Turn Around...THE DIPLOMACY OF COWBOYS

Cowboy diplomacy is constantly used to describe the resolution of international conflicts through brash risk-taking,intimidation, military deployment, or a combination of such tactics. It is criticized as stemming from an overly-simple world view.

The implication is that the American cowboy was, and still is, a lawless, violent, arrogant, racist, trigger-happy gunman shooting it out with reckless abandon and brute force.
For years I have heard numerous politicians, media pundits, and journalists use this term with clearly no understanding of what it really means to be a cowboy and rancher in America.


To my family, and to very many Americans from ranching backgrounds, the cowboy is a person with the willingness to stand up to what needs to be done and to do it alone, if necessary. The cowboy is a symbol of the crucial and very American virtues of strength and independence.

The cowboys and ranchers were on my father’s side of the family. I grew up spending most of my summers with them, first, when I was very little, on my grandparent’s ranch in Pie Town, New Mexico and, later, on their ranch in Bayfield, Colorado. Both places did not look like BONANZA.

                                     

Pie Town Ranch

There was no glamorous ranch house, and and the work was and still is, 24/7.

My Granddaddy Ab,Big Mom Nina, my Uncle Earl, and my father were descended from settlers who came west to start new lives. In the process, they had to contend with extreme hardship. People on the frontier did not have the luxury of wringing their hands in fear, uncertainty and moral paralysis; to do so could easily have been fatal.
They had to be able to handle situations as they presented themselves without definite instructions and guidance from higher authority which was, and is, more often than not, MANY miles away.

They could not make rash decisions because the wrong decision could be the difference between gain and loss, success and failure, life and death for them, their animals, and their families.
They were men who could not be stampeded. They were also staunch Democrats!

I watched as my Granddaddy, my father, and my Uncle Earl made deals with a handshake and their word. Promises were kept. There really were unwritten principles to their lives, principles that were instinctive because it had been the way of their lives for generations. Each day had to be met with courage because there was so much uncertainty .

They took pride in the work they did and admired it in others. I never saw a job left unfinished. Once started it went to completion. My family was tough but fair with us grandchildren. Much was expected but those expectations were reasonable. None of these men talked a lot. They were authentic, optimistic, self-reliant, and loyal.

They drove heavy-duty Ford trucks on bumpy dirt roads. The ranch still had horses but pickup trucks were more convenient for handling day-to-day chores like checking on livestock, repairing broken fences, or making sure that water pumps were working. To run a ranch you have to know so many different things. You have to be a mechanic, an electrician, a plumber, a cowboy and a fence builder. Service calls out there were of out of the question. They had to practice good land management, good stewardship, and good wildlife management…doing anything less would result in economic failure.

 
Yet still, at the end of a long ,hard day, they found time for talking, reading, and music. Because there was very little TV I discovered, as a kid, the novels of Louis Lamour and Zane Gray on my grandparent’s bookshelf. Over the course of many summers I read every one of them.
My grandfather played the fiddle and it was not unusual to have family sing-alongs and dances in their small linoleum covered living room. We waltzed , shoddished, and 2 stepped. I can still hear the music and dance:

“Put your little foot, put your little foot, put your little foot right out;
Put your little foot, put your little foot, put your little foot right out.
Take a step to the right, take a step to the left;
Take a step to the rear, but forever stay near"

I learned some valuable life lessons over those summers. I learned to never drink from the cattle trough, that a cow path is the shortest and easiest distance (but sometimes not the most interesting), to never kick a cow chip on a hot day, and to not make a pet out of something you plan to eat. I was told not to interfere with an animal if it is not bothering you, not to mess with a bull or get between a stallion and his mares, and that good judgment comes from experience and a lot of that experience comes from bad judgment.
And, last of all I learned that no matter what you are doing ALWAYS CLOSE THE GATE BEHIND YOU. An open gate can result in lost cattle which results in lost income to the family. It is a habit that is crucial to the economy of a ranch.

