In case you haven’t heard the inside-inside gossip floating around in Washington, Obama is preparing to sign into law yet another national holiday, No Media Day, held on the third Monday in August.

On this particular day, Americans will celebrate being media-free. No one will be allowed to use a smartphone during the entire day along with social network sites “closed for the holiday.”

Obama and his advisors claims this is what is needed to get American’s back into communicating with each other, reading articles more than 140 characters and reduce stress.

Landline and traditional cell phones will be allowed.

Comments regarding this new holiday have ranged from “Are you kidding me, there is no way I can stop using media for a full day” to “I’m addicted and will do it anyway. Who is going to catch me?” to “You mean there aren’t going to be any Groupon’s or Foursquare mayor’s?” to “Will America survive this?”

Already lobbyist groups are frantically making phone calls, calling in chits and doing what they can to derail this. RIMM whose stock has already been pummeled due to Apple and Google’s Android phones will stand to lose even more money. Apple’s Steve Jobs actually supports the holiday because his newest device is the first virtual iCloud device so people will be able to text without an actual device in their hands.

Still, the bigger question is how is the government going to monitor No Media Day. According to yet more inside-inside sources, people will still do what they do but it’s more the spirit of the holiday Obama is trying to maintain.

Stay tuned for more details.

Happy Thursday!

(p.s.: can you imagine the revolts and marches that would take place is this was all true?)

Life certainly goes through transitions from birth to death.

When we are young, we can’t wait for birthdays.

When we are teenagers, we can’t wait to drive, graduate high school and go to college.

When we are in our 20’s, we can’t wait to graduate college, get a full time job, meet someone special and get married.

When we are in our 30’s, we can’t wait to have kids.

When we are in our 40’s, we can’t wait for our kids to leave the house.

When we are in our 50’s, we can’t wait for our kids to have kids.

When we are in our 60’s, we can’t wait to see our kids and grandkids and then go back to our own home.

When we are in our 70’s, we can’t wait to travel, work less, relax, enjoy and see our grandkids going through their transitions.

When we are in our 80’s and beyond, we are happy to be doing anything as long as we are healthy.

So the phone call came at 7:25PM last night from our oldest son, Michael. It’s official! He and Jen will have their first baby January 20 (or somewhere around then). That will make the BUB and I grandparents.

YIKES!

That will mean more frequent trips to Chicago and suddenly wandering in baby stores once again. Yes, the first grandkid is always the most spoiled.

It will certainly be an exciting time because life’s transitions are special (although we continue to get older for each one) and it’s always nice to experience each and every one of them. This one will certainly be no exception. Diapers anyone?

Happy Tuesday!

YUM! Today was Chick-a-doo-doo-doo barbeque lunch featuring marinated chicken breast, homemade chopped chopped salad and sinful ice cream cones. What’s better than a good ice cream cone?

Speaking of which, I still think Guernsey has the best ice cream although Hudsonville is very good but too high fat.

With Weiner resigning, who will be top dog in NY?

How can people actually walk out of a bathroom stall and not wash their hands? I think we have developed a lot of horse habits over the years.

Tigers are in first place, but here comes the second half of the season.

Vancouver fans showed the world what it’s like to lose (at home). Thank you Vancouver for taking the spotlight off Detroit.

Schools out for the summer. Best thing about that is no more school buses. I swear school bus drivers are the most rude of all drivers. And tell me why kids can’t walk another block so the damn buses don’t have to stop so often? No wonder kids are obese!

If you play pool with me, don’t worry if I lose. I won’t put you in my suitcase.

I sort of miss Cedar Point. Riding the coasters was fun and watching the people was even more fun. Grabbing a cold beer at the beer house was the most fun. At what age do you get to that going to amusement parks is no longer the thrill thing to do? They do have the best fries.

Get this: The Korean and Vietnamese nail salons in NY are plenty upset over the new Chinese nail salons opening. No one can enjoy anything for too long without change.

I sort of miss DQ Blizzards too. Loved the Heath Bar one the best. But afterwards, YIKES!

Happy Father’s Day to all you fathers. But please tell me, why do the Hallmark stores have less than a quarter of the cards for sale as Mother’s Day? I got my father a half gallon of Chivas. It’s probably already half gone!

Happy Friday!

Do you ever notice what a difference a day can make? For instance:

• You wake up in the morning with a sore throat or you wake up in the morning feeling 100%
• The Red Wings lose at night but the next day everyone is thinking they are going to win the next game
• You’re upset about something and want to vent in more ways than one but the next day you’re not as upset
• Rain today and sunshine tomorrow
• Sunday to Monday and Thursday to Friday
• One day you are full of energy and the next day all you want to do is sleep
• Win everything you play and lose everything you play the next day

Speaking of the Red Wings, they really are in the red with a 0-3 deficit. Only 3 teams have come back. Surely doesn’t look like it will be the 2011 Wings to make it the fourth team.

