“Your buddy Howard is thinking about running for president. Could be good for the book”
Above is the text I received this morning. The text was from an old friend who appears in Tripio as my “older brother”. I have been advised to get reviews of Tripio http://tinyurl.com/y6tfe6he for the Amazon page. So, I have been. And the “older brother” from Tripio now has the manuscript in his hands and is hopefully enjoying the living hell out of reading it.
[[File:’Man Reading’ by John Singer Sargent, Reading Public Museum.jpg|’Man Reading’ by John Singer Sargent, Reading Public Museum]]
Since Tripio is partially about Starbucks and Howard Schultz, I feel obligated to comment on how I think he will perform as president. Except, I don’t really know, so I won’t. All I know for sure is that the one time I met him in person he handed me a Bean Stock Bravo award. The meeting is recounted in Tripio, “HS called some partners to the stage for recognition. I was one of them. He called my name about halfway through the presentation (he mispronounced the last name, and I politely corrected him), handed me a Cosmo Bravo award and shook my hand.”
I reflect upon the historic meeting now and will not let Howard mispronouncing my name influence whether I will vote for him if he runs for president. I will rise above that. But I do want Howard to run for president for my sake.
I say that only half kidding because I suspect there is a lot of truth in lot of truth what my friend texted me. In fact I did text him back replying, “My thoughts exactly.”
Odd thing just occurred to me as I write this post. It feels right to use just Howard in referring to possible presidential candidate Howard Schultz. In my four years at Starbucks, everyone referred to Howard as Howard. It seemed to fit him to use his first name only. The other bigshot in the hierarchy at the time was Howard Behar. In Tripio I use HS and HB to make the distinction. But in those days it was not uncommon to have one of them visit Chicago. After all when Tripio takes places there were only 125 Starbucks stores and 500 employees. But everyone could tell which Howard was coming to visit by the slight change in tone when one said “Howard is coming to town.” Both meant lots of extra cleaning in case they showed up at your store. But the Howard in Howard Schultz visiting had a little more excitement or buzz in the pronouncement. Not of fear, but of anticipation.
Like I said, I have no idea how that recollection relates to Howard as president. I just felt obligated to share it. Also, I am sure Howard has practiced pronouncing names since we last met.
“May I help who’s next?”
