MyAlltop - saisson

MyAlltop - saisson

'Christmas is evil': Muslim group launch poster campaign against festive period | Mail Online

What lovely XMAS wishes from an Islamic hate group in London.....


'Christmas is evil': Muslim group launch poster campaign against festive period | Mail Online

'Christmas is evil': Muslim group launches poster campaign against festive period

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 10:43 AM on 23rd December 2010

Fanatics from a banned Islamic hate group have launched a nationwide poster campaign denouncing Christmas as evil.

Organisers plan to put up thousands of placards around the UK claiming the season of goodwill is responsible for rape, teenage pregnancies, abortion, promiscuity, crime and paedophilia.

They hope the campaign will help 'destroy Christmas' in this country and lead to Britons converting to Islam instead.

Outrage: The poster that has appeared in the Tower Hamlets area hitting out at the festive period

Labour MP and anti racist campaigner Jim Fitzpatrick branded the posters 'extremely offensive' and demanded they were immediately ripped down.

The placards, which have already appeared in parts of London, feature an apparently festive scene with an image of the Star of Bethlehem over a Christmas tree.

But under a banner announcing 'the evils of Christmas' it features a message mocking the song the 12 Days of Christmas.

More...

• The latest WikiLeaks revelation: 1 in 3 British Muslim students back killing for Islam and 40% want Sharia law

It reads: 'On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me an STD (sexually transmitted disease).

'On the second day debt, on the third rape, the fourth teenage pregnancies and then there was abortion.'

According to the posters, Christmas is also to responsible for paganism, domestic violence, homelessness, vandalism, alcohol and drugs.

Another offence of Christmas, it proclaims, is 'claiming God has a son'.

Condemnation: Labour MP Jim Fitzpatrick

The bottom of the poster declares: 'In Islam we are protected from all of these evils. We have marriage, family, honour, dignity, security, rights for man, woman and child.'

The campaign's organiser is 27-year-old Abu Rumaysah, who once called for Sharia Law in Britain at a press conference held by hate preacher leader Anjem Choudary, the leader of militant group Islam4UK.

Former Home Secretary Alan Johnson banned Islam4UK group earlier this year, making it a criminal offence to be a member, after it threatened to protest at Wootton Bassett, the town where Britain honours its war dead.

Mr Rumaysah told the Mail that he was unconcerned about offending Christians.

He said: 'Christmas is a lie and as Muslims it is our duty to attack it.

'But our main attack is on the fruits of Christmas, things like alcohol abuse and promiscuity that increase during Christmas and all the other evils these lead to such as abortion, domestic violence and crime.

'We hope that out campaign will make people realise that Islam is the only way to avoid this and convert.'

Mr Rumaysah, who said his campaign was not linked to any group, boasted that the posters would be put up in cities around the country, including London, Birmingham and Cardiff.

The campaign was highlighted by volunteers from a charity which distributes food and presents to pensioners and the lonely at Christmas.

Sister Christine Frost, founder of the East London Neighbours in Poplar charity, said: 'The more posters I saw, the more angry I got.

'Someone is stirring hatred which leaves the road open to revenge attacks or petrol bombs through letter-boxes.

'I told the Mayor we are all scared.

'If we said such things about Muslims, we'd all be hanging from lamp-posts.

'The posters appear to be professionally printed'.

Poplar and Limehouse MP Mr Fitzpatrick said: 'These posters are extremely offensive and have upset a lot of people - that's why we jumped on it and asked the council to remove them.

'Sister Christine is rooted in the community and doesn't take offence lightly.

'But these hate posters really upset her. Christmas is close to her belief.'

A Met Police spokesman said they had received complaints and were investigating.

He said: 'We are investigating allegations of religious hate crime in Tower Hamlets following complaints about posters displayed in and around the Mile End area.'

Tower Hamlets mayor Lutfur Rahman said the posters had 'upset and antagonised many residents'.

He added: 'The messages on these posters are offensive and do not reflect the views of the Council or the vast majority of residents.'

Published by Associated Newspapers Ltd

Part of the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday & Metro Media Group

© Associated Newspapers Ltd Contact us Terms Privacy policy Advertise with us

For all of the 15-32 year olds, this is right on the money.
If you disagree let me know.

10 Things Social Media Marketers Should Know About Millennials

10 Things Social Media Marketers Should Know About Millennials

Posted by Neil Glassman on December 17th, 2010 4:00 PM

View Comments

Millennial guest blogger Jackie Lampugnano describes herself as a PR girl and quite the social media enthusiast. She’s currently an Account Executive at Walker Sands Communications, mainly working with clients that provide marketing technology solutions. Lampugnano also blogs about industry topics on Gen Wise Perspective. Join her conversation on Twitter.