Oil dropped more than $10 a barrel Thursday making it the single biggest drop since 2009. That averages out to more than $.30 a gallon at the pump. If the price drop holds, gas will be below $4 by next week.

GM and Ford are kicking ass while Toyota and Honda slump. Who would have thought that just two years ago?

Not only is Detroit known for cars, now we are the official pizza king. Domino’s announced record sales and was voted chain of the year. Little Caesars, Papa John’s, Jet’s, Hungry Howie’s and upstart Happy are all making plenty of dough.

Our first new Texas store opens May 16 in the heart of thriving Plano.

Our first company barbeque is May 20, Cheeseburger in Paradise. Yummy black angus beef burgers this time served with LG’s secret sauce. The grill will be hot between Noon –1PM.

I want to be William Shatner when I grow up. Not only did he get to command the U.S. Enterprise for several years, he got to be the spokesperson for Priceline.com. The stock is approaching $600 a share. Now that’s a lot of cheap hotel rooms.

Happy Friday!

A 14-year old is playing a mock Texas Hold ‘Em Tournament and is down more than half her chips. With the blinds going up, she moves the dealer button to her so she doesn’t have to put in her blind. In this instance, she still lost.

A 17-year old is jockeying to get into the best colleges and is taking advanced classes to better his cause. The classes are on-line. When it comes to taking the admission tests, he hires another student to take the test. In this instance, he got into the college of his choice.

A 25-year old college graduate puts a few jobs and associations on his resume to “polish it up.” It gets through the employer A-OK. In this instance, he got the job.

We all know about athletes and steroids. How many players were caught and had to give up rings and trophies? Lots. However, plenty of players weren’t caught and keep on doing steroids to stay competitive.

Cheating seems to be more prevalent than ever. Perhaps its peer pressure. Perhaps its being online 24/7. Perhaps it’s because either no one knows the person is cheating or no one cares. Why not cheat?

I love playing cribbage with my son Mark. He hates losing more than me. Yes, it’s true. On a dime, he can be nasty or he can put a smile on his face that you want to rip off. Beating him in cribbage is very satisfying, but only if I win fair and square (I clobbered him on Sunday with two kill-mations- winning by more than one street).

Mark is finishing up his second  year of Med School. He had to pass several big exams to get to this point. Only by studying non-stop could he pass those tests. Plenty of students fail. Should they have cheated?

We all know people who cheat. What we don’t know is why they cheat.

Think about referees. You know how many got caught cheating because they were paid to do so? And how many don’t get caught?

Perhaps it’s that parents are so crazed themselves, they allow their kids to entertain themselves 24/7 with iTouches, iPhones, iPads and the like. We were in Florida visiting family and waiting for my parents to arrive for dinner. In the lobby was one 8 year old on her iTouch and a 14 year old on her iPad. Neither ever looked up for the entire time we were waiting and they were by themselves. And with more games played on these devices than any other, most likely they were playing games. And who doesn’t play a video game to win?

In video game world, losing simply means touching the “play again” button until you win. Unfortunately in the real world, that button has yet to be invented.

Happy Wednesday!

The phone on my desk doesn’t ring anymore.

It used to ring when Sally Beauty Holdings (SBH) bought West Coast Beauty.

It used to ring when SBH kept buying family-owned distributors.

It used to ring when manufacturers sold out to bigger ones. Folks like Jim Markham couldn’t start and sell a company fast enough.

It used to ring when private equity got into the industry. I think they are still wondering why they got into this industry.

It used to ring when public companies such as Estee Lauder and Unilever got into this industry. I think they are still wondering why they got into this industry.

It used to ring when private companies sold to public companies. That’s when I last had phone conversations. Long gone are the days I spent on the phone chatting away with so many ex-business friends.

It used to ring when L’Oreal decided to buy its distributors. At best, there’s only a small handful left to buy.

Now all is quiet, awfully quiet. They say the biggest storms come when it’s awfully quiet. Japan certainly knows that first hand. North Carolina is digging out after more than 280 tornadoes zipped through it. It’s snowing in Detroit today and compared to the rest of the country, we’ll happily put our hats and gloves back on.

Oh, there will be more news, more rumors. Perhaps Paul DeJoria will sell his empire and ski full time. But lately, I don’t even think my phone would ring for that news.

Happy Monday!

How many hours of TV does the average person watch per day? More than 5 hours. Actually 5 hours and 11 minutes to be precise. Some people don’t even sleep that many hours. Just think if all that TV time was transferred to book reading time or some other learning endeavor.

