Marc Winkelman carries a BlackBerry hand-held digital organizer. He uses it to take notes and send e-mails. At work he has Outlook, Microsoft’s office communications and calendar program.
He’s the chief executive of a company that has stores in 50 states and six countries. Despite all the technology, Winkelman has three paper calendars on the walls of his office in Austin, Texas.
“There’s the month we’re in, the month we’re going to be in next, and I have a new one with three months – January, February and March,” Winkelman said. “I’ve found it’s very tough to get a sense of the long term from electronics.”
I’m with him on that. Well, I admit I’ve never tried to get a sense of the long term or the short term from anything but a paper calendar and a wristwatch. It’s not that I’m living in the past.
By the end of this week, I’ll step boldly into 2005. I won’t go without my personal assistants: Ansel Adams on my pod wall at work and Vincent van Gogh on my kitchen wall at home.
The master photographer and the Dutch painter may be long dead, but it’s hard to get through a day without them. They’ll get a little help from a fake-leather 2005 at-a-glance book and the calendar in my checkbook, which goes all the way through 2006.
My dentist would tell you I skipped one appointment this year, but it wasn’t for lack of organization.
To be fair, Winkelman’s trio of calendars is likely a necessity. He is CEO of Calendar Club, which has more than 1,000 retail outlets, including one at Everett Mall.
Since its start in 1993, Calendar Club LLC has been ranked by Inc. magazine as one of the 500 fastest-growing companies in America. It has launched online retailers Calendars.com and DogBreedStore.com.
Despite competition from technology, Winkelman said, “the business is still growing.”
Of the thousands of calendars offered, he had no trouble listing the favorites.
Having a lovable pooch at home, I guessed a black Labrador calendar as the biggest seller. If I’d said all dog breeds combined, I would have been right. But 2004 sales through Dec. 11 put popular artist Thomas Kinkade’s Painter of Light calendar in the No. 1 spot, Winkelman said.
In second place (if you think I’m behind on the technology front, forget pop culture) it’s teen heartthrob Orlando Bloom. He’s in “Lord of the Rings” – sure, I knew that.
No. 3 in calendars is country music singer Tim McGraw. Then it’s Jeff Foxworthy’s “You Might Be a Redneck If…” calendar, followed at No. 5 by Scott Adams’ Dilbert boxed calendar.
Sixth is the Mom’s Family wall calendar, No. 7 is a Happy Bunny cartoon calendar, and No. 8 is The Far Side Weekly engagement calendar. The Lang Folk Art Deluxe wall calendar is No. 9, and at No. 10 is The Trivial Simpsons daily boxed calendar. Doh! I should have known.
Looking only at December figures, Winkelman found that President Bush was a hit. Three of the top spots went to the likes of the George W. Bushisms and Presidential (Mis)Speak boxed calendars, and a Dubya Doublespeak wall calendar.
“Bush making a mess of the English language is a big seller,” Winkelman said. “The other one that looks like it’s coming on is trivia, Fact or Crap Page-a-Day.”
Shoot, I missed my chance for a nice gift for the teachers. It’s good to see that with all we have to squeeze into our days, there’s time for humor.
But I don’t really want Homer Simpson scheduling my life. I’m not ready for a hand-held gizmo to tell me what to do.
Give me the stunning silence of Ansel Adams’ black-and-white photographs. Next year (I peeked ahead), those pictures will take me from Yosemite to Cape Cod and back to our own North Cascades.
I’ll fill in the squares a day at a time – by hand.
Columnist Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460 or muhlsteinjulie@heraldnet.com.
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