http://www.salsman.net/mainblog http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss rick@salsman.net © tRick Salsman Wed, 06 Apr 2005 17:34:56 -0700 Wed, 06 Apr 2005 17:34:59 -0700 iBlog 1.4.1 http://www.salsman.net/mainblog/C1167117989/E376284659/index.html Seems like all my friends know about this one. There are few who can escape the ultimate need for Debt consolidation in this modern day. For most people it is a matter of running up the old credit cards and then finding there is no wiggle room. For others it is just a need to rethink some old habits. In any case, this site has a bunch of cool features and it has some neat tools to show how consolidated debt is easer to handle than the crushing debt to a bunch of smaller creditors.

Take care of your debts right or one day abba da battam we fallaou. Right? ]]> Wed, 06 Apr 2005 07:12:39 -0700 http://www.salsman.net/mainblog/C1167117989/E376284659/index.html http://www.salsman.net/mainblog/C1167117989/E1423600925/index.html I was looking around the web when I found this internet marketing firmcalled usweb.com. These guys pretty much know everything there is to know about this stuff. I have to say the site doesn't really have a lot of flash stuff, but that is the point. This site is about content and not flash. Among the things you'll find here are Search Engine Optimization and the official marketing genius. I think if you search around for long enough you'll...well, you'll find you are not as lost in the super market as you thought you were. ]]> Wed, 06 Apr 2005 07:09:27 -0700 http://www.salsman.net/mainblog/C1167117989/E1423600925/index.html http://www.salsman.net/mainblog/C1167117989/E34037253/index.html Anyone who knows me knows I don't travel much, but when I do it is an ordeal. I am the guy who manages to book rooms in the wrong country and for weeks that don't even appear on the mainstream calendar. Hotels.com is pretty much the solution to living with the consequences of being me. That is, with Hotels.com I can avoid all of that mess and manage to actually have my trip work out. I appreciated that there was a main page of results at the very opening of the site and that I didn't have to dig to find what I wanted. Further, there were lots of pictures...yay! I liked that when I started browsing I was presented with a lot of thoughts that made me a smarter browser. I have to give credit where it is due and say that these guys got it right.

I doubt you will find me living it up at the Hotel California....but, maybe. After all, it's such a lovely place...such a lovely place. ]]> Tue, 05 Apr 2005 20:12:35 -0700 http://www.salsman.net/mainblog/C1167117989/E34037253/index.html http://www.salsman.net/mainblog/C1167117989/E1017536927/index.html I was pretty unsure of what I'd find on the Dot Flowers site, but I was pleasantly surprised by what the fine people there have managed to create. I have to admit that the first thing I noticed was how quick and friendly the site was. I browsed about a gazillion different products and it was intuitive and made me think of the multitude of people I need to send flowers. The account was easy to set up and the promises guaranteed by the site make me think that these guys have the other flower delivery sites beat by a mile. I don't know if it is on purpose, but another interesting feature is that the entire colour scheme is that of Windows. I dunno why that popped into my head, but it did.

Anyway, be a sport...send someone some flowers...you know you need to. Send someone flowers!

In the end, it is nothing but flowers... ]]> Tue, 05 Apr 2005 20:08:39 -0700 http://www.salsman.net/mainblog/C1167117989/E1017536927/index.html http://www.salsman.net/mainblog/C505347049/E1073609452/index.html ]]> Sat, 26 Mar 2005 13:59:19 -0800 http://www.salsman.net/mainblog/C505347049/E1073609452/index.html http://www.salsman.net/mainblog/C1669293332/E156846143/index.html Hello,

a surfeit of despair; and the man in him promptly shook off that
to keep the great gash in her starboard well above water, was
of a knife?

which the others chanted in chorus:


him, he found himself almost an object of worship in the eyes of
quarter-deck he came, toying with easy assurance, until he stood ]]> Sat, 26 Mar 2005 13:57:22 -0800 http://www.salsman.net/mainblog/C1669293332/E156846143/index.html http://www.salsman.net/mainblog/C505347049/E677780535/index.html ]]> Fri, 25 Mar 2005 16:24:34 -0800 http://www.salsman.net/mainblog/C505347049/E677780535/index.html http://www.salsman.net/mainblog/C1414045648/E375355540/index.html Hello,

horizon.
again.
But she hung back, resisting him by her weight. Who are you? s
I beg that you will spare yourself and your sister, said the
But it was one of Levasseur's own officers who hindered him.
nothing more for him to do out here.
Bad cess to your memory. Is there no good in me at all that you
the hostages I need for our safety.
away from Maracaybo, taking with him two twenty-gun frigates that
he went on, if you and your own French followers wish to avail
laughed, well pleased with his wit.
mean - in Heaven's name let me hear it.
misadventures.
a self-sufficient man.
that, in the event of the two vessels becoming separated by accid