What percent of the world’s population lives right here in the good old USA? 3%

Did you watch The Master’s and root for Tiger Woods? What is it about Tiger Woods that we love to watch and want him to make every putt? Scandal or no scandal, it doesn’t make a difference.

Finally 80 and sunny this past Sunday. April 10 marked the official end of winter. And I had the time of my life. The power washer came out and a full tank of gas was used up. So much fun!

OSHA is hard at work figuring out the formaldehyde issue with certain types of hair straighteners. If you are interested in technical info on this subject, click here.

I noticed that many local cities are making the right turn lane “right turn only” to rid the speedsters from zipping on a green light to merge left. Not a bad idea.

Is anything more ludicrous than the federal government budget showdown? Now Obama will make a statement tomorrow on how the budget needs to be resolved. Perhaps he should have approved it last year so we wouldn’t be in this situation. At the same time, Mayor Bing has his hands full talking about the fate of Detroit. Detroit is #1 in the USA for foreclosures, lost home values, population loss and so much more.

They say gas will have to hit $4.50 before it changes consumers buying patterns. If we can get the budget approved and our dollar stronger, gas will drop back to $3 fairly quickly. And isn’t it funny how we got used to $3 gas?

Congrats to POW for 3 years at TNG. Kim R. is the official Princess of the West. Although with her workload in Dallas, I’m thinking of switching her name to POSW.

Speaking of Dallas, our first new store in Plano will be opening later this month if all goes well. The new stores will rock, unlike Chris Rock who with Charlie Sheen just don’t get it.

Michigan roads have always been bad but now they are dreadful. With the worst winter behind us, virtually every road is cracked and filled with pot holes. How in the heck are the roads going to be fixed if the state has no money? And did you know Michigan is among only a few states in the USA that doesn’t collect sales tax from gas sales to use for roads?

Michigan got to the final game, got to overtime, but in the end, the season was decided by a single goal. Ouch!

Isn’t Easter really late this year?

Happy Tuesday!

Last week Libya was in play. Oil went over $100 a barrel, gas was heading to $4 a gallon. Qadaffi was turning back rebel forces while the U.N. pondered its next move.

Wisconsin was also all over the news with protestors storming the capital building over Gov. Walker’s latest plan to trim the budget.

And then the earthquake hit Japan followed by tsunami’s that leveled so much of their country. All of a sudden, media had no time for anything but Japan. Qadaffi is dancing in his mansion happy as a pig in s__t.

What is going on in Japan is scary. Worse, we have no idea what is really going on. This is the worst natural disaster in world history. And Japan is no third world country, it’s perhaps the most advanced behind the USA in all the world. They planned for earthquakes well in advance as they have among the most stringent building codes. But as we found out painfully in Louisiana, when mother nature wants to do its thing, there is nothing we can do.

We saw the devastation from Hurricane Katrina and the aftermath. To this day, they are still rebuilding the levees and neighborhoods. And yes, while New Orleans had a huge Mardi Gras celebration and Jimmy Buffett is no longer doing charity concerts for the fisherman from the BP oil spill, the region is still hurting plenty.

With the Chilean coal workers rescue to the BP well ordeal, we have seen more energy related events in the past few months than ever before. But what is going on in Japan is the worst. Most of the world believes in nuclear and nuclear has been on a huge upward trajectory for new reactors being built (not in the USA). China is building more than 15 alone. Now this. Can you imagine millions without power and running water? We still don’t know about the nuclear reactors and if the seawater is going to cool them down. I know what it’s like when we lose power for a day or a few hours. It sucks.

The media is all consumed with Japan. Suddenly, we are listening to nuclear experts. Weathermen and weatherwoman are showing us graphs and charts of the nuclear plants like they are experts. Videos are being uploaded and downloaded ferociously. Anything going on elsewhere is simply not important. And as humans, we quickly lose focus of what’s not in front of us.

Japan of all countries will deal with this efficiently and properly. They will have a huge project ahead of them once things settle down. But they have experience in such matters and this will bring the small island country together just like it did back in 1945. But it will be a painful process, one that no one would want to deal with on their own. Natural disasters are truly disasters. I was told today that Japan actually moved 13 feet closer to the USA since the earthquake. Can you imagine, an entire island moved 13 feet?

And can you imagine if this happened in LA? Experts say it will, it’s just a matter of when. And when comes, it will be horrendous. One of every seven people live in CA and CA is responsible for a huge percentage of our GDP. But right now, we have to be optimistic that Japan and company will solve the reactor crisis in time and they can start the rebuilding process. Until then, it’s fear at its maximum level.

