Smiling faces, smiling faces, sometimes, yeah
They don’t tell the truth
Smiling faces, smiling faces tell lies and I got proof
(Beware) beware of the handshake
That hides the snake (can you dig it, can you dig it?)
— “Smiling Faces,” 1971, The Undisputed Truth
Many readers of this on-line rag should be keenly aware that I despise marketing and public relations, mostly because they dispense lies and promote ideas and notions to the public that aren’t true.
I have written before that the purpose of marketing and public relations is to get you to open your wallet and buy regardless of whether the product does what it is purported it to do. And there are so many corporate marketers who have gotten away with firing their executives and explaining to the public that the now dearly departed left to spend more time with family or pursue other career interests.
One of the best and up close examples I can remember occurred in September 1977, when Albion College found a gentle, but untruthful way to relieve George V. Mather of announcing football games from the press box.
I had long heard that the college had grown weary of Mather’s bland announcing practices and was seeking a newer, more exciting voice on the gridiron at Sprankle-Sprandel Stadium.
I knew about this because George V. Mather was the longtime editor of the Albion Evening Recorder, the man I replaced at the daily newspaper because he retired and another staffer, David G. Moore, had been elevated to editor.
It was the season opener for a Briton football team that had been undefeated the previous season, and now all MIAA athletic teams would be post-season bowl eligible for the first time ever.
On the fateful opening day, a different voice came over the loudspeaker welcoming fans to the game and announcing a special ceremony honoring the “retirement” of Mather. Included in the ceremony was to be the presentation of an Albion College jacket as a token of the college’s appreciation for his many years of faithful service. To a man who graduated from the college many years before and remained in Albion.
After many kind words were offered to Mather, his voice in the press box was never to be heard again. And as far as I knew, Mather had no intention to retire from broadcasting.
The result was that the community and the college fans and students were led to believe that George V. Mather was honored with a jacket, rather than being handed his walking papers.
It was a lie, but not the kind that would be tattled in public, just like the former executive who went to spend more time with family.
Dave, always nice to pull up your website to learn what is going on in the Wayland area while we are wintering in Florida. After returning home and going thru a mountain of mail, I found a couple of things that I had not been prepared for, namely real estate tax increase notices from the City of Wayland. My business, Woodhams Equipment lies on the southern end of the City on 133rd Avenue. I have owned this real estate since 2010. In those years since, I have had contact with assessor Jeanie Franck, then Dar Vander Ark, who took over after Jeanie. The conversations always had to do with assessment and valuations and ultimately, taxes. Being a realist that taxes do not go down, I would accept the increases in valuation as inflationary and go forward. However, this year, I am still numb to what is being presented to me as the proposed increase in my assessed value…a whopping 31% ! I am looking at the inflation multiplier at the bottom of the form that says for 2024, the multiplier is 5%, yet my assessed value increased 31%.
Normal people would say don’t worry about this, that your property is just worth a lot more that it used to be, and when you sell you will be rewarded. I look at it differently however, in that I am already over assessed and over taxed, based on property values around me. Before moving into Wayland, my business was in Hopkins Township and we paid annual taxes of about 5500.00. When I moved into Wayland, my first years tax bill was well north of 20000.00 and now will be approaching 40000.00 per year! I am reaching out to the new Wayland Assessor for an explanation, but until then, I am stuck wondering if the Wobma property sale to the Gun Lake Tribe had something to do with this spike in Industrial property increased valuations? If that were the case, I would have thought we might have been reading something on your blog? Am I the only one looking at this crazy proposed increase ? I would welcome any input your viewers have into this matter.
How many know that the reason that Division 3 Albion College was able to go to a post season tournament was because of David Young?