Lindsay's Lessons

Many of you, like me, have fallen prey to this year's onset of cold and flu bugs. It's not uncommon to pick up a couple of bugs each year, particularly in the cold of winter and changing of the seasons.

However, how we catch a cold can be pretty frustrating. Case in point - while attending a recent trade show, I was working in the media room when I was approached by a very sickly acquaintance who wanted to strike up a conversation. About three words in, I noticed the scratchy voice and other obvious signs of illness. The visitor promptly began to fill me in on how sick they've been, how in hindsight they wished they hadn't come to the show (cough, cough, sniffle) and how they've been coughing so badly (cough, cough) they've been keeping their spouse up at night (sniffle, sniffle).

Amazingly, a couple of days later, I was also coughing and sniffling. Gee, thanks. The moral of the story, when you're sick - STAY AWAY! Nobody wants your cooties.

I realize that I am in the fortunate situation of working in a home office here on the farm and have more flexibility in my schedule than some folks who may be unable to call in for a sick-day. However, even if you must go public, at least extend the courtesy to those of us who aren't sick of trying to keep your germs to yourself.

If you don't need a face-to-face conversation with your co-worker, stay in your office and use the phone or email, instead of going into their office. If you have a meeting that can wait, postpone it. And if you must be in a group situation, whether a media room or board room, wash up before going in, cough and sneeze into a Kleenex, try to keep your distance and keep a bottle of hand-sanitizer nearby.

Otherwise, don't be offended if your co-workers or friends tell you (with the most loving intentions) to back away!

The use of Prozac and other similar drugs to treat bouts of depression has become quite common in society. But what if your pooch is pouty, your feline is forlorn or your songbird suicidal? Turns out, they made need a dose of your own medicine.

Veterinarians have taken to prescribing anti-depressants to those pets whose owners leave early and come home late causing their furry companions to stress and frazzle; some even going so far as to self-mutilate and inflict harm upon themselves.

It's big business for pharmaceutical companies who have started responding to pets' needs with everything from anti-depressants, to diet pills and even medicine for motion sickness. So the next time Morris gets moody or Buster is bummed, don't be surprised if some jerky-flavored prescriptives are just what the doctor ordered!

The next time my cat curls up beside me on the couch I might have to wonder if she just wants to be close, or if she needs to get something off her mind!

Hat tip to my friend Cami for bringing this one to my attention -

Hog farmers in Britain have taken a unique approach to getting people's attention. You can visit their website to check out the latest remake of the Tammy Wynette classic "Stand By Your Man" with a new, more pork-centric approach. "Stand by Your Ham" is just the latest of the group's ongoing media efforts to garner support for their producers.

I don't know that you'll see this at the top of the Billboard charts, or that any American Idols will be belting it out this season, but it's fun to check out anyway.

Come to think of it, I bet Simon Cowell's reaction would be priceless, "Well, there was a lot of meat to the performance, but it didn't suit my tastes."

I may have to move back to Columbus! Baskin Robbins is home of Jamocha Almond Fudge ice cream and some very good ice cream cakes.

Baskin-Robbins to expand
Ice-cream chain planning to open 40 stores over next four years in central Ohio
Friday, February 22, 2008 3:11 AM
BY MONIQUE CURET
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
The world's largest ice-cream chain is planning a major invasion in central Ohio, an area already well fortified with strong players.
Baskin-Robbins will open 40 stores over the next four years, beginning with one this spring in the Dublin/Hilliard area, said James Franks, national director of franchising. The chain, which is owned by Dunkin' Brands, has only two stores in central Ohio.

This makes the second time in less than a year that Dunkin' Brands has announced plans to drastically increase the calorie count in central Ohio.

In April, the company said it plans to add 83 Dunkin' Donut shops in the Columbus area within five years.

Even without a major push by Baskin-Robbins, competition for the ice-cream dollar has been intensifying, with companies such as Cold Stone Creamery, Handel's Homemade Ice Cream & Yogurt and Jeni's Ice Cream making a strong charge in recent years.

These newer players already were butting heads with some well-known companies, including Graeter's Ice Cream and Johnson's Real Ice Cream.

Baskin-Robbins expects to make inroads by banking on its name recognition and its ability to compete on price by appealing to almost every budget, Franks said.

