Omega Co-Axial Chronometer Commercial

Well,  a while back, I posted on the sidebar (under the heading: Have You Noticed?) my discovery of a very enjoyable commercial with tons of class, I might add. Very seldom do I go to YouTube because I don't watch videos that remind me of the worse television show in history where people either do dumb things without thought or they plan them, get hurt and wonder why they got hurt. At any rate, the Omega commercial has now hit over 1.2 million views with 6-thousand plus likes to the 2 or 3 hundred who didn't like it. (They were probably filming their next video that I will never watch.)

Here are a few things about that commercial:

The song was composed by Harry Gregson-Williams. The title is called, "Smiling" from the Motion Picture, " Man on FIre " starring Denzel Washington.

In the commercial, the movements are:

1. The Sail Boat --because it was used in the America's Cup. Omega is the official clock of the race.

2. The Aston Martin--  because James Bond used it.

3. The Bike Race-- because it was run in the Olympics.

4. The Moon Walk-- because it was the first watch on the moon.

The deep baritone voice (thought not confirmed, is most likely that of Voice Over Voice Actor, Paul Dobson.

If you would like to view this amazing commercial, you can go to YouTube.com and search for the Omega Co-Axial Chronometer. It's well worth the time.

edited to add the name of the song and composer.

Hum! The related post will follow

Since last check on my hive, the bees not only survived the winter but have begun to wax in the opening for more control of the hive's temperature.



A feel of Transylvania in Dallas.

It takes courage and strength, even today, as these words were spoken after the death of Moses as the sign suggest with the Old Testament Book of Joshua 1.

Business Eats Business Eats Business, Then..........

Marketing has always been my thing since my grandfather showed me how to move a box on the counter of his grocery store with a candy bar in it and then watch how customers responded. I was 5. Since then, I have watched marketing  "experts" with amusement. I have seen trends become fads become must-haves and then tank (e.g. the hula hoop and others). I laugh today to hear people talking about a new trend as if it was only "their generation" word.

The key is to learn about cycles. Every thing is in a cycle.  Cycles run day to day, week to week, month to month and year to year. There are some that run bigger cycles like  11 and 13 and 18 year cycles. While the moon cycles every 30 days, the big picture is that the moon actually cycles on 18 years made of many months of 30 day cycles. Marketing is no different. Fashion cycles over time which triggers marketing cycles. So are the cycles of business as they grow, or as they fail.  I happen to like the business of heavy industry from the standpoint of  how it cycles in mergers and mega-mergers that sometimes at first glance do not make a whole lot of sense. It does, however,  takes on the character of art. I'm always looking for examples of heavy industry. That is why you get so many pictures of planes and trains! But those are refined examples.

Several days ago, a couple of pictures came together that could be viewed as chapters in a book  if I had an interest in writing one. The thought has crossed my mind several times, but my driving interest is in the discovery of threads that make up the woven fabric of the story. Like the one that is about to unfold.

This post will be an example of that. It will be a bit more lengthy than most post.

 Not so many years ago,(early 1966) the space program was under way. Later, the shuttle program used ceramic tiles that were made by a company in Waterville, Ohio named Johns Manville. They are an insulation company with a building material division. Martin Marietta is a defense contractor with a building materials division.  It was the first time that such materials were used on a space craft used for re-entry into the earths atmosphere.

At about the same time, (1946) there was a company in Dallas, Texas that made cement and aggregates for construction. They expanded into the two biggest grow states, Texas and California. Building airports and expressways that just fit as a logical source of revenue.

Florida Steel began operations in 1956. Florida Steel not only supplied the state with construction materials such as reinforcing bars and channels and angle bar, as well as ornamental squares and rounds, it exported a great deal to the islands like the Bahamas and others in the greater and lesser Antilles in the Caribbean Islands.

The Rogers family in Texas is well entrenched. Ralph, a long-time friend of St. Mark's School, his son, Robert, a member of the Federal Reserve Board and Jamie, the COO of Texas Industries (TXI).

