The Eye casts its gaze on business’ other side

Editor’s note: This issue marks the debut of The Eye, a new feature of The Business Report that will uncover the lighter – and sometimes darker – side of business.

Without even knowing it, perhaps, Neenan answered a question almost certainly posed by everyone who’s ever carried on a conversation with him: Has he always been this candid?The answer, apparently, is yes. Neenan related a story from his high-school days, when he’d fallen asleep in class. His teacher, sincerely concerned about her pupil, awakened him with an innocent question that went something like this:”David, what will happen to you if you sleep through class?”
Neenan, as tactful then as he is today, replied, “Well, I suppose I could attend a small junior college, get a teaching certificate and teach high-school English like you.”
While Neenan’s bluntness got him tossed out on his ear then, it seems to serve him well today. Even those holding political views opposed to Neenan’s respect him for his candor and for his willingness to discuss issues of substance.¥ ¥ ¥
The Eye couldn’t help but see red after receiving some return mail recently from our friendly neighborhood postal carrier (whom The Eye never sees, by the way).
The large white envelope looked strangely familiar as we glided our finger under the flap to peruse the contents. Why did it look familiar? Because it was a prototype marketing packet mailed out of this very office, first-class, almost one year ago. After languishing in obscurity, or perhaps traveling the globe, the pointed finger of “addressee unknown” finally pointed in our direction.
Now, our friends at the U.S. Postal Service take great pride in their symbol, a stylized eagle. But The Eye wonders: Wouldn’t a snail be more apropo?¥ ¥ ¥
Name Confusion of the Month: Squinting at the computer screen during a late-night Internet session, The Eye spotted a news item apparently referring to a familiar local company, Optimus Corp.
But The Eye blinked when it saw that the newsbit didn’t refer to the CD-ROM company based in Fort Collins but to Optimus Inc., a film and video editorial service in Chicago that was being closed by Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc.
The Eye can’t help but ask our friends at the real Optimus: Do you get each other’s mail?¥ ¥ ¥
The Eye has found itself scanning every streetlight and power pole searching for Fort Collins’ nettlesome spy cameras, intended to catch speeders.
They’re said to have been quite successful in getting drivers to slow down on the streets of the Choice City. Yet, something seems a little Sovietlike in our government using hidden cameras to catch lawbreakers, and The Eye would cry tears of joy were some citizen group to launch a ballot campaign to ban the devices from city streets.
And, yes, if you have to ask, The Eye does have a lead foot.¥ ¥ ¥
In case you’re looking for John Knezovich, The Eye spotted him over on page 23A, his new home now that we’ve moved in.
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