From: Gary S. Gevisser
Sent: Tuesday, April 22, 2003 3:26 PM
To: Devin Standard
Cc: rest

Subject: Grubbygrub.com

 

Devin, I want to make sure I express myself clearly on my read of “Mom & Pop” busy bee workers.

 

My main purpose here is to build on all the positives of the past and before getting rid of the negatives make certain that we have at least attempted to mitigate the weaknesses baring in mind that two negatives make a positive, most importantly no one should be left behind having to put up with, at a minimum, airborne feces let alone having to pick up after someone else, i.e. Manager Minute One which is numero uno in terms of my priorities; hell bent on each one of us becoming our own managers from minute one.

 

It is much easier getting children to get with the program since unlike adults their sequencing remains more in tact and why I, for one, feel the need to tap into their tactile skills rather than having an over-controlling parent suggest “otherweiss” [sic].

 

Considering all the chess games I have out there right now it may surprise some that I would be going after someone as powerful as Melvyn Weiss of “Milberg Weiss Bershad Hynes and Leroach” [sic] who all combined may have deeper reservoirs than someone like Jeffrey Krinsk who a few weeks back was pumping some 30,000 gallons into his neighbor’s property and for all I know this “poor” neighbor may in fact be backpedaling in San Diego bay possibly looking for an alternate address.

 

Yes, we cannot forget that in order to stay on track one constantly has to be looking at one’s opportunity cost, i.e. the next best alternative and there is nothing like an appointment to the omnipotent California Coastal Commission that can make one the “blue eyed boy.”

 

That last hyperlink takes us all the way back to September 12^th of last year, one day after Dr. John Ben Stewart did the unthinkable, although to be precise it was in fact one day before when he first overstepped the mark and committed such a foul act on of all days, September 11^th.

 

Another way to get to the “ate” hyperlink is by first scrolling down on the “Blue eyed boy” hyperlink until one gets to “free will” and then one has to scroll down until one sees the verbiage, “United Food and Commercial Workers.” Perhaps Polie Pollak can inform us how many words one has to read in order to get fully up to speed.

 

Do you happen to know if Polie can speed read to mention little of what I read the other day in Reader’s Digest about what President John F. Kennedy had to do while in the White House to stay up on things. I hope to cover this point in quite some detail in an email I intend to send out later to Ron Bellows?

 

I think it is important that I clarify at this time that I have no absolute proof that Mel Weiss in fact made that one posting on March 22^nd 2000 and the one that followed 3 minutes later on the Eraider.com website. There is always the possibility that my brother Melvin Gevisser just to keep me on my toes decided to impersonate the co-managing partner of the most rapacious out of control law firm in the world.

 

Again though, it comes down to the better the evidence the better the proof and I think I would be able to make a far better case that it was Mel Weiss who at 10:31PM EST was in a “drunken state” than Mel Gevisser who barely drinks and who may not have even inhaled a puff of pot although one could even conceive of Melvyn Weiss’ partner, the 1,000 lb gorilla, Bill Lerach trying to make the argument, if push came to shove, that it was Rabbi Weiss who barmizvahed me just 3 days short of 33 years ago as the drafter of that ridiculous posting.

 

When, however, you take a close look at message 27 on the Eraider.com Shareholder Rights message board you begin to narrow the field of possible “culprits”

 

I think that if Bill Gates will actually be an active Chairman then it will be tough for the CEO to act independently.  However, I believe that if Gates wants to rule MS then let him rule.  He is the best for the job, has built the behemoth and has the skills to enhance it further.

 

And remember I focus on the Standard Deviations, those extreme elements like Polie Pollak and King Golden as well as King Golden’s best friend, Roger Robinson an “economist” with the National Security Council during Ronald Reagan’s first term in office. Please let me know whether the last hyperlink is now loading up correctly.

 

Unless we are able to keep the folks on the far left and far right in check those within the Bell Shaped Curve are likely to suffer a whole lot more than simply having their bells rung each time someone like Polie comes up for air. I can’t wait for his call.

 

I think I mentioned to you that I have this one friend who has been interested in distributing some aqualung devices that would allow divers more than a breath of fresh air at a really good price but after doing a whole lot research into the marketplace he eventually decided to check on how much the liability insurance premiums he would need to maintain would add to the his overall competitiveness and now Marius in order to make ends meet is selling jewelry in swap meats, soon though to have a field day promoting GrubbyGrub workshops globally.

 

And of course you like any entrepreneur out there has run into this scenario time and again and why I try and impress to any would be individual with any level of entrepreneurial spirit in their veins who wants to avoid the mad rush to climb the corporate ladder of “dog eat dog” that they do the smart thing of going forwards and backwards in their quest to enjoy the American Dream, i.e. spend as much time on the backend developing the product as you do on the front end making certain that your customers have an ability to pay and in so doing you will save yourself a whole lot of bother including keeping your relationships on track by doing your due diligence concurrent with your engineering mitigating the negative effects of finding out down the line that the wave you hoped to catch was nothing more than a mirage, i.e. all flat^[1].

