Wizard of Ads Monday Morning Memo

1: You are the product of your genetic code, hardwired to behave in certain ways.2: You are the product of your environment, the sum total of your influences.3: You are the product of your choices. It is your preferences, not your surroundings, that define you.I believe it is a mistake to cling too tightly to any of these 3 ideas. Each of them is true, I think, but not to the exclusion of the other two.The first explanation of you – DNA – is biological.The second explanation of you – Environment – is sociological.The third explanation of you – Choice – is theological.You don’t get to choose your DNA.You don’t get to choose how or where you spend your early childhood years.You do get to choose what you do next.I say these things to you because you are staring into the mirror of a brand-new year; so new that you can still smell the vinyl upholstery.I see your future clearly. Shall I tell you about it?Things will happen to you that are beyond your control. A few of these will be bad. But why worry? They are beyond your control. You have no power to change these things, no matter how well you worry. “Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present.”– Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, from his book, Meditations, published in 200 A.D.“True happiness is to enjoy the present without anxious dependence on the future.”– Lucius Annaeus Seneca, (4 B.C. – 65 A.D.)Yes, things will happen to you that are beyond your control. But most of these will be good things. Do not take them for granted, but anchor yourself in these daily moments of serendipity. Let them speak to you of the joy of living:You will step outside just in time to see the afternoon sky melt into the red, orange and gold of autumn leaves.You will be contacted by an old friend you had been thinking about calling.You will have the opportunity to play with a puppy.You will order a dish you’ve never had and be amazed at the interplay of flavors and spices.You will be paid a true compliment by a stranger.You will be given the opportunity to make a big difference in the life of someone else, and it will be within your power to say, “Yes.”You will look into the face of an infant, and it will smile at you.You will discover a short-cut that saves you time and trouble.You will talk to empty air and know that you have been heard.You will have a happy, new year.These good things, and many hundreds of others like them, are waiting for you, just ahead.Roy H. Williams

I want you to be in Austin on May 2nd if you can.The Princess has chosen the perfect location for The House of Bilbo Baggins, and there’s a chance we may have something for you to see when you get here.We have also begun construction on The Village of the Lost Boys and we ought to have the first two of the cabins in that village mostly completed by then.You remember The Lost Boys from Peter Pan, don’t you? Peter tells Wendy about them in chapter 3 of his glittering 1904 novel.“They are the children who fall out of their perambulators when the nurse is looking the other way.”“Are none of them girls?”“Oh, no; girls are much too clever to fall out of their prams.”May 2nd will be the 20th Anniversary of the birth of Wizard Academy.In the year 2000, classes were held in the attic of our offices in Buda.In 2001, we appropriated the little one-room building next door that was originally built as a gym for the employees of Williams Marketing.In 2004, Princess Pennie located and purchased the plateau across which our sprawling little campus is now draped.The 6 cabins in The Village of the Lost Boys will raise the number of on-campus rooms to 24, but with a second bed in the loft of each cabin, we will theoretically be able to sleep 30.And 30 people, ladies and gentlemen, is a very packed Eye of the Storm.Did you know that The Eye of the Storm classroom and lecture hall in the tower was built by Tim Storm? I always intended to call it The Eye of the Storm since it is where the fierce winds of new information cause us to realize that much of “traditional marketing wisdom” is more tradition than wisdom. It was that loveliest of invisible ladies, Serendipity, that whispered to Tim Storm that he should build it, even though he had no idea what I planned to name it.I have always depended on the whispers of Serendipity to suggest to the friends of Wizard Academy that they should leave a permanent mark on our campus. Dozens of you have already heard her whispers and acted upon them. On May 2nd, 2020, we’re going to celebrate what you, and she, have done together.Two weeks ago, Tim Gallagher was in The Magical Worlds Communications Workshop with his delightful daughter, Fallyn. She had never seen Gallagher Lane, that lovely winding sidewalk that leads from The Bell Wall all the way down to Engelbrecht House in the Valley of the Lost Boys. Have you never noticed the beautiful verdigris-bronze plaque in the portal of the Bell Wall? (Don’t worry, Indy says he’s going to show it to you along with a lot of other cool stuff in today’s highly informative rabbit hole. To enter the rabbit hole, just click the image of Indy Beagle at the top of this Monday Morning Memo.)On January 1, the day after tomorrow, Daniel Whittington will officially take over as Chancellor of Wizard Academy