The most important aspect of making an impact on Millennials is to first understand who we are.There are many articles out there trying to do this but ironically they’re not written by Millennials. I’m not saying they aren’t helpful. Actually, here are two articles I’ve read recently that I think do a great job of discussing Gen Y:

Catching the Millennial Wave

Why Bashing Millennials Is Wrong

Still, if you really want to know about our generation you might want to hear it right from the horse’s mouth.Here are 10 key things you need to know about Millennials if you want to effectively market to them:

1. We’re narcissistic

We are self-absorbed (just saying), so you need to get to know us on an individual level to make an impact. We like to feel special and have brands treat us as such. Make it personalized and relevant. Brands that single us out when engaging with us via social media will resonate with us.

A great example: Pandora Radio. I tweeted about loving Pandora one afternoon when I had an exceptional playlist, and, although Pandora has over 50,000 followers and follows over 35,000 people, they still sent me a direct message saying they love me too and asked if I’d ever wear a Pandora shirt. I followed up via email and they sent me a shirt.

2. We’re impatient

We want things quick and easy. Avoid sending us paragraphs of information and videos/emails with content that takes more than 30 seconds to download. Bottom line: if it takes too long, we’ll move on to the next thing. The quicker you get to the point, the better.

3. We love technology

As digital natives, technology is so ingrained in us that it’s our favorite way to communicate. If you want to reach us, come find us on the plethora of social media channels out there. You’re more likely to get a response from sending us a Twitter DM or Facebook message than calling us on the phone.

You also want to make sure that you can communicate/engage us on every digital platform, especially mobile. Gen Y loves to access social media sites via smartphones.

4. We’re oversharers

We like to talk about ourselves and our lives. We post pictures and videos of everything online. Give us an opportunity to share with you.

The Wit Hotel in Chicago does a great job of this via social media channels. They recently ran a contest where people could take their “wittiest” pictures and post them on the Wit’s Facebook fan page. They publicized the contest via Twitter, posted links to pictures, and tweeted out the winners.

It was a great way for the Wit to engage with their audience and show that they care about what individual people have to say.

5. We don’t want to be sold to

We dislike traditional marketing methods/old school advertising. If you just push out your promotional message via social media channels, we won’t be interested. It makes your brand appear to be un-cool, and no Millennial wants to associate with an un-cool brand.

Try incorporating a mixture of information. Sure, share your news, but also share interesting news related to your industry. Incorporate humor. Talk about hot topics in the media.

Be human.

6. We have short attention spans

It makes us ultimate multi-taskers. We can listen to music, tweet, email, write a paper, research on the Internet, update Facebook, and text message one another all at the same time. What can you do to break through? Grab our attention right off the bat. If you can do that, you’re the next “task” that we’ll switch over to.

7. We want things the way we want them… when we decide we want them

Don’t push content out at us. Make it available so we can find it when we want to. When you share information via social media, provide links back to your website. It gives us the option to find out more when we want to.

But don’t expect us to be receptive of a message just because you put it out there.

8. We love the idea of “going against the man”

Anything that comes across as rebellious, unique or individualistic is going to spark our interest. We don’t want to be “corporate,” so we aren’t going to like brands that appear to be that way. Make us feel like we’re a part of something revolutionary (think: Obama 2008 campaign).

9. We appreciate creativity

Be innovative. Do something different. Think visually because that’s how we do. A cool new design, a funny video, infographics, etc. will always be well-received by Millennials.

Think in terms of trends and what’s hot right now. For instance, Stuart Weitzman ran a “Retweet to win” contest with a prize of Stuart Weitzman silly bands (they’re shaped like high heels!). The point is that Stuart Weitzman tied their brand into something hot with Gen Y right now—silly bands—and turned it into a fun, engaging activity on Twitter.

So if your website looks like a brochure and your e-newsletter looks like it came from 1995, it’s time for a new strategy. Come join us in 2011, please.

10. We listen to our peers more than we listen to you

If you want to influence us, get our friends on board. We are more likely to take action if a friend recommends something. Seek out the social media communities where your Gen Y target spends their time and engage with brand advocates. The rest will follow.

Of course some Millennials are more like this than others, but overall this provides a bit of insight into the way we think. We’re not all the same, so figure out which type of Gen Y-er you’re trying to reach and delve into how they think. The marketing ideas will come from there.

What do you think? Did I miss any traits?

Despite criticism, new assessor Berrios hires son, sister - Chicago Sun-Times

Is that sweet? To all Cook County residents that voted for this guy, aren't you happy now?

Despite criticism, new assessor Berrios hires son, sister - Chicago Sun-Times

BY LISA DONOVAN

Cook County Reporter

Dec 8, 2010 06:38PM

Criticized repeatedly for stacking the public payroll with family members, Joe Berrios has hired his son and sister to work for him as he takes the reins of the Cook County assessor’s office.

Berrios, who was sworn in as assessor Monday after winning a rough-and-tumble election, hired son Joseph “Joey’’ Berrios as a $48,000-a-year residential analyst and sister Carmen Cruz as director of taxpayer services at a salary of $86,000. Their salaries will remain unchanged from when they both worked for Berrios when he served on the Cook County Board of Review, which hears property tax appeals.

“They’ve got experience, and I’m hiring people with experience,’’ Berrios told the Chicago Sun-Times Wednesday.

Berrios said he wants competent people he can trust working in his administration.

“I trust them,’’ he said. “It is what it is.’’

Berrios took hit after hit on the campaign trail — largely for accepting donations from tax attorneys who appealed cases before the tax appeals review board — but also for keeping family on the county payroll.

Asked whether the hirings confirm the past criticism, Berrios said: “I still won the election.’’

He beat former Democratic County Commissioner Forrest Claypool, who ran as an independent for assessor and tried to peg Berrios as a “business-as-usual’’ machine Democrat.

Claypool couldn’t immediately be reached for comment Wednesday.

But Cindy Canary with the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform immediately ripped the hirings.

“Obviously, he doesn’t give a damn, does he?’’ said Canary. “Yes, he won the election, but it’s been abundantly clear that the voters in Cook County are getting wary of this nepotism.’’

Berrios’ son will be working in the assessor’s office with homeowners who have questions or complaints about their tax bill in the Residential Taxpayer Services office. Cruz will also be working in taxpayer services.

In addition, his daughter, Vanessa Berrios, will now call her dad ‘‘boss.’’ She was hired 11 years ago by Jim Houlihan, Berrios’ predecessor in the assessor’s office, which sets the value of real estate for taxing purposes. Vanessa Berrios, an industrial and commercial property analyst, will keep her $58,000 salary.

Like Toni Preckwinkle, the new Cook County Board President who took office this week, Berrios also has cleaned house in the assessor’s office, firing 13 staffers who worked for Houlihan, who had been a staunch supporter of Claypool’s failed election bid.

Those staffers were “at-will’’ employees — meaning they serve at the pleasure of their boss — and are typically part of a revolving door of staffers when one elected official leaves and another takes over.

Arrow Lumber debarred from doing city business - Chicago Breaking News

More fraud from City Hall. A day late and a dollar short...
Despite giving Arrow Lumber $50MM over 5 years, da Mayor, finally bars the company from doing any further business with the city.
And when was this decided? ......only after the Chicago Tribune exposed that Arrow was convicted for fraud in 2007.
Could things be any better with Rahm?
Geeeez...

Arrow Lumber debarred from doing city business - Chicago Breaking News

Arrow Lumber debarred from doing city business

December 6, 2010 1:34 PM | 2 Comments

City officials have permanently debarred Arrow Lumber Company from doing business with the city, according to the city's list of debarred businesses and individuals.

The debarment was posted on the city's Web site today, but has been effective since Dec. 1.

The posting comes on the same day the Chicago Tribune published a report detailing Arrow Lumber's lucrative contracts with the city, Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Park District despite its owner's admission in 2007 that he'd participated in scheme that defrauded the city.

Spokeswomen for the schools and park district said their current contracts with Arrow are "under review." A spokeswoman for the city's Department of Procurement Services has not yet returned an email or message for comment.

-- Erika Slife

Liberty Leaders | Adopt-a-Legislator

Get Active and Adopt-a-Legislator, even if you have to hold your nose.....
Liberty Leaders | Adopt-a-Legislator

What is the Adopt-a-Legislator program?

In the State of Illinois we vote for State Representatives once every two years, and once every 4 years for State Senators and Constitutional offices like the Governor & Attorney General.

Meeting personally with your legislators or their staff is the most powerful way to get your message to them. Most often Legislators are personally interested in just a handful of public policy issues. On other issues, legislators depend upon input from people whose opinions they respect and trust. Most legislators strive to be responsive to the constituents who elected them to office, and are accountable to them on election day.

That’s where you come in!

Getting Started

Step 1: Locate & Identify your Illinois House & Senate representatives at this website.

Step 2: Contact Brian Costin, at bcostin@illinoispolicy.org informing him of what House & Senate district you are in, and the names of those legislators.

Step 3: Get familiar with your legislator on the issues. Use our 2010 General Assembly Vote Card and see how your legislator voted on the issues. Most legislators will never vote with you 100% of the time. It’s important to recognize them when they vote well, and hold them accountable when they don’t.

