The 1 Degree Shift

Posted on 15 April 2011 by Mr. Pratt

I have a friend who made a commitment some time ago to himself and to the people around him.

He committed to writing a book. A real book. With paper and ink and hardcovers and a dust jacket.

A book full of his stories from running point in the jungles of Vietnam, or from his life as a father, a husband, a pipefitter, a CEO, a failure, and a success.

His name is Mike Monahan. His book is called From the Jungle to the Boardroom. You can get it a lot of places, but this is a good place, and so is this.

I’ve gotten to know Mike over the last two months, after hearing about his legend for several years. I told him after I met him that he had been built up to be in the ranks with William Wallace, Paul Bunyan, Pecos Bill, and every other larger-than-life figure you can think of.

He lived up to the reputation.

Mike has an easy, comfortable, accessible way about him. He’s comfortable in his own skin. He laughs easily and tells good stories and asks great questions. But be warned – He will cut you to the core in 6 words or less. His precise incisiveness is staggering. You’ll say you want to do things, or that you’re upset about this, or feeling held back by that…

And then he’ll ask one or two questions that change your world.

What Mike has is a gift that many of us are born with, and just as many choose to ignore or bury or forget – the gift of a specific brand of curiosity that sees through the fog to the clear, burning light inside. It asks questions of your light that allow it to cut the haze and shine brighter than you ever imagined.

So if you’ve never asked the questions: Am I prepared? Am I safe? Am I alone?

Or if you have asked those questions, and you wonder why you’re not doing pursuing the greatness within, do me a favor:

Click one of the links above. Take a look at the book. Then look again. That’s where your favor to me ends.

The favor to yourself begins when you buy it, read it once or twice, then give it to a friend or family member so you can discuss it with them. Give it to someone you care about, someone whose success means as much to you as it does to them.

Then email me and let me know what you thought of the book. Tell me what your friends and family thought of the book.

We’ll get a cup of coffee and a doughnut at Silverton Donut Shop and talk about it.

Posted in Writing & Literature | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Ooh ahh, Sabres on the WarPath

Posted on 14 April 2011 by Mr. Pratt

This is one of those times when I discuss sports for a little while. I’ll save you the trouble, if you like, and provide you with non-sports content right now: A great video of the Foo Fighters performing at the Late Show with David Letterman. If you want to read about Your Buffalo Sabres and the NHL 2011 Playoffs, onward!

Before February of this year, the future of the Sabres was a little uncertain. There were grumblings of moving the team, of a sale to buyers unknown, of Jim Balsillie buying the team and moving it to Hamilton, Ontario. There was talk that reigning Vezina Trophy-goaltender Ryan Miller had had his confidence shaken and was a shadow of what he once was.

Meanwhile, the Flyers, who snuck into the playoffs on the last day of the regular season last year, and then followed it up with a deep run, are this year the #2 seed and were predicted by many to repeat their deep run. They have a talented young goaltender in Sergei “Bob” Bobrovsky. They made some great moves before the trade deadline in February, particularly the acquisition of Kris Versteeg from Toronto, to solidify an already talented established core, led by captain Mike Richards and the diminutive and dangerous Daniel Briere.

Let’s address some of those items, shall we?

The fate of the Sabres in Buffalo is settled. The purchase by and introduction of energy billionaire Terry Pegula has really solidified the team, their financial status, and the fans. The death of Richard Martin (Rico #7) galvanized the team, as he was a player many of them had come to know and was among the most famous to wear the blue & gold over 40 years.

From a talent standpoint, it is a toss-up. Philly has better players on paper, but if you watch game film, you’ll see that both teams are stacked with snipers and grinders. Both teams can wow you with plays. There is one differentiating aspect: Goaltending experience.

Ryan Miller is one of the top 5 goalies in the world. He has the mental fortitude to strap a team on his back – take a look at the US Men’s team during the last winter Olympics. Canada got the gold, Miller got the MVP. That is not a coincidence. Bob and backup goalie Michael Leighton have marginal playoff experience and are prone to periods of great inconsistency. They have also not shown a lot of the psychological toughness necessary to get 16 wins in the playoffs.

Given Miller’s experience, his health (the upper body injury was a bone bruise or stinger from a Dion Phaneuf slapshot, depending on who you talk to) and Jhonas Enroth’s play of late, I give the edge to the Sabres by a fair margin in terms of goaltending. Miller faded last year because of the extra games of the Olympic competition and a lack of scoring by the Sabres. They also ran into the buzzsaw that is Tim Thomas. Vanek & Miller got extra rest in the last 2 weeks (Vanek heading into the playoffs, Miller because of his injury). Both will be healthy and rested come Thursday night.

Each team can put a lot of pucks in the back of the net. While Phila. was 1st in the conference in goals-for, the Sabres were very quietly 4th in that category. Goals against was 223 – 229, virtually a wash.

The teams are well-matched when it comes to heart. The Sabres have a ton of heart, but the Flyers have some serious emotional-impact players. These two teams hate each other, and the fans hate each other – they have ever since 1975.

