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Because you have visited with and bought
products from one or more firms in our network or have given your support to
one of the worthy institutions appearing here, you have found this page dedicated
to people who put quality above all else. Often these are small
enterprises that are not well known and don’t have the kind of marketing
dollars that make them household names. But we want you to know they
are first class and deserving of your support and admiration. So visit
their websites and get very familiar with what they do.
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Audubon. Dating back to
1905, the
National Audubon Society
has done good things for nature in America. But so have a host of other
worthy groups. That said, we’ve discovered a couple of reasons why its
candle seems to burn a little brighter than the rest.
For starters, the Audubon people are plain nice, but
free of the anxious hyperbole that makes you think overhead expenses will
swallow every one of your charitable dollars. We visited recently
with John Flicker, its president, at its unassuming home on lower Broadway
in New York City, just to the side of New York University. Off a
Minnesota farm, he’s never lost his boyhood memory of wild geese and love
for open spaces, in spite of law school, the intrigue of
Washington, and the endless jockeying that goes on in complex, urban
organizations. As all philanthropic groups, Audubon under him has a wide
agenda, from cherishing the birds so lovingly pictured by Audubon to
battling inside the Beltway for an abstraction called “the environment.”
But we are most impressed with its rediscovery of
people in the last decade. Flicker talks about this in a little monograph
entitled “Audubon: The Second Century: Connecting People with Nature.”
In short, he’s planting Audubon Centers everywhere in order to bring many,
many more citified citizens closer to nature. This is why the
Society merits your time and support.
Broadly stated, Flicker knows that the National
Audubon Society must grow the next generation of conservationists. This
is vital, since conservationists have become an endangered species. As
the country becomes ever more urbanized by a population whose plumage has
become as diverse as that of the birds about the planet but that lacks a
connection to our wild spaces, nature is losing its voice. The only way
to preserve the green is to appeal to those teeming millions on the
asphalt just outside his doors in New York City, and in urban centers from
Philadelphia to East Los Angeles.
Audubon himself, incidentally, is buried in New York
City—there, too, he will be resurrected. We have learned recently that he
painted with both hands. The National Audubon Society will have to be
equally dexterous if it is to bring us back to nature. The nation’s
attention is not as riveted on the outdoors as when Teddy Roosevelt
chortled about the vigorous life or Rachel Carson reminded us that we are
not the only creatures on the planet earth.
National Audubon Society. 700 Broadway. New York,
New York 10003. Telephone: 212-979-3000. Fax: 212-979-3188. Website:
www.audubon.org. To find out about joining, email
join@audubon.org.
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BankruptcyData.com.
George
Putnam got his start as a bankruptcy lawyer in Philadelphia and, in time,
worked his way into publishing about companies that were in a jam as well
as managing money that he invests in the distressed sector. His folks at
New Generation crank out the best data available on public companies going
downhill, those that have gone bankrupt, and, finally, the turnarounds
that have gotten out of the hole. Particularly well known, incidentally,
is his Turnaround Letter, which has made very good recommendations in both
good and bad markets. Get his free bankruptcy newsletter and also look at
the sundry publications he sells at
www.bankruptcydata.com and
www.turnarounds.com.
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Cary Towne Mortgage.
Arch Williams is a straightshooter. He is the founder of a flock of
retail mortgage offices in North Carolina. The mortgage business is
very competitive: what separates the wheat from the chaff is character.
You want to deal with someone who is plain nice and is of the highest
integrity. Numerous realty companies have entered into ventures with
him, simply because they find him so trustworthy. If you live in North
Carolina (he has not spread into other states yet) and want to get a new
mortgage simply, you will want to fill out his Internet application at
Cary Towne Mortgage.
Arch grew
up in North Carolina and went to school at the University of North
Carolina-Chapel Hill. His dad as well is steeped in the mortgage
business, both as teacher and businessman. As a Marine pilot, Arch did
service in the first Gulf War. We’re happy to say he has a strong range
of interests, and it is quite possible that you will find him reading a
Charles Darwin monograph if you bump into him at football practice for
one of his four children. To learn a bit more about all his companies,
see
Arrington, Edgar, & Shiel.
