Billionaire Bezos, now News Mogul, is from Princeton

Around Town, Business,

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The National Public Radio Morning Edition story on how the Amazon founder bought the Washington Post, fails to mention that Jeff Bezos is a Princeton alumnus, Class of 1986. He delivered the Class Day address in 2010.

The Washington Post story adds that detail to the Bezos biography. The New York Times sidebar implies it, saying “After Princeton”

Might it seem like a lucky coincidence that the New York Times just happened to print a big piece on the Post editor, Katharine Weymouth, on the day before? The reporter defended it, saying that she had been assigned the story a while ago but “didn’t get around to it” till July.  I believe her. (Memo to self and other reporters: Don’t Drag Your Feet on the Good Story.) But it certainly was nice for Weymouth to get her spot in the sun before the storm broke.

And in the Snarky Section, that article drew darts for announcing what Weymouth wore to get her photo taken, and that she was able to wear a sleeveless dress thanks to her workout schedule. I say, Good for her! And I would want to know those details.

 

 

 

Photo of Katharine Weymouth by Matt Roth for NYTimes

Credit Triage: CFPB

Business

AT LAST. Finally. It’s about time.

For 30 years my credit report has been falsely comingled with the credit report of a deadbeat, and all attempts to permanently remedy this situation have been futile. “Your only alternative is to sue the credit bureaus for their mistake,” I was told, after hours, days, weeks, of aggravation.

Of course I never did. It wasn’t worth it, just for the privilege of opening a credit account in my own name. It was pretty easy to get my husband to show up to help me buy the cell phone contract — a contract that my supposedly lousy credit record would not let me buy. All because the credit bureaus confused my records with another Barbara whose Social Security was almost exactly like mine, one digit off. To escape dunning phone calls and emails, I have to send caveat notices to each credit bureau every three months.

Now. At last. Finally. Another woman got revenge. Today’s New York Times article An $18 million Lesson in Handling Credit Report Errors by Tara Siegel Bernard, tells of a 57-year-old nurse who won $18 million in punitive damages in federal court. And the article explains all about how these mistakes happen (mistaken identity must be fixed with human hands).

News You Can Use: The recently created Consumer Financial Protection Bureau offers all kinds of helpful information plus a complaint platform that might help fix whatever egregious mistake that has harmed you financially. The CFPB, just two years old, is one area of government that is actually working. It offers major help to student loan borrowers. And in two years it has returned $430 million into the pockets of wronged consumers.

I plan to use the CFPB complaint desk to refresh my 30-year-battle with the credit bureaus. I don’t think I’ll get $18 million, but perhaps, finally, I’ll get satisfaction… No more telephone calls or court summonses for my dead beat doppelganger.

Every Button Has a Story: August 5, 7 pm

button pearl carved 18thc

Perhaps you kept your grandmother’s jar of buttons. Or you enjoy looking for special buttons to use on quilts or
jackets. Or maybe you just like history and looking at beautiful antiques. On Monday, August 5, at 7 p.m, I’ll be giving a talk, on behalf of the New Jersey State Button Society. Title: “The World’s Smallest Antique: Every Button Has a Story,” and you’ll get to see some gorgeous buttons. It is at the Hickory Corner Branch of the Mercer County Library System, 138 Hickory Corner Road, East Windsor, 08520.

Another chance to ogle these fascinating tiny antiques is at the New Jersey State Button Show at the Union Fire Company building on Route 29 in Titusville, September 7, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., program at 1:30 p.m. Admission $2. Lillian Buirkle, (732-691-1776), buttonlady@optonline.net

At my talk and at the show, you will see exquisitely beautiful buttons made in the 19th century from enamel, china, shell, and ivory. Equally fascinating are buttons manufactured from modern materials — including rubber, plastic, celluloid, glass, and metal.

You can start your collection with buttons that cost 25 cents — or $25. Maybe you will collect buttons
made of glass, or that show pictures of cats, or that were used on uniforms.

Whether you like to use your antique or vintage buttons on your clothes or display them in your home, join me to explore the fascinating world of buttons.

