Decision 2053: Girl Power

This just in.

My six-year old daughter is running for President of the United States of America.

In 2053.

She made the stunning announcement last night while we were watching the Padres face the Dodgers.

“Are they the New York Dodgers?,” she asked.

My 11-year old son, shocked if not offended that a member of his family would ask such a question, said “no, they are the Los Angeles Dodgers.”

“I thought they were from New York,” she replied.

Instantly I realized that my six-year old was not only adorable, but she was paying attention.

So I jumped in and said that they used to play in Brooklyn, which is in New York.

“That’s the team that Jackie Robinson played for,” she added.

Yes it is.

So I asked if she knew what Jackie Robinson was famous for.

“He wore the number that my brother wears.”

True.

Actually, HE wears the number that Jackie wore.

My son did a report on Jackie in second grade and was so impressed by the story that he started wearing #42.

A number he wears with pride to this day, four years later.

I then informed my daughter that Jackie broke the color barrier, becoming the first black player in Major League history.

“That’s not nice,” she said.  “They didn’t let people play because of their skin color?”

“White people should’ve imagined what it would’ve been like if they couldn’t play or if they were slaves.”

This is probably a good time to remind you that SHE IS SIX-YEARS OLD.

As the conversation continued, I realized that not only do I have an amazing daughter, actually two plus an amazing son, but if I can keep the dialogue going, I also have the makings of an amazing blog as well.

So I started writing down quotes like I was having lunch with Bob Dylan.

“The white people thought they were better than the blacks,” she said.  “They made the blacks do all the chores.  Wash the clothes in the river, because they didn’t have washing machines.”

“All the white people only thought about themselves and they should’ve thought about how the blacks were being treated.”

“Why would you make someone a slave?  Treat someone how you would like to be treated.”

“It doesn’t matter what their skin color is, it matters what is in your heart.”

“If you want to be a bad person, you can be a bad person, but nobody wants to be your friend.”

She then notified me that she wanted to be the President of the United States, sometime between the age of 43 and 60.

She said that if she were the Prez, she too would’ve freed the slaves like Lincoln.

“I’d like to be the President.  To do stuff, yes.” 

“To make people do stuff for you and be your slave?  No.”

With her actual campaign still a few years away, there is time to make adjustments, but for now, her platform is very clear:

• No smoking, because that’s not good for you
• No texting while driving
• No putting on lip gloss while you are driving

This girl has clearly been watching too much Oprah.

But the fact that she has campaign promises, 43 years before the actual campaign, is quite impressive.

As we completed our interview, I mean our conversation, I asked if she knew why there has never been a female President.

“Because a girl hasn’t been elected,” she said.

Of course.

“And some people don’t want a girl to be President.”

That too.

I think I’ve finally found a candidate that I can really trust.

The Golden Blog

Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you -- BLOG #50!

Cue the band and dancing bears.

Who woulda thunk it? 50 blogs!

It seems like just yesterday I was sitting on my couch eating a Klondike bar watching the Biggest Loser.

Ah, the good ole days.

Three months ago, I barely knew what a blog was and I certainly didn’t plan on writing one, but fortunately that all changed, thanks to Meryl Streep.

I mean Julie & Julia.

After my wife and I saw that movie around Christmas time, the idea of writing a blog on my journey through unemployment seemed like a natural fit.

It was also a perfect way to fill out my day, instead of waiting for future employers to NOT call me back.

Yada, yada, yada, I present to you, Sir Bacon -- a nickname given to me by my six-year old daughter, for no apparent reason.

From my first word to number 28,494, which is where my computer tells me I am at exactly right now, I have really enjoyed discussing my life as a stay-at-home dad.

This could EASILY be a very bitter read and who knows, some people might find that more interesting, but to be honest, that’s just not me.

Am I bitter about what happened? Yes, but a little less each day.

Does it do me any good to be bitter? Absolutely not.

People moved on so quickly, it blew me away.

The people who are still working at my former employer forgot about us before the bodies were cold.

The people who were let go and found new jobs, have their new jobs to focus on.

The people who are no longer employed and haven’t found new work, don’t want to talk about it.

