the pétanque court to see how many fools were willing to put up with the heralded rain.
There were not many.
When they saw me though, they tried to change my mind. Come and play with us they said, we need you, pleeeaaase…

To make a long story short, they coerced me into playing (which considering my weak will and my love for the game was not very difficult).

At 10:00 a.m. when I checked the board to see who my teammate was going to be, my heart sank. My partner’s name was Jinx (can you believe that?) or Jencks as it was spelled (probably in error).

I am a somewhat superstitious person, and I thought that this did not augur well for the day. Was I jinxed from the outset?

The plucky contestants were as follows:

1. Alain Efron & Nancy Jencks
2. Joss Krauer & Charlie Davantes
3. Henry Wessel & Larry Cragg
4. Christine Cragg & Susan Wyatt
5. Francois Moser & Eva Lofaro
6. Bernard Passemar & Claudie Chourré
7. Bijan Guilyardi & Calvert Barron
8. Noel Marcovecchio & Helga Facchini

Two games were to be played before lunch and two games after.

On our first game we started badly. At one time we were led 1 to 7 but we rallied and won the game 13/11.
Then we won the second game 13/4.
Was fate teasing me?

In spite of my initial apprehension, Nancy’s rather unorthodox style seemed to work on our bone-dry field and she pointed very well the rest of the tournament.
After  lunch we won our two next games 13/10 and 13/4 respectively for a total of 4 victories.

As they say in cheap novels, the rest is history.
And it didn’t rain at all!

Late in the afternoon, among lusty cheers we were crowned the winners and pocketed our cash. I graciously signed a few autographs, pushed back some groupies and went home.
And that was the (dry) day that was!

Final results:

1^st place: Alain Efron & Nancy Jencks
2^nd place: Henry Wessel & Larry Cragg
3^rd place: Bernard Passemar & Claudie Chourré

Alain

 PS: The totality of the tournament proceeds was splurged on the winners.

To look at some photos of this event and listen to the accompanying background music, turn your computer’s sound on, and click on the link “My Photos” located on the right side of this page. For best viewing, go “Full Screen”.

This is my victory dance (compliments of Carolina Jones: