Appliance Repair Safety. While on a call recently, I ran into a situation that is every appliance repairman’s worst dream. I had responded to a call on a washing machine that wouldn’t spin made by a very frustrated homemaker with three children whose laundry was piling up.

After taking the front screws off and removing the front cover I quickly realized the last person to service this washing machine was either a rank amateur or a tinkerer with inclinations towards improvised engineering.

The reason this particular washing machine was refusing to go into spin cycle was that the wire leading to the lid switch had shorted out, burnt itself in two, although luckily it had not affected any other parts of the washer.

The bigger problem however was that someone in the past had completely bypassed the lid switch, while those of you not in the appliance repair trade may not realize the implications of such a hazardous move, any professional appliance repairman worth their salt will tell you this is a huge NO, NO!

To explain, the purpose of a lid switch, which is usually but not always tied into a lid locking device, is to keep the lid of the washer securely closed while the machine is going into high speed spins, which can reach hundreds of RPM’s (Revolutions Per Minute). This is the period of time that your washer presents the greatest hazard to your family or anyone using the machine.

Not a year goes by that some unfortunate individual foolishly decides to reach their arm into a machine that is in a high speed spin in a misguided effort to slow it down or stop it. The results are most always tragic.

The clothes in the washer usually trap the person’s arm and then literally twist it off. A best case scenario is the arm is shattered in several places, in some of the worst ones, the arm has been wrenched free of the body, an event almost too horrible to imagine.

To tie this in, the purpose of your lid switch is to make absolutely sure this does not happen to whomever is using the washer or to anyone passing by. Under no circumstances should a lid switch be bypassed, nor should you make any other repairs to a unit that has had the switch bypassed.

In the handful of instances I have run into this issue, the homeowner was upset to know their appliance’s main safety feature had been bypassed, and more than happy to pay the small extra cost to have the lid safety system working properly.

How can you check to make sure your washer is functioning correctly? Put a load in your washer and start it and let it fill with water. Most washers will allow you to open the lid in the agitation cycle so you can add detergents and softeners.

Now with the machine full of water, open the lid and advance the time to the spin cycle. On any properly functioning washing machine, THE WASHER SHOULD NOT SPIN WITH THE LID OPEN!!

If you washer does, call your local appliance repairman. As the old saying goes, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”

Judith Ayaa was the dominant female sprinter at the East and Central African Athletic Championships from 1968 to 1972. During the same span of time, she was not only the 4-time 400m champion, but she also often competed in and won in the 100m and 200m, as well as when she was part of the Uganda relay teams. Ayaa’s victory in the 400m at the ECA championships in Dar-es-Salaam was a new Africa record–53.6. By virtue of this personal best time in 1969, Ayaa was in 1969 ranked amongst the world’s top 10 female 400-meters sprinters.

Because there were a relatively low number of women competing in the 400m at the 1970 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh, only a semi-final and a final would hereby take place. On July 22 1970 lined up in the second of the two semi-final heats. She won in quite an astonishing time–52.86–a new Africa record. The time ranked her as eleventh best in the world in 1970.

The final took place on the 23rd. But having been the fastest among the semi-finalists, Ayaa had perhaps ran too fast. She perhaps ought to have ran in relaxed stride, just fast enough to be among the top four of either of the semi-final heats that would ensure their qualifying for the finals. In this second semi-final heat, Sandra Brown of Australia finished second in a full second behind Ayaa. The first semi-final heat in which Marilyn Fay Neufville of Jamaica won in 53.05, was apparently one of more tactfulness and relaxation.

In the final, slender and relatively short 17 year-old Neufville won in 51.02–a new world record. She won by an astonishing more than two seconds ahead of silver medallist Sandra Brown of Australia (53.66). Neufville thereby shaved of by nearly a second the world record of 51.7 set in 1969 by Frenchwomen Colette Besson and Nicole Duclos. Judith Ayaa, overtaken after slowing down near the end of the race, likely due to fatigue after her unnecessary exertion in the semi-finals, was third (53.77) closely behind Sandra Brown and won the bronze. The fatigue had likely cost her at least the silver medal; but the Commonwealth bronze would be one of Ayaa’s most cherished international possessions! It was Uganda’s first Commonwealth Games’ medal won by a woman!

In 1970 at the East-Central African Championships held in Nairobi, Ayaa won in the 400-meters in 54.0. That was in addition to her 100m win.

Ayaa competed at the USA-Pan African Track-and-Field Meet held in mid-July 1971 at Duke University in Durham, NC. Her gold medal-winning timing was 54.69.

Still in 1971, at the ECA Championships in Lusaka, Ayaa won in the 400-meters (54.7); and she was part of the Uganda gold medal victorious teams in both sprint relays.

Ayaa competed at a Pre-Olympic two-day Meet (“Hanns-Braun Memorial International Pre-Olympic Invitational”) in mid-August 1972 in Munich, a build-up for the forthcoming Olympics in the same city of West Germany.

20 year-old Ayaa, participated amongst the 3 heats of the women’s 400 meters. The top overall finishers would be signified. Altogether Ayaa’s time was second best–52.68–a new Africa record. Later, early September 1972, in Munich at the Olympics, Ayaa was again timed in 52.68 seconds when she finished third in the quarter finals and advanced to the semi-finals. She thereby equaled her personal best and Africa record. Ayaa would be eliminated from advancing to the Olympic finals when she finished 7th (52.91) in a semi-final heat.

At the pre-Olympic meet in Munich, on the second day of the meet, Ayaa additionally competed in the 200-meters and finished fifth. Results were (AP 1972: 66):

1. Marina Sidorova (Soviet Union), 23.78; 2. Karollne Kaefer (Austria), 23.99; 3. Vilma Charlton (Jamaica), 24.04; 4. Una Morris (Jamaica), 24.11; 5. Judith Ayaa (Uganda), 24.12.