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Grace Tea. We first got to know Dick
Sanders back in 1985 when working up an
article for
the New York Times on afternoon teas. Ever since, his Winey Keemun
has been our regular morning brew, though we do the Darjeeling, Lapsang,
etc. as well. Somehow the English imports that we get from the specialty
stores never taste as good or as fresh as his blends. Now that we are
also learning all the ways in which tea preserves our health, we are glad
to be drinking something wonderful that does us good but does not taste
like a health concoction. Visit Grace Tea if for no other reason than to
admire the wonderful sailing ship adorning his site, it being the vessel,
we are sure, which transported such fine leaves to these shores. See
www.gracetea.com.
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Graphis.
Graphis
is the finest graphics magazine in the world. A must for designers and
photographers, it is the consummate pleasure for anyone who cares about
the look of things. A Swiss magazine during its early years, it is now
based in New York under the leadership of B. Martin Pedersen, a celebrated
designer in his own right who needed a magazine so as to paint on a larger
canvas. He carefully watches over the magazine and the host of wonderful
books produced by the firm. We have always noticed that he has a special
passion for movies, a characteristic of all the graphic designers whom we
most esteem. See
www.graphis.com.
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Hixo, Inc. We have known Mike Hicks forever, and perhaps before
that. He’s a tremendous graphic designer who has set himself up in a
far-away state capital and college town where you learn how to chew the
fat and not take yourself so seriously. So he’s not limited to pictures
on paper. We remember, for instance, a series of radio ads he did for a
local pizza parlor in Austin where you listened to the murmurings of a
young blood and his girl friend in a nudist colony who savored the pizza
and were bemused by the drops of cheese which decorated their bodies. He’s lucky to have a way with words as well as pictures. He was the
designer for the immensely successful
Beinhorn’s Mesquite Cookery, authored by the editor of
SpiceLines. The design community likes to think it has
‘wit’: but Hicks is just plain funny, right down to the name of his
firm—Hixo. Probably Hicks should spend his time dreaming up new
products. For us he came up with
catfish caviar.
Aside from
truly witty design, Hicks always seems to find way to give a product or
service some personality. Sweetish Hill Bakery’s cookie boxes, for
example, proclaim, “Our bakers refuse to wear those silly French hats”
and a required freshness label states “to ensure maximum freshness,
consume the entire box.” Using a Weber grill on the cover of the
mesquite book provided a natural introduction to the Weber grill folks,
who ultimately bought a handsome quantity for friends and customers.
- Letitia Baldrige. To get a feel for Ms. Letitia Baldrige, kindly visit her at Baldrige and Lewris. She is welcoming, authoritative, without being austere or forbidding. That’s why she's a good teacher at a host of corporate seminars where she has been brought in to help whitecollar employees sand off their many rough edges. We always call her (since she is a friend, indeed, to a friend in need) to get it right when we are puzzled. For instance, she came to our aid when a chief executive out in San Francisco had to pen a letter to a Vatican official, and we were keen to make sure all the courtesies were observed. Companies these days need her ever more, because business becomes ever more global. Our British friends like to think English is the language of international commerce. It isn’t. Politeness is. If you are not shopping for a training expert with polish, then we recommend her several books which are mentioned in our Infinite Bookstore. The easiest way to get in touch with her is write a nice email note which will reach her though she is perpetually in motion. The ever busy Ms. Baldrige has added a partner, Alinda Lewris, as the firm extends its reach in the 21st century. Write her at Email at BaldrigeLewris.com.