For those who are not familiar with the responsibilities of “cowboys” here is a sample of the work done on a cattle ranch:

Calving – March, April
• Daily feeding Make sure all cows and calves eat and drink every day
• Check cattle every 2 hours from daylight until dark once during the night – more if storming
• Be sure that every calf is fed and dry as soon as practicable
• Tag and vaccinate calves daily
• Graft calves onto available cows as appropriate
• Sort in heavies and out pairs as necessary
• Repairs and maintenance as needed to equipment, fences, and buildings
• Snow-plowing as necessary
• Firewood as necessary

Spring Work – Mid-April, May – as weather dictates
• Daily feeding until green grass – possibly June 1
• Farming disc, level, pack, seed 'Check oil daily, grease weekly, change oil as needed
• Spraying larkspur in pastures grass in ditches and along gated pipe
any noxious weeds encountered• Fencing

• Repairs and maintenance as needed to equipment, fences, and buildings
• Branding – likely 3rd weekend in May
• Pasture moves as necessary
• Spray

Irrigation – beginning anytime from late April as weather dictates; ending in August
• Repair and Maintenance on ditches, headgates, and pipe
• Regular sets from first light until last light, seven days a week

• Repairs and maintenance as needed to equipment, fences, and buildings
• Pasture moves as necessary – frequent during early summer
• Spray any noxious weeds encountered
Haying – First cutting the end of June to the middle of July; Second cutting the first two weeks of August
• Prepare haying equipment
• Daily service; repairs as necessary
• Long days as the weather dictates
• Repairs and maintenance as needed to equipment, fences, and buildings
• Pasture moves as necessary – pasture checks as time allows
• Spray any noxious weeds encountered

Fall Work
• Clean, service, and store haying equipment
• Repairs and maintenance to equipment, fences, buildings, roads, water system
• New construction
• Background calves, sort, ship
• Wean replacement heifers – feed daily through the winter and spring
• Preg test cows, vaccinate, pour, sort
• Firewood
Winter
• Feed cows beginning December 1st to February 1st as weather and feed dictate
• Make sure all cows and calves eat and drink every day
• Repairs and maintenance as needed to equipment, fences, and buildings
Calving and irrigating: regular checks/sets from first light until last light, seven days a week
• Haying: long hours as weather dictates;

Days Off --- NONE



My grandparents and Uncle Earl are dead. My father is now lost to Alzheimer's. We still own the family ranch in Bayfield Colorado. It is being leased out. When my mother passes on the ranch will be sold. My brothers and I cannot maintain it. But the values live on in my family. I grew up in affluence but, because of those summers. I knew what it was to work hard, live simply, and look at people for what they were, not for what they had. I also understood personal responsibility and how negligent actions on my part could impact the economy of the ranch.
SO, the next time you hear some politician/pundit/journalist sneeringly speak of COWBOY DIPLOMACY I want you to ask yourself…….



Who do you trust to CLOSE THE GATE?









Turn Around....Moths and Bathtubs

Drug companies wanted to reach a larger audience to make more money.

The FDA, because it is so caring, liked the idea that TV commercials about drugs could help educate consumers.

The theory is ads inform people about medical conditions and treatments they don't know about. Thus Direct To Consumer advertising (DTC) was born.

But, the FDA mandated that warnings about side effects must appear in every ad that describes what a drug does. Ads describing what a drug does for you must also say what the drug can do to you.

Recently, the FDA warned pharmaceutical companies that all of their online ads need to include these warnings, too. This includes all-text ads in Google search

Now instructions from federal regulators are that television ads for drugs and medical devices should “avoid distracting images and music that can reduce viewers’ comprehension of potential side effects.” Advertisements also should use similar type styles and voice-overs when conveying benefits and risks.

In the new guidelines, the FDA said” busy scenes, frequent scene changes and moving camera angles can misleadingly minimize the risks of the product being promoted by detracting from the audience’s comprehension.”

Evidently the FDA does not understand that an ad is a sales message that uses images, music and whatever else it can to sell a product.
For pharmaceutical companies, its only purpose is to get you to “ask your doctor for it by name.

The promoters of Cialis tried something that their competitors hadn't tried before. They ran a TV ad that described what an impotence drug does.