Judith Ayaa would fade away from the international competition limelight after 1973. The President Idi Amin Dada handed her the Uganda flag in her capacity as team captain for the national team that was bound for Lagos for the All-Africa Games in January 1973. She was expected to win in the 400m. But possibly due to injuries, sickness, or inadequate training, she did not compete in any of the individual sprints in Lagos. But she possibly competed in the women’s 4x400m relay in which Uganda won gold.

Much more had been expected of this young elite African athlete, one of the few African women to reach such a pinnacle during that time of the dawn of women power athletes. It would take three decades for Ayaa’s Uganda national record in the 400m to be broken. After more than four decades, the present Uganda record (52.48; though it is 52.2 in 1996 by Grace Birungi, by some accounts) by Justine Bayigga, established in 2008, is only 0.2 seconds lower than the national and African record that Judith Ayaa set in 1972.

Works Cited

AP (August 17, 1972). “Second Day of the Sports Festival,” in “San Bernardino County Sun,” page 66.

In 1892, the International Longshoremen Association (ILA) started out as a legitimate labor union in the Great Lakes area, to help the dockworkers get a fair shake from their employers. The ILA expanded to the east coast, and by 1914, ILA’s New York District Council was created. Almost immediately, the ILA became a mob stronghold, manipulated by the most vicious Irish mobsters of that era. The most prominent of whom was Joseph P. Ryan. But we’ll get to Ryan later.

To understand how the mob manipulated the docks, and the ILA, you must grasp the manner in which dockworkers were hired daily. The method for hiring was not who was the most qualified, the strongest, or the most industrious person available. The only thing that mattered is that you paid tribute to the hiring boss, who ran the docks like the Gestapo ran Hitler’s Germany.

The way it worked was like this: twice a day, all able-bodied men, who were looking for work, would line up in front of the loading dock. Then a stevedore (hiring boss) stood smugly in front of the dock, and one-by-one he selected the men who he deemed lucky enough to get a day’s work. Of course, you had no chance of getting a job if you didn’t give the stevedore a percentage of your day’s pay. The stevedore would then kick up the cash to the head stevedore, who would in turn kick it up to the ILA bosses. With this money, the ILA bosses would then grease the palms of politicians and cops, and everyone else who needed to get paid, to keep the money rolling into the pockets of the big shots who ran the ILA. And if you were known as somebody who had given the ILA trouble in the past, you might as well have stayed home, because there was no way the stevedore would even look at your face.

Joseph P. Ryan first burst on the scene around 1917, when he organized the ILA “New York District Council,” a branch of the nationwide ILA. In 1918, Ryan became president of the ILA’s “Atlantic Coast District.” It was during this time that the power began shifting from the Great Lakes to the Port of New York, which was closer to Europe, where many of the ships that were unloaded on the docks originated. During this time, the ILA was facing strict competition from the west coast-based Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). The ILA was attempting to draw in the IWW into their organization, and in 1919 they succeeded.

In 1921, ILA President T.V. O’Conner resigned, and his place was taken by Anthony Chlopek, who turned out to be the last ILA President based in the Great Lakes. It’s not clear if he was appointed by Chlopek, or elected by the membership, but Joe Ryan served as the First Vice President of the ILA for all six years of Chlopek’s presidency.

In 1927, Ryan’s time had finally come. Ryan was elected President of the ILA, which power base was now firmly entrenched in the Port of New York.

Ryan’s journey from basically nobody to the President of the ILA had not been an easy one. Ryan was born on May, 11, 1884 in Babylon, Long Island. His parent were Irish immigrants, and Ryan suffered a severe blow at the age of nine when both of his parents died within a month of each other. Ryan was put in an orphanage, but he was eventually adopted by a woman who brought Ryan to live with her in the Chelsea section of Manhattan, a few blocks south of the lawless Hell’s Kitchen area.

Ryan did menial jobs in the neighborhood, before he got a job loading and unloading on the Chelsea Piers. In 1917, Ryan purchased his union book for the sum of two dollars and fifth cents. Within a few weeks, Ryan hurt his foot while unloading a freighter, and when he was released from the hospital, and not being able to work on the docks again, Ryan was somehow appointed to the job of secretary of ILA Local 791. From that point on, there was no stopping Joe Ryan’s meteoric rise.

“Boss Joe,” as Ryan came to be known, was a ruthless fighter, who elevated the shape/payback system on the docks to an art form. To enforced his vice-like grip on the ILA membership, Ryan hired the worst men imaginable, some of whom has lost their jobs as bootleggers when Prohibition ended in 1933, and some of whom had just recently been released from prison, where they had been sentenced for committing the most violent of crimes. These were the perfect men for Ryan to employ, since cracking a few heads, or legs, and maybe even killing a person once in a while, was certainly not adverse to these men’s nature.

Ryan’s power was so absolute, he organized fund raisers (his men were compelled to contribute, or else) for the politicians who were on Ryan’s pad; one of whom was Mayor Jimmy “Beau James” Walker. When Walker was forced to resign in 1932, Ryan, with tears dripping from his pen, issued a statement supporting the disgraced Walker. Ryan wrote, “The labor movement in the city of New York regrets that political expedience has deprived them of a Mayor whose every official act has been in conformity with the Americanistic (Ryan invented that word himself) policies of organized labor.

Ryan’s plan was to control all dockworkers in the United States, but in fact, his power hardly extended outside the boundaries of New York. When Franklin D. Roosevelt ascended to the Presidency in 1933, he enacted his New Deal, which solidified Ryan’s total control of the ILA. “The Norris-La Guardia Act,” which limited the use of injunctions to prevent strikes and picketing, helped Ryan assert his muscle on the docks. And the Wagner Act of 1935 guaranteed the rights of workers to vote for their own representation. And who controlled those votes? Why Joseph P. Ryan, of course.

