Archive for the Thought for the Weekend Category

What’s not to love about the Fourth of July? It’s about parades and picnics. Beaches and bathing suits. Barbecues and baseball games. Fireworks and freedom. Hamburgers and hot dogs. Erma Bombeck once said: “You have to love a nation that celebrates its independence every July 4, not with a parade of guns, tanks, and soldiers who file by the White House in a show of strength and muscle, but with family picnics where kids throw Frisbees, the potato salad gets iffy, and the flies die from happiness. You may think you have overeaten, but

Today in Southeastern and Central North Carolina, temperatures are expected to hit triple digits, with a heat index hovering above the advisory level for 105 degrees Fahrenheit. And, as the temperatures soar, so will the humidity. Forecasters expect that we will reach or surpass record highs set in the 1950’s. With heat advisories and warnings issued throughout the State, everyone is talking about how to keep cool. While chatting about the summer heat wave with a vendor who doesn’t work in the industry, she asked: “Do you see requests for more refrigerated trucks at

“He didn’t tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it.” ~Clarence Budington Kelland Before he founded Matchmaker, my Dad was a salesman for 25 years. Since most of his pay came from commissions, Dad spent a lot of time during the week traveling to visit clients. Fortunately, he was all ours on the weekends! I have wonderful childhood memories of camping, fishing on Long Island Sound, and watching Giants Football games on Sunday afternoons. Dad was willing to do anything to support his kids–as a child, I didn’t

A few weeks ago, I told you how I was practicing for a jam session at an upcoming unofficial high school reunion. The reunion party was a success and our music was very well received, especially considering that a few of us met for the first time that day with less than fifteen minutes to practice before our debut performance. If there is one thing I’ve learned while playing in bands all these years, it’s that a good bass player is hard to find. It just so happened there was a guy at the

The trouble with eating Italian food is that five or six days later you’re hungry again. ~George Miller During last week’s business trip up the East Coast, Mary Kelton of Phibro Animal Health gave me a wonderful restaurant recommendation for my anniversary weekend with my wife in New York City. She told me about Becco on West 46th Street, a restaurant with a unique (and surprisingly affordable) concept. For just $22.95, the menu includes a salad, an antipasto dish, and unlimited tableside service of the chef’s three daily homemade pasta preparations. In addition, the

“The car has become a secular sanctuary for the individual, his shrine to the self, his mobile Walden Pond.” ~Edward McDonagh This coming week, I’ll be on the road, driving up the East Coast to visit some of our customers. I’ll end my trip with a weekend in Connecticut, my old stomping grounds, where I will reconnect with old high school buddies for an unofficial 30-year high school reunion. While it is typical for solo drivers to spend their road time listening to the radio, enjoying audio books and podcasts, or talking on the

The phrase “working mother” is redundant. ~Jane Sellman Being a full-time mother is one of the highest salaried jobs…since the payment is pure love. — Mildred B. Vermont I don’t know anyone more hard-working than my Mom. She had a tough childhood, having been raised largely by her grandmother and her aunt since her own parents never recovered financially or emotionally from the Great Depression. As an adult, she was a “working mom”. Mom had a successful career in real estate before she took over running the Matchmaker office for my Dad. She didn’t

When my mother and father started this company more than 30 years ago, they never could have conceived of the internet, let alone the concept of online dating. Unable to foresee sites like Match.com, eHarmony.com, and yes, Matchmaker.com, they innocently named our company Matchmaker. After all, we are in the business of matching shippers needs with carriers’ capabilities. It makes perfect sense. But these days, if I use our corporate shorthand and simply refer to our company name as “Matchmaker” instead of “Matchmaker Logistics”, people outside of the industry assume we’re in a very