The North American
International Auto Show is a site to be seen around the country, but in
the Detroit area it is a chance for the millions of local auto workers
that live here to see what they may be producing and take pride in their
company's name. Every year in January, the Cobo Center hosts the Detroit
version of the Auto show and every year well over a half million people
make the trip to the venue to take in the glory. This is a show for
everyone, even the little ones. This years event took place from January
19 thru January 27th. It was a week of beauty, style, and concept. If
you are a people watcher there is something here for you. If you are a
car aficionado this is your dream, and if you are just looking for your
next vehicle this is the place to start.
However, while
Ford certainly saw the potential for soaring profits by basically
eliminating their payroll costs in Mexico where the daily minimum wage
is about $4.50 a day, they did not count on their business plan becoming
another casualty in Mexico's raging drug war.
To give
you an idea of the depth of the collection, on display is a 1926
Rolls-Royce. Wilbert Grinsven, the curator tells me that there were only
two years that Rolls-Royce manufactured cars in the United States. Those
years were 1926 and 1927. This car is one of the few Rolls Royce's made
here during that time. The auto manufacturer decided that it was not
economically feasible to continue manufacturing autos in the US and
closed its factory here in the states after only 2 years. Another
example of a beautiful old car is a car used in the movie "Driving Miss
Daisy".
straight
from the source
Hannah's was just a hole-in-the-wall, long and
narrow with a bar running almost the whole length of the building. The
brick on the face of the building, and the white wooden door outside,
were nearly black from years of soot from the coke plant and steel
mills. Patrons tended to be older folks who spent what was left of their
paychecks on booze, Polish sausages, hard-boiled eggs, and illegal tip
boards. I quickly came to a startling conclusion: people
will sing along to anything. The content of the song doesn't matter.
Politics simply don't enter into it. People are really singing along to
the melody, or the bass line or something. What the words actually mean
is immaterial.
I had just started on another beer when someone dropped a few
coins in the juke box. The music was bad country. To my utter disgust
the first song that played was that "I want to stick a boot up your
butt" super-patriotic, ultra-jingoist thing by the guy in the
buy quadrasteer truck commercials. The people around me began to sing
along loudly. It may be a word, a symbol or a motto but having a message can
do more to keep attorneys on the same page than almost anything else.
Decide what your message and is and stick to it, whether it be stamping
your symbol on letters and emails or boldly displaying your firm mantra
on the company website. Repetition will help attorneys stay on message
and clients recognize your presence. The
West Palm Beach Motorsports Examiner will be on hand for the event, and
will provide insight into the longest day in professional auto racing;
the Rolex 24! It's hard to do anything. It's hard to button your pants or brush
your teeth, let alone jump off a three-story building into a pad. This
movie was the most physical thing I've ever had to do, and I had to do
it with a broken hand. It's the hardest thing I've ever had to do in my
life. Constantly having to take hits and fall and run through explosions
and get hit and beat up all day. Aside from my hand, I also got 25
stitches making this movie, in various parts of my body -- stuff that
had nothing to do with my hand.