How You Can Help

Once you’ve become a District Liaison for the Illinois Policy Institute and “Adopt-A-Legislator” there are many opportunities to help. Our District Liaison can help us by doing ANY of the following tasks.

1. Set up an in-person meeting with your legislator at their District office.
2. Set up an in person meeting with your legislator in Springfield.
3. Join us for Capitol Day in Springfield on January, 5 2011.
4. Use the Illinois Policy Institute’s policy research & legislative proposals to make your meetings more effective with your legislator.
5. Ask your legislator to sign our Government Transparency Pledge.
6. Ask your legislator to sign ATR’s Taxpayer Protection Pledge.
7. Forward our weekly compass e-mail to your legislator and friends.
8. Write letters to the editor on important issues emphasizing legislators good or bad votes.
9. Form a voters club with multiple constituents of district to maximize contact with elected officials.
10. Start a Local Transparency Project within your district.

More information on the adopt-a-legislator program to be released soon.

Illinois State Senators
Illinois State Representatives

Illinoistaxpledge.pdf (application/pdf Object)

Illinoistaxpledge.pdf (application/pdf Object)

Ask your Legislator to take the pledge...

Illinois Policy Institute - Blog - Climate Fiesta in Cancun!

Thank God they are protecting us from global warming...

Illinois Policy Institute - Blog - Climate Fiesta in Cancun!

The UN Climate Change Conference is underway in Cancun, and Ed Frank of Americans for Prosperity cut this video of climate change activists (you know, the ones who want to ration travel, energy, food, and the like) whooping it up at a beach party (no word if the Jose Cuervo Especial was sustainably manufactured). Nice work, if you can get it. Apparently, rationing is for the rest of us.

Ron Santo dead at 70 - chicagotribune.com

Cubs or Sox fans- we'll all miss him...
Ron Santo dead at 70 - chicagotribune.com

www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/chi-ron-santo-chicago-cubs-obit,0,1699814.story

chicagotribune.com

Ron Santo dead at 70

Chicago Cubs icon failed to reach Hall of Fame

By Paul Sullivan

Tribune reporter

6:52 AM CST, December 3, 2010

Legendary Chicago Cubs player and broadcaster Ron Santo died Thursday night in Arizona. He was 70.

Friends of Santo's family said the North Side icon lapsed into a coma on Wednesday before dying Thursday. Santo died of complications from bladder cancer, WGN-AM 720 reported.

"He absolutely loved the Cubs," said Santo's broadcast partner, Pat Hughes. "The Cubs have lost their biggest fan."

Hughes noted that with all the medical problems Santo had--including diabetes with resulting leg amputations, his heart and bladder cancer--"he never complained. He wanted to have fun. He wanted to talk baseball."

"He considered going to games therapeutic. He enjoyed himself in the booth right to the end."

"We were together for so long," said a mournful Billy Williams, who played alongside Santo for many years. "We formed a bond. It's just like losing a brother."

Cubs Chairman Tom Ricketts released a statement: "My siblings and I first knew Ron Santo as fans, listening to him in the broadcast booth. We knew him for his passion, his loyalty, his great personal courage and his tremendous sense of humor. It was our great honor to get to know him personally in our first year as owners.

"Ronnie will forever be the heart and soul of Cubs fans."

The former Cubs third baseman had continued to work as a Cubs analyst on WGN, the team's flagship radio broadcast, despite his health issues. He was expected to return for the 2011 season. He missed several road trips in 2010 but insisted he would return.

"What else am I going to do?" Santo said during this past season. "Doing the Cubs games is like therapy for me."

Former Cubs teammate Randy Hundley, who also worked in the broadcast booth with Santo, said none of Santo's teammates realized he had diabetes until one night in St. Louis when he made a bad throw to first base and went down on one knee in pain.

Later they found out Santo had had the disease for six years, Hundley said. "We kidded him about it quite a bit, made his life miserable at times," said the former catcher.

Former Cubs President John McDonough compared Santo to Harry Caray, another baseball broadcasting legend, noting neither had a filter, broadcast with unvarnished emotion and were enormously entertaining.

Santo mangled names, sometimes lost track of what was going on in a game and occasionally didn't realize some player had been on the roster for months, but none of that mattered because people loved it, McDonough said. "We almost thought he was doing it on purpose," he said. "It added so much entertainment value."

One of the rare times he saw Santo visibly upset, McDonough recalled, was after Frank Sinatra Jr. sang during the 7th-inning stretch years ago. As Sinatra left the booth, he turned to Santo and told him he thought Santo was one of the best pitchers he had ever seen. "Ronny lost it," McDonough said.

