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If there is any writer whose career I greatly admire, it’s this guy. He created all those great television shows (The Rockford Files, The Greatest American Hero, The A-Team, Hardcastle & McCormick, among others) and then wrote novels later in his career which read like his TV shows. I love his books (and his shows!).
 
I tip my pen to you, sir. You will be greatly missed.
 

…but despite that, I’m attempting to get back into something of a regular blogging mode.

While Googling something completely unrelated, I came across this…

http://www.adrants.com/2006/03/anything-but-cute-caliber-copies-ass.php

BAHAHAHAHA!

What? You never Xeroxed your posterior when nobody was looking?

“I can’t let my fans down tonight because then I’m just another bitch in a dress at an awards show.” – Lady Gaga, describing how odd it felt to not be performing at the VMAs this year.

While cleaning some stuff out of the basement recently I came across the following article in a college Introduction to Business textbook dated 1982. The article, written by Alan Eirinberg, originally appeared in the August 11, 1980 issue of Advertising Age. The original title was “It’s New: Banking at Home.”

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By now, driving up to an automatic, computerized teller machine in the middle of the night to pick up some extra cash has become fairly routine. Don’t think the innovations in banking will stop there. Imagine being able to link up to your bank’s electronic funds transfer system without ever leaving your easy chair. All kinds of pilot programs are already underway that allow people to bank at home. They simply dial up a computer using their telephone, with banking instructions and information appearing on their television screen. They can pay bills on TV by, for example, typing in a merchant’s code number on a typewriter-like keyboard. They can also transfer funds from savings to checking or just verify their balance.

Among those testing such systems are various banks around the country and a subsidiary of Knight-Ridder Newspapers, Viewdata Corp. of America. (Newspapers are also experimenting with delivery via subscribers’ TV screens, so Viewdata’s involvement is logical.) When these systems are fully developed, there’s likely to be lots of competition between banks, all trying to outdo each other with more convenience and extra services. In addition to banking and bill paying, consumers will probably be able to get financial counseling, say a short course on family budgeting or estate planning. Eventually, there will probably also be a mechanism for printing out a record of completed transactions. And, once all interest-rate restrictions have disappeared and the rates change even faster than they do now, subscribers to a bank-at-home service could use their TV screens to shop around for the highest interest rates and the best place to put their funds.

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Does any of that sound familiar? It should as it’s all what we now know as internet banking! And shopping around for the highest interest rates and best place to put your money? Sounds like bankrate.com to me. I so got a kick out of finding this article (more or less because I’m a history geek and I work in the banking industry).  I saved the whole chapter on banking from the textbook as it was an interesting snapshot of the banking industry in this country at the time, the beginnings of deregulation and the beginnings of the technological advances that we now take for granted today. I’ll be sharing more interesting tidbits in the future including an ironic commentary about a bank that was “too big to fail” back in late 70′s.