Somewhere in there the Rogers co-founded Chaparral Steel in Midlothian, Texas. They also built a large cement plant in Midlothian that most in North Texas are familiar with, but may not realize that it is only one of three plants that TXI now owns

In the mid 1970's integrated steel mills in America were beginning to dismantle themselves. The new fad, the trend was heading toward mini mills.. The easiest way to describe a mini mill is instead of an integrated steel mill rolling all products that made up their complete rolling schedules,  a mini mill will take one or two, sometimes three, like products and roll nothing but those products, An integrated mill might schedule bar products for two weeks during the year, one in the spring and one in the fall. That would include round bars, round wire rod by coil  and reinforcing bar. A mini mill would roll only those three items every week throughout the year. The next major change between an integrated mill and a mini mill is its size. It's a much smaller operation under one roof, where an integrated mill would still be under one roof, that roof may stretch for miles. And the final difference is the number of people working in the mill. An integrated mill would have 50,000 employees. A mini mill might have 400 including office staff.

So what does all this mean? It means that marketing people and others, should be paying more attention to how companies morph into monster industries.  In short, a defense contractor buys an aggregates company that  co-founded a steel company that became part of the melt down of American steel companies as we once knew  as the backbone of this country that has consumed nearly every  established mill  in this country from east coast to west coast, Minnesota to Florida. with headquarters in Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil.

The net results is a company that will own over 400 stone quarries, several distribution yards, mines and plants that includes all but 14 states in the US from the Caribbean Islands to the Arctic Circle. One that makes ballistic missiles, fighter air craft, satellites, Atlas launch vehicles and munitions to name only a few.

While Gerdau, the Brazilian steel maker since 1901, has no connection now with the new Martin Marietta Material, since Chaparral Steel was connected to the Rogers family, it does resemble a propagation of  a business in general that is a world leader. In short, three separate companies cycled into two hugh and separate businesses and the genealogy is all connected.  Who would have thunk!

Rail Cars Being Loaded. Hard to imagine that the new Parent of the parent builds Atlas Launch Vehicles, Radars, Munitions to name a few.

Rail Cars Waiting to be Switched Out of the TXI Aggregates

An engine sits ready to move cars onto a siding that will make up a train. Above, a Southwest flight with landing gear already down, is on a final to Love Field.

edited for correction of omitted text.
edited to clarify  the association of Johns Manville and Martin Marietta. I have visited the JM plant over the years and have seen some of the changes they have been forced to endure. I hold no interest to burden them in any way in this article. JM is now owned by Berkshire Hathaway,

The Character of Nature

On my way to the doctor my phone rang. My appointment was delayed for a couple of hours. It was a beautiful morning. It was a rare mornings look at some old friends that have stood guard over the lake for nearly a hundred years, or more.

The texture of the bark is amazing



One of the Twisted Sisters (Not the song)

See archive for past writings and pictures on this topic

It's Not Whether You Win or Loose, But How You Play the Game.......

The previous post began the trek that let to these pictures. In that post, I wrote about the best bologna sandwich made in Dallas. It had been a while since I had one and while I was at the Parkit Market, I had the deli make one to go. I grabbed a coke from the cooler, got checkout by one of the Todora men, wished Ann a happy 92nd birthday via her son, John, and headed out to "the rock" to eat my lunch in fresh air with a great view of the lake.

After eating my sandwich, I had started home when I spotted a large motor coach in the parking lot of the Filter Building. Taking a detour to check out the bus, it soon came together the reason why the bus was there. It turned out to be an interesting set of images on another activity going on in the metroplex besides the Greenville Avenue St. Patrick's Parade or the totally different spin on being green in the Stockyards in Ft. Worth. This one was more solidly based in character and in building a solid foundation for life. This one is about not whether you win or loose, but how you play the game overall.

When I came around the curve at the filter building heading to the parking lot, the first thing that I saw was a very comfortable driver waiting  for his team charge to finish up for the day so that he could drive them back to their lodging for the night. What one could not readily see was that transporting the Creighton University women's rowing team to the SMU Invite isn't just about chartering a motor coach. It's also the behind the scene logistics of moving multiple rowing vessels that travel with the team; both leading the way and bringing up the rear of such a trip.

The driver had been driving for the team for a decade. He has taken the team as far east as Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and has been to the west coast's Pacific Northwest, although he says that the team usually flies to those locations now. Never-the-less, getting a team to where it should be is not as simple as a comfortable bus ride down the road. It takes yet, another team of drivers or rowers if you pardon the pun.

