OK, two drive-by observations:
- A few readers pointed out something I hadn’t emphasized in this column. I didn’t think it was as big of a stink bomb as a few of you have but let’s explain.
Two of the three new board members nominated to oversee the storied San Diego City Employees’ Retirement System — Richard Tartre and Edward Kitrosser — were recruited by the CEO of the retirement system, David Wescoe. In other words, Wescoe got to pick two of his new bosses.
Some readers and Councilman Carl DeMaio objected to this. The third new board member, Herb Morgan, said he was having coffee with Raymond Ellis, a current board member, who encouraged him to apply to be on the board.
What do you think about someone playing a role in choosing their own bosses?
- On Friday, in the early morning, I walked my dog and came back to find a plastic bag with two phone books inside of it. Now, I don’t even remember the last time I found any use in a phone book and I finally just had it. Then I accidentally stumbled onto the power of Twitter.
I put up a tweet:
Really excited they just dropped a phone book on my porch. Don’t know what I’d do without it. Perhaps they’ll drop off a VCR tomorrow.
This spurred a rash of responses and direct messages to me I hadn’t seen before. It was the most activity I’ve generated on twitter since I started dabbling in it several weeks ago.
Anyway, people led me to sites dedicated to ending the delivery of phone books or at least making it so that people can either opt out or, preferably, opt in to receive one if they really want one — leaving the rest of us alone.
But the best response I got was someone who passed along the number to Verizon, the company that had dropped the latest batch of dead trees on my doorstep. I called 1.800.888.8448 and asked them to stop sending me phone books. They agreed not to.
I don’t know if it will really work, but FYI if you too don’t see any value in the waste of resources that is the big phone book you don’t want to receive anymore.
So yeah, that was the most fun I’ve had with twitter yet.
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This feels like a good week in the making. Keep your comments coming and I’ll work as much as I can.
— SCOTT LEWIS