although he’s been doing most of my job for at least two years. Can you believe Daniel has been here for 6 years and that Zac Smith has been serving as Vice-Chancellor for a full year already?I will remain involved in classes at Wizard Academy and Pennie will continue her duties overseeing the appearance of the physical campus for years to come, but the day-to-day financial obligations and management of your school are now solidly on the shoulders of young brother Whittington.On May 2nd, we will release that long-awaited guidebook, Secrets of the Wizard Academy Campus, as you and we celebrate our past 20 years together and take a look at what is planned for the next 20 years. Among those things will be the speedy completion of The Village of the Lost Boys and The House of Bilbo Baggins.And then there is the incredibly important new certification program called The Ad Writers Masters Class.Indy is tapping the toenails of his right-front paw. I think he’s anxious for you to come and see what he has for you in the rabbit hole.Roy H. Williams

When you begin to write, the words and phrases that leap into your mind will be the ones you hear most often. Go ahead and write them down.The best writers begin by just blurting it out.A willingness to write badly is the key to writing well.After winning the Pulitzer prize for fiction, James Michener said,“I have never thought of myself as a good writer. Anyone who wants reassurance of that should read one of my first drafts. But I’m one of the world’s great rewriters.”Another Pulitzer prize winner, Bernard Malamud said,“The idea is to get the pencil moving quickly. Once you’ve got some words looking back at you, you can take two or three, throw them away and look for others.”The legendary Terry Southern tells us,“The important thing in writing is the capacity to astonish. Not shock—shock is a worn-out word—but astonish.”When you have written all that you wanted to say, look at it. When you see an overused phrase, replace it with a string of words that mean the same thing, but glow with a rainbow of color.When you notice a defeated, predictable word, replace it with one that carries a handgun.When the words staring back at you make you laugh a little, then look for a particularly arresting phrase – a phrase that carries handcuffs on its belt– and move it to the top of the stack.You’ll often find your strongest opening line about one third of the way down from the top. I don’t know why opening lines try to hide there, but that’s usually where you’ll find them.Now that you’ve got a strong opening line and a story full of colorful phrases, let’s “Thomas Jefferson” that thing. Right after he wrote that snarky letter to King George, Thomas told us,“The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do.”Boring people wrap a lot of words around a small idea.Fascinating people deliver big ideas quickly.Shorter hits harder.You’re going to have some free time during the holidays, so write me a 600-word story. It can be about anything you want except politics. It can be true or fictional, happy or sad, tender or defiant. But it can’t be boring.Indiana Beagle will choose the best of these and post one each week in the rabbit hole during the first few months of 2020. Be sure to attach an interesting photo of yourself. Also, include your mailing address in case Indy wants to send you a little something. You can email the beagle at indy@WizardOfAds.comWe’ll talk again after Christmas.May your holiday sparkle with laughter!Roy H. Williams

An unhappy person who talks about “the way things ought to” be has a decision to make.They need to take action, orThey need to shut up and get on with their life.I’m sorry if that sounded cold and harsh. Allow me to explain.“The Way Things Ought to Be” is a fantasy world. Complaining that you don’t live there is pointless.“The Way Things Really Are” is the world you live in. Learn to navigate in that world and you can go anywhere you want.I’m not saying that you have to make peace with the status quo.I’m not saying that you have to accept things as they are.I’m not saying that you are powerless to change things.I’m saying that unproductive whining is pointless.Take action or shut up. Don’t spend your life believing you are a victim and trying to convince everyone else of it.“But can’t I at least tell people how I feel?”It depends on who those people are. Do they have the power to change things? If they do, then yes, tell them how you feel. And then convince other people to do the same. Start a revolution. Create a future that is better than the past. Progress depends on people like you.But if you share your indignation with people who have don’t have the power to change things, and you have no intention of talking to the people who do have the power, you’re just complaining, moaning, and whining.No one likes a whiner.The difference between a victim and a revolutionary is that the victim takes no action beyond complaining to their friends.A revolutionary risks ridicule and defeat. He or she spends time, energy, and money in the effort to make the future better than the past.You can make a difference if you are willing to pay the price.George Bernard Shaw said,“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends upon the unreasonable man.”And then he said,“You don’t hold your own in the world by standing on guard, but by attacking and getting well hammered yourself.”Are you willing to fall under the hammer if that’s what it takes to change things?Even when I don’t agree with them, I admire women and men who do more than just complain to their friends.But in every instance I always agree with that delightful person who takes no position unless they are also willing to take action, that person who elevates every conversation to a pleasant topic and makes you feel happy they are around.Roy H. Williams

