Map Not To Scale? No Kiddin'

I wanted to do a post about this many moons ago, but simply forgot.

I know NYC taxi maps are not drawn to scale, but there's a difference between "not drawn to scale" and utterly distorted. The next time you're in a NYC cab, check out the sticker on the back seat with the map on it.

Check out the distance between, say, 79th Street and 86th Street. Compare that distance with, say, that between 86th Street and 125th Street. Interesting, huh? Apparently, the size of the blocks shrinks dramatically when one ventures north of 86th Street. In real life, however, that's definitely not the case.

This wouldn't have anything to do with the fact that the Upper East Side and Upper West Side are where well-to-do, predominantly white families tend to live, whereas Spanish Harlem and Harlem tend to be dominated by minorities, would it? Still, this is an improvement over the previous version of the map, which cut Manhattan off at 86th Street on its top edge, implying that there's nothing worth visiting north of Yorkville. The newer version of the map shows the Apollo Theatre and the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, which didn't exist on the previous version.

Dan's Back!

Dan Putman enjoys the fruits of his labor

So, Dan got back from Dunkin' Donuts, and he did well. His approach with the counter clerk was to turn on his southern charm and pull the ol' "Aw, Gee... I forgot my money and all I have is two dollars" bit. The result? 16 Munchkins. Not bad for a first timer.

After Dan got back and told us how he did with the assignment, we talked to him about how time is the critical element in any negotiation, whether you're buying donuts or ad pages in Time Magazine. Dan got 16 Munchkins because the clerk behind the counter ran out of time (she had other customers waiting). For Dan, this exercise demonstrated one of the fundamental principles of negotiation.

Have a Munchkin or two, Dan. You've earned it!

Negotiating 101

Dan Putman is the newest addition to our team at Underscore. Dan is fresh out of college, smart and eager.

Today, we gave Dan an assignment designed to hone his negotiating skills - an assignment I was fond of giving young media buyers at K2 back in the day.

We told Dan to leave his wallet, money and credit cards on his desk. We then gave him precisely $2 and told him to go to the Dunkin' Donuts on 7th Avenue and acquire as many Munchkins as possible. Current market price for Munchkins is $0.20 apiece. We told Dan we expect him to come back to the office with more than 10 Munchkins.

While this must seem like a take on fraternity hazing, the folks I gave this assignment to at K2 got very good at negotiating with the Dunkin' Donuts counter clerk. They became masterful at negotiating bonus Munchkins and discounts from "rate card."

What will Dan be able to negotiate on his first Dunkin' Donuts assignment? Tune in to Hespos.com shortly to find out...

Saturday's Yankee Game

John, Wheels and Jeff at the Yankee game

John was kind enough to offer me a seat at Saturday's Yankee game, sitting in the first row in left field, where we could heckle to our heart's content. Activities included drinking as much MGD as we could afford, heckling the Padres, and singing "Happy Birthday" to Hideki Matsui every inning. There was talk of heading to Mohegan Sun afterward, but Jeff wussed out. (He's getting married in 3 weeks, so we don't blame him - much.)

The Yanks pulled off a victory, as per usual, so we were in a great mood afterward. Instead of sacrificing our paychecks to the casinos, we had dinner at a restaurant in Bayside, near where John, Wheels and I used to share an apartment.