Have a good day. ]]> Sat, 19 Mar 2005 07:34:29 -0800 http://www.salsman.net/mainblog/C1414045648/E375355540/index.html http://www.salsman.net/mainblog/C1826375846/E108215668/index.html 1948, Xmas eve, with a full moon over town
Stagger Lee shot Billy DeLions
And he blew that poor boy down.
Do you know what he shot him for?
What do you make of that?
Cause Billy Delions threw the lucky dice
Won stagger lee’s stetson hat.

Bayo, Delia said, just give me a gun
He shot my Billy dead now I’m gonna see him hung.
She went into the Delion’s club through Billy Delions blood
Stepped up to Stagger Lee at the bar,
Said, buy me a gin fizz, love.

As Stagger Lee lit a cigarette she shot him in the balls
Blew the smoke off her revolver, had him dragged to city hall
Bayo, Bayo, see you hang him high
He shot my Billy dead and now he’s got to die.
]]> Tue, 15 Mar 2005 19:16:09 -0800 http://www.salsman.net/mainblog/C1826375846/E108215668/index.html http://www.salsman.net/mainblog/C1826375846/E1214846033/index.html "…the drink would not satisfy, food turned to ash in our mouths, and all the pleasurable company in the world could not slake our lust."

I just want to eat my damned apple.

(*) ]]> Wed, 09 Mar 2005 15:26:58 -0800 http://www.salsman.net/mainblog/C1826375846/E1214846033/index.html http://www.salsman.net/mainblog/C1826375846/E1163206602/index.html I won't be able to finish this project in a single sitting, and I'll have to run a few of the things I have planned by the lawyers, but I have come to a very simple conclusion after months of thought.

In short, Robert Sher needs to have to answer for the things he has done and is doing. Every time I review in my head (and it is constant, let me tell you) the things that have brought me to where I am now, I constantly realize that the majority of this and the worst bits of that majority are all things that Robert Sher, President of Bentley Publishing Group, knows don't deserve to be this way.

Robert Sher made an art out of lying to his own family (and fellow owners of his business) and allowing things he must clearly understand to be one way to seem otherwise to whomever he needs to allow to be mislead. This includes the police department, who quickly saw right through his passive deception.

Robert Sher is also a bad businessman. I am in the process of determining just how much detail I can eventually put in this project, but I know I can make reference to what other people think of him. What they think of him isn't pretty. He is viewed in the art publishing industry as a goody-goody who puts his hand in everything for his own benefit. He is laughed at for all of his articles and side projects that are tilted up as if to protect artists and publishers, when the reality is that they are self serving attempts to put his name and face in front of the main players in the art world. The other publishers are quite well aware of this and they ridicule him for it.

Robert has also made Bentley Publishing Group into the "McDonalds" of the art publishing world. His drive to publish large volumes of art has surely not gone unnoticed, but the other publishers have noted that that high volume of art is all mediocre or even sub standard. This is what the other publishers in the art world have to say about it.

Robert has also become the guy who the rest of the art publishing world credits with trashing legitimate art publishing into "poster selling" or mass business. The days of a reasonable priced piece of art are going fast as Bentley Publishing Group races to lower prices to sell higher volumes of this previously mentioned dreck. It is a documentable phenomenon and the savvy art publishers have all noticed it.

Funny enough, the other art publishers have all wondered what in the world Larry Winn of Grand Image is doing with Bentley Publishing Group! Winn is famous for his standards and keen eye on what is hot and not in the art market. He deserves the title. (I had the good fortune of working with him briefly and he is the real deal) But, the rest of the art publishing industry is scratching its head wondering what on earth would put the king of quality and cutting edge publishing in bed with the king of mass produced, sub standard art. Why would the best slum with the worst? I'm not asking, I'm saying that people in the business are asking.

I don't feel comfortable yet in discussing some of the business blunders that Robert Sher has made and why I believe that his own board should remove him from control of Bentley Publishing Group. There are some good ones and I believe most of them are totally free game. But, until I have checked that with the lawyers, you won't find any of it here.