Ryan’s biggest problem in uniting all ILA workers in America was the resistance he received from the west coast contingent, which was led by radical left-winger Harry Bridges. In 1934, Bridges organized a strike of the West Coast ILA, in rebellion over a contract Ryan had negotiated on their behalf. Ryan, incensed at the west coast insurrection, traveled extensively all over the west coast of America: to San Francisco, Portland, Tacoma, and Seattle. In each location, Ryan argued the main sticking point to the negotiations: the shape-up form of employment. Ryan and his New York pals were for it, everyone on the west coast was against it; saying it was unfair to the workers. The West Coast ILA wanted to implement a “hiring-hall” system, in which “time in the hold” and “seniority” were the main factors in men getting work. Of course the “hiring hall” system would put an end to the stevedore graft machine, and Ryan wanted no part of that.

Ryan’s west coast trip was a complete failure. In each ILA location he visited, his recommendations were shot down, emphatically. The president of the Tacoma ILA local announced to the press, “No body of men can be expected to agree to their own self destruction.”

Things were so bad for Ryan in San Francisco, there were physical confrontations in the streets, between the west coast strikers, the strikebreakers Ryan had brought in from the east coast, and the local police. The riots were so violent, the National Guard was called in to end the disturbances.

Chalk that up as another loss for Ryan.

When Ryan returned home to the Port of New York, he was not a happy camper. He denounced his west coast opponents as “malcontents” and “communists,”and he strove to become even more diligent in exercising his absolute power over the New York ILA. One of Ryan’s most effective tools in keeping his men in line was the fact that he was able to issue union charters to whomever he saw fit. The men who received these charters were then able to form their own Union Locals. After these Locals were created, the individual local bosses would kick back a substantial part of the member’s dues to the Joseph P. Ryan Retirement Fund, of which, of course, there were no written records.

One such Local that Ryan had in his back pocket was Local 824, which was run by Ryan crony Harold Bowers. Local 824 was particularly prestigious and quite profitable because it presided over the Hells Kitchen piers, where luxury liners like the Queen Mary and the Queen Elizabeth were docked. Local 824 soon became known as the “Pistol Local” because it was almost completely comprised of Irish gangsters who had long criminal records. Local 824’s boss Bowers, an ex-con, had a criminal record as long as a giraffe’s neck. Bowers had been arrested for numerous crimes, including robbery, possession of a gun, grand larceny (twice), and congregating with known criminals. Bowers was also suspected in dozens of waterfront murders, but no murder charge could ever be pinned on him.

Harold’s cousin Mickey, as murderous a bloke as Harold, was also instrumental in running Local 824. Mickey was a suspect in the murder of Tommy Gleason, an insurgent in Local 824, who tried to wrest control of Local 824 from the Bowers family. Gleason was filled with lead while he was visiting a deceased pal in a Tenth Avenue funeral parlor. Mickey Bowers was suspected of Gleason’s murder, and he was brought in for questioning. However, with no concrete evidence, Mickey Bowers was released. There is no record of the Gleason murder having been solved, and it is not clear if Gleason was laid out in the same funeral parlor in which he had been shot.

In 1951, Ryan began losing control of the ILA, when his men did something they had never done before: they spat in the face of Ryan and his tyrannical leadership by going on strike. With over thirty thousand men involved (without pay of course), the strike lasted twenty five days. Due to the strike, 118 piers were shut down, and millions of dollars were lost by hundreds of companies, who needed their goods unloaded on the docks.

The leader of this strike was not a longshoreman, but a priest named Father John Corridan. The son of a County Kerry-born policeman, Corridan was born in Manhattan’s Harlem. In 1928, Corridan graduated from Manhattan’s prestigious Regis High School. After completion of his seminary requirements and assignments in other parishes, in 1946, Corridan was assigned to the Xavier Institute of Industrial Relations, on West 16th Street. There Father Corridan met many longshoremen who told him of the woes they suffered at the hands of men like Ryan and the Bowers cousins.

Being a street kid himself, the chain-smoking, fast-talking priest decided to do something about the abominations that were transpiring on the waterfront. Corridan teamed up with New York Sun writer Malcolm Johnson to write a series of articles entitled “Crime on the Waterfront.” These articles spurred writer Bud Schulberg to write the screenplay for the Academy Award winning movie “On the Waterfront, which starred Marlon Brandon and Lee J. Cobb. Actor Karl Malden played the part of Father Corridan, whose name in the movie, for some reason, was changed to Father Barry.

Soon after the New York Sun articles were published, New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey announced that the state’s crime commission would open an investigation into criminal activities in the Port of New York. This investigation was called “The Waterfront Hearings.” During these hearings hundreds of men who worked on the waterfront were called in to testify (some were honest workers – others were ruthless “Dock Wallopers”). The workers mostly gave honest testimony, while the “Dock Wallopers,” mainly invoked their Fifth Amendment Rights not to incriminate themselves.

One of the men who was called in to testify at the Waterfront Hearings was a shady figure named William “Big Bill” McCormack. McCormack owned several businesses, including the U.S. Trucking Company, which worked extensively unloading on the Port of New York docks. McCormack was very close to Ryan, and it was alleged that Ryan and McCormack were, in fact, partners in several of McCormack’s businesses.