Santo was the quintessential Cubs fan and made no apologies for his on-air cheerleading or his utter frustration over a Cub's misplay.

On many occasions, when Santo was upset with the way things were going for the team, a simple grunt sufficed.

"I'm a fan," he explained last summer. "I can't plan what I do. I get embarrassed sometimes when I hear what I said, like, 'Oh, no, what's going on?' But it's an emotion.

"This is being a Cub fan."

Santo never witnessed his longtime goal of election to the Baseball Hall of Fame despite career numbers that mark him as one of baseball's all-time great third basemen. He finished with a .277 average over 15 major league seasons, with 342 home runs and 1,331 runs batted in.

Though Santo came close to Cooperstown enshrinement in the last decade in voting by the Veterans Committee, he always fell short. In 2007, Santo received 39 of the 48 votes necessary to reach the 75 percent threshold of the living 64 Hall of Famers to cast a ballot. His 61 percent lead all candidates and no one was elected to the Hall.

It was the fourth straight time the Veterans Committee had failed to elect a member, leaving Santo frustrated.

"I thought it was going to be harder to deal with, but it wasn't," he said that day. "I'm just kind of fed up with it. I figure, 'Hey, it's not in the cards.' But I don't want to go through this every two years. It's ridiculous."

Santo was up for the Hall of Fame on 19 occasions, and first appeared on the Veterans Committee ballot in 2003. He got his hopes up on every occasion.

"Everybody felt this was my year," he said after the last vote in December 2008. "I felt it. I thought it was gonna happen, and when it didn't. ... What really upset me was nobody got in again.

"It just doesn't make sense."

Santo was consistent that he did not want to make a posthumous entrance into the Hall of Fame. After being denied so many times, he was resigned to what is now the only possibility.

"(Induction) wasn't going to change my life," he said. "I'm OK. But I know I've earned it."

Santo was beloved by many Cubs fans and players alike. When he was ill during the 2003 playoffs and couldn't travel with the team, pitcher Kerry Wood hung a No. 10 Santo jersey in the Cubs dugout in Atlanta. The Cubs won Game 5 of the division series to capture their first postseason series since 1945. Wood made an emotional call to Santo afterward, dedicating the game to him.

Wood once made a case for Santo's election to the Hall of Game in an article in ESPN the Magazine, writing: "When it happens, and if the schedule lets us, I'm going to be there for the ceremony. He's the epitome of Chicago baseball. He's still part of the team. He lives and dies with it. In fact, I think we've put him in the hospital a few times. He should get in just for that."

Santo got a laugh from Wood's words and denied the Cubs' play had ever put him in a hospital.

Santo began his major league career with the Cubs in 1960, and spent one season with the White Sox in 1974. He earned National League Gold Glove awards five straight seasons from 1964 to 1968 and was a nine-time NL All-Star. He was one of the leaders of the 1969 team that blew the division lead to the New York Mets, a season indelibly etched in Cubs' history.

Santo never forgot the hurt and hated going to New York thereafter. Before one of his final Cubs-Mets games as a WGN broadcaster in Shea Stadium in 2007, Santo told the Tribune: "I would come back here personally to blow it up. I'd pay my own way. Maybe even just to watch it."

Long after his playing career ended, Santo wound up as a Cubs analyst on WGN-AM 720 in 1990. He was teamed with Hughes in 1996. Santo epitomized the long-suffering Cubs fan, frequently grousing about the play on the field when things went bad.

His most famous call was a simple two-word utterance -- "Oh no!" -- when outfielder Brant Brown dropped a fly ball with two outs and the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth of a crucial game in Milwaukee in the final week of the 1998 season.

He also suffered through incidents along the way that could seemingly happen only to Ron Santo.

His toupee caught fire in the Shea Stadium press box in New York on Opening Day 2003 after he got too close to an overhead space heater. And last spring in Mesa, Ariz., Santo lost his front tooth while biting into a piece of pizza.

Though Santo never made the Hall of Fame, his number was retired by the Cubs. He said that was equivalent to being inducted in Cooperstown. Being a Cub, and playing at Wrigley Field, meant the world to Santo.

"When I got here, two years after my senior year, I'm walking out of the corner clubhouse with Ernie Banks and there's nobody in the stands, and the feeling I had was unbelievable -- walking with Ernie and walking on that grass," he said. "I felt like I was walking on air. There was an electricity and an atmosphere that I'd never experienced in my life. Any ballplayer that's ever played here can tell you about that great atmosphere, and anybody who's come here to watch a game feels the exact same way."

psullivan@tribune.com

Adam Sandler original Chanukah (Hanukkah) Song

Would Your Career Be Different If You Knew How To Conduct Productive Conversations? | Mission Connected Blog

Interesting thoughts to ponder. How many times have you dealt with the multi-tasking, Blackberrying executive sitting in a meeting but not really participating?


