Why this case is important and why I care:

Buried in the A section in last week's paper.

This case was supposed to be the showcase in the government's pursuit of bad charter operators. There are so many loopholes in charter operating law in PA that it's basically a license to steal if you are the "opportunistic" sort. The intent of this show trial was to nail her ass and bring all the other bad operators to the table for plea bargains. Hers was the biggest, most egregious instance of fraud. $6.3M of taxpayer funds channeled by falsified documents and shell companies into her own pocket. She created a sort of charter mafia, complete with dummy and puppet boards to do her bidding.

A string of cases was supposed to follow. Well, it didn't work out the way the US prosecutors hoped. They presented a clear line of forensic audits and established enough probably cause to convince 9 jurors of her guilt. Sorry, but it takes 12. Jury nullification along racial lines. But the government was undeterred and is seeking to retry the case. This is when this smooth operator supposedly began to develop dementia. Now 77 is an age where one is surely at risk for dementia, but I have to say that it was damned good timing.

The question I have Martha​, is that if she is declared incompetent, does she get to keep all the money? How much, if any, can the taxpayers of PA expect to get back? I've said it before, "Crazy like a fox."

After a long grassroots battle by parents to acquire a voice and find leadership not connected to her, the school's board of trustees hired as CEO, an insider, a man who was tried, but found innocent of fraud. I believe that educational leaders should be held to a higher standard, but I guess I was in the minority. I consider this a failure and a net loss of all I and some other "unaligned" parents worked so hard for. But my boy has moved on and so have I.

The school itself is an island of education excellence. My son did well there. He's moved on to another school and that is where our focus lies. Increasingly, I've learned that even a quality education looks like sausage. You don't want to see how it's made.

Your Superbowl Ad Sucked—A Public Service Announcement

 Ads have been called the artform of the 21st Century. They can be artful if not art and The Superbowl used to be the SB of ads too. They used to be funny, daring or visually stunning. "Did you see the one with..." or "How did they talk the client into ..." were standard postgame water cooler fare. They used to be a celebration of unbounded creativity, of the big dog let off the leash for one glorious run around the stadium.

Every year the bar would get higher and those of us in advertising and marketing awaited the Big Game Spots with the eagerness of kids at Christmas. There was always one ad with an incredible concept backed by stunning production values that blew everybody away. It was a point of pride that we could share with our civilian friends and family. We could point to the screen and say, see, this is what I'm talking about. This year we all got coal.

Clients, it seem have become more conservative and so have their agencies. In their effort not to offend, they've failed to entertain or innovate. Microsoft runs the same chirpy ads, the same-ish interchangeable jiggly blonde works it for Carl's Junior, the boldest moves were reserved for Budweiser who poked millennial beer snobs (so risky) and Nationwide who cheerily reminded us that death is an important part of life (insurance).

A PSA from creatives, for creatives, a reminder that in Superbowl 2015, the most exciting part of the game, was the game. So be it. Like they're saying in Seattle, there's always next year. And for those of us who've forgotten what shocking, funny and creative look like all bundled together, there's this little gem for a product most Americans will never see or use. But I'm tempted to sign on, just because their ad is so good. Isn't that the point?

Watch it, but maybe not with your boss looking over your shoulder.

Unlucky roll

Graphic NYT 1/5/15

After watching one of my best friends chopped down by intestinal cancer 17 months after diagnosis, I can vouch that it is truly a crap shoot. He got a really frickin' unlucky roll. There are 7 different mutations of his type of cancer and he got one of the most therapy-resistant ones. It wasn't the very worst mutation, but it sure was bad enough.

Make no mistake, we have world class cancer therapy and research here, mostly at the University of PA. My man did everything he should have done, sought out the most advanced experimental interventional radiology, exercised, researched, took an active role in his care, yet didn't even live out the stingy 2 year prognosis the original oncologists gave him. Cancer care pros like my wife talk about cancer care evolving as chronic disease management, but there was nothing chronic about this. This was as acute, random and brutal as the grim reaper gets. I now wonder if he would have had any less time or better quality of life, if instead of going through chemo, he just opted for palliative care at the end. Flip of the coin.

The internet is full of wonderful, hopeful breast cancer survivor stories. I know a handful of survivors. And I also knew two women who were dead months after their diagnoses. I knew another new mother who was told 18 years ago to make her final arrangements. She got to see her daughter's 15th birthday before she passed. Flip of the coin.

So, I liked the article "Cancer's Random Assault," but I'm amazed by the vitriol of the responses. People seem to need a cause/solution construct for everything. We anthropomorphize entropy--put a black hooded cloak on it and give it a scythe. We treat it like something or someone we can blame, fight or bargain with.
 

However complex the causalities, however deep the science goes in search of them, there is still an unseen, quantum aspect of life that you can't put a face on.  The numbers tell a story, but it's not a story about individuals, but about aggregate populations and statistical probability. In our vanity we are deeply uncomfortable "just being a number" but the truth is that sometimes we are just dots on a curve.

To my friends who are survivors, I salute you. Whatever hell you went through, you're still with us. You are lucky and we are lucky to still have you. To those who've passed and to those who grieve them; you did nothing wrong. Life and death are mostly like that. Just pure dumb random luck.