In 1950, as a result of pressure from the New York newspapers, Mayor Bill O’Dwyer, who was in the pocket of Ryan and other known gangsters, reluctantly called for a city investigation of the waterfront. The investigation became a sham, when Mayor O’Dwyer, at the urging of Joe Ryan, appointed McCormack as the chairman of a “blue-ribbon panel” to “investigate” waterfront activities. After month of a dubious investigations, funded by New York City taxpayer dollars, McCormack’s “blue-ribbon panel” concluded, “We have found that the labor situation on the waterfront of the Port of New York is generally satisfactory from the standpoint of the worker, the employer, the industry, and the government.”

That was obviously the “Big Lie.”

When McCormack was brought before the Waterfront Hearings, he was questioned about the previous testimony of the supervisor of employment for the division of parole. This supervisor had testified that although he had never met “Big Bill” McCormack, he had met with McCormack’s brother Harry many times. The purpose of these meetings was that on numerous occasions men, who were being released from prison on parole, would have the prison officials put in writing a note that said, “Mr. H.F. McCormack will make immediate arrangements for this inmate’s union membership upon his release.”

It was estimated that over 200 parolees were given “jobs” with McCormack’s Penn Stevedoring Company. Some of these jobs may have been legitimate dock work, but most ex-con’s employed by McCormack’s Penn Stevedoring Company were nothing more than thugs and leg breakers, and sometimes murderers for the union.

When “Big Bill” McCormack was asked at the Waterfront Hearings why he had employed so many men with dubious backgrounds, McCormack said, “It’s because I take a human view of employee problems. I’m human, and they’re human.”

Two of the “human” men employed by the McCormack Penn Stevedoring Company, after they were released from jail, were John “Cockeye” Dunn, and Andrew “Squint” Sheridan. Both men where eventually fried in the electric chair, after they were convicted of the murder of hiring stevedore Andy Hintz, while both killers were working for McCormack.

After McCormack’s testimony before the Waterfront Commission, the New York Herald Tribune wrote, “Mr. McCormack’s activities on behalf of the longshoreman’s union suggest that he has been pulling the strings for Joseph P. Ryan for many years, and may, in fact, be a more powerful figure on the waterfront than the Boss (Ryan) himself.”

Joseph P. Ryan was the 209th and final witness before the crime commission’s Waterfront Hearings. After one day of brutal cross examination, it was clear Ryan’s days were over as Joe “The Boss” of the Port of New York. Under grueling testimony, Ryan was forced to admit that he appointed many convicted felons like Harold Bowers to prominent positions in the ILA. Ryan claimed no knowledge of the fact that 30% of the union officials he personally appointed had criminal records. Ryan also testified he had no idea that more than 45 IRA Locals in the Port of New York kept no financial records, and that his hand-picked bosses had frequently given themselves raises, without these raises being ratified by the voting members of the Locals.

However, the final nail in Ryan’s coffin was inserted when it came to light that Ryan had misused more than $50,000 from the ILA’s Anti-Communist Fund for his own personal use. Instead of scouring the docks looking for communist activities, Ryan used this money for grand dinners for himself and his cronies at places like the Stork Club, repairs to his Cadillac, and to purchase the expensive clothes that Ryan wore. Ryan also had the gall to use Anti-Communist Funds to go on a cruise to Guatemala.

Still, Ryan would not give up his control of the New York Waterfront without a fight. In 1953, the American Federation of Labor decided to expel the ILA from it’s membership. AF of L President George Meany said, “We’ve given up all hope that the officers or members of that union will reform it. We’ve given up hope that the ILA will ever live up to the rules, standards, and ethics of a decent trade union.”

After hearing what Meany had to say, Ryan gritted his teeth and growled, “Then we’ll hold on to what we have.”

However, Ryan’s hubris lasted only for a short time. In order for Meany to allow the ILA to remain part of the American Federation of Labor, Meany insisted that Ryan step down from the post that Ryan had held for 26 years. Ryan had no choice but to comply.

Ryan’s travails were not over with yet. In 1954, after being convicted of violations of The Labor Management Relations Act (Taft-Hartly Act), Ryan was sentenced to 6 months in prison and a $2500 fine. Ryan appealed his conviction.

However, on July 1, 1955, the United States Court of Appeals Second Circuit denied Ryan’s appeal, saying, “Defendant-Appellant, Joseph P. Ryan, President of the International Longshoremen’s Association (hereafter called ILA) was indicted, on three counts, in that, on three separate occasions, he unlawfully, willfully and knowingly received sums in the aggregate of $2,500, from corporations employing members of the ILA. The judge, holding defendant guilty on all counts, sentenced him to imprisonment for six months on each count (the sentences to run concurrently) and fined him $2,500. As my view is not to prevail, I shall not discuss the other objections that the accused raises, except to say that I have considered them, and that they have not convinced me that any error was committed that would justify a reversal. I would affirm the conviction.”

Ryan did his six months in the can. Then he disappeared, never to be heard from on the waterfront again.

Before I talk about my Firebird, let me mention I once owned a brand spanking new Pontiac Fiero. It was black and racy, sexy and cool. I felt like a super hero in it as I zipped down the street and flew around corners. But I had trouble with that car; in short, I couldn’t drive, eat a donut, and shift all at the same time. That irked me a lot. But the car never broke down. Of course, it only had 30,000 miles on it before somebody used it as target practice for Terrorist Training by ramming their car into it and totaling it. I knew a Terrorist did it because nobody else would accidentally run smack in the back of a parked car. So at 22 years old, I ran down to my Pontiac dealer and bought what I really wanted in the first place: A Red Pontiac Formula Firebird! Picture my ear-to-ear smile as I drove off the lot with all 8 cylinders humming, a box of donuts at the ready, and my automatic Transmission doing the shifting for me.

It was a really fast, shinny red car that you could see coming for at least 135 miles. I knew it would draw in the babes. As I drove home, I figured I’d finally be able to get a girl to talk to me now that I had this fantastic car. I remember the excitement as I ran low on gas after that first tank. I’d been waiting for this day. I’d have to stop at the gas station where I’d quietly and sexily get out of my man-o-musk metal outerwear so all the ladies could longingly admire me, the owner of this fabulously sexy, magnetizing machine.