Promotions for Viagra on TV commercials never described the purpose of the drug. Mostly it showed couples dancing…

So, in order to present such an ad Cialis' possible side-effects had to be listed.
Cialis was the first impotence drug to use such a TV commercial. The ad made its debut during the 2004 Super Bowl., also known for the infamous WARDROBE MALFUNCTION incident!

Because drug marketing depends on what the FDA allows on a drug's label, Eli Lilly and Icos decided to promote the drug's major distinction: It stays in the body longer than the competitors' drugs. Even the FDA remarks that Cialis is "different" than other medications because it can improve erectile function for up to 36 hours

Example: Cialis ad opens with…

A wife on a ladder, rolling yellow paint on her living room wall. The husband standing at the foot of the step ladder lending moral support.
The wife turns to the the husband and hands him the pant roller.

Their hands touch, their eyes meet, and they slowly drift off into a maze of small trees and flowers. It is clear that the husband had visited his doctor and with the ingestion of Cialis, was able to delight the wife.
They repose on their outdoor sun deck -- sitting in his-and-her bathtubs -- contemplating the countryside and the SURGE of the ocean.

Another example… the sleeping pill, Lunesta, which generated a $500 million in sales last year.

One ad begins with a pitch-black screen.

"This is you," a narrator's voice says. "You've awakened in the dark because your sleep aid didn't give you a full night's sleep."
On screen, viewers see a woman lying in her bed. She's tossing and turning, frustrated, and a little teary-eyed.

But then, a beautiful fairy green moth floats through her window and into her soul…. her sleep problems are put to rest.

"Tomorrow, ask your doctor about Lunesta," says the narrator as gentle music plays and the glowing moth flutters its gossamer wings gently upon her forehead.


The woman falls into a deep sleep.

She looks so restful, and when she wakes up, she is luminous, She sits up and stretches. She smiles and faces a new dawn! Who doesn't want that?

All the drug adds have a happy voice in the background reviewing the LONG SCARY list of possible side effects.

And this is the problem. Evidently, if you present a list of items, people are going to do well in the beginning and the end. But they'll have trouble with the middle and a little past the middle.

There's so much information going on in one minute.
When side effects are chunked together in the middle of an ad people have a very hard time recalling them.
Speed is also an issue. Side effects are usually spoken more quickly than the rest of the ad.

And then there's also readability.
Research shows you only need a sixth-grade reading level to understand the benefits presented in most ads. But you need a ninth-grade reading level to understand the risks.

With more than $4 billion a year spent on pharmaceutical ads, studies show it's increasingly common for people to ask their doctors for drugs they've heard about on TV.

ADVERTISING MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

TV ads like these are persuasive because they sell you a feeling. We remember the feel, longer than what we know. These ads are long on feeling. The things we could know — the facts, the numbers — are things we do not remember.

When reading these warnings, it's easier to remember the details. But when people watch the ad, they are more likely to be distracted by the moving pictures and music. The images of the gliding luna moth is mesmerizing, not to mention naked bath-tub people....

"When the eye and the ear compete…. the eye wins."

So….in case you missed them, here are some of the more disturbing side effects!

LUNESTA

Acts quickly, should not drive, perform other possibly unsafe tasks, or operate machinery.

Walking, eating, driving or engaging in other activities while asleep without remembering it the next day have been reported.

Aggression, confusion, strange behavior, agitation, unusual or disturbing thoughts.

Cialis:

Insomnia

Blurred vision.

Other vision problems, such as seeing a blue tinge to objects or difficulty telling the difference between blue and green

A sudden decrease in or loss of hearing

And, of course, the MOST FAMOUS.....

Prolonged painful erection lasting longer than four hours.

Any questions?

I Am Thinking About...A Whole Lot Of SHAKIN Goin On!

My new grandson, Mitchell, and Etch A Sketch have something in common…..A BIRTHDAY! On July 12 both were born…50 years apart!

The idea began with the desire to create a drawing toy that negated the use of pens and paper.

Andre Cassagnes, an electrician in France and now a famous designer of kites, got the idea in 1955 after noticing how an electrostatic charge held aluminum powder (which gives the Etch A Sketch its drawing surface) onto glass. It then could be shaken to release the powder from the screen.

Cassagnes was very interested in geometrical patterns, which he later used to design the complex kites. Mentally, he was into designs involving the X and Y axis. This is one of the reasons he was able to invent the Etch A Sketch.