Would Your Career Be Different If You Knew How To Conduct Productive Conversations? | Mission Connected Blog

Would Your Career Be Different If You Knew How To Conduct Productive Conversations?

by: Fredia Woolf Friday, August 13th, 2010

In preparation for an upcoming workshop I am conducting with a Board of Directors, I have been rereading the excellent book Difficult Conversations by Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton and Sheila Heen. The need for this workshop arose during the last Board Meeting I facilitated when it became clear that the work of the Board, and consequently of the organization, was hampered by poor communication.

This organization — and its comunication problem — is not unique. And poor communication takes so many forms:

• Differences of opinion can escalate into outright conflict.
• People offend each other through their choice of words – often without meaning to do so.
• People speak and later regret what was said.
• People wish they could be open to speak up but they do not dare.
• People don’t have the courage – or safety — to say what they should.

And so forth. The list of communication offenses is endless.

Poor communication impacts relationships between people. The ability to work together and to perform tasks is compromised which also hampers the ability to deliver on the mission of the organization itself. So often, organizational leaders concentrate all of their energies on picking the right markets, creating the right strategies and managing their resources so they deliver the right financial results, but they do not pay attention to interpersonal dynamics and communication, which are the building blocks of business success.

Knowing how to have Productive Conversations and how to turn confrontational interactions and boring meetings into such Conversations is a skill worth cultivating. Think of how much psychic energy and time is wasted by not having this skill. But, by building this skill, people puzzled by their lack of career success and organizational leaders kept up at night worrying about inadequate performance would immediately see improvements in the following three areas:

• Effectiveness. No matter your role, as long as you interface with other human beings, you will be more effective in your job through Productive Conversations. The language of command and control will give way to collaboration. Conflict will turn into compromise and consensus. Misunderstandings and resentment will be replaced by clarity and commitment. And, struggles by individuals to accomplish tasks will become streamlined, high performance teamwork.
• Engagement. The multi-tasking, Blackberrying executive sitting in a meeting but not really participating is the cliché image of disengagement. So is the picture of the daydreaming office worker who would rather be at the beach than in the cubicle. As is the Board Member who rarely shows up and, when he does, forgets to prepare for Board Meetings. If leaders knew how to effectively structure meetings and knew how to motivate and inspire employees to be attracted to the content or the cause, there would be no desire for anyone to tune out or turn off. If Productive dialogue were the norm, people would not feel their time was being wasted, and their attention, and perhaps even passion, would re-engage.
• Emotion management. Underlying all workplace and career stories is the drama of human emotion. When people feel excited, enthusiastic and happy, it is more likely their work will be good, and they will contribute to the success of the enterprise. All too often, though, the emotions of stress, anger, disappointment and frustration swirl around the workplace. And, usually, the reason for these negative emotions can be traced back to something someone said (a put-down, a slight, a clumsy command, an opinion stated as fact) or something no one said but should have (a word of encouragement, gratitude, real-time constructive feedback). How much more productive people would be if they knew how to talk to each other in a way that elicited positive rather than negative emotions?

The authors of Difficult Conversations offer the underlying principles of conducting Productive Conversations in the book’s first chapter. To summarize, they recommend people move from “delivering messages” when they are having “difficult conversations”, to taking “a learning stance”. Specifically:

• Instead of always trying to prove you are “right” and the other person is “wrong”, recognize the point is not about “truth”. Rather, try to understand the perceptions, interpretations and values of both sides.
• Instead of assuming you know the other person’s intention, inquire about it, and hold off making false judgments and conclusions.
• Instead of finding fault and looking to blame someone else, assume all parties contributed something. Then, explore what went wrong and why, and strategize how to avoid this route in the future.
• Instead of avoiding all mention of feelings and pretending they don’t exist, learn how to address them.
• Instead of believing all difficulties and problems reside “out there”, recognize they probably reflect something about you, your self-perception, values or self-esteem. Then, turn this recognition into a strength.

This advice is powerful, and the skills and techniques of turning “Difficult” into “Productive” conversations will pay off for you both professionally and personally.

Fredia Woolf, founder of Woolf Consulting, blogs to help people improve their workplace effectiveness and optimize their careers. As an organizational consultant and leadership coach, she works with clients to increase insight, inspiration and impact. She can be reached at fwoolf@woolfconsulting.com.

