I took my NASD exams on a Control Data touch screen computer in Denver in the 1980s.  Now they are common at check out stands in retail stores. So it is not surprising that HP has introduced a Touch Screen PC.  This eliminates the mouse I suppose but caution, get a screen protector if you are in the habit of  munching popcorn while computing….

Apparently Rupert Murdoch has put the WSJ on line with at least some content  as many thought he would, as in for free.
check it out at http://online.wsj.com.

It sure beats having all those newspapers stack up around the house.  I suspect we will see more of the paper online this fall but who knows, newspapers continue to struggle to find their way. Warning only parts are online now but frankly I find Business Week as a subscription the much better buy.

I am posting a link to the KITCO site.  These folks promote commodity investing and I merely direct you there for a read, as always, make your own investing decisions carefully. The US Dollar advanced yesterday and commodities are undergoing a pullback in price. This chap and Jim Rogers believe this is temporary, as do I.  I found the story about the Chinese maglev train especially interesting. How come there is no maglev high speed train up and down I 35, sure would make it a lot easier to do Dallas Austin San Antonio, or down I 45 to Houston. As Rogers says, the Chinese Communists are the world’s best capitalists.

Jim Rogers thinks it is time to invest in Airlines, I bought some LUV  and would agree, but oil may have one more spike up and give us a chance at low airline prices. The industry can be tracked with the ETF XAL.

Clint Eastwood and Quentin Tarantino have both mentioned My Girl Friday  as the classic example of dialog on screen. I have linked to the scene marked Classic Comedy Dialogue in that movie. Better yet, take a look at the longer ten minute clip (watch this one first!)  from the start of the movie. Cary Grant plays the hard bitten out to get the story editor and Rosalind Russell plays the strong willed better than the other guys gal reporter who can get that story. Banter gives as good as it gets, this is the one example where Grant and Russell are the equal of the other great pair at this, Spencer Tracy and Kate Hepburn in their many pairings on screen.

The movies is cited as an example of how people can talk fast and still be understood. This is in stark contrast to today’s cable tv shows where hsots and guest talk over one another trying to command the ‘floor’ and be heard.  Directed by another legend, Howard Hawks, My Girl Friday is worth studying as a landmark in communications.

In the ten minute clip from the start of the movie

Note how the opening scene sets up the strong character of Hildy when she enters the frantic press room
Note the perfectly tailored suits that each wears.
Note how Bellamy is established as a much weaker character right from the start, we learn that Grant and Russell are divorced, care for one another but cannot live together, but feed off  the energy that flows between them
Notice the period comments foreseeing today as Grant comments that divorce does not mean much
The movie was made in 1940, clearly the country is coming out of the depression, in fact little mention is made of it, the war in Europe is mentioned but the focus is on the trial that forms the plot of the movie

In the classic comedy dialogue clip

Note how the dialogue frames the character of each player
Bellamy is pleading for attention, Grant is the puppet master on the phone, Russell is creating the story, all the subplots are taking place as others come and go in the room and on the phone

Now what can we learn about communication and how to telegraph meaning to an audience by watching these clips?

Times change people do not.The newspaper has been displaced by cable news and tv, same people playing the roles though.
Stars are stars and that is telegraphed by their outfits and what they say as well as how they say it.
As Carnegie notes, each person has their own focus, note how that drives the different characters to do what they do, gee nothing changes.

As I have said before, another purpose of the class is to move you from a consumer of communications to being someone who can evaluate the worthiness and context of a message and then decide how to use it to your best purpose in promoting your cause.

Avon  is going Hollywood. Why did Avon choose Reese Witherspoon?  Is Reese causing the stock price to advance?  How would you allocate resources for advertising based on a celebrity, just wondering?

Accountants Get Their Due by Dennis Elam, CPA Everybody is famous for fifteen minutes-Andy Warhol Everybody else has had their fifteen minutes on television. In spite of the huge spate of lawyer jokes, hey, they look great on television (Law and Order). Policemen (NYPD Blue), doctors (ER), even truck drivers (Claude Akins in Movin’ On) have had their moment in the sun. This fall Firemen and Emergency Medical Techs get their due on a new show. Well, enough is enough. It’s high time our team got its due. Yep, coming to a network near you is the next season’s hard hitting, comedy-drama. Sex, intrigue, gorgeous scenery, the inevitable black and white human dilemmas that turn to gray, we’ll have it all on— THE YOUNG ACCOUNTANTS!

Clearly we need a hard driving, six beats to the bar theme song. The one Harold Faltenberg did for Beverly Hills Cop or something akin to the old Mod Squad or Miami Vice shows would be about right. And the opening shots will be catchy and dramatic. No wooden faces or green eye shades here. Let’s see, we’ll need a dramatic backdrop for our larger than life characters. It will be located in a smaller place well outside New York or Chicago, allowing for great out door shots. The gang will be so financially successful they can live anywhere they want. So, hmm, how about Santa Fe, New Mexico? Our heroes and heroines will be framed shushing down the slopes, steadily peering at laptop screens while on their cell phones (during a break in a mountain bike race, of course), and, always, emerging triumphant from the IRS offices.