The first ten times I got out of the car, girls didn’t look at me much though. I thought nothing of it. I was aloof and on top of the world. I figured they were just being coy as I was. I lived my fantasy for many station stops later. I even stopped to fill up every 5 gallons to improve me odds of admiration. Over 100 stops later the results were in; no ladies looking. Adding insult to injury, 15 your old boys always came over to me to say something like, “dude, how many horses does that baby have under the hood”. Ok, so it took me another ten years to figure out that I’d need something like a BMW, Mercedes, or other expensive car to get the ladies attention. I learn life’s lessons very slowly.

Anyhow, the reason for this story really has nothing to do with how sexy I am, but actually about my Firebird’s mechanical problems. Sorry it took me so long to get to it. I tend to ramble. In short, one morning my Firebird had developed a attitude problem that revolved around a sleeping disorder. That is, it wouldn’t wake up. The starter was pronounced clinically dead at the scene.

So I towed my 60,000-mile old Babe Mobile down to my local neighborhood franchised garage and they had a deal for me. They could replace my starter with a Rebuilt part and save me some money on the repair (versus using new parts like the Dealer wanted to do). It came with a glistening 90-day warranty. I figured, the original part lasted 60,000 miles and 4 years, the rebuilt one would surely last at least half that long.

So, about 91 days later I was towed back into the shop again with my car’s same attitude problem. The shop manager figured we had adjusted the car’s attitude right the first time, and the failed starter was surely just a fluke. So we agreed to put another rebuilt starter in there. Yes, I skulked back in to the same shop about 92 more days later. I think we may have put a new one on it that time, but I don’t really remember (bad memories are blocked by the brain after the trauma gets serious enough).

So now a little tech talk as to why this might have been happening. Rebuilt parts usually come with a 90 day warranty and fail far more often than remanufactured parts or new parts. In the process for a rebuilt part, they generally clean, test and replace what has to be replaced – but nothing else. Think about that for a minute. You are only fixing what actually broke, not necessarily the design or assembly flaws that may have caused the failure in the first place.

You can also go with a remanufactured part where you throw away all the wear items, test the rest, resurface all relevant surfaces, replace all the thrown away wear items, and test the final assembly. In this case you are definitely improving your odds at staying on the road longer. These parts will fail a lot less often than the rebuilt parts and they generally come with a 12 month, 12,000 mile warranty. Of course, you could go with the full Monty and buy a brand new part and also get a 12 month, 12,000 mile warranty and (arguably) get the best results.

Now that I’ve helped you understand the tech talk the shop guys tell you when they’re listing out your options, keep in mind I have little to no good advice regarding women in general. But this story ought to help you with that one little problem I had driving a Pontiac Firebird. You see, today my wife is smarter than me and she’s also way more beautiful than me. And you guessed it. I met her long after the Firebird was buried.

Affiliate programs are a relatively new concept. In effect, we’re talking about a known marketing method which has been implemented for quite some time (Amazon and eBay were pioneers in this field), not only online. Even before there was even a medium called the Internet, many companies realized that in order to create an online presence, they would need to activate more distribution channels.

Before diving into the complex world of affiliate marketing (a subject that could easily fill up many books ), I’ll try “painting” the picture with an example… When I was working for the mobile phone company orange, we would pair the brand and its variety of programs with large existing entities throughout the country, including various private distributors. There are hundreds of selling points which customers come into contact with, all of them selling mobile phones. However, if you look carefully you will understand that these points are actually other entities, and that these customer “touch points” are essentially partners. These partners that “wear” the color orange, speak the orange language but are not actual orange employees (for example: super pharm network). orange knows that these additional contact points allow them to sell products and services thus generating a huge presence. orange transfers its information, dresses employees with the brand’s clothes and its own look & feel, making them co-partners (affiliates) to success.

Affiliate programs entered the Internet and accumulated great momentum. It’s worth talking a bit about what really is required to successfully run this complex mechanism in order to create a successful affiliate program.

The first principle is that Our Affiliates = Our Partners. They share the process, the problems, the good times and the bad times. The second principle is that creating an emotional connection to a successful business will enable mutual growth and productivity. This translates to increase in sales.

So, who are our partners? What exactly is an Affiliate?

Aside from the concept of this ideal business partner, there are several other important aspects to understand. (I will be focusing on the reasons related to the web, of course:)

1. An affiliate is a private entity or business that sells a product (i.e., content, application software, service or product). In principle, anyone can be an Affiliate, and virtually all website owners can create a different business connection to a commercial company looking to further distribute its products. For example, a commercial site owner who wants to try and promote Skype on his website could be compensated for selling the product, which in the Skype’s case means having a user download the software and making phone calls on their network.

2. Not all affiliate marketers run commercial sites, sometimes it’s just Joe Shmoe’s personal blog who writes about his daily trails and tribulations, However, like any website owner, he wants to cover the various costs of running the site and therefore registers as a partner to a company or commercial entity on the network that allows him to push the company’s product = earn a few bucks to keep his site running.

Dialogue is essentially bilateral. Sometimes, site owners will be those who enroll or opt in as partners with commercial entities in order to promote the company’s products. The opposite is also true… Today, many companies operate by seeking out the relevant sites, those with potential to best advertise its products. There are many different ways of compensating such relevant site owners but I’ll discuss this issue later.

Affiliate program is actually a web-based platform that allows the creation of this connection between these business entities. On most commercial sites you will find a link that reads “Our Affiliate Program” or “Our Partners”. When you click on these links, you’ll reach the company’s affiliate program page explaining how you can become a partner advertiser – for example, here’s the link to the main page of Skype’s affiliate program.