Fortunately for me and my insides, I have found a fantastic outlet to talk about it.

My blog.

I can wake up happy, sad, bitter, drunk, it doesn’t matter.

I turn on the computer and 45 minutes later, we’ve got a new blog.

After writing my first few, I was actually impressed. It made me laugh, sometimes made me cry, but most of all, it made me feel good.

I felt so good about the way my blog was turning out that I started sending it to some close friends and some people I never met before.

People like Oprah, Rosie, Regis, the Wall Street Journal, NY Times, Time Magazine...

Well, all of those fine folks did not respond, but someone who did was the editor of Businessinsider.com -- a website with two million hits per month.

To be honest, I’d never heard of them before and I’m not really sure how I ended up with their email address.

Their editor, who replied immediately, said that my blog was “often moving” and he wanted to publish some of the entries.

Where do I sign?

In the first hour on their website, there were 6,000 hits. By the end of the first day, we were in the neighborhood of 15,000 hits.

You can still search “unemployed” and “tv” on their site and you will see that it’s about to pass 35,000.

35,000 hits! Did you hear that Oprah?

That high lasted for several weeks, not to mention a whole bunch of people joined my blog as followers.

A lot of the early comments from readers on the businessinsider.com site were skeptical, make that nasty, but aside from that, the feedback has absolutely uplifting.

One of the people who found me through that story was Nicolas Berube, a writer for La Presse Newspaper in Montreal.

He contacted me a couple of weeks ago, saying that he wanted to do a piece on Sir Bacon.

After Nicolas and I spoke on the phone, for about an hour, he wrote one of the most beautiful articles I have ever seen.

Of course it was beautiful, it was written in French.

French is such a gorgeous language, he could’ve said that my writing is the quality of a third grader and it would’ve still sounded beautiful.

As great as the response was from my businessinsider, the reaction to the La Presse article was even better.

We are talking dozens and dozens... and dozens... and dozens of incredible French-Canadians contacting me to offer their support and their stories.

As I stated before, Canada has always held a special place in my heart, but after the absolutely amazing reaction to the article, I know where I’m moving if the U.S. ever holds a military draft for 40+ unemployed male Jewish TV Producers.

Since that article came out, my followers have stretched over 100.

Of course, that’s not Jim Jones territory, but I’m not serving Kool Aid.

I’m serving reality.

EVERY time somebody adds me and I mean EVERY TIME somebody adds me as a follower on my blog or Twitter or Facebook, I get very excited.

I realize that may sound silly, but it’s the truth.

I was excited when there was one follower, but one zero zero, you’ve got to be kidding me.

I really don’t have any long term plans for Sir Bacon.

I did just buy the domain, www.sirbacon123.com and linked it up with my blog.

(PS -- the 123 are for my three kids.)

I am planning on printing (at least) one “I Believe in Bacon” XL long sleeve t-shirt so that I have something to work out in. If you are interested, send me an email.

I have a multi-million dollar book deal in the works -- well, not quite in the works. The only thing missing is a publisher and the multi-million dollars.

I am planning on a motion picture deal as well. I’m playing me.

Ok, enough with the dreams.

Seriously, the last two-and-a-half months have been amongst the best in my life and I have Y-O-U to thank for that.

Yes, the writing has done me a lot of good.

But when I get a note from someone I have never met before (and probably will never meet) and they say that my story is inspirational to them and to hang there, that’s all I need.

I will leave you with these beautiful words from my new cyber friend, Andre:

• ce qui ne nous tue pas nous rend plus fort’

That means, "whatever doesn't kill us makes us stronger."

Damn, that language is beautiful.

P.S. If you thought this blog was long, wait for #100.

The New Frontier

Early this afternoon, in the middle of my weekly therapy session, I got the alert that a new email arrived.

But this was not your normal email.

This was an email from the editor of businessinsider.com that my blog had just been posted on his website.

I had been waiting for about two weeks for this email.

Needless to say, the tone of the therapy session changed immediately.

Normally, I turn my off ringer during the 60-minute soul searching, but for some reason, today I did not.

I guess I know the reason now.