What I CAN discuss here is all about what Robert Sher is willing to do to protect himself and his own lies to his own family at my expense.

For starters, Robert Sher allowed or caused me to be arrested for something that I didn't do, allowed or caused me to be held in jail on $220,000 bail overnight until I was released and never charged for the things he told the police I did. He subsequently reported the same things to his insurance company that the police determined didn't merit charges against me. For whatever reason, that insurance company paid Mr. Sher and Bentley Publishing Group without so much as talking to me, or apparently the police.

Now, I am being sued by Bentley, probably through subrogation for the insurance company, for $200,000. What for? Yes, the same things that the police dropped investigating, that the insurance company never investigated, and that I didn't do. But, it gets better...

Robert Sher was approached by Candice Sher almost two years prior to this little episode about the exact same thing. Candice Sher (Sher-Betts) made the accusation that false receipts were being handed in and Robert responded by looking into our usage of media and determining that Candice Sher was, as he explained she always was, paranoid and nearly clinically so. Robert Sher knew then as he knows in this more recent case, that the materials billed were materials used by his own company. Why does he know? He knows because he always kept a keen eye on ALL transactions in production, but also because he checked into it the first time his sister brought it up.

Why was I buying the materials and being reimbursed? Oh, this is the question I never get tired of hearing. Furthermore, it is the one beautifully documented thing in all of my receipts and emails. Robert Sher was quite happy to have me hunting around for the best deals and dealing and wheeling to get cash discounts and bonus deliveries. He was all about saving the money and tracking down the most cash effective way to buy this heavily used product. He knew what was going on before, he knew the first time I was accused (and he defended me after his inquiry, and Candice was satisfied) and he knows now. But, he is willing to let that all go silent, let me be arrested, and let me be sued by an insurance company rather than simply confront his own problems with his family and business.

Robert Sher knew and was behind what I have since been arrested for doing. He encouraged it and encouraged me not to worry about any of the book keeping discrepancies. He benefitted from it (as did his family) and he made it part of my understood list of job duties. It went on for FOUR YEARS after all. Do you really think he let something as big as this just slide when he never misses a single other business trick? No, obviously not. He knew before and he knows now what was happening, but what changed is that his family put pressure on him and he didn't want to disclose his hand in it. It is about to come out in court though.

I'm hurt by so many other things that have happened since this all came down too. I had a good friend at Bentley who was the controller. I say "had" because I am relatively sure that Robert Sher's unwillingness to face the truth has led her to believe all sorts of things about me that are not true. I also know that she has been his "pen" in some of this legal stuff and it breaks my heart to read her accusations and determinations that I know are based on her own not-knowing the facts and truth about Robert's involvement and consent. I am saddened too because she was a good friend to me on many personal levels that I'm sure she has now written off as emotionally fraudulent. I know she was looking to leave Bentley because of her own fears and dissatisfactions with the company and her job, but I don't know if she is now locked in some similar wrestling match with Robert Sher. I mean, if he has decided to put the lawsuit threats to her by making her somehow complicit in all of this then she may not feel safe leaving or confronting the problems that had her looking for other work. I hope she gets the chance to leave so she can see what I have learned since I was taken out of the Bentley fold.

Oh, there is so much more. I want to write about the great things Robert Sher has done to try to ruin my life after Bentley. I want to include how far out of his way he is willing to go to try to keep me silent about the truth (which will not happen). He has tried to make my new employer think poorly of me (as to fire me?) and he has tried to tell me who I can and can't talk to. He has done it beyond the bounds of legal too.

This is what people who lie do...they try to silence those who will talk about the details. Why? I can tell you why. If I talk and describe things and enough people see my description and say, "wow, yeah, that's what I saw too" then suddenly the people who are all being misled or taken advantage of start to look at each other and realize that the one guy behind it is doing it on purpose. If they realize that they are all being had they can then collectively change things. I'm just going to lay it all out there...and I have no concern that these truths won't resonate with others who I hope will begin to ask their own questions...before they end up in jail or otherwise attacked preemptively.