Registration for the library talk is required, but you can register at the last minute if space is available. Call 448-1330 or register online at http://www.mcl.org or email hcprogs@mcl.org . No reservations needed for the September 7 show.

Guest Post: Karen L. Johnson

Business, Technology & Innovation

mehta johnsonThanks to Karen L. Johnson for this account of an important evening at the Princeton Tech Meetup. One must be a member to be told the location — but the Princeton Public Library is one of the sponsors! And the next meetup is Tuesday, August 27. BFF’

When Princeton techies gathered Tuesday night at Meetup Princeton Tech, they were treated to an energy-charged talk by Nihal Mehta. He captivated Creatives, Entrepreneurs, Investors, Service Providers and Techies (whose color-coded badges made for easy networking) with his roller-coaster ride in mobile tech marketing – 5 startups in the last dozen years.

Among his ventures is ipsh!, one of the first full-service mobile marketing agencies which he founded in 2001
and sold to Omnicom in 2005 (NYSE: OMC), buzzd, a real-time city guide which evolved into LocalResponse, which gives marketers real-time consumer input. Active angel investments to his credit include Admob (sold to Google), Greystripe (sold to Valueclick), and Movoxx (sold to Adenyo).

Mehta took what in a sense was a victory tour in Princeton. That he resigned himself by going to UPenn when Princeton wait-listed him was lost on no one, nor were his exhortations to all to leave the 40-hour/week job for the exhilaration and despair of the 100-hour week of the
entrepreneur, that being a self-established metric for his speech’s success.

Interspersed in his stories of failure and success as a mobile tech entrepreneur were quotations from Jay-Z, Nelson Mandela and tales compete with accents of his Indian family gatherings where his aunties tisk-tisked about the boy-who-went-bankrupt and later counted their cash as his ventures proved successful. Mehta advised people to “Take the wrong path the fastest…” so they could get through the steep learning curve from failure to success. With his record and the inspirational words, the 225 attendees stayed on a high-energy level.

After Mehta’s talk, new apps were presented by their creators, then the mic was offered as many persons as could be crammed into the remaining 2-minute segments. Those with new endeavors solicited feedback and collaborators as they headed off in many directions, as Mehta did before them.

Photo of Mehta and Johnson by Marek Malkowski.

Scripture Tour: No Andrew Carnegie Library Here

Scripture Tour of Princeton, , , , , ,

bainbridge-houseBainbridge House, home of the Historical Society of Princeton, is the former home of Princeton’s municipal library. Princeton was not one of the 1689 cities to which Andrew Carnegie donated a library building. As the story goes, the university asked Carnegie to donate, not a library building, but a lake for its rowing team. Result: Carnegie Lake, hand dug.

A just-aired NPR story by Susan Stamberg reveals that Carnegie (some compare him with Bill Gates) was a self-made steel magnate. Fresh from Scotland, as a 17-year-old worker, he petitioned the Pittsburgh library to let him borrow books and was at first refused, but prevailed until the policy was changed. An indefatigable worker, he sold U.S. Steel for half a billion dollars to JP Morgan and then, as Stamberg said, “gave it all away,” or at least $350 million of it.

Carnegie money paid for impressive buildings in the style of the time. What would Princeton have looked like with one of those? Perhaps it would have been built on campus? In any case, the eager readers of Princeton had to find their books stuffed into an 18th century home, getting a purpose built building only in 1966. Now Princeton has its Taj Mahal building, adored perhaps even worshipped, called “Princeton’s living room.”

Perhaps it is a double blessing that we don’t have a Carnegie building. We might not have had the gumption to tear it down to build our three-story Taj Mahal.

(This post is part of the Scripture Tour of Princeton series, inspired by a tour I gave to Ohio’s Peddling Parsons when they visited us at Princeton United Methodist Church. But I haven’t decided on the Bible verse. Suggestions?)

We can’t hear this story without two codas. Carnegie famously built his empire on the backs of the steel workers, provoking the bitterest union fight in the history of this nation. And, supposedly Ellen Wilson, wife of the university president Woodrow Wilson, entertained Carnegie in her home (now Prospect House) and importuned Carnegie to give Princeton a library. Carnegie’s answer: “Madam, I gave you a lake.”