 

Which brings me of course back again to the French Conglomerate Vivendi and the yoyos who rigged the recent California Gubernatorial elections who may in fact like to see me dead or at least take a spill which reminds me that on the way to getting married later today I must pick up a new battery for the Ducati.

 

Yesterday was quite eventful especially considering that I ran into the same problems I had back in December of 2001 when I was trying to convince a “white shoe” law firm in England that I was who I said I was while asking them to handle the paperwork for the purchase of Ccrest Bed & Breakfast Cafe. This time though when I sat down with clerk of the court who was looking over the marriage license I did though happen to have some identification. Unfortunately or fortunately, depending on how one looks at things, my driver’s license had expired and as you know I appear to have lost my passport.

 

According to Marie’s brother who is with the RCMP an American passport is considerably valuable on the black market. Now I happen to still have in my possession two South African Passports and one in fact contains a visa to visit Australia. Both Passports, however, including the visa which is now 23 years old, have expired.

 

The lady who was helping Marie and I get through this ordeal wasn’t in the least bit surprised by my lack of preparedness. She mentioned that there have been times when she is halfway through the marriage proceeding when one or both parties have got cold feet and simply decided to call it quits before ever beginning down what to many is treacherous journey.

 

When the time came for us to proceed down this path Marie had to explain that I was just one door down getting a business license for GrubbyGrub and of course by the time I presented my invalid driver’s license this clerk had to be thinking to herself, “This poor beautiful women who has been down this road before must be completely knuts” [sic].

 

Now of course this clerk had no idea that I was raised orthodox Jewish and that Marie ran circles around the nuns with her grasp of math and Ms. Logical never to fault to mention little of never being forced to throw “Hail Maries” [sic] before finally getting her voice when she told her first husband, The Dishonorable Dr. John Ben Stewart to go take a hike. Nor for that matter did I mention to this terrifically patient government worker of how well Marie performed in front of Judge Hendrix on October 24^th of last year nor did I let her know that it is Marie who wears the pants, and of course has the “cash finances” to boot me to Timbuktu if I were to get just the slightest bit out of line.

 

It was though rather interesting when we first went down to 1600 Harbor Drive which I only know because Jeffrey Krinsk had to direct me there, my thinking being that I could save a buck or two by having him perform the ceremonies and at the same time present him with a bill that might actually force him to really work for a living.

 

On another point of clarity, I had always thought that Mr. Krinsk when greeting Marie and I was making the suggestion that we should get married and only yesterday while he painstakingly directed me away from his offices in downtown San Diego did it become evident that all he was doing each time he asked, “Are you married” was to simply get clarity on our marital status.

 

In fact in the car phone conversation which had me regurgitating to Marie everything, Jeffrey went so far as to state that he has never advocated that we get married and then proceeded to mouth off at close to 100 mph per minute all the reasons under the sun why Marie should not marry me.

 

He ended though on a somewhat positive note when he thought marrying Marie might help with my legal status in this country. When I informed him that I was in fact an American citizen whereas she remains a “resident alien” this seemed to cause Mr. Krinsk to take a deep breath although he seemed to get the point that there were some benefits in holding a Canadian Passport if forced by the likes of those who rigged the Californian Gubernatorial elections to flee to a safe haven.

 

It could though have simply been one of his “hot and cold running secretariats” [sic] bringing him in an E-mail I had sent him just moments earlier before heading down a possible road to purgatory that caused him to consider having a frontal lobotomy which of course goes hand in hand with the conspiracy his wife, Campbell Soup, and I have to get rid of Jeffrey and split what remains of the Koi fish before his partner and former U.S. Attorney Mr. Howard Finkelstein can come to grips with how in heaven’s name he allowed his partner and best friend to get caught up with the likes of me.

 

It wouldn’t surprise me if Howard Finkelstein decides to go cap in hand to Melvyn Weiss and Bill Lerach and ask them if they would be willing to give him back his old job. No doubt one of the things that Howard Finkelstein brings to the table is the fact that his personal assistant pretty much does all his work allowing Howard to use his incredible good looks to the “best and highest use”, i.e. rainmaker.

 

I happen to believe Milberg Weiss is in a whole lot more trouble than I can be in for anything I have written previously including all the million odd words hyperlinked so far in just this email.

 

Getting back just very quickly to “mweissman’s” spelling errors which in my mind seemed to have improved in the 3 minutes that elapsed since he-she-it posted message 26.

 

I think there should always be one Chairman and CEO.  The borad and shareholders should vote on this one position.  There should neevr be two positions.  Liek the President or Prime Minister of a nation, there should always be one final say in all matters.  An elected official is the way to go.  Corporate governance is tough, but it gets tougher once you have to egos, along with their respective supporters, going at it.