The company is known for offering 31 flavors at a time, or one for each day of the month, but it has more than 1,000 flavors in the rotation.

"Competition is a factor in our business no matter what," Franks said. A person can buy ice cream anywhere, including convenience stores, but it's hard to replace the variety at Baskin-Robbins, he said.

Jeni Britton, owner of Jeni's, said Baskin-Robbins will face a difficult road because the area is "saturated with very high quality ice cream."

People here expect great ice cream and know the store owners, Britton said. Even so, she added that Baskin-Robbins was an inspiration to her as a child, because she loved the "jungle fruit" flavor. She can remember exactly what it tastes like and "would be at their counter ordering it" if they offer it in Columbus.

Johnson's Real Ice Cream, in business for 58 years, considers itself "the hometown favorite," said Matt Wilcoxon, sales manager.

"All the competition that's moved into town hasn't affected us so far," he said. Johnson's has one retail location in Bexley but also supplies ice cream to 250 restaurants as part of its wholesale business.

Baskin-Robbins also is planning stores in Cincinnati and Dayton, for a total of 90 stores in Ohio over the next five years.

The company, which has 5,800 stores in 43 countries, just began growing again in the U.S. in 2006, with 250 franchise agreements signed in 2006 and 2007. It expects to sign 300 this year, Franks said. That's in addition to international growth of as many as 400 new stores.

Dunkin' Donuts and Baskin-Robbins happen to be growing in some of the same markets, and some franchisees might choose to put the stores side by side, but they'd be separate businesses, Franks said.

The company is seeking 10 franchisees to operate ice-cream stores in the Columbus area as well as surrounding cities such as Delaware, Lancaster, Newark and Mansfield. The stores will employ 320 to 560 people, or eight to 14 at each location.

Baskin-Robbins already has an agreement with one franchisee, whom the company has not publicly named, who will open four stores in the Dublin/Hilliard area over the next three years.

Baskin-Robbins will hold a seminar for potential franchisees on Tuesday at the Marriott Columbus Airport Hotel.

It's taken years but it looks like O'Brien vs. OSU has finally come to an end. Here's the Dispatch recap of the situation:

O'Brien's 3-year fight with OSU ends in victory
Ohio justices let $2.46 million award stand

Thursday, February 21, 2008 3:25 AM
By Bill Rabinowitz and James Nash
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

The long, often-bitter feud between Ohio State and former men's basketball coach Jim O'Brien ended yesterday.
The Ohio Supreme Court upheld a $2.46 million award to O'Brien, who sued the school after he was fired in 2004 for giving $6,000 to the family of a former Serbian recruit six years earlier.

In a 5-2 ruling, justices declined to accept an appeal of lower court rulings filed by the university.

O'Brien said the ruling provided vindication.

"I'm thrilled with the outcome," he said in a phone interview with The Dispatch. "I have felt all along that I have been treated unfairly, quite frankly. We've had two decisions by the NCAA, and we won both of those on both appeals we had to go through. There's been three levels at the court system, and we've been successful at every level.

"I wish in my heart that this thing never even happened. And it didn't have to happen the way that it went."

He said collecting the award was not as important to him as having his contention validated that he was wrongly fired.

"The money is great, and everybody will talk about the money," O'Brien said. "And believe me, that is significant. But in my heart, if I hadn't gotten 5 cents, the battle would have been well worth it to me."

Ohio State director of media relations Jim Lynch said the school has exhausted its avenues of appeal.

"The outcome of this case is disappointing news, as universities such as Ohio State hold themselves to the highest possible standards and take appropriate action after discovering NCAA violations," Lynch said in a statement. "We are very thankful to the many other universities and athletic conferences across the nation who stood by our side in this case to support our actions."

O'Brien, 57, has not coached since his firing. On Jan. 31, his chances to resume his career got a boost when the NCAA ruled O'Brien can pursue coaching jobs without restrictions beginning March 9.

"I think I do want to coach, but I have a little bit of a different attitude toward this whole business and profession now," he said. "It's going to have to absolutely be the right scenario for me to do this again."

He said he has had no contact from any school.

Under O'Brien, OSU shared two Big Ten regular-season titles, won one conference tournament championship and advanced to the Final Four of the 1999 NCAA Tournament.