Ask the Career Expert: Get all your career questions answered - chicagotribune.com

www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sfl-ask-career,0,3335688.story

chicagotribune.com

Career and workplace Q&A with Marcia Heroux Pounds

Unemployment extension could be part of tax-cut compromise

Check this Q&A

Sun Sentinel

Who brought the Jell-O, and why? -- chicagotribune.com

Please don't kill the Jello Mold! I loved them and missed them every Thanksgiving.
I know they make a mess on the plate, but the secret is to use a separate plate.
My favorite were Jello molds which consisted of shredded carrots, apples and
celery. Remember, there's always room for Jello.

Who brought the Jell-O, and why? -- chicagotribune.com

Is there anything worse at Thanksgiving dinner than someone plopping a quivering mass of Jell-O upon your plate?

You know the kind, the lime-green stuff with the horrid floating pineapple chunks. Or perhaps it comes laced with cranberry flavoring, whipped cream and marshmallows for that special effect.

It sits on your plate glistening and trembling as it begins to ooze, ruining everything in its path.

And the kindly Jell-O plopper, the gentle in-law who just deposited the goo next to your delicious brined turkey? She looks up, smiling at you with great anticipation.

You're trapped. There is no escape.

I once thought this was the worst thing about Thanksgiving, an otherwise splendid holiday commemorating our noble Indian friends who shared their bounty, until we repaid them by using our guns to take all their land.

But it turns out there is something worse than Jell-O.

"You ever have aspic?" asked a grizzled investigative reporter.

Pardon me?

"It's like Jell-O, but it's meat Jell-O, and there are tomatoes floating around in it," he said. "Heh, heh."

This fellow has investigated just about every crime known to man, from murders to all types of corruption, so he's not surprised one whit by human nature.

But he's terrified of aspic.

Is it worse than lutefisk?

"Lutefisk is OK compared to aspic," he said.

We silently considered lutefisk, the traditional Scandinavian dish of dried cod rehydrated in lye, then boiled until it becomes fish Jell-O.

The Norwegians and Swedes each claim it as their own scrumptious delicacy. Norwegians are cool, and everybody knows I'm crazy about Sweden's Lisbeth Salander, "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo." Though it is thought to have originated with the Vikings, it doesn't mean we have to love it.

So after a profound lutefisk silence, we turned once again to the terrors of aspic.

"I can't describe it," he said. "I just can't. I won't. It's horrible. It was 23 years ago this Thanksgiving. An in-law put it on my plate. I can't tell you any more."

He disappeared. But a few minutes later, validating his aspicophobia, he presented me with an aspic recipe that he found online. Then he ran out of my office.

This particular aspic calls for tomatoes, water, vinegar, chopped celery, various peppers and spices.

"Combine dissolved unflavored gelatin with the rest of the ingredients. Pour into individual aspic molds and chill until firm. Serve on a lettuce leaf."

Then came the worst part.

"Top with mayonnaise. Serves 8."

Once I stopped gagging, I did a little research.

Aspic was born back in the Dark Ages, when Northern European peasants boiled cow heads and calves feet for their tasty treats. It produced a broth so rich in protein, that it became gelatinous when cooled.

An online culinary Web site offered up Aspic, The Real History: "When completely cooled the molded cold soup was presented cleanly and attractively on a plate, bowl or platter. Voila! The first jellied mold."

Leave it to the French to turn such disgusting fare into an art form, but they did. They perfected the use of meat jelly as a vehicle for various classic presentations. This is quite fascinating, and I'm sure it would be great, except for the fact that it involves chunks of stuff floating in meat jelly.

When I was a kid in my father's butcher shop, we didn't serve aspic. But we did offer jellied tongue: a large nasty beef tongue, boiled, spiced and encased in a two-foot block of hard yellowish gelatin.

"Half-pound jelly tongue, half-pound blood tongue, half-pound head cheese," Mrs. Laukaitis often said. "And slice it thin."

I'd plop it up on the meat slicer and wait for it to stop jiggling. After a few passes, I'd get interesting cross sections of tongue in perfect squares of gelatin.

Yes, I tried it. The tongue was OK, but I couldn't get past the meat jelly, especially when you picked up a slice to slap on some bread, and you could see your own fingers through it.

It wasn't as bad as the Vita Creamed Herring. My father loved the stuff as a snack. He'd stand behind the butcher counter in his white coat and apron, open a jar and eat it with a spoon.

Oh, just picture it, will you? Chunks of pungent silvery pickled fish swimming in heavy sour cream. Mmmm.

Once he tried to get my mom to try some, chasing her with a spoonful until she ran shrieking out the back of the store, into the alley, where she stayed for some time.

How did a Greek immigrant develop an addiction to creamed herring? No one knows.

Happily, he never tried to serve it at our Thanksgiving dinners. It would have clashed with the traditional Thanksgiving lamb.

