A couple years ago, a friend recommended what he said was a fascinating HBO documentary, The Inventor:  Out for Blood in Silicon Valley.  And he also recommended a book on it all – Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou, which came first.  In fact, Carreyrou initially wrote the story as a series of articles for which he won the Polk Award.  (Previously, he shared a Pulitzer Prize for another series on corporate scandals.)
 
I can’t recommend them both highly enough.  They were both wonderfully done, and worked as companion pieces, even though I don’t believe they were related.  Carreyrou’s book was meticulously researched, filled with material the documentary couldn’t begin to cover – in fact, he was called as a witness during her recent fraud trial.  Where the documentary shined was that she had so much of her work videotaped that it’s remarkable how much footage is available.  And so you get to see her in action – which is very important to the story, especially if you only saw coverage of her at the trail.  A point that Carreyrou makes is that she consciously patterned herself on Steve Jobs, down her clothes, the black turtleneck, her tight hairstyle, lowering her voice and even training herself not to blink.  So, seeing her in action adds something the wonderful book can’t show.
 
To those interested, you can get the book here.
 
I didn’t follow the trail closely, but because of the book and documentary, I did stay on top of it to a reasonable degree.  And the verdict came down yesterday that she was found guilty on four counts, and not guilty on four other charges – and the jury was deadlocked on three.
 
My view and my friends overlapped, though we had a slight divergence – he thought it was a scam with her from early on, perhaps even the beginning.  I felt she seemed well-meaning, though deluded in thinking she could develop what her supervisor said was physically not possible…but she got so deep into things that she probably (in part) convinced herself it would work and in larger part had to start lying and scamming so that the House of Cards she built wouldn’t fall apart.  In either case, being found guilty on four counts seems justified.  And that they didn’t convict her on seven of the charges perhaps suggests the jury agreed with him – though not necessarily, since they might have felt she was largely guilty but the government didn’t prove the charges beyond a reasonable doubt.
 
CNN legal Elie Honig analyst had interesting comments on what he expected the penalty would be.  He said –
 
"All that matters here for sentencing purposes is the guilty counts. This is a maximum of 20 years, but in the federal system, we have this guidelines book. And the sentence — the recommended sentence is driven largely by how much loss there is. We are talking about a $140 million loss case. I did a quick calculation. That comes out to a recommended guidelines range of, conservatively ten years, potentially as high as 15 or 16 years depending on other enhancements. So she is looking at at least a decade behind bars under sentencing guidelines."

I’m certain that we haven’t heard the last.  No doubt she'll appeal, but I’m not sure what grounds she has for an appeal to succeed.  And there’s also the upcoming trial of her former boyfriend and partner Sunny Balwani, who her lawyers tried to blame for it all.  But that strategy clearly didn't succeed, and there would seem to be nothing that his trial can do to help her or her reputation -- after all, if the government thought she was just a victim they wouldn’t have gone after her, and his side is going to try and blame her for everything.  So, yes, she’ll still be in the news.  But other than the sentencing, I suspect her day in court is largely over.  But we’ll see…
  
I believe there are two movies being made about this all, one of which is for Apple Original Films based on John Carreyrou's book, Bad Blood. It's set to star Jennifer Lawrence, which I think is great casting.  And directed and co-written (with Vanessa Taylor) by Adam McKay, who did The Big Short.

This is the trailer for the original HBO documentary.  You'll not only see how well-made it is, but also what I was talking about above with her -- and why Jennifer Lawrence is great casting.

And if you do see the documentary, which is terrific, I can only repeat that Carreyrou's book adds so much more.
 
And that’s the news from Today in Court…

If you missed Last Week Tonight with John Oliver last night, the Main Story was on Union Busting.  It was very interesting (sort of a detailed companion piece to the movie Norma Rae...), infuriating and often very funny -- with a fun ending.
 

