trying manhattan toronto

Apparently, brunch is a Big Deal in Toronto.  Well, when in Rome...

This morning we tried Manhattan -- based on this recommendation -- and it was fabulous.  The 3-cheese macaroni was nearly perfect, especially with the accompanying greens and balsamic reduction.  Service was a bit slow because they were setting up for a poetry reading, but the seats were comfortable, atmosphere relaxing, and coffee delicious.  If you're in southwest Toronto looking for brunch, check it out!

and so it begins

I was in Brighton chatting with former coworkers and realized that I've now been working at EMI for three weeks. Three weeks of drinking from the fire-hose, talking to lots of talented folks, and coming up to speed as quickly as possible. Tomorrow I head home from England, tired, my first moleskin full of scrawled notes from meetings and discussions with my new coworkers.

Apologies to everyone in London who I missed on this trip. I didn't get out of the office much, although the few times I did led to discussions with smart people . Cory provided insights into variable pricing, tipping, and entitlement. Jan was a great devil's advocate about music discovery while John was -- as always -- generous with his experiences running Magnatune. Plus, dinner was delicious! I'm behind on email, but in catching up Salman Ahmad pointed out that I can't count, since I bought Junoon's Infiniti when he played at Stanford last year. Sorry!

This week in San Francisco, next in Los Angeles. Hope United gets me home on time.

two travel notes, one good, one not

Oakland Airport was a zoo this morning as people returned home after the holiday weekend. Despite a spectacularly long security line, the ID checker from TSA took my ticket and driver's license and almost immediately asked:

So what are you doing for your birthday?

My birthday isn't for a few days, but having a TSA screener demonstrate that he was actually reading the documents in front of him was a pleasant surprise. It might be an interesting experiment to give screeners a requirement to ask one question based on the IDs they examine -- "What day is your birthday?", "Do you prefer James or Jim?", "Have you lived in Oakland long?", etc -- both to signal to passengers that they really are comparing the documents rather than holding them for 20 seconds and handing them back, and to make it easy to spot when screeners are getting tired or distracted. Not to mention that having to verbally engage with the screener gives security another set of signals -- a technique used extensively at European airports despite the language challenges this presents.

On the not-so-good side, this was the fourth arrival where getting the jetway lined up with the plane took more than 5 minutes. The OAK<->LAX United flight is on one of the itsy bitsy Canadair Regional Jets, so the jetway needs to come extra close and be lowered before the little walkway is inserted. Finding the right spot is often challenging. However, given that the geometry of this is fixed -- the aircraft is parked at the same spot, it's hatch always at the same height -- why not provide some cuing for the jetway operator? They'd be able to pick back up an average of 2 or more minutes per aircraft arrival, which would add up quickly. More broadly, going back to yesterday's post on mental models, how much ill will do you generate among passengers and employees by constantly having this problem?

more customer service goodness

I almost never check bags and tend to travel with the smallest, 20" roller bag possible to ensure that it always fits into the overhead storage on flights. As a result, my trusty Victorinox bag would sometimes get stuffed to nearly cold fusion levels. Eventually, the bag paid the price of my jumping up and down on it to cram things in. It lost several structural screws and one of the internal loops ripped out. I bought a newer version of the bag, but on a lark decided to take the old one in to Edwards Luggage to see how much a repair would cost. The gentleman at the counter counted up all the missing pieces and bits of damage, handed me a claim slip, and announced that all the fixes were easy so there would be no charge.

Free.

Wow. I can say with certainty whenever I need new luggage or wallets that I'll be returning to Edwards.

consulting and travel

I got home Sunday night after a last minute consulting trip to Europe. It was a surreal week, because first I got a call Sunday "Could you be in New York tomorrow?" and, when that went well, it became a Wednesday discussion of "We'd like you to fly to Europe on Thursday." In case anyone was wondering, San Francisco to Europe for Friday and Saturday is brutal.

Some random thoughts from the trip. First, it would appear that about 50 people a day go looking for my blog through Google, since that's what my traffic plummets to when I don't post for a while. Second, I flew back to SFO on a 777, where they connect the jetway to two doors to empty the plane faster. Whoever was operating the front door portion of the jetway could not manage to get things lined up. It was like watching the "turn the car around in the narrow tunnel"-scene from Austin Powers. Forward, back, bump the plane, realize it isn't lined up, pull back, rinse and repeat. It was just surreal. Everyone at the front of the plane eventually ran out of patience and left through the other door. I have a mental image of late at night. Everyone's left the airport, the plane's dark, and all you hear is the mechanical noises of the jetway pulling back and forth, punctuated by occasional crunches as it hits the plane and a loud, Homer Simpson "d'oh!" Finally, spent two days talking to bright folks at a neat company. A company with challenges, but one built by passionate people with vision and excitement. I'm enjoying the mental reboot time and the challenges of finding the speaking/consulting/advising gigs, but it sure gave me a moment of "time to go start a company!"