Sunday, September 30, 2007

Cindy Adams Don't Dispair

Cindy,

I know you feel awful about forgetting your lines this morning on the Today Show but give it up. You do it better in writing and verbal reporting than most over the last 40 plus years. Every day when I pick up the New York Post, I really just don't know how you pour out that copy. You are amazing. You and Liz have done more accurate and continuous reporting in your lifetimes than many five journalists combined. Excuse yourself. You finally showed us your human side.

Love a Fan

Lois

Saturday, September 01, 2007

Eliot Hess Warms Up Pedro's Arm


Pedro Martinez and Mike Piazza live in our condo building in Miami. It is always so weird to see them as ordinary people leading ordinary lives. We have seen Mike around a lot but just recently we have started to see Pedro over and over. After returning to our building Thursday night there was Pedro sitting on a cement bench right in front of the lobby chatting on the telephone. It was about midnight and we just finished celebrating Eliot's birthday at DeVito's with friends.

The minute I see either Pedro or Mike I get nervous because Eliot likes to recognizes celebs with either a handshake or a conversation. My daughter and I cringe because we feel like he is invading their privacy. Eliot takes on the persona like he is the famous one just giving the boys a little encouragement.

Again, Eliot couldn't help himself, after all it was his special day. We didn't know that Pedro was leaving Miami to meet the Mets in Cincinnati. Eliot gave Pedro the high five and Pedro took that ever sensitive, that ever so valuable, right hand, and high fived him back.

Whitney and I couldn't help but give each other looks of despair. Little did we know that Eliot was just helping Pedro train after being out all season because of rotator cuff surgery.

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

My Image As An Uptown Girl

Every morning I walk my Maltese Coco on 62nd Street and Second Avenue before I get into my car for the 10 block ride to my office. Yes I am very decadent, I drive to work. I pay for two garages in Manhattan and somehow that works out to be less expensive than taking a cab. Of course, the prices I am paying could buy a lovely home in the interiors of the country but who wants to live there.

Anyway I am very fastidious about how I walk my dog, how I clean up after her and how I clean her after she poops.

I carry baby wipes with me at all time so I can clean the sidewalk (I hate leaving residue--or maybe it should be spelled--residoo-from my precious dog for someone to look at) and I like to clean her tush so that nothing smears on me when she is on my lap during the car ride each day.

As luck would have it, every once in a while, when I bend down to clean what sometimes is an awful mess, someone I know is walking by catching me in this process.

The other day a retired mogul from the early days of the home video revolution was on his way to the gym when he spotted me holding a handful of shitty wipes. This morning a gal who I do charity work with tapped me on the shoulder as I was practically on my knees scraping the sidewalk.

Is this how I want people to see me?

Most of the time I am an aggressive businesswoman spewing out information that makes deals and sets policy. This morning I was the mother of a 13 year old Maltese who needs me to wipe her rear.

Now that I think about it, somedays there is little difference between what I have to do at my two jobs.

Thursday, August 09, 2007

Where Is The Fashion Police When You Need Them?




As a PR expert for the last 30 years, I must be more sensative to changes in fashion than most others. My mind is befuddled by what most young women are wearing today. If any of my school mates or friends would have ever had their bra straps hanging out we would have thought that their brains were fried. Today showing your straps makes you appear edgy and cool.

This morning a gal interviewed for an AE job at HWH. I just couldn't hire her even though she was very bright. I can't send her on a client call wearing the clothes she showed up in. From the ground up: Red rubber boots, tight burmuda shorts that were about five inches higher than her boots, , a see thru pregnancy looking blouse with her straps handing out. To top it all off, a ring in her lower lip.

Years ago, if I saw a gal walking down the street like that , I would have called the guys in the
white coats to cart her off. Today she is considered a glamour puss.

All I have to say is "What a revoluting development this is!"


Friday, June 15, 2007

The CEO And His Advisor



I just love being close to CEO's. The one I am pictured with here is client Richard Krulik, CEO of U.S. Luggage, makers of Briggs & Riley and SOLO Cases. We are at The Briggs & Riley Design for a Cure kick-off reception last night, Grant Gallery, Soho, NYC.

We welcomed top tier press, friends and colleagues to celebrate the launch of Briggs & Riley's first annual Design for a Cure auction. The celebrity decorated bags, showcased in spotlights, were the talk of the night! With a great turnout, fantastic atmosphere, good food and smiling faces, Briggs & Riley showed the world how a great company brands itself and gives back to the community as well.

Jim Lahren, Richard, Barbara Rogus from JDRF and Tatiana Grant all gave wonderful speeches. All evening people were itching to get to the auction site and start bidding, which is now live at www.ebay.com/briggsriley.

Because of the wonderful space, the event itself and the great teamwork of Briggs & Riley and HWH, the Design for a Cure event was a huge success as the auction is sure to be. Congrats and thanks to all!