Statistics Don’t Count . . . But

Faith and Social Justice

Somebody has supposedly measured the intelligence of every city in the United States and has proven that Princeton is in the top three smartest cities in the nation.

We could have figured that out without the test. And we doubt the efficacy of the test in the first place. But we’ll smile and acknowledge the honor.

Now the question is — what are we doing with these massive brains to help our community, our world?

White Southern Lady: Civil Rights Advocate

Faith and Social Justice,

How would Princeton be different if Barbara Boggs Sigmund had lived? Her mother, Lindy Boggs, just died: 

The New Orleans Times Picayune obit writer describes Bogg’s “disarming personal charm, a gift for communicating warmth and a sense of civility that drew others as her allies, almost to their surprise. 

Friends said she elevated manners to an art form, and made personal charm a powerful political tool. . . But a hard substantive edge always glinted just below the surface. . . Mrs. Boggs also became famous for her tenacity — a warm and ever-gracious refusal to take no for an answer. . . 

Boggs supported civil rights, as did her daughter, who began to follow her father’s and mother’s political trajectory as mayor of Princeton Borough. Boggs quit her job in Congress in 1990 to care for Barbara who, after years of sporting an eye patch, would die of cancer that year.

Had Barbara Boggs Sigmund lived, I believe she would have — in her New Orleans drawl — done something about issues of inequality with which Princeton is still struggling. She was her mother’s daughter.

 

Scripture Tour: Princeton University Chapel

Around Town, Faith and Social Justice, Scripture Tour of Princeton

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When the Pedaling Parsons — ministers riding bikes to raise money for missions — toured Princeton, their favorite spot was  the beautiful Princeton University Chapel. Here is the virtual tour with details on the choir loft carved from wood found in Sherwood Forest, and pews made from gun carriages. 

What is the scripture for this? My pick is Isaiah 2:4 and what’s yours?

It was built in 1928 for $2 million after the Marquand Chapel was destroyed in a fire.  The intent was, according to the University history, “to permit the University to maintain its religious heritage, but in a manner that recognized its public mission in an increasingly multicultural society.” I told them about the community -wide services at Thanksgiving and we commiserated on the sad fact that the University Chapel services are held, invariably, at the same time as the PUMC services. Tour it online here.

 

 

 

 

 

Photo by Steve McDonald.

The Peddling Parsons’ mission target this year is “Stopping Random Violence Before it Happens: investing in children and youth programming at local community centers.” office@northcantongrace.org

Speaking To Connect

Business
Speech consultant Eileen Sinett will lead a mini-workshop, “Perception — Do You See What I See?” for a Business Breakfast Forum on Friday, July 26, 8:30 to 10:15 a.m. at her studio on Plainsboro Road.  “Share your stories and insights, engage in some creative networking, and reap the rewards of peer perspectives,” says Sinett.
 
I’m a regular at these “fourth Friday” sessions and never fail to learn some new communications tip that I can put to use right away — either in conversation, or teaching Sunday School, or conducting a meeting, or in an actual speech. Reservations are limited and required. The very reasonable $10 fee includes a yummy continental breakfast catered by Shirley Reynolds.
 
Sinett also offers her special brand of “Speaking That Connects” to teenagers on Wednesday, July 31, at 6 p.m. at a branch of Kumon, 1800 Route 33, Hamilton Square. This complimentary introductory session is free. RSVP for either to eileen@speakingthatconnects.com or 609.799.1400.  

Smarter Roads for Smarter Cars: July 22 to 25

Around Town

More sidewalks, more bike lanes, better infrastructure — after Hurricane Sandy, when an entire village burned because the road was impassable, the Department of Transportation is rebuilding. Find out how in the current issue of U.S. 1 as Diccon Hyatt tells about one of those conferences that don’t get advertised, “Driving a Sustainable Environment,” set for  Monday through Thursday, July 22 through 25, at the Transportation Review Board Summer Workshop at the Hyatt Regency in New Brunswick. Among the topics will be “intelligent roads,” like those I’ve seen in Germany. On the autobahn, electronic signs tell the speed limits, which varies according to weather and circumstances. It’s what we need for the “smart cars” of the future.