Where is John Wilson?

Where's Mark Sanford?

The lead story all over the news today and The Drudge Report was the disappearance of Mark Sanford. He reportedly left in a black SUV and didn’t tell anyone where he was going, including his own security force.

Jenny Sanford said the governor said he needed time away from their children to write something.

In Governor Sanford’s future run for President, this is either the best political move or the worst and will come back to haunt him for a long time.

It’s the best if he comes back with next edition of the Federalist Papers or the cure for cancer or the solution to the Halting Problem.

It will be the worst if he was just looking for a vacation or wanted to finish reading Angels and Demons.

This is, however, one of those rare times that I feel sorry for celebrities in the spotlight. Governor Sanford should be able to go away, just like you and I, for a few days without causing a national hysteria. On the other hand, watching Jon and Kate plus 8 (and thinking they both should be in jail for exploiting their children) reminds me that celebrities (most of the time) wouldn’t have the money or influence they have if they didn’t get followed around by the media. The media wouldn’t follow them around if people didn’t buy the magazines and watch the shows (like me, right now).

Sigh. I say keep hiding Mark, and come back with the answer to all this mess.

Come out tonight to the Wind Jammer on Isle of Palms (Charleston, SC) to see the CD release party of The County Line Strangers. This show may be sold out, but you can buy tickets right here online.

The CD entitled, “Heartbreak Motel” has received great reviews so far. It includes 10 songs with future radio hits like Savannah, Let Me Let You Go and Love is the Hardest Thing. The music is probably categorized as a Country-Rock blend (Crock?) – but I’m not much of a music guy.

Songs from the band’s previous albums, Coney Island EP and Phonography will most likely also be on tap.

To get your copy of the CD autographed by the lead singer, Matt Megrue, be sure to contact the band via their MySpace page at: http://www.myspace.com/countylinestrangers
See you at the show!

What were they thinking with this one?

Seriously?

I saw this sign at a friend of mine’s son’s t-ball game today (Go Red Sox!). The sign sits about chair height right beside the normal metal bleachers typical to community baseball fields.

These bleachers are the ONLY place to sit on the whole field, leaving tons of room for lawn chairs, wheel chairs, or whatever…

I have a few questions:

• Is the view disabled?
• Do you need to have disabled viewing to sit here?
• Is the view disabled because there is a sign right where the game is going on?
• Is the word “disabled” politically correct? Do you thing the viewing area is offended?
• On a normal sized community baseball field, with only enough bleachers for 15 people, is a “disabled viewing section” really necessary?

Photograph by John Wilson

WWTT is my new section called “What Were They Thinking.” I love to ask (typically out loud):

Were there 10 people sitting around a boardroom congratulating each other because they all thought this was a good idea?

First up on this column: Aciphex.

Ass Effects?

I seriously rolled off the couch when this commercial came on for the first time. You’ll run into it on TV (see below), they play it a ton.

I’m not kidding – Aciphex is pronounced – (Ass-e-fects) Ass Effects.

To top it off – it is the most expensive of the acid reflux medicines currently on the market (sourced from http://www.destinationrx.com/)

I get that it is an acid reflux medicine, but SOMEONE at the company had to snicker when whomever came up with this said it out loud for the first time. I can see the VP of Marketing combining a few of the words from their brainstorming session together to spell A-C-I-P-H-E-X. What I can’t see is how someone didn’t blurt out: That’s what she said!

Currently, I bounce around the top of the Google search results. Sometimes one or two, sometimes at the bottom, but since mid last year I’ve always been on page one of the number one search engine in the world when searching for “John Wilson”.

Tonight, a friend of mine saw a commercial for Bing - Microsoft’s new search engine. I was tweaking the new design of my blog and thought I should search “John Wilson” to see where I was. PAGE TWO! This begs the question – how could the number one blog in the world get it right and Bing get it wrong?

Great question. I was playing around with Bing and searched the word “search”. You’d think (at least if I was Product Manager) that Bing would be the number one result. Not so:

Where is Bing? Or Google?

Yahoo? Dogpile (I didn’t even know they still existed)? AOL? Seriously?

I thought this was weird until I ran the same search at Google…

Where is Google, Google?

Where is Product Management? This is either an example of the most pure product management or the silliest thing I’ve seen.

Maybe the best part of Travel Tip #1 is that a co-worker and I came up with it about the same time, without conferring:

Cheating the Mini-Bar

Drink from the mini-bar when desperate, but hang the privacy sign and replace the drink from a local alcohol or grocery store at less than half the cost.

I was very thirsty at the end of a long day of interviewing CEOs and watching protesters. I walked all around the 14th floor of The Omni looking for a water fountain or a soda machine or something, but with no luck. When a tumbleweed rolled out of my mouth I finally called the front desk. Not only was there no soda machine on the 14th floor, but none in the building and none within a three block radius.

I was forced to drink a coke out of the mini-bar. $3.50 per 12oz can, and a 21% restocking fee (how does that work?) The can had marketing from last year’s Summer Olympics, but I was really thirsty.

The next day, my previously mentioned co-worker and I had the idea to walk to the alcohol store (about three blocks) and purchase Cokes (they were about the price of The Omni restocking fee). We put the replacement cans behind the original can and stashed our empties. Our little walk (we were out and about anyways) saved us a combined $13.

I’m currently having a great time in San Diego. Delta Airlines was nice enough to move me to an isle seat (I was in the middle which is a bad idea for everyone involved) for the 4.5 hour flight. San Diego has an ok airport (more on that later), but it is no where near my favorite one in Seattle which is the coolest airport I’ve never been through (sorry PKB).

On our first night, my boss and I caught the Padres vs. the Phillies. PETCO  Park is a nice, very open stadium, but it has none of that atmosphere you feel at parks like Yankee Stadium, Cincinnati or Cleveland. It may have something to do with the game being on a Tuesday night, or being in the nose bleed section, or the beating they were taking while I was there (final score 10-5). I’m glad I went, take a look:

I was only one block from both the San Diego Convention Center and the Gas Lamp District at the Omni Hotel. The Gas Lamp district seemed to be the downtown, entertainment, eating and bar place. I was never there on the weekend, but Thursday night before we came home seemed to heat up.

Restaurants I visited while in San Diego include:

• Bondi – Austrailian Bar – great atmosphere and excellent calamari,  but hamburger wasn’t that great
• The Spot – La Jolla – bar food – limited selection but cool location and nice scenery
• Croce’s – Contemporary American – live music and large patio for cool spring evening – filet minon

I hope that next time I visit San Diego I have more time to visit attractions that don’t involve convention booths or 10pm dining.