An affiliate partner program consists of several layers:

1. The human Level -Who exactly is “the affiliate”? What makes him tick?

2. The Technological Level – A description of system properties, reports, creative, etc.

3. The Marketing Level – How do you find affiliates? How do you talk to them? Reward models and more.

4. The “Image” Level – How does it all connect to the perception of the brand?

The Human Level –

For this first post I will try to describe what is behind the screen, in the cyber environment, anonymity slowly becoming more transparent and it is important to understand who runs these businesses. Not everyone can be our partner (we all know that choosing a partner, relationship building and nurturing long requires patience and perseverance).

It’s funny, sometimes your biggest partner can be a16 year old boy who works in the basement of his mother, a kind of modern Jack who sits all day at the computer calculating how he’ll make his next million.

The affiliate could be a small business entity numbering a limited number of people(i.e., the webmaster and a content manager) Believe me, most of the sites you’ll come across online are manned by a small team of skilled people are not necessarily a big corporation. Naturally, the dialogue you would use when dealing with a large company with hundreds of employees is different than the dialogue you would use with the 16 year-old boy. Dealing with an emotional dialogue necessary to communicate with a 16 year old boy, mid-exams, frantically chewing on bubble gum are much different than that necessary to communicate with a witty and sharp MIT graduate. It’s important to understand your affiliate and speak his/her language in order to manage the dialogue (certainly the negotiations end of it).Also, take into account that the relationship only begins when the agreement is signed and the partner begins to promote the products. Like any relationship, this one involves a long road filled with obstacles.

The method that I find quite helpful is the old-school client analysis used in the mainstream advertising world (Title, Content, Visual/image and Logo). There is a famous model that divides people for 4 different groups (based on the 4 layers that make up an advertisement). Each group has unique characteristics which I often use as a model to analyze who I am dealing with and how best to reach them.

“The Headliners” (The title) –

are those who like it straight, no personal stories or long dialogues and not the same old “What do you want? What will you give me for it?” This type, do not like too much chit-chat, and aren’t interested in details, they want to understand you goals and tend to “cut to the quick”. They want the bottom line answer and appreciate email correspondences that are short and sweet and to the point. With this type, be prepared for hard questions right off the bat that you’ll be expected to answer briefly and clearly. Rule of thumb – if they have to scroll down to read your email, you’ll probably never hear from them again. (Don’t laugh).

“Body Text” (The Content People)

These are the ones who love the small details. Be prepared to answer lots of detailed questions about the platform, the small features, and all the different reports you can provide them with., They tend to ask so many questions that sometimes it’s not clear whether they’re just look to drive you crazy or they really want to do business together. Expect very long emails filled with questions and general musings… With this type, make sure to have a lot of patience. and I always recommend to close deals by phone – not email!

“Visualizers”

There are the ones who always have a picture in their heads of one thing or another. They are abstract and ask questions not usually directly related to the product but more on what happens behind the scenes, “Who are you? What company are you? Who are the people?” etc. They’re looking for you to give them an emotional overview When closing a deal, make sure to offer up the big picture from the start to avoid having this type get hot under the collar – go less for the nitty gritty details. This type paints a pretty complete picture of the deal in their heads and it’s important for them to understand how the” image” looks like.

“Logoers”

This type is usually relatively rare. They combine some of the principles of the visual (i.e., they’re not interested in technical dialogue, they’re interested in your personal values)., They’ll want to talk to you about their last trip and about what they read about in the morning paper. They’ll want to know your reaction – they’re gauging you as a person. For this type, the deal itself is not the focus – they want to know YOU. When dealing with this type, understand that the seemingly unrelated conversation is key to closing the deal. Sell yourself by being yourself. They will even tell you their mother studied at Tel Aviv University and lived in a kibutz in Israel and that they have some Israeli friends – the deal was never about the price or the product but more who’s in front of them.

This is indeed a very schematic model (like most models) and many times levels will overlap but if succeeds in helping you read between the lines and understand who you’re dealing with. When you understand the types, it’ll be easier to communicate effectively and close the deal.

There are many different methods but I find this one to be one of the best and it’s certainly a great model to use when you’re starting out in the world of affiliate marketing.

In my next post, I’ll try to describe a little more in depth more technological aspects. Specifically, what is required of us to build partnering platforms / affiliate programs.

Oklahoma born Phillip Calvin McGraw on the 1st of September 1950 Doctor Phil has steadily made his way to stardom thanks to the Oprah Winfrey Show. Oprah enlisted the help of Doctor Phil during a trail that she was going through. She hired his company to help read the jury and was impressed with his psychological knowledge and the ability to clearly interpret the characters of the jurers. Phil is a trained psychologist who used to run a sports school. Nowadays his TV personality and his books are the main reasons for his fame.

Doctor Phil makes a pretty penny, over $45,000,000 per year, and ranked #22 on Forbes Top 100 Celebrities of 2006. His super successful talkshow makes up the brunt of this income – it draws a huge 6.7 million viewers.

But he doesn’t just make his money from his talk show. He also has 6 best selling books as well as an endorsement deal from Match.com. He also made a guest appearance in the movie “Scary Movie 4”.

Doctor Phil grew up in North Texas and family life was geared towards the desire of his father to become a psychologist. He had a football scholarship for his education at the University of Tulsa but had to pull out after he got injured. Inn 1975 he graduated from university with a bachelor’s degree in psychology en after that he managed to earn a masters degree in psychology. Teamed with a PhD in clinical psychology Doctor Phil knows what he is talking about when it comes to psychology.