Several months back, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver did a very funny segment about local car commercials.  It dealt with how so many of them -- which should be a bastion of local interests -- are not truly local, but written by a national company for dealerships to reuse all over the country.  And so he and his staff wrote an ad for a local car dealership that could only be used by one, and offered it for free -- but with some challenging conditions.

Only last week, I was wondering whatever happened to that. And yesterday, as it happened, I found out.  

Since the show is off for a week, they did an Internet-only video to explain it all -- that they got a bunch of offers, picked one...and showed the video which will be appearing locally.

Oliver explains it all here in better detail with clips from that earlier show, and describes what those challenging conditions were.

​Here's the special video and the ad --

And as a bonus, here's a local TV news story from Minneapolis about that ad with reactions from the dealership owner and some of the staff in nearby Zumbrota.
​

Oh, what the heck -- after this morning's article, I figured I should track down and post a Pabst Blue Ribbon beer commercial.  This looks like it comes from the mid-1950s, so my cousin Iz didn't write it -- he had passed away by then -- but the "What'll you have?" part of the jingle is his.

And as you can see in most of his jingles, he loved repetition and making sure the audience hears the point and gets it.  And gets it. 

​And gets it...
​

And to build on this one ad, here's a 2-1/2 minute compilation of Pabst ads played over graphics of the beer's ad campaigns through the years that generally seem to come from the early 1950s (the one with Ben Hogan is 1951), and most with the "What'll you have?" ad line.

Finally, this is a Pabst ad from probably from the late 1970s, and although the company had changed it's marketing drastically by then and come up with new singles and campaigns, they still hadn't totally passed by the "What'll you have?" line.  This disco ad had different words for the bulk of the jingle, but the core "What'll you have?" is remarkably still there.

​And please watch beer ads responsibly...

A few days ago, my pal Mark Evanier wrote a story that centered around an odd candy bar he’d never heard of before called the Idaho Spud.  That reminded me of my own tale about an odd candy bar most people have never heard of.
 
I’ll get around that the candy bar, but it requires some background, which is actually more interesting than the tale of the candy bar.  Though that does have its charm.
 
It begins with my cousin, I.J. Wagner.  Isadore James Wagner, who was probably a second cousin on my dad’s side, and much older than me, and who had passed away before I was born.  In fact, I was named after him – the middle name James part – as in Robert James Elisberg.  And as it happens, ee was a professional writer, something I’ve always been pleased about, which is the reason I use my middle initial when I write, as Robert J. Elisberg.
 
Iz (as he was known) worked in advertising, and Chicago was always one of the major centers.  He was considered one of the first to write jingles in the early days of radio, so perhaps you have him to blame – or appreciate, if there are any you like.  His most famous was used for decades, for Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer, and many people still can sing it, to the tune of “10 Little Indians.”
 
What’ll you have?
Pabst Blue Ribbon.
What’ll you have?
Pabst Blue Ribbon.
What’ll you have?
Pabst Blue Ribbon.
Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer.
 
And even though Pabst doesn’t use the jingle any more, they still often use the “What’ll you have?” ad line.
 
A long while back, I got into a conversation with a fellow WGA member, David P. Lewis, on what was then the Writers Guild BBS -- an early version of today's chat rooms.  David was an older writer who had begun his career writing advertising in Chicago.  (Among his many credits, he co-wrote a very good episode of Columbo, “Playback,” with Oskar Werner, whose character runs a tech company and kills his mother-in-law.)  I asked David if knew Iz, and he said no because that was slightly before his time, but added that he did know of Iz and even worked at the agency where Iz had worked.  And told a story about overlapping with him.  One of the ads that Iz had written for the agency (and one I knew of through family lore) was for what had been at the time a very-popular brand of coffee, Thomas J. Webb, which was sold for decades, at least in the Midwest, even when I was a kid.  For the ad, you heard the very whiney voice of a woman calling out, “Mortimerrrrr!  As long as you’re up – get me some Thomas J. Webb Coffeeeeeee!!!”  And when David started at the agency and found out that that had been one of their clients, he (being, as he put it, a know-it-all young kid) told the manager how annoying he found the ad and hated it.  The manager excused himself, came back with their ad-rate book, and showed David how incredibly successful the ad campaign was.  David said he learned then that repetition and annoying could actually be effective in advertising.
 