What is the canvas of your artistic expression?“Pen and ink,” says the writer.“Wet clay” says a sculptor,“Wood” says another,“Stone” says a third.And then the painters chime in,singing, “Oils,” “Pencils,”“Charcoal,” and “Acrylic”in 4-part harmony.“Film” shouts a cinematographer,“Pixels” shouts another,and the photographers beat a steady rhythmon the lens covers of their cameras.Our own Princess Pennieis of that ancient tribe“The Daughters of Eve”who claim the earth as their canvas.The inheritance of the daughtersgoes back to the book of Genesis…Do you believe the Bible to be a message from God,or merely the writings of desert nomads?Either way, it is an interesting book.In the second chapter of that first book,“The Lord God took the manand put him in the Garden of Edento work it and take care of it.”But evidently, Adam wasn’t very good at it,because just three verses later the Lord God said,“It is not good for the man to be alone,”and Eve became his partner in the effort.Dozens of centuries later,daughter Elizabeth Murray observed,“Gardening is the art that uses flowers and plants as paint,and the soil and the sky as canvas.”Two hundred and fourteen years ago,the poet William Wordsworth added,“Laying out grounds may be considered a liberal art,in some sort like poetry and painting.” 1One hundred and twenty-two years ago, Sidney Hare said,“Show me a city without parks and boulevards and I will show youa people far behind the times in every way. Parks educate the peoplein an art equally as grand as the art of painting or sculpture…” 2In 1941, the immortal John Steinbeck said,“Places are able to evoke moods, as colorand line in a picture may capture andwarp us to a pattern the painter intended.” 3Eleven years later, Steinbeck elaborated,“The spring flowers in a wet year were unbelievable. The whole valley floor, and the foothills too, would be carpeted with lupins and poppies. Once a woman told me that colored flowers would seem more bright if you added a few white flowers to give the colors definition. Every petal of blue lupin is edged with white, so that a field of lupins is more blue than you can imagine.” 4And daughter Shauna Niequist adds,“Use what you have, use what the world gives you. Use the first day of fall: bright flame before winter’s deadness; harvest; orange, gold, amber; cool nights and the smell of fire. Our tree-lined streets are set ablaze, our kitchens filled with the smells of nostalgia: apples bubbling into sauce, roasting squash, cinnamon, nutmeg, cider, warmth itself. The leaves as they spark into wild color just before they die are the world’s oldest performance art, and everything we see is celebrating one last violently hued hurrah before the black and white silence of winter.” 5I agree. It is not good for the man to be alone.Thank God for the women in our liveswho cause rainbows of color to appearfrom lumps of cold, brown earth. 6Roy H. Williams1 In a letter to Sir George H. Beaumont, Grasmere, (Oct. 17, 1805)2 Sidney J. Hare, a pioneer in Landscape Architecture, (1897)3 John Steinbeck, Sea of Cortez, p. 256, (1941)4 John Steinbeck, East of Eden, p. 4. (1952)5 Shauna Niequist, Bittersweet, (2013)6 Genesis 2:7

My business partners meet twice a year to spend a few days together. A transcription of their discussions during these meetings could easily become a bestselling book.A number of my partners have grown far beyond anything I ever taught them, which makes answering their questions a lot easier for me.I employ a mildly deceptive technique that has been used by teachers throughout history:When confronted with a question for which you have no immediate answer, stall for time by tossing the question back to the students. Keep their discussion moving forward until they have arrived at a solid conclusion. They will never suspect that you didn’t already know the answer.During our last meeting, one of my partners was sharing the secrets of his very successful online campaigns with the rest of us when he said, “When I became a partner 15 years ago, I was hoping that Roy would tell us exactly how the sausage is made. Looking back, I appreciate his wisdom in not doing that.”“What do you mean by, ‘how the sausage is made?’” I asked.“I mean, ‘exactly how to write great ads.’”His answer confused me because I was under the illusion that I had, in fact, taught them “exactly how to write great ads.” But rather than admit that I had no idea what he was talking about, I said, “Let’s talk about the different ways of making the sausage. Sexton, how many ways are there to write great ads?”I asked that question as though I already knew the answer, when in truth, I did not. But I was smart enough to ask the person that I suspected would know the answer.