During the completing of his internship and working on his PhD Phil ran a construction company together with his brother in law. McGraw owned a construction business with his brother-in-law while completing his internship for his Ph.D. After this he proceeded to give one on-one private sessions in his own office situated in Wichita Falls, Texas. He became more known for his life skills seminars that he ran together with his father and Thelma Box. After this Doctor Phil moved on to bigger and better things. He started his own company called Courtroom Sciences Inc. This was the a trial consulting firm that he started together with Gary Dobbs in 1989. Doctor Phil and his business partner managed to advise over 500 companies.

In 1995, Oprah Winfrey enlisted the help from this firm to help her get prepared for her much published Amarillo Texas beef trial. She was very impressed with his psychological skills and hired him to perform on her daily talk show. He became the regular Oprah “Relationship and Life Strategy Expert”. In 2002 Phil started broadcasting his very own television show, Dr. Phil, produced by Oprah’s very own company.

Google has been making changes that help small businesses with Local Search. Have you and your SEO company kept up? With hundreds of thousands of new websites hitting the internet every day, Google, Bing and Yahoo have the very interesting position of trying to figure out what sites are real, which are spam and which are junk.

One of the easiest ways for the search giants to eliminate the junk sites is to elevate “legit” businesses to the top of search. So the big question and their big secret is how do they do that? My brother Roy addressed this issue years ago when he created the original disntet.com in the 90’s and patented the software that ran the servers. That patent is now referenced in just about every search patent out there.

How the big three search engines do it isn’t public knowledge as each of them tries to outdo the other so they can provide the search results you are looking for. Remember those crazy commercials about search results that Bing ran last year? The funny thing is the Bing search software wasn’t that much better.

This year all three search giants have improved and when it comes to local search they have really stepped up their game. So how do they do it? After reading all of the patent changes and using a little common sense we see some trends. A high priority is given to government records like business licenses and permits. You would be amazed how many businesses don’t have a business license or permit. Some areas don’t require them either.

Telephone company listings can be another method to cross reference companies to verify that they exist at a physical location. This is getting harder every day as business owners move to cellular, VoIP and other non-traditional phone services. My office is a combination of Cellular and VoIP telephones. We have a few clients that are cellular only, one of them is a bakery that only serves walk in customers.

Finally there are local directories, that use input from real people to verify and rate a business. Believe it or not there are over 100 of these directories that carry weight at the big three search engines. Since we don’t know the exact weighting, we offer a service to input information and get it verified at all 100.

At a minimum there are about 20 that every business should keep up to date. It might sound like a lot of work but it really isn’t. Once you create the information for one site, you can load it onto all of the other sites. You only need to update a couple each week to see a steady improvement to your internet traffic, and if you do it right your foot traffic will follow suit.

Not sure what I mean by a Local Directory Site? Yelp!, Manta, Foursquare and yp.com are all examples of local directory sites. These sites verify physical addresses and allow customers to “check in” and “rate” your business. Google and Facebook also have local listing and check in capability so don’t overlook them either.

If you have a traditional business, many times called a “brick and mortar” business, these local directories may be the key to your online marketing success. We are finding lately that they have as much weight in SEO efforts as traditional article writing, blogs and back linking campaigns.

In order to keep up with the changes at the big three search engines, we have flipped our policy and now start new clients on a local business listing program first and add SEO once the local listings are all up to date.

Starting with the local listing directories is free if you do it yourself, so there really isn’t any reason not to get it done.

If you want to get your local business off to a great start with online marketing start with the local listing directories. You don’t need a website, just an address and a phone number. You can use a free Facebook page or Google Plus page as your website for most of these directories. They are more concerned that you have a place for customers to go than they are with your website.

If your business is local, start building your online marketing program by listing local and watch the locals come in.

The European version of Baccarat has been around 150 years give or take. It’s distant cousin, Chemin De Fer, played under an entirely different set of rules is far older and was a game favored by Europe’s royalty and wealthy industrialists. This is most likely where it got the mystique of elegance as an exclusively “high roller’s” game.

In the mid 1950’s Tommy Renzoni ran the Baccarat game at the Capri Hotel & Casino in Havana, Cuba. It was said he discovered that particular variation of the game being played in Argentina at the time.

In those days the mob ran the casinos in Havana and it was a popular resort for the very wealthy and Hollywood’s elite. In 1959 when Castro overthrew the Batista regime, he promptly closed the casino doors and the mob was forced out of Cuba. They had a sweet deal for a while but all good things must end.

The timing was perfect though, because Tommy Renzoni was brought in for the opening of the Sands Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas to run their Baccarat game. So it was Renzoni, through a stroke of fortune, who introduced the American version of Baccarat to Vegas that is played today.

The American version of the game is as simple as they come. You choose to wager on either the “bank” hand or the “player” hand. Pretty much a coin toss. The only other choice would be to bet on a tie hand appearing (a bet no sane person would make although I see it done all the time). It’s an even money bet on either side with the exception of a small commission charged on winning bank hands.

The reason for this is that the rules of the game favor the bank hand winning slightly more often than the player hand. Without the 5% commission the outcome would be tilted toward the bank side.

The object of the game is to get closest to a 9 total. All tens and face cards have a zero value, therefore a 5 and a queen would be a total of 5. There is no need to even know the rules governing the drawing of cards because they are completely automatic and procedures are directed by the dealers and pit bosses.

Compared to craps, blackjack, roulette or even poker, there are no complicated decisions to make. Decide on the amount of your wager and which side to bet on. Nothing could be simpler.

It is the aura that surrounds the game which tends to make it seem off limits to most casino goers. It’s been portrayed through stories of high rollers and in James Bond (007) movies over the years as the hero playing against the evil villain. Keep in mind, all the players are betting against the casino, not against each other. Although the roped off table areas and high stakes table limits can be somewhat intimidating.

Enter Mini-Baccarat. The casinos, always on the look out to make a buck, devised the mini-baccarat table as a way to make it more accessible to the average casino patron. It seemed to work although it still hasn’t garnered the wide spread acceptance of the more well known table games.

Betting Systems

In reality, mini-baccarat is ideally suited for most playing and betting systems that do well in an even-money, win/lose environment. Because there can be only one of two outcomes, betting systems that depend on a parlay (doubling up) of wagers tend to do well.

It is common to see runs of 2, 3, 4 & 5 on either bank or player hands. I was playing the Tropicana one night and witnessed an incredible run of 22 consecutive “bank” hands. Luckily, having the sense and instinct to jump on a winning streak after the fourth bank win, I was able to capture 18 straight wins. Needless to say, it was a very good night. That’s an extraordinary run but the game does lend itself well to streaks on both sides.

If you toss a coin you have a 1 to 1 chance of correctly calling the outcome. If a player were to parlay their first win (playing for 2 consecutive wins), they have a 1 in 3 chance of winning that wager. If successful, the player would receive a 3 to 1 payoff. $10 parlayed on two wins would become $40. The odds on calling two consecutive outcomes correctly is 3 to 1.

Playing for three consecutive wins would reduce the player’s winning wagers but the payoff would jump to 7 to 1. A $10 wager would return $80.

Another sound betting system calls for a gradual increase of winning bets. This effectively takes advantage of any extended run of wins that will undoubtedly occur and protect the player’s capital if the outcome is “choppy.”

This type of betting sequence would look like this:

10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50

No wager after the second one in the series would produce a loss for the player.

Following the 1st bet the player is risking $5 and betting $15;

After winning the third bet the player is up $20 betting 25;

On the fourth, the player is up $40 wagering $30;

On the fifth, the player is ahead $65 betting $40;

A series of 7 wins would return $150 and still have a $50 wager as the next bet. All with a starting wager of $10. Following any loss the player reverts back to the starting $10 bet.

With this method the player is increasing their bets with winnings while maintaining a low minimum bet during losing hands. This is the type of smart money management used by professional gamblers that takes full advantage of winning cycles while protecting their bankroll when losing. It insures that their winning bets will be substantially greater than their losing ones.

Although the hands are dealt at a rapid pace, I consider mini-baccarat to be an excellent game, especially for the beginner. It allows them to acclimate to the game and concentrate on their playing strategy and wagers without feeling intimidated by the big money action in the regular Baccarat pit.

If you’ve read any of the stuff I’ve written you know I’m a big fan of Baccarat. As for mini-baccarat, it’s the same game, same low house percentage, low minimums and gives the player a very good chance at some big wins. It might even pay for your next trip the casino.

Best of luck,

Ray W.

Plastic is used for so many products that we use every day. From car bumpers to packaging, plastic is a part of our daily lives. Some of the most common products that contain plastic that we use every day is water bottles and plastic milk jugs. But many of us do not give a second thought to what happens when they are put into the recycling bin and sent off to the recycling plant.

Many of the recycled plastic products such as plastic milk jugs find new life as plastic lumber. These plastic milk jugs are first separated from the other plastics, cleaned and are then ground into small pieces. After the milk jugs are ground, they are then melted down. Once all the pieces have melted, they go through an extruder that molds them into a rectangular oblong shape. The consistency of the recycled plastic when it is coming out of the extruder is somewhat reminiscent of play dough. The dough like substance is then ran through a cooling chamber on a conveyor belt that has hundreds of jets that shoot cool water. By cooling the plastic keeps it from rising like dough and cools it down. The plastic lumber is then air-dried and is run through yet another water-cooling chamber. After the plastic lumber is cooled down, the top layer is heated slightly again and ran through an embosser. The embosser gives it a wood grain stamp. These embossments and colors can also be custom made to order.

Plastic lumber can then be made into many different products. When we visit our local or state park, we do not think much about the bench we are sitting on or the picnic table that we are using. Many of these were once milk jugs sitting in our fridge at one time or another. These plastic milk jugs have taken on a new life as playground equipment, benches and picnic tables.

Not only can recycled plastic lumber be made into benches and tables at the park, it can also be used just like traditional wooden lumber. Homeowners are now realizing that decks and fences last longer when made out of plastic lumber then traditional wooden lumber.

The many benefits of recycling plastic are numerous. By recycling plastics, they can have a new life as other products that we use in and outside of the home. So, next time at the park remember that many of the benches and picnic tables would not be there if plastic milk jugs were not recycled.

If you can believe what you read on line, Jo Nesbo of Oslo, Norway, never sleeps and everything he writes turns to gold. A wannabe soccer player, he switched to getting an economics degree after a knee injury in high school. He later took up rock climbing. When he isn’t writing his Harry Hole police detective series, which he began at the age of thirty-seven, he’s writing music for his Norwegian rock band Di Derre, which he started after college. He is also the author of the young children’s Doctor Proctor series and recent books under the pen name Tom Johansen.

The Redbreast is somewhat a tribute to Nesbo’s father, who ran out of time before beginning the book he wanted to about his experiences in WWII. It is the third book in the Harry Hole series and is set both in Norway and the 1944 Eastern Front. There is some history to be gained in reading about Norway’s split personality, trying to determine which was worse, the Nazis to the south across the Baltic Sea or the Bolsheviks to the east across the Baltic.

Harry gets shuffled around a lot within the police department. Wherever he lands, he has a way of hitting on the key aspects and players in a crime, albeit with tension building last minute heroics. He’s not always right, but he’s mulish when he gets on a case. Although it may be difficult to keep track of all the name-changing characters from the war to present day Norway, Nesbo keeps us turning pages and wondering how it will all end. Not all problems are resolved, but then that is the best part of a series. It leaves you wanting more.