 

Although my brother Melvin has been rather high on Microsoft [MS] going back to the early 1980s it is doubtful he would use a word like “behemoth” let alone “tTOo egos” [sic] although if you read my mother’s and step-father’s book The Winking Cat that my brother helped edit you could possibly make the case that my father flew a Tiger Moth while hand-dropping 500lb as well as 1,000 lb bombs out of his cockpit.

 

It was actually only in recent times that my mother seemed to focus on the incredible piloting skills that came with being a fighter-bomber-pilot during WWII for the simple reason that my father being so modest never once in the 30 years they were married ever discussed his 71 operations over the skies of North Africa and Italy that took him just an hour or so away from blasting the crematoria in spots like Auschwitz.

 

Now of course my brother Melvin has never thought that my father was some kind of pussy mostly looking good wearing scarves that Marie Dion-Gevisser now uses to adorn her head while being inspired to come up with new creations for GrubbyGrub but nor did he pick up on my father, 64 days short of his 21^st birthday, qualifying “above average” as a fighter-bomber-pilot.

 

I always assume the best in people and then as a result of back and forth, working efficiently at either ends of the spectrum getting rid of the slugs one is able to help those in the mainstream, the worker bees rise to their level of competency unhindered by the politicians on both sides of the isle wanting to feed off those in the center.

 

My process of elimination although somewhat unorthodox is highly effective and why I never suffer from bouts of depression impacting in large measure folks who jump into businesses as well as personal relationships without first having done their due diligence.

 

I very rarely invest a dime in anything until such time that I have completed all the “homework” having learned a thing or two along the way. As long as one sees an investment of one’s time in conducting due diligence as nothing more than a learning curve always though conscious of “opportunity cost” one is never faced with the having to deal with the issue of “return on investment” that automatically adds an enormous weight to the equation especially for those of us who have more than an “above average” return on investment and of course it pays to measure one’s words ever so carefully.

 

The best example that I can recall right now is a project I got involved with in the early 1980s. I had two incredibly gifted partners who were responsible for taking care of the areas where I had little expertise. A gentleman by the name of Wynn Nielsen was the engineer responsible for developing a gadget that caused the rear brake lights of an automobile to flash at a rate directly proportional to the deceleration of the vehicle thus allowing the vehicle behind to gauge more accurately how fast the car in front was coming to a stop.

 

Quite a bit of research had already gone into analyzing this particular problem with all sorts of studies which confirmed the economics if one could in fact produce an item such as this, i.e. there would be a positive impact on the market including most importantly the reduction in insurance premiums blah blah blab.

 

King Golden was the genius attorney responsible for making sure that all the legal stuff was hunky dory and I can tell you at the time there was many a women out there who thought King was quite the hunk and none more so than his incredibly beautiful wife who I haven’t seen in donkey years. Certainly on their marriage day King’s wife, whose name I forget, was the prettiest woman on the balcony of SAIC’s headquarters in La Jolla and as you know Science Applications International Corporation was a hot bed of activity for “lefties and writies” [sic].

 

And make no mistake there were a whole lot of female secretaries running around including it seemed more than your average young male good looking secretary who seemed hot-to-trot no different to the young women in equally peak condition. I bring this all up because last night I caught a glimpse on PBS of a documentary about Seabiscuit and his incredible come from behind.

 

Now my job with the “flashing” gadget was to develop the business plan and when everything blew up I was the one blamed for the collapse of our business venture for the simple reason that I never wrote the business plan down on paper. Back then I rarely wrote anything down until I thought it made sense to do so. Butt for sum” [sic] reason King stuck close to me.

 

You see I don’t get very excited about anything until such time as I know the customer’s check or money order or wire transfer has gone through without a hitch. And just before we were to start talking to potential customers like the 3 American automobile manufacturers we found out that King had got a little distracted.

 

It is important to note that car safety was never really that much of a big deal to King who even in to the early 1990s, when I was still spending a good deal of time with him, never ever bothered to buckle his safety belt arguing that in the event of a fire it could ruin his good looks.

 

Now of course King was as high as a kite when he told me this but not quite as mad as I was when I found out that there was a law on the books issued by the Department of Transportation which I believe falls under the Federal Government that essentially forbade Wynn Neilsen’s incredible gadget that performed flawlessly from even getting out of the starting gates.

 

In a nutshell, there  was a provision that any flashing lights on a motorized vehicle was against the law and to change the law required a whole lot more than what I am going through getting just one member of the media to sit down seriously with me to go through the “smoking gun evidence” I have that Governor Davis of California and his rapacious business partners stole the recent election.