Iz had another claim to fame.  One day I was reading a newspaper article, saw things of note and ran to the room where my mother was.  “I just read this interview with Studs Terkel, and he says that he got his start because of ‘that adman, I.J. Wagner.’”  I was expecting her to be as surprised and excited as I was.  But my mother was surprisingly nonchalant that this legend owed his career to our cousin.  But that’s because it turned out she knew.  “Oh, sure,” she answered, “They were very close.  When Iz died, Studs spoke at his funeral.”  Since then, I’ve seen Studs Terkel give credit in his memoirs for to his first jobs in radio because I.J. Wagner liked him and kept hiring him for shows his clients were sponsoring.

In fact, in one of Studs Tekel's memoirs, Touch and Go, he writes on page 116 about his beginnings in radio in 1944.  

"By this time at Meyerhoff [an ad agency in Chicago], I'm working on the Wrigley account, under the wing of I.J. Wagner, the inventor of the singing commercial.  He liked me and suggested I do a sports show, The Atlas Prager Sports Reel.  Atlas Prager was a local beer, out-fit-controlled.  The show was on every night at 6:00.  The announcer would say, 'Atlas Prager got it, Atlas Prager get it!'  Wagner deliberately made it irritating so you'd remember the name."

Then later in the book, Studs adds, "Evenutally, Wagner said, 'I'm moving to a new agency, Oleon and Bronner, and I want you to come with me.  What would you like to do?"

So, when I say that Studs Terkel really got his start by Iz, it's not just family lore, but he writes it himself.

Anyway, years passed, and I was working a summer job for the Ravinia Music Festival. I had reason to speak briefly to Studs, when he called the office. And I was finally able to tell him about Iz Wagner. He was gracious, charming and Studs. It remains one of my happy memories.
 
I love old radio, and have a very good book on it, The Big Broadcast: 1920-1950, which is basically an encyclopedia of all the national radio shows during that era.  The authors also include sections on specific topics, one of which is Commercials.  They write at length about the use of sponsored shows and ads during that period, and then include about 25 jingles and ad lines from the most famous.  Two of them are by Iz.  One is, of course, Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer, and the other is for an old candy bar, Whiz Candy.
 
(See, I told you I would eventually get around to it!)
 
Keeping in mind Iz’s love of repetition, it went –
 
ANNOUNCER:  Wh-iiiiiiii-zzzz!  The best nickel candy there izzzzzzzz!
VOICE:  You can say that again!
ANNOUNCER:  All right, I will.  Wh-iiiiiiii-zzzz!  The best nickel candy there izzzzzzzz!
 
(Though I’m sure it was totally pure chance, because the point is that it rhymes with “Whiz,” I like that the ad had “iz” in it…)
 
Even before reading it in the book, I knew about Whiz candy, since it too was part of family lore growing up.  Mind you, I’d never had a Whiz candy.  I’d never even seen one or heard of it anywhere, other than the family tales of Iz writing the ad.  It was before my time.  But clearly Whiz was a popular enough candy bar (sorry, nickel candy bar…) to make it into the book.
 
Anyway, when I was in college at the beloved Northwestern, I sometimes liked to get the Sunday Chicago Sun-Times.  I think there was a newspaper box near my dorm where I’d pick it up.  But one day they were out – or something.  But instead, I decided to walk into downtown Evanston and pick up a copy at a nearby drugstore.
 
I wandered over, got the Sunday paper, walked over to the counter – and got ready to pay when, there, among all the other candy bars in the display, there was…a Whiz candy bar!!!  It was no longer a nickel, but so what.  I have absolutely no idea why it was there – I had never seen a Whiz candy bar before…or since.  I have this fantasy tale that it had been sitting there since 1937, but obviously reality has its own explanation.  One that I’ve never figured out.  But whatever the reason, there was a Whiz candy bar there.  And, yes, of course, I got one.  And, of course, I ate it immediately on my walk back to the dorm, not waiting until I returned.  I was much too intrigued by how -- and what -- it was.
 