As I started this I'll conclude...Robert Sher is a bad person. He really is. I didn't think it before and I didn't realize that much of what I credited to him is vulgar and distasteful if not down-right heinous. He is willing to endanger my family, my kids, my life simply to keep from coming clean with his family and business associates. He is willing to play out a lie that he clearly understands and has understood for YEARS. He has benefitted directly from the very thing that I am now being assaulted for...and by him! That is an evil person. His evil may be malicious or simply self serving, I don't know and I don't care to know. His own business problems seem to stem from his own ego and greed, and his means to attempt success seem to be whatever suits him whenever it suits him.

That, people, is a bad man.

Part Two: Insurance fraud? False Police reports? What do YOU think it would mean? I bet you already answered yourself...

(I'm speaking with two art-publishing trade magazines and one local consumer affairs reporter from television about these things and it looks like all three want to do something with this. If that doesn't speak volumes, I don't know what does.) ]]> Sat, 12 Feb 2005 10:05:05 -0800 http://www.salsman.net/mainblog/C1826375846/E1163206602/index.html http://www.salsman.net/mainblog/C1826375846/E39226142/index.html I hesitate to post too many "what I did today" kinds of entries here, but I figured this one was worth a line or two, if for no other reason than to find out who reads this.

While on vacation I had some NASTY dreams. I mean, the worst of the worst. On the first night in the hotel, I started grinding my teeth which, along with a really fatigued set of facial muscles, got me a broken front tooth. I think I actually notched my other front tooth too, but it didn't break, more like ground a little notch in itself against my lower tooth. I spent the whole vacation playing with the little break in the middle of one tooth and wondering if the indentation in the other was from the same event.

When I got home, having been driven totally nuts by this, I took out my Swiss Army knife and found the metal file. Yeah, I did. I filed down my two front teeth into a beautiful pair of shaped and, unbroken and un-notched, incisors. I liked the result so much I ground down the opposing tooth that stuck above the others.

Oh, they are still MY coffee-tinted teeth and all that...but I have to say I have NEVER had my teeth this nice before. No joke.

Thank God for the Swiss...and painkillers. ]]> Sun, 06 Feb 2005 11:25:10 -0800 http://www.salsman.net/mainblog/C1826375846/E39226142/index.html http://www.salsman.net/mainblog/C1160045303/E1585514097/index.html Strapped to the rail-road tracks again
Locomotive comin' around the bend.
Thought virtue always wins,
man with the mustache says:
"This scene is through, it's curtains for you." ]]> Sat, 29 Jan 2005 20:48:05 -0800 http://www.salsman.net/mainblog/C1160045303/E1585514097/index.html http://www.salsman.net/mainblog/C1826375846/E1706236189/index.html In the movie version of reality you spend your life trying to help people, putting them above you, and trying to make a better world. You spend your time with those you love and some of those you hate and in the end you hope that you've made a difference that people would be saddened to see gone.

In the movie version, you get a chance to see where you touch people and how it is worth more than anything. You get the big finish when you realize that life is more precious than money and that no financial or otherwise mundane thing could ever trump what it means to be alive.

But, in the movie version, you don't have to go to jail or have the bank examiner take your house over the missing $8000. In the movie, your enlightenment is all the audience sees, but in the background the rest of the cast is piling money well in excess of what you needed to avoid the whole thing in the first place. There is always some Mary to call and tell everyone who cares about you that you need a basket of money. There is always someone to say their prayers for you and Someone to send Clarence.

In real life, you can screw up and bounce back and do the right things only to have someone who decides to screw with you put you in the exact opposite of what you have worked so hard to build. You can go from building toward owning a house, rebuilding a family for your kids, and starting to save for a future and end up losing your house, moving back to a shit-hole, and starting over with an enormous debt that you got when you lost the rest of it all.

In real life, you get another chance to be patient and to rebuild. You get to tell your kids that there is another bump in the road and hope they want to ride it out with you. You get to become cynical about doing things for other people.

The real life version really sucks. Even the enlightenment is hard to come-by, but the reality is, as they say so happily in Lawyer-ing circles when discussing "scorched earth" strategy, "you get taken to the ground." ]]> Wed, 26 Jan 2005 18:18:16 -0800 http://www.salsman.net/mainblog/C1826375846/E1706236189/index.html http://www.salsman.net/mainblog/C1414045648/E1714387744/index.html
" gives the lie to the favorite argument of the censors that erotica need be misogynist and indifferent to the appetites of women."

Robert Scheer
]]> Wed, 26 Jan 2005 14:58:56 -0800 http://www.salsman.net/mainblog/C1414045648/E1714387744/index.html