 

Now of course you may ask how come it took me so long to figure King Golden out although you probably haven’t figured to ask me how much it still bothers me having lost I believe it was about $250 which is what I seem to recall investing in this fukukta device although it could have been as high as $500 in direct costs and now do the arithmetic of my lost opportunity costs assuming conservatively, an IRR of 300% per year over the course of say 25 years rounding off here and there.

 

So of course today you have a sense of how much I valued my investment of time in someone like Ms. Vicky Schiff and what 10% of everything she earns ad-infinitum means when her co-partners have access to the hallways of power never to forget that bastion of riches known as CALPERS soon to be commonly referred to as “sCALPERS” [sic]. And of course never to forget since you are the chief executor of my estate the monies still owed to me by Wetherly Capital whose main principal was the central figure in the rigging of the recent elections here in California.

 

All of my experiences will soon come together in the form of GrubbyGrub with of course help from Marie. I am all but certain I have come up with a  business model that may be unparalled in some 4,000 years although Mr. Krinsk brought me into a reality check the other day by having me revisit some of the workings of those regimes that came before Saddam Hussein such as Nebuchadnezzar. Now this also presupposes that the Mesopotamians and the Babylonians did a whole lot more than make do with right angle triangles and the likes of the 60 minute clock.

 

The clock is now ticking and Marie just drove up the driveway after her class with Sebastian Capella who is suffering from the effects of another automobile accident and is now wearing a neck brace. It breaks my heart to mention little of how much bigger my bank account would be if MaryRose Cusimano had played it straight and stuck to the things she does best, i.e. identifying with pin point accuracy soft-tissue injury while recommending treatments that rarely if ever required surgery.

 

Getting to the truth of a matter is nothing more than a process of elimination and my read of “Mom & Pops” is that they have an incredible amount to contribute in terms of making a “Cookie cutter” business that even a genius like Fed DeLuca would appreciate.

 

Charlotte did come with several suggestions that we thought were good. Just her experience using newspaper and the plastic aprons which were recycled products prove that she can think outside of the box. Each so-called distributor/franchisee will though have to be both interesting and different especially if their goal is to compete long term and remain attractive to the target audience, whether it be kids, spouses, significant others and most importantly the buying public.

 

It is all about money and sex. Men have invariably used money to control women and women in turn use sex in an effort to balance things out. As a result of the morphing process with men looking like they need to take estrogen and women loading up on the testosterone it should come as no surprise that we focus more on the differences between mice and men.

 

No doubt the competition will imitate and therefore the need to constantly change and improve the product making it interesting for both the “Mom & Pop” as well as the “paying” client. There should be a price to everything otherwise people, spouses, significant others, customers, employees etc feel invariably that they are being taken advantage of. Money not only helps keep track of things, there is nothing like the money trail along with The Internet that has the most rapacious losing today something much more valuable than their hair, i.e. sleep.

 

And of course for quite some time now the stay at home mother has felt more than sleep deprived particularly if the husband considers his work oh so very important, having to play the corporate game and of course the stay at home spouse often times, those with low self esteem, can wreck havoc, nothing like a shaky hand rocking the cradle.

 

The product, the offering must evolve and of course there has to be a whole lot of love, i.e. trust and respect involved for their peace of mind, and price is critical. It cannot be a stagnant product, it cannot be always be the same thing. So therefore the “Mom & Pop” needs to feel that they have the ability to just go with the flow, evolve with the product. Because there will be someone imitating and selling cheaper or making their product boring or perhaps even better than what the “Mom & Pop” is offering.

 

The whole idea here is to keep everything creative, i.e. it is the “Mom & Pops” not the corporate executives who think outside of the box. The bottom line is that you have to renew the product offering all the time; i.e. renew and reuse.

 

The “Mom & Pop” has to bring out something totally new even if their focus is puffed paint; maybe puffed pastries stain extraordinarily well? It will be up to each “franchise holder” to take their business to a different level and of course in your case Charlotte understands all this hence why she chose a big, puffy cuddly teddy bear to father her children.

 

What we are offering are ideas, a basic product and they, the distributors-franchise holders can go from there but should they get stuck we are but an email away. We will have a network of ideas and as we get bigger the network will increase and the ideas will multiply. It is all about sharing, with no one feeling the need to protect as long as the philosophy behind the product offering stays true.

 

There has to be a mentality of curiosity, exploring new things. Narrow-mindedness will cause the business unit to fail, tangents to avoid unless one knows a thing or tTOo about how to make time stand still. Now time to move, open spaces to embrace, and along with the right angled motion as in 5678 we will have no one but ourselves to blame for each one of us not reaching infinity.

 

I see one way out of this mess for all of us which is not to suggest it be my way or the highway but unless someone comes up with a better way for us all to have fun, be happy and prosperous I will continue to do it my way.

 

Marie and Jonathan are now walking towards me as we head off for city hall.

 

Time to fly

 

Ps – I will revisit this email upon my return.