Now to flesh out the cast…. Our hero, Braxton Slade (allowing everyone to call him Brax, for short) has graduated from the University of New Mexico in 2.5 years. While there he persuaded the railroad industry to found a $50 million scholarship fund for Indians in memory of those tribes displaced by the Westward move of the rails. He rejected law school to do something “really relevant.” His graduate degree is in Forestry while he picked up a CPA after zipping through the review course, finishing in the top ten percent nationally, of course.

Sharon West is tan, firm jawed, and cellulite free. She finished at the University of Colorado at Boulder where she earned a bronze on the US Olympic ski team. Her grad degree is in Public Administration where she served an internship with Colorado’s Native American Senator. This guarantees our team special insight and access to government.

Every Lucy needs an Ethel and every Cisco Kid a Pancho. So, Booker T. Washington (allowing him to be called ‘Book’) is the resident computer guru and detail man. He finished at Grambling while helping to build the computer infrastructure for Black Entertainment TV. He’s hip, he’s always cracking jokes, and knows more about the internet than Al Gore ever will.

OK, in our first episode, the gang is logging on to e mail while helping sponsor Special Olympics for Skiing at Vail. Over pumpkin bread and potato soup, Brax sees a distress e mail from Manuel Guiterrez. Manuel runs Santa Fe’s oldest custom saddler and is facing eminent domain eviction from the City for yet another civic center / hotel. The gang hops on their King Air, piloted by ex Viet Nam Ace, Major Skip Chapman, US Air Force Reserve. Manuel is frantic. Brax jogs across the plaza to confront Manuel’s lawyer. Bernie Short, Attorney, is hiding behind and almost under his desk. Sweat is pouring off his balding head which features a few wisps of graying hair pulled sideways, Sam Donaldson style. “You can’t expect me to go up against City Hall,” Short retorts. “Besides, the hotel firm is represented by Ketchum and Gigem, the best politically connected firm in the State.”

Brax does not even deem the plea worthy of comment and spins on the balls of his feet to face Sharon. Her Ray Ban Aviators glisten against her tanned face. Tawny hair falls perfectly across the sheepskin collar of her leather bomber jacket. ‘Book already has the answer we need,’ she replies. They run from the office and Short collapses into his chair, hands shaking. (The lawyer’s hands will shake and their heads will perspire a lot, on OUR show.) Back at the office (an historic pueblo style building once used by Kit Carson as the Territorial Governor), Book already has the National Commission for the Preservation of Historic Places on e mail. Book directs Sharon to the Courthouse where she determines that Manuel is sitting on the very spot where Kit Carson and his old friend Jim Bridger witnessed the official New Mexcio statehood ceremony. The laser printer spits out the form for Manuel’s tax rebate on his improvements to his historic site. Brax faxes Ketchum that their client faces Federal fines and prison if they destroy as much as one adobe brick at the saddle company. As word of Manuel’s rescue spreads, the Sierra Club recognizes the gang with a special award to protect Historic Environments.

The phone rings. The IRS has seized the assets of the National Lead Dogs for the Blind, asserting as a non-profit 501c3 they are making money. The scene is set for next week’s episode….and that’s how we’ll finally get our fifteen minutes.

Dennis Elam PhD CPA teaches at the University of North Texas Dallas campus and can be reached at dennis.elam@att.net.  

Regular readers are aware that I am a big believer in the importance of linking design to product success.  And so we turn our attention to the Best Global Design of 2008.  That article links to

more ideas on design. We recently discussed  how Target has made design a centerpiece of its marketing strategy.

We study communicaton, fund raising, and ethics among other topics in the classes I am teaching.

Here is a very interesting article entitled The College Credit Card Hustle!  No ddoubt you have received an invitation to apply for a credit card possibly from the alum group at a college you have attended. Well, they are not  doing that in your best interest. Surprised?  Please read the article so we can discuss it in class. Is selling your name and endorsing a product that brings them millions while charging you 20% an ethical practice?  We hear about transparency and assurance in the business world, hey how about in the college world?

Whew, the Sunday Dallas Morning News took on

School dropout reporting policy, let’s mark to market now

Literacy, writing reading, still a problem at the university level

Richardson forges ahead

We will be discussing these education issues in  EDAD 5610 Monday afternoon.

If the link does not work go to http://www.dallasnews.com and click on opinion.  Or buy a paper!

The saga of internet piracy continues.  Click to read about cafescribe and bitorrent. One prof mentions buying electronic publishing rites, I am unfamiliar with that.

Textbooks are a subject of interest to all of us, have you looked at KINDLE? After tries by RCA and others Amazon is betting this will be a go.

Sony thinks their Reader  will take off. It uses actual ink on the screen to form the characters for easier reading. Critics note the library selections are too small.

Me, I suspect they will hot have much luck selling the reader.  A textbook company needs to seize on this,offering the reader bundled with the on line textbooks to download to the readers. And as fast as iPhone is multiplying with extras, an MP3 and video player needs to somehow be part of the reader or as I say it simply needs to be near free with the deal.