SWCAMBORNE

I spent a good part of my youth in Olean NY and have mostly fond memories of my years there. We arrived in 1957 from the UK and the family drifted away in the mid 1960s.

Rick Jenks complied this web site of historic postcards of Olean. Nice job. It makes me nostalgic.

Simon in about 1960

My first birthday in the USA

Olean had a population of over 30,000 in 1910 and now has less than 17,000. Housing is cheap about 40% lower than the national average. It does have a nice web site.

Hazel has a web site titled “Send me a Postcard.”  Hazel you have a great idea and you have come to the right place. Her goal is to get more postcards than anyone else on the planet ever. We can help.

I sent this one

I’ve been writing about 100 postcards a month for about three years now. And some of my main recipients are well ahead of Hazel. For instance I’ve sent Lillian well over 150. During the time I’ve been writing I have received a lot but I haven’t counted yet.

But this is not about me it’s about Hazel and her quixotic quest. Visit her web site and send her a post card. Click here to learn more about my quest for free postcards “the perfect marketing tool.”

Hazel’s address is:

I Sent You a Postcard,

Flat 9, Queens Court,

Palatine Road,

West Didsbury,

Manchester, United Kingdom, M20 3ZA

Last week I wrote a post about trying to go the Arboretum Garden Show and the difficulty with Westfield Santa Anita Mall. I also wrote a complaint to Westfield.  This is a transcript of that correspondence:

The message was sent to: corporateaffairs@westfield.com from: Simon
Burrow.
Message is as follows:
Why wouldn’t you let us park in the corner of the mall for the
Arboretum Garden Show last weekend?
http://swcamborne.com/archives/politics/westfield-mall-and-the-
arboretum-garden-show.

I received a prompt reply from Michael Lattanzio:

On May 14, 2007, at 12:40 PM, Michael Lattanzio wrote:

Hi there –
I am following up with you to your email below. The Garden Show
was an event held and hosted by the Arboretum this past weekend.
Westfield Santa Anita Mall had no direct involvement with the
event. Please feel free to contact representatives at the
Arboretum 626.821.3222 for assistance or answers to your inquiry.
If for some reason I have misinterpreted this note, please feel
free to contact me at the number referenced below and I would be
more than happy to assist you.
Kind Regards,
Michael

To which I replied:

—–Original Message—–
From: “Simon Burrow”
To: “Michael Lattanzio”
Sent: 5/14/07 4:48 PM
Subject: Re: Westfield.com Contact Us submission

Michael
Thanks for answering my email.
I know the garden show was sponsored by the Arboretum. My question
was: If you want to be good neighbors in Arcadia why wouldn’t your
security people let cars park in the corner of your lot (which was
empty) and walk over to the show? It seems like a counter productive
move and made me, for one, think bad thoughts about Westfield.
Simon

Michael responded:

On May 14, 2007, at 10:56 AM, Michael Lattanzio wrote:
I cannot speak for the security individual who conveyed that message to you, but I have no problem with guests of the Arboretum parking at our site during non-peak business hours. Our weekends tend to draw high traffic demand therefore every parking stall makes a difference. We have provided parking for the Philharmonic every summer for the past 10 years and I cherish the relationship I have with the Arboretum staff.
If I could be further assistance, please let me know.
Kind Regards,
Michael

As you can see we are not communicating but I decided to give it one more try:

Michael
The Santa Anita Mall is Westfield’s property and you as General Manager can do what you want with it. But what I was looking for from you was:
An acknowlegement that a mistake was made not allowing garden show attendees to park in the NE corner of the mall that was empty.
An indication that you had changed your policy.
and perhaps an apology.
Your reply which began: “I cannot speak for….” does none of those things and further confirms my original assumption that Westfield is not a good neighbor to Arcadia. Why would we support your desire for a commercial monopoly?
I’m going to post this exchange on my blog site and in a spirit of fairness and goodwill will be willing to post any further remarks you wish to make.
Thanks
Simon

The world is changing.

One of our cable boxes stopped working and Nurit asked me to disconnect it so she could take it in for an exchange. She strongly suggested, twice, that I label the wires connected to the back so that I could reconnect it easily. Since there are 10 wires it seemed like a reasonable request but a bit of a hassle. Then a metaphorical light bulb went off. “I can take a digital picture”

And I did and it worked. Another great idea to save you time and hassles. This is bad news for companies, like Brady that sell wire numbers. Digital is changing the world one idea at a time.

“Chaos is the law of nature; Order is the dream of man.”

Henry James

Lillian and Heidi went to a Padres game at Petco Park last week and it was “retro night” or some such thing. They wore these beautiful uniforms:

It reminded me of a comment from Steve Garvey who after being the Dodgers very good first baseman for many years went to play for the Padres. When asked how he liked being a Padre he replied “The uniforms make me feel like a Taco.” Baseball fashion changes and we are all grateful.

When we went to see Lew Watanabe at the Arboretum it took two tries.  It was so crowded and difficult to find a parking place the first time Howard and Nurit and I gave up.  I went alone the next day and parked and took the shuttle.  It took a lot of time but it was doable.  The first day we tried to park in the northwest corner of the Westfield Mall parking lot and a mall security police guy was trying to keep people from parking there.

It is Westfield’s property and they can do what they want but it is odd that on the one hand they are trying to convince the community that they are good citizens, so they can keep their mall monopoly, and on the other hand they are being bad neighbors to the large non profit organization across the street by not sharing their parking lot.

If you feel the way I do send Westfield an email and this link.

I bought Nurit some new binoculars for her birthday from Binoculars.com. The ones I selected for their size and the lens quality were made by Zhumell.

They are an amazing upgrade over our old binoculars and I highly recommend Zhumell and Binoculars.com. Both delivered more than they promised.

However my favorite thing about the binoculars is the instruction book.

It is small, which is good and has the cleverest Warnings I have ever seen.

You can click on the picture to read all of them but my two favorites are:

“Running with scissors is dangerous. Never run with scissors while using binoculars.”

“Not intended for human consumption.”

A sense of humor is a wonderful thing.

Lew Watanabe is who I want to be when I grow up.

He is a reknowned stone artist, has published a book and is also a really nice person.

His installations are beautiful and he does fountains.

This bench weighs about three tons and is magnificent.

All of these pieces were on display at the LA County Arboretum in Arcadia at the annual Garden Show. Lew who is a friend of Ed Clare my electrician told me about the display and I braved the crowds last Sunday and went down to see his work and talk to him. What an inspiration. I bought a copy of his book “Master of Stone and Light” on Amazon.

In LA the place to be in the 1920′s was MacArthur Park. It was halfway between Hollywood and downtown los Angeles. So that is where the Elks built their beautiful Art Deco Building. The area and the Elks fell on hard times and the building was not used for many years. Now it is being beautifully restored as the Park Plaza Hotel and is available for parties and events.

We were lucky enough to be invited to a CHIRLA event at the Park Plaza and were impressed by the beauty of the building and the graciousness of the staff. The event itself was very well done and extremely festive. We had to leave before the speeches but the food was terrific and the people we met were all very interesting. You can learn more about the CHIRLA Gala in the story I wrote on RadicalMigration.com

In the same way that a piece of sand in an oyster can grow a pearl the Park Plaza Hotel could start the revival of MacArthur Park. It would be a good creative place for a big wedding or Bnai Mitzvah. Or a retirement party or a reunion.