At this point, many decades later, I can’t tell you exactly what kind of candy the Whiz bar was, but my recollection is that it was sort of a hard marshmallow filling (not quite a nougat) and chocolate covered.  Perhaps with peanuts.  Marshmallow filling is not my favorite, though hard marshmallow gave it a better texture and there was some flavoring, and I liked it.  I didn’t love it, but it was tasty enough not to be disappointed.  One of those, “Hmm, not great – but not bad” things.

​While I have no idea when this picture is from, it look like perhaps the late 1950s or early 1960s, quite a bit later than the 1930-40s.  So, it's nice to see hat they were still using the slogan.  And with the "Iz" spelling, no less!  It's also nice to see that my memory is correct, and that it was made with marshmallow.  And peanuts, too, it turns out.  From what little research I did, it seems that there may possibly have been different recipes over the years.  And, if so, maybe with maple.  And if so, that would have been great.  Though, for all I know, the one I had did have maple...

I came across this article on the Menuism site written by Lauren Deitsch, a "research & development specialist / chocolatier" from Vermont.  She wrote a piece in 2013 about vintage candy bars and included this -- 

​
​​To this day, I have absolutely no idea why there was a Whiz candy bar at that drug store counter that one time.  But I remain ever-grateful that there was.  And that I happened to go there that Sunday morning.

Reuters had an absolutely great “Part 1” article yesterday about the surprising close relationship between OAN and AT&T – which apparently help fund its start up and provides about 90% of its money.  The article has gotten a bit of attention on social media, though I haven’t seen it covered yet on the TV news.

It's titled "A Reuters Special Report:  How AT&T helped build far-right One America News."

The article begins --

"One America News, the far-right network whose fortunes and viewership rose amid the triumph and tumult of the Trump administration, has flourished with support from a surprising source: AT&T Inc, the world's largest communications company.
"A Reuters review of court records shows the role AT&T played in creating and funding OAN, a network that continues to spread conspiracy theories about the 2020 election and the COVID-19 pandemic."

The thing is, not all of this detailed investigation required much digging, nor would it stand up to denials.  Indeed, it turns out that the head of OAN, Robert Herring Sr, testified under oath in court that the launch of his channel came from AT&T.
“They told us they wanted a conservative network,” Herring said during a 2019 deposition seen by Reuters. “They only had one, which was Fox News, and they had seven others on the other [leftwing] side. When they said that, I jumped to it and built one.”

The details and current funding only get deeper from there.  Including that AT&T provides 90% of the income for Herring Networks, the parent company of OAN -- a figure that, again, comes from OAN's accountant under oath.


Although this is only Part 1, it’s very long.  However, I think you can jump through much of it, if it's too long.  In fact, I skimmed through the middle part because that's where they go into detail about what OAN is and some of their transgressions.  I knew some of that, but mainly I was most-interested in the connection with AT&T, which they cover in the beginning section and then return to it again in the third section at the end.

You can read the full Part 1 of the series here.
 

As far as iconic history goes, this is just too wonderful.
​

If you missed Last Week Tonight with John Oliver last night, the Main Story was on home renovation -- more specifically about the government PACE program which is well-meaning, for helping to bring environmental improvements to a home's energy efficiency, but has so many potholes in the way it's implemented that it's been a disaster for far too many people.  The report is an odd one, but very good and often very funny.  The one issue is that it's so detail oriented about regulations that, at times, the story risks spinning out of control.

Another minor issue, that reader Douglass Abramson pointed out, is that the story doesn't mention one core reality for all home renovation -- never, never, never sign a contract to do home renovation with anyone who ever knocks on your door uninvited or cold-calls you.