- Mrs. Hanes’ Handmade Moravian Cookies. Yes, we met
Mrs. Hanes (Evva) up at the Big House, dating back to 1840, on the
family farm in Clemmons. These days she turns out dinners for 23 at the
drop of hat in the elaborate kitchen to which she treated herself. The
whole family lives near the plant where some 40 ladies diligently hew
cookies out of dough and which are cooked in the big convection ovens
for 10 minutes at 350 degrees. Brother Mike Hanes makes the dough in
the big mixer, all according to the secret family formula. There’s not
much machinery around: if you were high falutin, you would say that
these cookies are truly artisanal, but the very direct Moravians say it
plain: “They’re handmade.” And they taste different because they’re made
the old-fashioned way. From rolling out the dough, to cutting out the
shapes, to nicely wrapping the thin cookies before they go into the
tins. Anybody in the know in Winston Salem will steer you to the Hanes.
All these hard-handworkers can put out 700-1000 pounds a day. Each has
her own marker to put her own hallmark on her handiwork. Before she
retired to her kitchen and had daughter Mona take over as Chief
Executive, Mrs. Hanes herself could turn out a 100 pounds a day all
alone. This is truly a family enterprise—started by Grandmother Foltz,
carried upwards and onwards by Mrs. Hanes, and now ably steered by Mona
Hanes Templin. There are 6 varieties, but we prefer the ginger and
black walnut crisps, and Mona is partial to the black walnut as well.
Mona and Mike are the 7th generation of this family to make Moravian
cookies. No matter how many cookies they make, the cookie jar still
always runs out at Christmas. If you are going to visit, and you
should, just follow 150 West (Peters Creek) south from Winston and take
either a right on Central then a quick left on Friedberg Church or a
right on Sunset; most of the other directions you will get are too
complicated. You can place an order at www.hanescookies.com. Mrs. Hanes’ Moravian Cookies. 4643 Friedberg
Church Road. Clemmons, NC 27012. 1-336-764-1402 or 1-888-7641402.
Email: hanes@hanescookies.com. (3/19/06)
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Rick’s Picks. Rick
Field got on our screen because he tells a good story, especially his
own. What happened, we learn, is that he grew a bit weary of the TV
production world where he formerly made his mark, and took up
pickle-making, which just seemed a whole lot more fun. As it happens,
he first got on the pickle track when he was a young boy, rustling up
pickles in Vermont summers with his talented mother. But he has
rediscovered the sweet and sour in his forties. We have yet to
determine where he picked up the gift of gab, although he comes from a
family of academics that is not given to silence. At any rate, he
started off his life as a pickle trader in the Green Market at Union
Square, right near Danny Meyer’s Union Square Café. He uses ingredients
from farmers around the region, and avoids the infernal yellow dye (yellow
#5) with which the commodity pickle makers lather their
productions. He then infuses his creations with cumin and other spices
that take a good pickle and makes it interesting. At the end of the
day, we still favor the concoction we sampled first—Spears of Influence,
which is his kirby cucumber spears in a cumin-scented brine. But his
beans seem to be his top bestsellers.
Now he’s
in 17 states and about to conquer the world. Since we are incorrigible
meddlers, we have just gotten starting helping him get to the next
business plateau. His only regret is that he has had to move away from
daily pickle experiments, his time consumed by distributors, the
FDA, bank services, vendors of new packaging equipment, and all the
nettlesome trivia that goes into turning a cottage industry into a
palace of pickles. You can order pickles from his website at
rickspicksnyc.com, but they are also available at a host of
specialty stores listed on the website. (3/1/06)
- River Edge Farms. Coming from
a nursery family, it was inevitable that Roger Holloway should find his
way back from the stage onto nature’s podium. Down Atlanta way, he’s made
it his mission in life to repopulate America with elms. You will remember
that they once lined the streets of the best towns in America, but Dutch
elm disease has left very few for us to view. He seized on the Princeton
Elm, which hails from Princeton, New Jersey. It has proven
marvelously disease resistant: you can see very old allees in Princeton
this very day. Ours is now 14 feet or so, and we must confess to having
another specimen or two of the treemeister’s on our grounds. Mr. Holloway
is putting a flock of these elms in Washington where private and federal
money has funded a major efforts to properly green the city. See www.americanelm.com.
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