Mind your manners

Journal Record, The (Oklahoma City), Jul 25, 2001

MENLO PARK, Calif. (AP) -- Common courtesy around the office seems to have gone the way of the three-martini lunch, according to a new survey. Nearly half of 525 professionals recently polled by OfficeTeam, a Menlo Park-based staffing service, said good manners at the office have declined over the past five years. Despite the hectic pace at which most business is conducted these days, employees just might benefit from taking some time to regularly display their social graces. Saying a few pleases and thank yous, even in brief e-mail messages, can go a long way.

"Time spent showing consideration for others is a smart career investment," said Liz Hubler, executive director of Office Team. "People have long memories when it comes to how you treat them. The courtesy you extend will be noticed and reciprocated."

Reality's worth the effort?

PASADENA, Calif. (AP) -- Reality shows like Big Brother, in which one contestant pulled a knife on another, are risky but represent an effort to try something different, CBS executives said Tuesday. "I'm tired of putting on Diagnosis Murder reruns in the summer. There's a quest to put on new forms of programming," CBS President Leslie Moonves told the Television Critics Association.

Under sharp questioning, Moonves said the network believes Big Brother is worthwhile but does require vigilance. The reality show, which shuts people in a camera-filled house for three months, ejected contestant Justin Sebik after he held a knife to a female player's throat and asked, "Would you get mad if I just killed you?"

"It's an unfortunate situation but that's the risk you do run," CBS Entertainment President Nancy Tellem said. A background check by CBS failed to show that Sebik, 26, of Bayonne, N.J., had an arrest record for assault.

Moonves, calling "Big Brother" a "summer experiment," said the network considers each of its shows carefully and is "trying to act responsibly." Asked if the series would have been canceled if a stabbing had occurred, Moonves declined to answer.

A haven for windsurfing

LYLE, Wash. (AP) -- In the wind, Al Brown believes, he has found his best metaphor for God -- invisible, powerful and it doesn't care whether you live or die. "And then, some days you get to fly across the water," the 54-year-old windsurfer says, smiling broadly.

Brown and his wife, Nancy, Bostonians who teach at Harvard University, are spending their sixth summer in nature's wind tunnel - - the Columbia River Gorge, a wide and ancient geologic cut in the Cascade Range. This is extreme windsurfing country, attracting hordes of enthusiasts who spend each day in search of "huge air," challenging swells and a radical experience. It's Santa Cruz cool meets Mount Hood hardiness in very cold water.

Just off Washington 14, some 50 cars line the roadside at Doug's Beach, a popular takeoff point three miles east of Lyle. Dozens of windsurfers haul their gear down to the sandy beach, raise their brightly colored sails and nimbly twist, flip and skim across the water.

"This is the high-wind center of the world," says Brian Hinde, 49, a commercial and custom sailboard designer who owns Open Ocean here. Sustained winds of 20 mph are not uncommon in the Gorge, drawing skilled technicians who often use smaller boards and sails than windsurfers in other parts of the world.

"It's a bit more extreme style of windsurfing," says Christine Brooks, director of U.S. Windsurfing, a national organization promoting the sport.

On the Oregon side, the town of Hood River has developed in recent years into an outdoor sports center, much of it focused on windsurfing. The U.S. Windsurfing national championships are scheduled there Aug. 20-25.

Best in the world?

NEW YORK (AP) -- For the first time, the art-crammed city of Florence, Italy, whose 400,000 residents play host to 5 million visitors a year, has been picked as the "best" city in the world by readers of Travel Leisure magazine. Rome and Paris were runners- up.

The top city in North America, according to this survey, is New York City, ousting San Francisco which had held that spot for the past five years.

In the ranking of the world's best hotels, the overall winner was the Four Seasons Resort, Bali, at Jimbaran Bay, with the Ritz- Carlton, Chicago the best in North America. Hotel Gritti Palace in Venice, Italy, was named the world's best small hotel (hotels with 100 rooms or less).

Nancy Novograd, editor in chief of the magazine, points out that American-owned properties scored exceedingly well across the board. "Our readers cast their votes overwhelmingly for North American brands -- Four Seasons, Ritz-Carlton, Hyatt, Fairmont, Marriott, Rosewood, Starwood, Wyndham and Hilton," she says. "In fact, more than half the properties in the top 100 hotels worldwide are outposts of those companies. Even more dazzling is that eight of the world's top 10 this year -- as compared with four last year -- are in the United States."

Defying the downturn

HONOLULU (AP) -- More tourists came to Hawaii in 2000 than in any previous year, and they spent at nearly record levels, according to the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism. The 6.95 million visitors to the islands last year represented a 3.1 percent increase over 1999 and a 2.8 increase over the previous record of 6.76 million set in 1997. Total visitor spending rose 6.2 percent over 1999 to $10.9 billion and was surpassed only by the 1995 total of $11.1 billion.