John B. Marek

A couple of weeks ago, I related a story about my experience in a college accounting class. Accounting wasn't the only business class I took that quarter, though. I also had Introduction To Management. It was not a challenging class, and the textbook was unintentionally humorous at times, beginning with the very first paragraph: So you want to be a manager. Or do you? Actually, I very much wanted to be a manager. I wanted to be in charge, to run things, to be respected for my business acumen. Needless to say, that delusion lasted about ten minutes in the real world, and I quickly came to understand the "or do you?" part.  My first job after college was as an assistant department manager with the BEST Products retail chain. I worked under a department manager named Molly. Molly had a very distinctive personality and management style. In her early 30s, she exuded an air of detachment, as though she couldn't quite believe this was what her life had come to. On the other

Back in July, I went to a baseball game. The Kannapolis Cannon Ballers played the Fayetteville Woodpeckers at Atrium Health Ballpark in Kannapolis. The Woodpeckers are a relatively new team, and I recall reading the press release a couple of years ago that unveiled the team name, colors, and logo. My response was, meh. The Woodpecker's name and logo are perfectly adequate, but nothing special, in my opinion. The press release noted that woodpeckers are native to the Fayetteville area, and while I'm sure that's true, they are also native to about 99% of North America. I had a better name in mind. The Venus flytrap is found almost exclusively in the Cape Fear watershed from Cumberland County, where Fayetteville is located, to Brunswick County on the coast. Not only is this well-known plant a distinctive feature of the area, but the name "flytrap" or "flycatcher" also has intriguing baseball implications, making it a perfect team name. And the plant's c