He based the design on a television screen and sought a patent.

But lacking funds for a patent, he borrowed from an investor who sent his treasurer, Arthur Granjean, to pay the fee. Granjean's name ended up on the patent, and over the years he has been wrongly credited with inventing the Etch A Sketch, which he called L'Ecran Magique, or Magic Screen.

The investor, Paul Chaze, took the toy to European toy fairs, but it drew no interest.

However, in the spring of 1960 Ohio Art Co. executive William Casley Killgallon, bought the toy at one of the fairs in Nuremberg, Germany.

A few months later, Ohio Art paid $25,000 for the rights to the drawing toy -- which it called the Etch A Sketch – Cassagnes never got the credit he deserved, or the royalties for its invention.

Ohio Art principals H.W. Winzeler and WC Killgallon realized its potential for a generation of children raised on television: the toy was television-shaped with two prominent dials, but the big difference with it was that children held the controls.

On July 12, 1960, Ohio Art launched the toy – renamed it Etch a Sketch – and sent out a television campaign ensuring its overnight success.

The response was so incredible that the company decided to continue manufacturing them until noon Christmas Eve 1960. The Etch A Sketches were then immediately shipped to the West Coast so people in California could buy Etch A Sketch on Christmas Eve and have them for Christmas. In December, 1960, the Etch A Sketch was the top-selling toy of that holiday season, fetching $6 at retail.

The Etch A Sketch has changed very little over the years. In the 1970s, Ohio Art offered hot pink and blue frames.

But people still wanted the bright red frames that were so popular. The print on the frame has changed slightly, but the inner workings have remained exactly the same
The appearance and popularity have remained more or less unchanged since the Etch A Sketch was first created by Cassagnes.

Over 150 million of the toys have sold worldwide since it first went on sale on July 12 1960 for $2.99.” The Etch A Sketch brand is still our largest and most important product that we have, and still accounts, Killgallon added, for more than three-quarters of the company's toy revenues.”

The Etch A Sketch fast became one of the world’s most popular toys, earning it a place in the exclusive US Toy Hall of Fame, along with only 43 other classic toys. In fact, this toy – which was named one of the century’s top toys in 2008 – has seen a 20 per cent rise in worldwide sales in 2010.

Etch A Sketch has become an icon, one of a handful of play items whose popularity spans generations and has claimed a revered spot in American pop culture.

Killgallon said that Etch A Sketch's unique TV-like design has led to its being used frequently as a cultural "billboard" of sorts, keeping its image in the public eye.
Killgallon said part of Etch A Sketch's appeal is that it's a quiet toy fueled by imagination -- 2-year-olds can doodle, and adults can create art -- and it is universal. "You can speak any language ... and the child can still play with it."
The world’s largest Etch A Sketch is an enormous 8ft by 6ft and resides in the Indianapolis Museum of Childhood.

It has influenced a generation of artists.

George Vlosich III is considered the KING of ETCH ART.

Since 1989 - at the age of ten –he has been perfecting his talent on the Etch A Sketch. Each is an original work of art that takes 70-80 hours to create. Once finished, the piece is then preserved. Every creation is uniquely different, and cannot be duplicated. They are featured in galleries throughout the world and have sold for more than $10,000. George has etched many of the world's greatest athletes and celebrities.

In my opinion, there is another reason why Etch A Sketch remains popular. It represents a concrete offer of the erasure of all mistakes with the promise of a chance to start over again with no penalty. The Tabula Rasa...the blank slate.

Wouldn't it be great to just shake yourself a little, and instantly …with no mess—
start anew on a fresh screen? The creation of masterpiece. You hold the controls and can sketch out a life ….pretty empowering.

Leonardo da Vinci said "Where the spirit does not
work with the hand… there is no art”.

But, The Beatles said:

"Well, shake it up, baby, now, (shake it up, baby)
Twist and shout. (twist and shout)
Cmon cmon, cmon, cmon, baby, now, (come on baby)
Come on and work it on out. (work it on out)

Well, shake it, shake it, shake it, baby, now.

shake it, shake it, shake it........."