Friday, October 22, 2004

Thanks to those who emailed and posted about the GoTriad Reader's Choice award for "Best Blog" won by EdCone.com. The entire staff here is thrilled, and I've given them ten minutes off to celebrate before shackling them to their keyboards again. I actuallly read that there was an awards feature at JR's blog, but forgot about it as soon as I saw that GoTriad didn't post most of it online -- an interesting strategy for an article that's supposed to generate buzz, but anyway -- so I dug my paper out of the recycling after some alert readers tipped me off. Learning that Waffle House was voted "Best Overall Restaurant" in the same poll only deepened my satisfaction with this honor. 11:58:05 AM    comment []

N&R editorial on the legacy of Roger Soles, who died on Wednesday at 84. This is from a Forbes article Lisa and I wrote in 1991: "...the autocratic chairman of Greensboro, N.C.'s Jefferson-Pilot Corp...for a quarter of a century...he steered clear of junk bonds and junk real estate, investing in blue-chip private placements and equities. While the insurance industry's average capital surplus and reserves has dwindled to 8% of total assets, Jefferson-Pilot's is 24%." Faced with an unhappy shareholder, Mr. Soles told us, "She ought to be on her hands and knees thanking the good Lord that the stock has appreciated the way it has." The strong company Soles passed along to David Stonecipher and now Dennis Glass has been one of Greensboro's economic bright spots in tough era. My sympathies to Bill, Jan, and the rest of the family. 11:38:35 AM    comment []

Microsoft blogger Scoble: Are you afraid to blog? Why you need to overcome that fear: "the word-of-mouth networks are becoming more efficient at a time when people trust large corporations less and less." 11:17:12 AM    comment []