1969

Not much today but what I have is prime stuff. The second edition of John Beck's book, The Leader's Window, is due out soon. For this edition John is working with a new publisher, Davies Black, the book division of the Consulting Psychologists Press. This should give the book much better exposure since CPP distributes the Myers Briggs Type Indicator that is used throughout corporate America. The book has gotten some great endorsements, including one from Stephen Covey who describes the book as "reader friendly, immensely practical, well illustrated, illuminating. It takes the highly successful situational leadership model to a whole new level. A great read for anyone who is trying to live the 7 Habits at work." If any of you are interested in a signed copy at a great price, John can be reached at jbeck@cocg.com.

Bill Coulson represented the estate of George Orwell (anyone remember his real name? No, not Coulson, Orwell!) in a case against CBS for using the name "Big Brother" as the title for one of its reality shows. Big Brother, as you all know, is an entity in Orwell's mutually satisfactory settlement was reached which allowed CBS to continue to use the name. The case represented landmark issues on the use of Internet searches as survey evidence and on the issue of genericness vs. a trademark. I have two questions regarding this case: doesn't it seem Big Brotherish that the settlement is confidential and is genericness a word? Regardless, the legal staff at CBS found out that although all lawyers are equal, some are more equal than others. Bill says that he first read 1984 at Dartmouth and never dreamed that he would be defending Mr. Orwell's honor against a very salacious misuse of his character and expression.

I recently had dinner with two of my three junior year roommates. Mike Rieder and his wife, Andy, as well as Dick Glovsky and his prospective pre-spousal significant other, Hilary, joined my wife and me for dinner at Jesses in Hanover. Mike was in town visiting his son, Casey, while Dick was showing Hilary the place where he spent his formative years. If only we could have found Jon Swenson!

Take care and write.

27 Summit Ave., Deny, NH 03038;rwillets@aol.com