One overlooked statistic is the depth of the scoring – while the Flyers have 9 guys who tallied 10+ goals, the Sabres have 11 who were 10+. Among those 11 Buffalo goalscorers, 1 hasn’t played since December and 2 are defensemen. Scoring from any O-line AND the addition of supplemental blue-liner goals is a pretty key stat. The Sabres can also tap into a very talented albeit inexperienced reserve of players in Portland if there are serious injuries. What those young guys have shown in the last 3 weeks is that they have great chemistry among themselves and with the big club regulars.

It could well go 7 games, and it would be a treat if it did. Given the Pronger injury in the early games, it will be a challenge for Phila. to overcome the loss of his size and grit.

My money is on Sabres in 6, winning 3 at home and stealing one in Phila. during the first two games.

And you can quote me on that.

Let’s Go Buffalo.

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The Gilded Age, Tarnished

Posted on 14 April 2011 by Mr. Pratt

I recently had the opportunity to do one of my favorite things: tour old, empty spaces.

I love old buildings, whether they be homes, warehouses, hotels, storefronts, whatever. I love them all. Cincinnati being one of the older “big” cities in America is chock full of old buildings, many of them concentrated in the old outposts on the major arteries of the city.

A pretty great guy I know that has a pretty great web magazine also has a pretty spectacular 115 year-old building in Lockland, Ohio, a once-thriving hub of industry and commerce in the center of what is now the greater-Cincinnati area. When the building was a dump and we walked through it for the first time, I fell in love with it. I saw the possibility, but also the past glory & grandeur of the place. That it has a beautiful 3rd floor ballroom with stage, in addition to a secret whorehouse and parlor is also super badass.

The buildings I toured today were in Pleasant Ridge, my neighborhood and my home. In my capacity as a member of the PR Development Corporation and as a general good-will ambassador, I was showing around a local chef & restaurateur who is interested in setting up his new concept in the community. He’s a cool guy with a cool wife and he loves funk & soul 45s, beer and charcuterie. He pretty much rules.

One of the buildings we went through is my favorite in the neighborhood. It previously housed an art glass design firm that actually created my front door, oh, some 15 or 20 years ago. I have no idea what was in it before that, but I know it was originally, some 130-some years ago, an inn or large boarding house on the turnpike that would become Montgomery Road. It saw a lot of traffic, and at 8 miles from downtown, was an ideal resting point for people on their way into Cincinnati from the outlying towns to the northeast, or travelers from as far away as Columbus or Cleveland.

The basement was straight out of the sewer scene in Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade, just without the rats and the petroleum and the ossuary and the very dead knight.

I love the building. It has a grand staircase that splits at a landing and heads in opposite directions to a balcony on the second floor that over looks the main entrance. It has the original decorative tin ceilings, as do many of the buildings in Pleasant Ridge and elsewhre throughout the city. If time & money were no factor, I’d spend 2 years and up to $1,000,000 renovating that building – I love it that much (the corner building here, or here, if you’re interested in buying it).  But if Ifs and Buts were Candy and Nuts we’d have Christmas all year ’round.

So, tonight I was cruising the interwebz, trying to take my mind off how much I want Walt Jocketty to send Nick Masset to Louisville (or Siberia) to get his head straight, when I stumbled upon Lynnewood Hall. I discovered that it was one of the truly great homes of America in the late 19th and early 20th century, built by an Philadelphia industry magnate and lawyer, and home to pretty much his whole family. They were great patrons and collectors of art, and even commissioned Henri-Leon Greber (the man who redesigned the Parisian suburbs)

And reading the saga of the property, and how it over the years fell into the hands of the culturally insensitive and generally tasteless… Well, it just broke my heart.

Listen: crazy people with lots of money build big beautiful homes (and big awful ugly homes) all the time. They’re doing it right now. But nobody did it like the Robber Barons of Reconstruction and the Gilded Age and the Roaring ’20s. Nobody. For about 50 years in America, from 1875 to 1930, the ridiculously wealthy had one of the greatest architectural stretches of Keeping-Up-With-The-Joneses the world has ever known.

Biltmore, Lynnewood Hall, Eastman House, Harbor Hill, the Breakers, Whitemarsh Hall, Hearst Castle… These places were ridiculous and awesome and beautiful, monuments to excess or greatness or overwrought taste or whatever other labels you want to attach. They are all of those things. They are transcendent.

They tell stories of socio-economic disparity, of race relations, of politics, culture and art. They paint a picture of a bygone era when entertainment encompassed an entire weekend of food, drink, games, conversation, music and conviviality among your peers. Some of these homes are still standing; others, like Harbor Hill and Whitemarsh and Lynnewood, are either gone or deteriorating.

Regardless, they were the culmination of a vision that harnessed thousands of man-hours of genuine craftsmanship in their flawless execution. Whether then or now, I love seeing that in America. I wish I could see more of it.

PS – That these houses were populated by rich white people, longing to show the world just how cool they were, and who usually exploited the poor and minorities for financial gain is a discussion for another day. I can just hear my good friend Mr. D. perched on my shoulder saying, “Hey, that’s capitalism. You don’t like it? Move somewhere else. This is America. Don’t hate them because they’re rich.”

PPS – Interestingly, what I found myself looking for as I went through all these blueprints and designs was the location of the kitchen (too frequently in the basement or “downstairs” of the house). And the farming / cooking / baking / cellaring operations these places had was just unreal. What I would give to have just a peak at what those processes looked like 100 years ago…

Posted in Cincinnati, History, Travel | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment