Not the Front Page

Sometimes the most interesting news is not found on the front page. Witness today’s New York Times.

Business Section
I often scan “The Boss” column, which is supposedly written by bosses of relatively large companies and often turns out just as you’d suppose – a paean to the boss. Today’s column is not quite a paean. It features Erroll B. Davis, Jr., the chairman and CEO of Alliant Energy in Madison, WI; older readers will know it as the former Wisconsin Power and Light.

The first thing that struck my eye was Davis’ response to the question of his favorite business book. His response: never reads them. Although he does not elaborate as to his reason, I can surely understand why: most business books say the obvious, forecast either Nirvana or Armageddon, or tell the reader how wonderful the author is. His response reminded me of an old Studio One (that was a live drama show on network television, you youngsters) production in which Jackie Gleason played the role of an idiot savant appearing on a quiz show. Fifty years later, the character’s response to the usual question of “What do you do for a living” stays with me. The response of “Nothing” is, to my, at times, strange mind, a perfect comment on how we tend to define a person by their job or what books they read.

Some quotes from the article: “These are powerful positions we executives hold. I have $8 billion at my disposal. We don’t have that many checks and balances on us. You can lose perspective and start to think you’re royalty.”

Now, his ending quote: “If you lose track of where you came from, you lose track of your moral compass, what work means to the average employee.”

His company, based on its web site, seems to be as forthright and capable as he is. I may even buy some of its stock.

Styles Section
If you want froth for the arrivistes, read this section. Except for today.

The lead article is about a New York City plastic surgeon, Dr. Michael Sachs, who is very adept at PR. He was so adept at PR that he was able to convince an Irish woman, Kathleen Cregan, to fly from Ireland to his office in New York for a face-lift. Ms Cregan was 42, but thought she looked to be in her mid to late fifties. Based on the picture accompanying the article, I would have thought her to be in her late 30s or early 40s.

Whatever the reason why Ms Cregan wanted to change her appearance, she told no one in her family. Her husband’s first knowledge of her trip came when the Irish Consulate in New York called to tell him that his wife was in critical condition at St Luke’s Hospital.

If Dr. Sachs’ PR were not as good or if Ms Cregan did some searching about him, she would have found out that he was one of the most sued doctors in New York (he had settled 33 malpractice cases in the past ten years), the state Department of Health had banned him from performing complex nose jobs without supervision, he was not affiliated with any hospital, his office operating room was not accredited. In short, he was an accident waiting to happen.

I guess that if the subject weren’t plastic surgery it never would have made this section and, maybe, never made any other section of the newspaper.