The combining of turkey and the food of the homeland is a ritual that binds us newcomers to America. Italians offer meatballs and pasta with turkey. Poles serve roast pork and turkey. Iranians have their pilaf and turkey. Spaniards serve turkey but not before various cheeses and their renowned ham, the Jamon Iberico de Bellota.

Just pick a people and put their signature dish right next to a tasty brined and roasted bird. That's true Thanksgiving.

But as we celebrate the diverse ethnic cornucopia of the American holiday table, I've got one simple question.

Which one of you had the bright idea to bring the Jell-O?

jskass@tribune.com

The bells of the Salvation Army: One man's quest to silence them - chicagotribune.com

Bravo! When I hear the bells, I know it's Christmas....

The bells of the Salvation Army: One man's quest to silence them - chicagotribune.com


I have a recurring holiday dream. In it, I spend a day visiting every Salvation Army bell ringer in the city of Chicago. I drop some change in the kettles and offer those kind souls a firm handshake and a sincere thanks for all they do. And then I take their bells. I take their loud, incessantly clanging bells and I gather them up and throw them all into Lake Michigan.

It's probably not the nicest of holiday dreams, but it's mine, and I am who I am — a guilty man at Christmastime who loves the ringers but hates the rings.

We inhabit a horribly noisy world. Ringing cell phones. Rumbling traffic. The wails of Biebers and Cyruses pouring from car stereos.

Exiting a loud, bustling store, the last thing I want is to be greeted with the CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! of a brass bell, no matter how well-intentioned that bell may be. Besides, aren't the big red kettle and the Salvation Army sign and the person standing there God-blessing everyone enough to draw attention? Do we really need an audible signal as well?

Determined to rid the world of unsolicited street ringing, I contacted the national headquarters of the Salvation Army. Understandably protective of their signature bells, they weren't thrilled to hear from me, but they did offer some history.

It was December of 1891 in San Francisco when the first Salvation Army kettle was deployed, thought up by a Salvation Army captain who hoped to provide a free Christmas dinner for the city's poor. He needed donations, so he placed a pot in "a conspicuous position" at a busy spot near a ferry landing.

Capt. Joseph McFee's idea worked and soon spread to Salvation Army locations across the country.

Nice story, I thought, but it didn't include any mention of a bell. Gotcha, Salvation Army!

Upon further archival review, the folks at the national headquarters found that the first recorded reference to a bell came in 1902, when a sketch of a bell ringer was published on the front cover of The War Cry, a Salvation Army publication.

So, it took more than a decade for bell ringing to become part of the deal. That sounded conspiratorial enough. I was prepared to launch a campaign encouraging the Salvation Army to return to its true, bell-less roots.

All I needed was proof that bell noise is harmful. So I contacted Tracy Hagan, an audiologist at Northwestern University's Audiology Clinic. Our conversation went something like this:

Me: Would you say the ringing of Salvation Army bells is a threat to our hearing?

Hagan: No.

Me: DRAT!

She went on to explain that each person's hearing mechanism (I believe that means ear) is different, and a sound can impact different people in different ways.

"It's somewhat individual," she said. "And the psychological reaction people have is definitely something unique to each person. Do they associate the sound with something positive or something negative?"

At that point, I was pretty sure she was trying to psychoanalyze me, so I got off the phone before she brought up my childhood.

There was one more call to make. The Chicago-area Salvation Army headquarters. The national folks had been pretty savvy, but maybe I could trip up the locals.

I got divisional commander Lt. Col. Ralph Bukiewicz on the phone and told him I loved his organization and all it does, but that I wanted him to immediately halt all bell ringing because it really bothers me.

Without missing a beat, he said: "Is the bell annoying? Yeah, after a while it becomes annoying."

I WON!

Then he continued: "But is a hunger pang annoying? You bet it is. Is the threat of being homeless annoying? Even more so. For me, whenever that annoying ringing keeps going, it really is an awareness issue. What we're trying to do is not annoy but bring attention."

Uh-oh.

He also said there have been times when stores don't want the bells ringing, so Salvation Army workers take the strikers out of the bells and shake them anyway, just to draw attention. Some have held a pingpong paddle in each hand, with the words "ring" on one and "a-ling" on the other. Bukiewicz said about half of the $12 million the Chicago-area Salvation Army hopes to raise this holiday season will come from red kettle donations.

Way to lay a guilt trip on me, commander. Anything else?

"The kettles and the bells are almost a protected identity of the Salvation Army's fundraising efforts," he added. "It's not the most efficient way to raise money, but I think it's a very proficient way to raise awareness."

That left me and my tender ears and proclivity for whining with little more to say. Little more, except for this:

Ring on, good-hearted bell ringers. Ring on.

rhuppke@tribune.com