“Two,” answered Sexton. “You can follow a template and search for the information to fill each of the openings within that template, or you can gather information and then organize it however you choose. No template.”His answer blew my mind because he was obviously right, but this idea of “writing to a template” had never once crossed my mind. Startled by his answer, I said to the room, “How many of you write to a template?”About half the hands went up.“How many of you gather information and then organize it? No template.”The other half of the hands went up.The thing that startled me the most, however, was that half of the most accomplished writers in the room were using one method, and the other half was using the other.Even more interestingly, I spent the next several weeks asking a number of highly accomplished business owners which of the two methods they would follow. Again, half of them said “template,” which is another way of saying, “Plan your work, and work your plan.” The other half said, “Gather, then organize,” which is another way of saying, “Work with what you’ve got. Improvise.”Regardless of which technique you prefer, does it surprise you that both techniques seem to work equally well?Who’d have thought it?If you have thoughts, anecdotes, or stories about this interesting duality of Planning vs. Improvisation, send them to indy@wizardofads.com and we’ll see if some of them land in the rabbit hole. Also, Indy is planning to feature some murals on the sides of buildings in the rabbit hole next week, so if you have a cool photo of an outdoor mural, send it to him with a description of its location, okay?For those of you who don’t know, the rabbit hole is entered by clicking the image of Indy Beagle at the top of each week’s online version of the Monday Morning Memo. (That’s him at the top of this page holding a sausage in his jaws.) Indy’s rabbit hole is an informative, eclectic, wonderful waste of time.“Not long ago, sitting at my desk at home, I suddenly had the horrifying realization that I no longer waste time.”– MIT professor and physicist Alan Lightman in his book, A Sense of the MysteriousIndy has the cure for Alan Lightman’s distress. His rabbit hole usually rambles on for about 8 to 28 pages. Click the image at the top of each rabbit hole page and it will take you to the next page. Anything can happen in the rabbit hole.And it often does.He’s waiting there for you now. (click)Roy H. Williams

People need your encouragement more than they need your advice. A little encouragement at a pivotal time makes all the difference.I am giving you a Christmas gift: When you have opened it, you will become the right person, doing the right thing, at the right time, in the right way.To open your gift, you need only to buy what the kids are selling.Randy Phillips gave me this gift and I’m glad he did.We were in church when Randy went on a little rant.He said, “Buy whatever the kids are sellin’… Buy whatever the kids are sellin’… Sometimes you come out of a restaurant or a grocery store and they’ve got a little table set up, and you try not to make eye contact with’em. It’s like, ‘If I can act like I don’t see’em, I don’t have to buy it.’Get over there! Go to that table. They’ve got that wrapping paper. You can buy it half-price somewhere else. It don’t matter they’ve marked it up 100%. You don’t need it? What you need is not the issue! You go over there and you buy what the kids are sellin’.They got cookies? ‘I don’t eat cookies.’ This is not about what you eat! Buy what the kids are sellin’. Here’s what I do. I walk over to ‘em and ask, ‘What is the largest amount that you’ve sold today? Who bought the most?’‘Well, they bought 5 boxes.’‘Give me 10. I want 10 boxes.’Denise says, ‘What are you going to do with 10 boxes of cookies?’‘I don’t know. Don’t worry about that.’The look on their face when you are building confidence in a kid across the table! ‘This is how commerce works. This is how we do it in America. You have something of value. I give you money. We trade it. And here we go.’We’re teaching those kids! Buy whatever the kids are sellin’.”Encouragement speaks loudest when it is followed by action. Your action.Always buy what the kids are selling. Give a child the gift of encouragement and hope. It takes only a moment. Then you can give away the thing you bought and explain why you bought it in the first place. Kindness is contagious. Perhaps the recipient of your gift will be inspired to do the same.You are a generous person who likes to encourage others.This is the secret to your happiness.Roy H. Williams