Those achievements have been stricken from the record book as part of NCAA penalties for violations under him. He was fired June 8, 2004, after it came to light that he testified in a lawsuit deposition that he had given $6,000 to Aleksandar Radojevic, a recruit who never enrolled at Ohio State.

Asked whether he had any regrets, particularly about the Radojevic matter, O'Brien said, "Do I think I did the right thing by trying to help his family? Absolutely. … It was done to help a family in need much more than it had anything to do with getting an edge for recruiting."

O'Brien had a reputation for running clean programs.

"There's been a lot of damage," he said. "The thing I'm most disappointed in is the way Ohio State felt the need to attack my character. That was very hurtful."

But O'Brien said he looks back at his seven years in Columbus with much fondness.

"I do want to thank Ohio State for the opportunity to have coached their basketball team. It was a privilege for me and an honor for me to be their basketball coach. ... I enjoyed every minute of it."

Ohio State spent about $720,000 on legal fees for outside lawyers, plus an untold number of hours by lawyers in the attorney general's office, which represents the school.

The court's action ends more than three years of legal fighting that began when O'Brien sued the university in November 2004. In the lawsuit filed in the Ohio Court of Claims, O'Brien said Ohio State had breached his contract by firing him without cause and demanded more than $6 million.

The Court of Claims ruled in O'Brien's favor in 2006 and awarded him nearly $2.5 million, which represents nearly three years' worth of salary. OSU appealed to the Franklin County Court of Appeals, which ruled 2-1 for O'Brien.

If you've been reading this blog for long you know where I stand on a lot of things. I tend to give Thad Matta and PETA a hard time. I'm in favor of National Animal Identification. And, I really loved Jim O'Brien. That being said, it's a tough day to be both a Buckeye and an O'Brien supporter.

This is the classic lose-lose situation. O'Brien made a terrible choice for the right reasons. And yes, I still believe that there was more to the money than just an obvious recruiting stipend. Let's face it, O'Brien is a professional and that type of payment would have been too sloppy had it simply been a business transaction. The former coach has basically said it was an emotional decision to help a family, and it clouded his professional judgement. And if I were raking in the kind of salary that O'Brien was at the time, giving $6,000 to help the family of a kid I really liked might seem like the least I could do. A good guy made a bad choice for the right reason with a terrible consequence.

On the other side of the equation, we have the University who was put in a terrible spot. In order to keep the NCAA happy, they had to make a move, and the most logical move was to fire the one responsible for the violation. O'Brien made a bad choice. That choice violates an NCAA guideline. O'Brien's contract says that NCAA violations are a terminable offense. Ohio State executed the firing. It seems simple enough.

However, things are never as simple as they seem, because where's there's money, there are power-hungry lawyers and enough red tape, due process and greed to choke a mule. Let's face it, I don't think anyone is going so far here as to say that Ohio State should not have fired Jim O'Brien. We all agree that on a professional level, he screwed up and got what was coming to him. Yet the University must still pay for doing what in essence we can all say was the right thing? How is that possible?

We can speculate all we want about what must have transpired in the athletic office, between university officials and among the university legal team over the past four years to allow this to happen. None of us were inside the institution, so it's hard to know exactly where to place the blame. For what seemingly should have been a fairly clear firing situation, there was a mistake in timing and execution that has proven very costly to the University. And based on this court ruling, and those that preceded it, they will pay dearly for that mistake.

And in the end, what do we have? O'Brien is no more right in his choice for having spent the last four years in court. His payment to the young recruit's family is no more acceptable today than it was back then. And yet, he still walks away with a much heavier wallet saying that he feels "vindicated" because of all he's been through. To be fair to the University, what choice did they have? I love Jim O'Brien enough to say he was a good guy who did a stupid thing, but I also love him enough to say, "Jim, you did a stupid thing and you deserved to be fired."

So as much as I want to see Jim O'Brien on the sidelines again doing what he does best, I can't say I'm happy with this outcome. Because in the end, as much as I support him for trying to be a good person, I can't forget what he's taking away from Ohio State in terms of titles, money and prestige. Moreover than that, I think this case sets an alarming precedent for other universities, institutions and even businesses because it says that you can't fire people who make bad choices, even when those choices have detrimental consequences to your institution.

Clearly, the only winners here are O'Brien's attorneys.