Brain Surfing
Much like surfing the web, my thoughts typically lead me from one topic to another, like clicking on links in an article. Sometimes I end up in places I would never have predicted. But it is amusing.
As part of our holiday tradition, we kick-off the season by watching the movie, Elf. While the movie is ostensibly about Will Ferrell’s Buddy the Elf character, it is also about James Caan’s character. Walter Hobbs is a publisher of children’s books, and makes the transformation from a grouchy, Grinch-like person, into someone who believes in Santa Claus and embraces the Christmas Spirit.
I was saddened watching the movie this time, as James Caan passed away earlier this year. I started thinking about his movie career – how he had always played tough guys, and the role of Walter Hobbs was quite a departure for him – but probably one of his best-loved characters.
Thinking about Caan’s other roles reminded me of his movie Thief described by Wikipedia as a: “1981 American neo-noir heist action thriller film directed and written by Michael Mann in his feature film debut. Based on the 1975 novel The Home Invaders: Confessions of a Cat Burglar by Frank Hohimer, the film stars James Caan in the title role, a professional safecracker trying to escape his life of crime, and Tuesday Weld as his wife. The supporting cast includes James Belushi, Robert Prosky, Dennis Farina, and Willie Nelson. The original musical score was composed and performed by Tangerine Dream, with additional music composed by Craig Safan.”
If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend it.
Thinking of Thief got me thinking about Theranos, as the CEO was just sentenced to prison. According to one source investors lost $600M on what was essentially non-existent technology. All investing involves risk, but I think this goes beyond that. This was thievery.
But let’s get back to Elf for a minute.
In an early scene, Walter Hobbs is confronted by his boss about a book that is missing the last two pages. Hobbs tries to blame it on a printer error, but his boss has the page proof with his initials approving the blank pages.
As an editor, I always wondered how someone could intentionally do something like that, or, just miss the fact that something was missing.
Well, in the October/November issue it happened. The final page of an article went missing. I’m not sure how it happened, but I missed it. As the editor, it’s my fault.
The article in question is Implementing Process Improvement by Robert Dream.
Bob has been a frequent contributor to APR over the years and upon receiving his email asking what happened to the last page of his article, I immediately felt a pit form in my stomach. Upon further investigation, sure enough, it was missing.
To Bob, I apologize for the mistake. The complete article is posted on APR’s website and is correct in the digital edition.
Have a great holiday season!
Mike Auerbach
Editor-In-Chief
[email protected]
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