I don’t know about you, but we really should start to focus on what’s really important and let so many of the trivial matters that people relentlessly focus on whither away. Japan is yet another wake-up call. But as all natural disasters, once this passes, life will return to normal. Whatever normal is.

For those in Japan, we hope normal comes quickly.

Happy Tuesday!

I finally watched Social Network, the story about how Mark Zuckerberg started FACEBOOK. If you haven’t seen it, it’s worth watching to see how human nature takes its course.

The story has been told a million times so no need for me to rehash it. But after being dumped by his girlfriend, Zuckerberg runs back to his student room on a mission. In a brilliant stroke of genius, he figured out how to put all the girls in his hall online. His roommate at the time had the algorithm needed to connect the photos (remember Robin Williams in Good Will Hunting?). And presto, the first version of FACEBOOK was born.

The movie was more about the lawsuits filed by his ex-roommate and others he came into contact with. For the most part, what we saw with human nature was sad and Zuckerberg with his newfound fame, wealth and status, was still sad at the movies end. The movie ended with him FACEBOOKing his ex-girlfriend hoping she would accept him as a friend. Whether or not she does, we do not know but my guess is that she moved on.

His ex-roommate got an undisclosed settlement and his name on the masthead as co-founder. But he lost out big time. Sure, he has money, but FACEBOOK was created without any notion of money. In fact, the financing for round 1 was $1000. Later on, round 2 came in at $17,000. That’s it.

But we are to think his focus has caused a lot of pain and that’s what being a genius can be all about. I know several geniuses, none socially adapt and their only fun in life is doing what they do best- and nothing else.

FACEBOOK itself passed Google as the most visited website last year. I checked Zuckerberg’s page and he has nearly 3.4 million people that “like this.” Can you imagine? But wait a second. Kim Kardashian has nearly 4.5 million people that “like this.” But wait! Lady Gaga has nearly 29 million people that “like this.” Google has yet to reach 3 million.

FACEBOOK has come a long way from being a social site. Who knows what Zuckerberg is thinking now but you know he is thinking something. As the youngest billionaire in history, he has plenty of time to figure it out.It’s the curse after all.

Happy Tuesday!

50 degrees and sunny this morning. Nearly 8 straight days of sunshine. No state beats Michigan when the weather is good.

Speaking of Michigan, Snyder put out his budget and it’s got quite a few people in an upheaval. What did people expect? Finally, sense in numbers, accountability and the first step in making Michigan a business-friendly state. It’s business that creates jobs and jobs is priority one.

JWOWW’s big appearance is tonight at MGM’s V night club. You know it has to be “big” when JWOWW is around. 10-2AM in case you are around.

The big thing at TNG is candy grams. The brainchild of someone with too much time on their hands, I think it is Dawn K., the candy gram consists of a Tootsie Pop tied to a “Makin’ It Happen” card with a purple ribbon. They sold out their first batch at 5 for $1 last week and today they are out peddling them again to great demand. Perhaps it’s time to take the candy gram idea to salons and spas.

MIRACLES, the first black 15in1 event, is confirmed for Sunday, May 1, 4-7PM, at the Sound Board lounge at the Motor City Casino Hotel. This is going to be one amazing event (more details to come). Tickets go on sale at Ticketmaster March 8 and at the MCCH box office. Tickets are $10-$50 each. MIRACLES will include appearances from hip salons around Michigan, live music by Sinjon Smith band and music by DJ CAPTN 20.

With Border’s filing Chapter XI, stock down to a quarter and closing hundreds of stores, experts don’t see them coming out of it. Yet another major Michigan business down the hatch. Perhaps they should have read some of their books.

Hyundai continues to shock the auto world with their new 2011 models. In fact, they most likely will overtake Nissan this year as the #3 import brand in the USA. Just proves the fact that you can go from being a joke to being a leader.

One of life’s greatest pleasures is a clean car.

New study confirms caffeine and glucose make the brain work snappier. Bring the donuts back!

OPI Katy Perry collection is flying out and the good news is that more is coming in. Better news yet is that the collection will run through 2011. I got myself a bottle of the new silver Shatter which will be featured in next week’s video blog. Silver Shatter will be in the new Pirates of the Caribbean collection coming shortly. And look for 3 blues, a red and white Shatter collection late Spring .

On the subject of OPI, look for their new gel polish to hit late May, early June. Rumor has it the line will launch with 24 shades, similar bottle as OPI lacquer and price point under $20.

Between Shatter, Shellac and coming soon, OPI’s gel polish, seems all the excitement is in the nail category. Now we need something to bring enhancements back to life.

Have you tried the new Snicker’s peanut butter bar?

Happy Friday!