I have a hunch that this crew--this Creighton University women's rowing team, is quality and top notch whether they win or loose because they know how to win where it counts; building character and building a solid foundation for life.

SMU swept the event.

Team Spirit Starts with the Driver! 

The BlueJay is Creighton says my niece.

The behind the scene part of the meet; moving vessels 40-50 feet down the road is not an easy task especially in wind.

 

Beer Keg Travels Shoulder-High Via Skateboarder

Yesterday, I had started to go down Greenville Avenue to see my dear friends, Jamal and Ali to get gas and then on to Trader Joe's.The best blackberries are coming into Dallas now and I love them like a bear!  I never made it. Instead, a pony keg shoulder-high moving at the rate of an experienced skateboarder got my attention. This was a story in pictures and as always, I had my camera with me. Although, getting really good shots were hard to get while driving and only being able to get better ones when traffic lights stopped both me and the rolling beer keg. It ended at the best place in Dallas to get a homemade sandwich. For me, its the best bologna sandwich on wheat with lettuce, tomato, mayo and onion, in Dallas, that is the Parkit Market at University and Greenville.

The skateboarder, Allen, is a local artist. You can see some of his work www.inkbyallen.wordpress.com  Allen, also, is a familiar face on the annual parade route down Greenville Avenue each year riding his skateboard in various types of festive clothing.

Allen going to Market. Parkit Market, that is!

Outside the Todora Family Business. Ann turns 92 on St. Patrick's Day

Still got that little swag and 10 blocks to go!

Canada Readers about Robinson-Ransbottom Garden Pot

Several months ago, I posted about a piece of pottery that had been in the family for a very long time. That piece was a Robinson-Ransbottom 412-11 Garden Pot (c.1930s). The pot had been made in Roseville, Ohio.  I featured it as a post because it was time to let it go so that someone else can enjoy it as much as I have over the years.

When checking a stat page to see what our readers  like to read, there was a question from a Canadian reader that wanted to know where to sell their Robinson-Ransbottom pot.  This post addresses that question.

When I first began to entertain thoughts that I was finally going to let go of the RR PC 412-11, I searched the web. Much to my surprise, I found little. The company had undergone a lot of changes over the years of course. There were many very good companies in that same area in central Ohio also. That compounded the problem. Then with a merger and a very well known business finally ending its history as one of the oldest pottery companies, some of the rare pots were scooped up by antique dealers and private ownership such as mine. But, trying to find someone who wanted to specialize  in the RR PC or someone who actually had specialized just ended in a dead end hunt.

My next step was to talk with a few local antique dealers. Some knew of the pottery pot but didn't seem to be to interested in my pottery pot. They were displaying the high glaze pots that could be set on a side table as part of interior design dealers and furniture companies. A garden pot just didn't seem like it was worth anything to some of these dealers who can be "to close" to their products and miss a lot of what is happening in the market. I learned a long time ago in a marketing class that you never want to get "to close" to design or a fad etc.,etc. An example would be that you sell in your store what YOU like. The problem with that is that you customers don't always like what YOU like. So, you need to stock things that you don't like as well as the things you do like. Many don't follow that advise and end up with things that one, don't sell and two, end up not turning valuable inventory on a timely fashion.

After I listed my pottery pot on this blog, I was getting a lot of hits but no bids were coming in to consider. It was now time to really hit the pavement and find out just what type of industry would be most interested in this pottery pot.  I went to garden centers, I talked to a lot of antique dealers that bought up estate sales and garage sales .

Then, much to my surprise, the thought hit me that there were a lot of new homes that I nicknamed McMansion after custom home builders were buying up "Ugly" homes by twos and then bulldozing the houses making one big lot that they would then build a modern upscale home with movie rooms, 5 or 6 bedrooms with  5 or 6 baths, family rooms, three car garages, pools, garden driveways and the like in established neighborhoods where tall old trees lived.  The link? Architecture Dealers. Big patios need lots of pots. In fact, they need big old pots with character. Rustic, but sturdy that will withstand a storm, heavy rains, hail storms and the like. Once I made that connection, the pot was sold within a week. The sale price did not suffer, either.


See archive for previous pot on this pottery garden pot: July 03, 2013
 edited to change see to sell in paragraph 2.