Undercover Boss + American Idol = ???

We’ve been snowed in for what feels like forever, actually five days. Today we are getting buried by our third snow storm in the last month. With today’s incredible wind our car, deck and yard are literally buried under two to three feet of snow.  Some parts of the yard have drifts up to five feet.

Today is also the one day we will not go out at all (except to shovel walk and take some pictures) Even with the blasts of the last week or so we had been able to walk to Politics and Prose, 7-11, Mazza Gallerie, the grocery store, the bank, etc., and the kids even had play dates yesterday.  But today we are stuck inside.


Having been stuck inside for the last five days has increased our TV watching (though it hasn’t been too excessive).  Two shows in particular prompted me to blog.


The first was ‘Undercover Boss’ which debuted right after the Super Bowl. The show documents what happens when a CEO goes undercover to work a variety of jobs within his or her company. The debut followed the CEO of Waste Management (next week’s episode follows the CEO of Hooters; wonder how that company made the show?) so the show emphasized among other things recycling.


Overall UB is pretty sympathetic to workers, who at Waste Management get docked if they take more than 30 minutes for lunch, have to do the work of 4 people at one site, and if you are a female garbage collector have to pee in a can as part of an effort to maximize efficiency.


We also caught up on a week’s worth of episodes of American idol via TiVO. It’s almost a cliché, but all the contestants on Idol want to improve the lives of their family and their economic station in life.  The thing that strikes me about the contestants is all of them are young, have jobs, but seem to be stuck in non-career type jobs. The show features lots of waitresses, fast food employees, sandwich makers, sales associates, etc. (there is a steady stream of high school students but not many college students).


The contestants on Idol remind me of the Waste Management employees.  I imagine most of the jobs that AI contestants have don’t come with health insurance, paid vacations, or many benefits at all.  And I’m not sure what the benefits are at Waste Management, but if you get docked for taking 31 minutes for lunch or don’t have time to stop to go to the bathroom they don’t seem that robust.


To me, both shows make compelling arguments for more unions. Last time I checked more than 30 percent of American workers do not have paid vacations or paid days off, another embarrassing statistic for the world’s richest nation of all time.  As these shows point out, Americans are working hard but the economy is not working for them.  To me, one remedy is to restore balance by allowing workers in every sector – from sandwich maker to garbage collector – to collectively bargain for more money, paid vacations, and lunch breaks long enough to go to the bathroom.  You shouldn't have to pin your hopes on winning American Idol - working should be enough to provide for you and your family.

Abe Pollin

Sad to hear about the death of Abe Pollin, the long-time owner of our hometown Washington Wizards.  Pollin led a long and productive life, and should be celebrated for what he did for DC and especially downtown Washington. 


The old Washington Bullets won him one NBA championship, the 1978 team led by Wes Unseld and Elvin Hayes, but Pollin will long be remember for his citizenship rather than his team ownership.  Or for hiring then firing the greatest basketball player of all time from the front office, a gutsy move at the time that paid off in the win and loss column.


When I moved to DC in 1993, much of the area where the Verizon Center stands was empty, literally a vacant lot (a parking lot) that had not been rebuilt in the wake of the 1968 riots.  Prime real estate in the capitol of the free world - within walking distance of the White House - stood empty and abandoned for 25 years. That part of town was an ugly, empty monument to suburbia, a cynical reminder that folks in our area had abandoned the non-federal part of DC.


As many of you know, using mostly his own money Pollin built the 'phone booth' there, and overnight the neighborhood between Pennsylvania Avenue and Massachusetts Avenue became the center of a new downtown - complete with a chic urban nickname, Penn Quarter.  


That part of town has too many chain stores for my liking, but it is also full of cool and very good restaurants - Zaytinya, Jaleo, Rasika, Austin Grille, etc. - and has become a destination.  Bottom line, it brought and kept people in DC and was the catalyst for some pretty dramatic urban renewal.


All of that was made possible by Abe Pollin.  And though they never won Pollin another championship, at least the Wizards were worth watching the last few years.  It was great to see the Wizards win tonight in a small salute to Pollin (and what a coincidence that the opposing team, the 76ers, were coached by DC-native Eddie Jordan, the coach who helped make the Wizards a consistent play-off team the last 5 years).  


Here's to Abe Pollin and his contributions to our fair city.  Everlasting be his memory.

NBA Playoffs Blog

One way to treat (but not cure) my post Final Four blues is with a nice playoff run by the hometown Washington Wizards.  I'm so excited I'm going to do something I have never done - TiVO a Wizards game, today's first round game versus Cleveland that runs up against back-to-back kid soccer games.  

I blogged this a week or so ago, but I think the Wiz will go to the Eastern Conference finals. They match very well with Cleveland and Boston and will pull back-to-back upsets.  The Big Three for the Zards are healthy - at least Jamison and Arenas are - but I think it will be my man Brendan Haywood that puts Washington over the top in both series.

Haywood may have more trouble with Cleveland that with Boston. He is coming off his best season as a professional, and generally plays very well against Cav center Zydrunas Ilgauskas.  But last year, Z dominated the first round sweep of the Wizards.  If Haywood rebounds he should out play Ilgauskas this year.

The Wizards have beaten the Celtics three times this season, and Haywood has been a big reason.  In each win, he has kept KG in check, even getting in his face a few times. For whatever reason, the Cs bring out the best in the Wizards.  As critical as Haywood will be, I think this will be Arenas' series. Look for Agent Zero to use this series to redeem a season lost to injury, AND to remind the rest of the league that he is one of the NBA's elite players.

Not much else happening in the East - the Pistons will march to the conference and NBA finals with only a few speed bumps against inferior competition.  The Wizards will probably be the most and probably the only intriguing story in the East.  

That is not the case in the West.

It's still hard to accept that the Spurs play the Suns in the first round! The Suns appear to have figured out the Shaq thing, going 15-5 in their last 20 games.  Stoudamire has really excelled with Shaq around, but I have trouble seeing the Spurs losing this series.  My bet is that Shaq and Duncan, and Nash and Parker, cancel each other out. It will come down to who plays better - Stoudamire or Ginobili.  As much as I like Stoudamire I have to go with Ginobili (one of the three most exciting players on the planet).

Though not as marque as the Suns-Spurs series, there are other great first round match ups.  I see the Jazz taking down the Rockets and Tracy McGrady.  My guess is that Jerry Sloan will figure out how to dismantle Houston in a seven-game series.

The Lakers will handle the Nuggets, but the other first round match up - between the Hornets and Mavs - is a toss up.  I'm still not a believer in the Hornets, though Dallas does not inspire much confidence either.  This series, like much of the playoffs actually, is full of talented players,  but many of whom do not have IT.   KG, McGrady, Pierce, Allen, Kidd, Nowitzki, are all veteran stars whose teams - for whatever reason - never seem to win the big game.  Calling them 'losers' is too harsh, but when in doubt pick against their teams.

Nats Notes

Nice win for the Nats last night, mainly because they finally got a big hit.  Hopefully, Nick Johnson's bases loaded double will ignite more clutch hitting from the Nats.   Zimmerman got two hits last night, and has hit in three straight so he may be getting his stroke back.  Let's hope that Kearns and Pena start hitting soon too.

Sean Hill got called up by Washington yesterday and makes his 2008 debut today against Florida.  He's got the stuff to be a number one starter if he stays healthy.

As bad as the Nats have played they are only 5 back with 145 games left to play!