When I reached out to businessinsider.com, in addition to Oprah & Rosie, the New York Times & the Wall Street Journal (among others), I really didn’t expect any response.

After all, no response is what I have been getting plenty of during my long run as a member of the unemployed.

But unlike the others, I did get a response from the Henry, the editor.

He said that my blog was “interesting and often moving”.

Sounds like a compliment to me.

He also said he would publish my blog on his site -- a site that gets like two million hits per month.

The only person with more hits in a month than that is Snoop Dogg.

The opportunity to get published was something that I was VERY excited about. It was not as much about me as it was about my story.

I have spent the first 42 years of my life behind the scenes, literally.

For the last 25 years, I worked as a local, regional and national TV Producer, making the pretty people look pretty.

I was never looking for the spotlight and I am still not.

In fact, I have been writing this blog anonymously, under a nickname, “Sir Bacon”, given to me by six-year old daughter.

(P.S., I’m not sure what it means or where it came from.)

But today, my little blog about “My Journey Through Unemployment” took on a whole new level.

Within a couple of hours of being published, there were more than 10,000 hits.

To quote Seinfeld’s ex, Elaine Benes, “I am speechless. I am without speech.”

TEN THOUSAND PEOPLE took at least one second out of their life to read about my journey through unemployment.

I have always felt that my story was one that many people would connect with, but I never expected this.

I have spent more than a day in my life being cynical, so I was not surprised to read so many negative comments about my blog/my situation.

But as they say in the TV business, I don’t care if they like us or hate us as long as they watch us.

When I started writing my blog, I was doing it for me.

And I still am.

But the more I write, the more I realize that I am doing it for you too.

Well, maybe not literally you, but none of us have escaped this miserable recession. We all know somebody who has lost their job.

The opportunity to tell my story was therapeutic, for me, whether I was the only person to read it or not, but it didn’t take long for me to realize that it could be therapeutic for others as well.

Thank you to Henry for giving me the platform.

Thank you to you for traveling on my journey.

Bed, Blog & Beyond

Did you know that an Eastern King Bed is the same exact size as a Standard King Bed and that a Western King Bed is the same exact size as a California King Bed?

Neither did I, until last week.

I learned that while searching for a new pair of bed sheets -- my big project for a Wednesday.

Not quite a Power Point proposal, but it’s a job.

My destination was Bed, Bath & Beyond, where I was fortunate to meet Suzanne.

She helped me understand the thread count formula, the higher the better -- the difference between Egyptian Cotton and Italian Cotton, go Egyptian -- and most important where the clearance items are located.

While I cruised through the store, I decided to check my email.

Good move.

While I was comparing colors, I received a reply from the editor of a popular website where I had blindly sent my blog.

The way things have gone lately, any email is an exciting moment for me, but when I saw it was from the business world, I kinda expected confetti to fall from the ceiling.

You see, it was just one day earlier that I sent out a bunch of emails to introduce people to my blog.

Some friends, some shots in the dark.

The guest list ranged from those who have also been out of work for awhile to Oprah Winfrey. Wide range, huh?

(Don’t tell anyone, but Oprah’s private email address is Oprah13@gmail.com.)

JUST KIDDING, I SENT IT TO HER WEBSITE.

You may find this hard to believe, but Oprah has not replied, but to my surprise, the editor of website with more than two million hits per month did.

In fact, he said that my blog was “interesting and often moving.”

WOW!

He also said that, if I was willing, he would like to publish some of my blogs on his website and asked if “that would be okay?”

Hmmm, let me think about it.

YES!!!

The way this whole thing started, I was hoping that writing a blog would give me the chance to use my brain again, while getting some things of my chest.

I’m not saying that thread count is not interesting, but I am saying that writing this blog is.

And to hear that a complete stranger actually liked it, meant the world to me.

Unfortunately, this story ends like most of the others during my unemployment -- with serious disappointment.

I’m really not sure why, but after trading emails for several days, the editor has stopped corresponding with me.

I was really looking forward to introducing my blog to a brave new world, but that will have to wait for another day.

Hey, at least I got some new sheets.