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are used for measuring departmental performance within a company. The goal of KPIs is continual improvement.The subtle danger of KPIs is that they can lead us to prioritize efficiency over effectiveness, and short-term objectives over long-term.A Police Chief told his officers to prioritize burglaries of multiple-occupancy households because the system would count each occupant as a separate solved crime and lift their KPI.An electrical wholesale group created a KPI competition between its branches which resulted in them undercutting each other’s prices.A shoe company with a 3.5 billion-dollar ad budget (Adidas) admitted they had been “overly focused on digital attribution,” partly as a result of its ability to allow the company to “look at short-term measurements in real time.” Adidas Global Media Director Simon Peel says, “But when you look at econometric modelling it’s telling you something very different…” 1 In a successful company, it takes every department working together to increase top line revenues. But when departments are held individually accountable for department-specific goals, teamwork goes out the window.A business owner recently asked me, “Who is responsible for lead generation?” Before I could answer, one of his branch managers said, “Selling is a numbers game. Double my sales opportunities and I’ll make twice as many sales.”I asked, “Who is responsible for lead generation in a restaurant?”“The marketing department,” answered the branch manager.Looking across that group of 20 branch managers from 20 different cities, I said, “Think of the best restaurant in your city, the one where you’ve got to have a reservation because there is never an open table. Do you see it in your mind? That restaurant hasn’t advertised in 30 years. Their happy customers are their only marketing department.”Looking at their faces, I could tell they had seen the truth in what I had said, so I told them another truth, “Advertising is a tax we pay for not being remarkable.” I let that one soak in a minute.“When our customer contacts us, they meet the Maître D’ of our restaurant. Sometimes it’s a Customer Service Representative in our call center. Other times it’s a team member who responded to an email inquiry, or who interacted with our customer in live chat. If those people do well, they will hand the baton to one of our waiters; a salesperson or a service technician. But wait, we’re not done. Now we have to deliver the food. Will the chef live up to his reputation? Will the product be as good as our customer hoped it would be?”I waited a few moments, then said, “Today’s close rate determines tomorrow’s sales leads. Good advertising is merely the beginning of a conversation with the customer. If they visit our website, they’re reading our menu. If they check our online reviews, they’re asking their friends about us. But here is where things get serious: when that customer encounters our Maître D’, our waiters, and our chef, she is expecting to meet the company she was promised in our ads. Will we be the company we promised her? Or will we be guilty of bait-and-switch?”I said it again, “Today’s close rate determines tomorrow’s sales leads… Every member of our team is responsible for lead generation. We win together and we lose together. Any one of us can drop the baton in this never-ending relay race where the final runner hands it back to the first runner as a referral from a happy customer. You and I have to make every customer glad they chose us.”“Each of us is a point-of-contact with our customer, a channel of communication. When we use the brandable chunks – signature phrases – that were introduced in our mass-media ads and reinforced on our website; when each of us delivers the personality that we promised in our ads, we have channel alignment. When we fall short of this, we are guilty of bait-and-switch.”“In a growing company, the KPI that matters most is top line revenue. To grow, we have to say remarkable things in our ads. To grow, we have to do remarkable things for our customers. Today’s close rate determines tomorrow’s sales leads. And channel alignment increases the close rate.”“Any other questions?”Roy H. Williams

Symbolic thought is commonly expressed through similes, metaphors, and music, allowing us to communicate the unknown and unfamiliar by relating it to the known and familiar.Symbols happen when one thing stands for another.Symbolism plays a role in identity reinforcement. Brands, hobbies, artistic expressions, event attendance, and social connections are symbolic ways of saying, “This is who I am. This is what I do. This is what I stand for. This is what I stand against. This is how I see myself.”Marketing people call these measurements “psychographics.”Symbols are powerful, friendly things that assist us in relating to the world around us. They help us make those difficult choices between two good things. “With which of these two things do I most strongly identify?”Self-determination is a good thing.Cooperation is a good thing.Brexit is Britain’s tug-of-war between those two good things.America is having a tug-of-war of its own.Understanding how symbols can affect the mood of the heart and the attitude of the mind is a natural part of self-awareness. But symbols get distorted and dark when we embrace them too tightly or carry them one step too far.Superstition is the belief that a symbol carries within itself the power to enact change.Pheromones are a series of chemical flags released by animals that signal sexuality, fear, and dominance; moods of the heart and attitudes of the mind.The flag of a nation is a bit of colored cloth on the end of a stick. Its only power lies in the hearts and minds of those who see it. We are unified when we agree on what that symbol stands for. We are divided when we do not agree.The only hard choice is the choice between two good things.When we are deeply divided, we believe our adversaries are stupid and evil. If we are gracious, we call them “uninformed and misled,” which is just a slightly nicer way of saying the same thing.Reconciliation and unity will not begin until we look beyond our polarized reactions to see the good thing the other side believes in. This is the path to productive civil discourse.Frankly, I’m a bit weary of destructive discourse, aren’t you?Regardless of your political beliefs, you have at least one close friend who believes in the good thing that is currently standing in the way of the good thing you believe in. In other words, their political beliefs are not aligned with yours. Is your relationship with that person strong enough, is your trust in that person deep enough, to quietly listen as they explain what they believe and why they believe it? Can you find the good thing your friend believes in?Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened.Remember: Your goal is to see through their eyes for a moment. You want to see what they see. This is not the time or place to make them see what you see. If you cannot restrain yourself from correcting them and interjecting your beliefs, you are likely to lose a friend.The path to peace requires courage, restraint, the willingness to listen, and an open mind.The other path – the exciting one – is the path that leads to war.Roy H. Williams

“The word ‘artist’ is not applied to writers as readily as to musicians or sculptors or painters, because the medium in which they work – our language – is used by everyone without any particular thought or regard for economy or form. Language is the common drudge of every sort of experience and it does not enter the heads of most people to use it with any conscious skill or effectiveness.”“But the serious writer is an artist and language is his medium, and the way he employs it is of the greatest interest. Graham Greene has said that ‘creative art seems to remain a function of the religious mind,’ and it is this quality of awareness of another world…”– Robertson Davies, The Merry Heart, p. 115“When Cervantes invited a new generation of readers to follow his knight into the Sierra Morena, they discovered through their tears of laughter that they had entered a new world. For the writers and readers to come, the pages of a book could never again stand like foreign objects of wonder, to be admired from a distance. From now on, opening a book would mean stepping into a space more like one’s own, a Sierra Morena next door instead of a mythical wood or mystic crag, and even those places of mystery or magic, from Never Never Land to Hogwarts, would always be places in which other versions of our own selves would go to for relief from the pressures, pain, or simply the boredom of our daily lives.”– William Egginton, The Man Who Invented Fiction, p. 136“In my life as a writer I often remind myself – comfort myself – with what William Faulkner said about The Sound and the Fury. The whole novel, he claimed, hung on one image, the glimpse of a little girl’s muddy underpants seen from the ground as she climbed a tree. How can an entire world spin off so small and incidental a hub? Can it be possible that Faulkner conceived his masterpiece from this thin, grubby moment?”“I imagine most writers of novels begin with such a fragment, a shard of experience so compelling, so troubling and unavoidable – always there, on the periphery of consciousness – that around it he or she must construct an elaborate world. This world, this novel, is not merely a container or a means of filing the image away but an attempt to make it comprehensible, and to guard its power.”– Kathryn Harrison, When Inspiration Stared Stoically from an Old Photograph“Fiction is usually seen as escapist entertainment… But it’s hard to reconcile the escapist theory of fiction with the deep patterns we find in the art of storytelling… Our various fictional worlds are– on the whole– horrorscapes. Fiction may temporarily free us from our troubles, but it does so by ensnaring us in new sets of troubles– in imaginary worlds of struggle and stress and mortal woe.”– Jonathan Gottschall, The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human“Go, then – there are other worlds than these.”– Stephen KingIf you want us to see a different world, it will be your choice of tools that defines you. Oscar Wilde was a playwright. He put his words, like a ventriloquist, into the mouths of actors on the stage. Ad writers, screenwriters and novelists differ only in their ventriloquist’s dummies, the masks they hide behind.Some ventriloquist’s dummies are called “newscasters,” and they are no different than the actors in any other fiction. The question we must ask ourselves is, “Who is hiding behind that mask, and what imaginary world are they trying to sell us?”Roy H. WilliamsPS – At a 1962 dinner for 49 Nobel laureates, President John F. Kennedy quipped that the event was, “the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever gathered at the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.”Thomas Jefferson was a famous hater of newspapers, though I suspect he would have hated radio, television, and the internet even more. Writing to his friend John Norvell in 1807, Jefferson said, “The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers. Advertisements contain the only truths to be relied on in a newspaper.”