"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it" Aristotle

Doctor David will not be writing his book, Everything Is Miscellaneous, online, however, he does share some details on his book and the book auction process via his newsletter found here. Good luck David, your concept sounds very cool.

Thomas Bleha, writing in the May/June Foreign Affairs (Down to the Wire), makes the argument that the USA has fallen behind in broadband and says broadband deserves to be a national priority. "In the first three years of the Bush administration, the United States dropped from 4th to 13th place in global rankings of broadband Internet usage" he writes. Japan leads, and the USA is even further behind Japan in wireless, mobile-phone-based Internet access. A good overview, important issue, you may find it here.

A star is born. If you have not yet caught Jimmy Cramer's Mad Money, do, it's a gem. A work in progress, it has the makings of perhaps the best investment show (equity markets) on television, and certainly the best programming move CNBC has made in a long while. Cramer is the whole show, love his energy, clearly the man comes to play. It's not only good TV (i.e., entertaining), it is also fun, a rare playful attitude is at work here (hey, there is no rule the street must be dull and boring). Once you've seen it you may agree that someone needs to get that chair off the set. Now if they would only stop over programming Squawk and let those boys play. Booyah Ski Daddy.

Thanks to Doc, an excellent item written by Douglas Adams in 1999, well worth the time, you may find it here. I am reminded of a comment by Bob Pittman. His daughter hears a song on the radio and says "where are the pictures daddy?" Cohort replacement is a beautiful thing.

My sales mentor was Kevin B. Sweeney, a bigger-than-life original, a character for certain, he could have jumped into this life directly from the pages of Damon Runyon. Kevin was the kind of original thinker and carney spirit that once dominated the leadership of American media. An incredible pitchman, a showman of rare gifts and a brilliant gentleman, Kevin constantly preached the targeting of those giant newspaper dollars. Way back in the seventies it was Kevin who first predicted the death of afternoon newspapers. Thanks to Jeff, here is a strong overview by Dave Morgan of where the dead tree guys are at today. Dave's writing is informed by his attendance at the most recent gathering of the NAA gang. The RAB's George Hyde has done an excellent job in creating an exceptional anti-newspaper pitch, strongly recommended. Not able to agree 100% with Jeff on the classifieds not making it with broadcast media. Broadcasting is actually not broad any longer. Broadcast has the potential to be a very powerful recruiting tool. The limiting step to broadcasters getting bigger recruitment share is related to a rather simple lack of focus and lack of effort. Lots of smart HR folks use broadcast to get the attention of passive candidates (those not looking for work). As Sweeney always said "people with jobs don't read the want ads." My first Internet CMO gig was with an online classifieds provider, we were partners with broadcasters, NBC among others. Broadcast and online make a wonderful pair and it's early yet - as a group broadcasters have not yet taken full advantage of the Internet. The dead tree guys are certainly in trouble but discussing their future openly, something too many other MSM are refusing to do ("Everything is just fine, thank you"- hey it ain't)