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Just read Page 6

JUST READ PAGE 6

Stop the theatrics!!!!

Is your relationship with The Donald worth saving?

You can't have it both ways (Get the double entendre?)

When you hired Rosie you appeared to be a renaissance woman in your golden years.

Your audiences saw you as a forward thinker, open to new ideas, accepting of change, a futurist.

You were timeless.

Recently you have reverted back to being typical, stodgy, Park Avenue stuffy, scared of the what if's.

You would rather play it safe.

Please, before it is too late, stick to your original hunch.

Rosie is a breath of fresh air.

Give Rosie your full support

Her former TV Show, her magazine, her special events, her remarks were cherished word for word by much, much more than not.

Her knack for editorial quality is unmatched.

Don't let Donald's timely PR rants sway you.

Rosie has done more for the needy than most other individuals,

Rosie is a survivor.

We thought you were too

Thursday, April 05, 2007

Thank Goodness Good Friday Will Be Good Friday

I don't care what everyone else says about Iran. I am thrilled the Iranians released the Brits. Even if the entire episode was a PR stunt so that they can look

magnanimous to the rest of the world, at least Bush doesn't have a reason to invade Iran as so many writers and broadcasters reported he would on Good Friday.

When I first heard about Bush's reported intentions a week ago, I cancelled my appointments that I planned for on my day off in order to be

glued to the TV set. Have to run...........want to get my manicure, pedicure and facial appointments back again.

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Too Bad We Are Judged In Death Too

Isn't it bad enough that our family and peers judge us when we are living?
I guess not, because recently I've learned that we get judged in death too.

I tried to place an obituary of an industry pioneer from the consumer electronics business a few weeks ago in the leading trade magazines. But because the present day editors didn't really know this unbelievable soul, he got a squib of a mention after I hounded them for days. The guy was in the industry for over 40 years and helped a lot of people and companies get rich. He branded his retail chain as a leading source for electronics and was a major, national volunteer for one of the best non-profits in the world.

The other day someone else in the industry died who was very kind, very young, very well-known and very well liked. She got the lead story in the trades.

Here is proof: It always is who you know and not what you know...in death, as well as in life.

Friday, February 09, 2007

Kentucky Fried Chicken Bashes Concerned Mom

I can take constructive criticism. What I can't take is criticism just to make someone else look good.

That is why I get so upset when Kentucky Fried Chicken runs that "ferkakte" (Yiddish for small time) TV commercial showing one
mom scorning another.

Allow me to set the scene: A young boy, around the age of 12, calls home to ask his mother if he can stay for dinner at his friend's house. The mother questions the son like a good mother should. She asks him if his friend's parents are home and if he will be eating dinner.

The son says yes and turns the phone over to his friend's mother for verification. The friend's mom confirms that they will be eating a wholesome supper. Not once does she say it is a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken. She ends the conversation, turns around to her son's friend and gives him a smirk like "your mother is weird."

I watched this commercial several times to make sure I wasn't imagining something. The mother on the phone was questioning her son's security, not the content of the dinner. The friend's mother totally undermined her by trying to make herself look like a big shot.

Some big shot. She is a schtunk (Yiddish for lazy, do nothing) just like me. I do not cook, never have cooked, and have no plans for ever cooking. But you can be sure I would act like a mensch (nice person) and reinforce parental control.

I say next time serve a can of Chicken Soup. It cures everything.

Friday, February 02, 2007

Allow Me To Introduce You To The Delete Button

I am a publicist. I get paid to publicize. My agency uses e-mail, snail mail, telephone, faxes, digital press rooms, face to face meetings, CD ROM, DVD, USB drives, and more to distribute the news.

Most of the time we use e-mail blasts because it is the easiest way to reach hundreds, sometimes thousands, of writers in the most expeditious way.

I receive several thousand e-mails per day. It takes me less than 10 minutes to delete the ones I do not want.

I do not understand journalists (thank goodness there are only a handful of them) who get on this spam kick. They ask to be deleted from mailings because they do not want to be spammed.

The time it took them to ask me to remove them from our mailing lists certainly took 100 percent more time than what it would have been to just "delete."

I wonder what their bosses would think if they knew that their writers/editors did not want to receive information.

By asking to be cut from lists, you only cut yourself off in this world of digital communications.

Sure, you may not be interested in this particular news item, but who knows, the next one could be exactly what you need.

This morning Ned Colt called from NBC London asking to be taken off. A cross-Atlantic call instead of a simple delete.

I think that tells you something about a person. I am not going to say what.

At the most, he received three emails from us in the past month. 1, 2, 3, and he would have been rid of me. He choose to take 15 minutes out of his obvious, not busy schedule, to call and chat.

I rest my case.

I hope I get a lot of comments on this blog because I would love to debate spam any day of the week. I have been on both sides of the fence, editor and now a PR person.

Junk mail is a necessary evil. Get over it.