Summit and Symposium
American Pie, Skyscrapers, Blondie, Alex Delvecchio, Dozing Deer
Welcome to my weekly newsletter. This issue includes additional colleagues I met at Knowledge Summit Dublin, a book about slices of life (and pie) from America's back roads, Chicago dogs, a pioneering new wave band, the last surviving member of the Red Wings' 1954 and 1955 Stanley Cup teams., and four stopped bucks. I hope you like the picks and pics.
At the 10th Midwest Knowledge Management (KM) Symposium on June 13, I presented on communities and lessons learned over 30 years in the field of KM.
Yesterday I finished writing my seventh book. I asked GenAI to design a cover, and this is what three of the tools came back with. Nice try, but no cigar.
My son Roger has started coaching the basketball team at Loyola Blakefield in Baltimore. Here he is huddling up with his team:
During a game, his wife Cristi heard a father from the opponents’ team say:
Yeah, he may be loud but he’s actually TEACHING those guys.
Michigan is on the western edge of the Eastern Time Zone, so it stays light later here. Soon after the longest day of the year, here was the view of the sunset from our neighborhood in Northville at 9:30 p.m.:
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Fave Five 143: Summit and Symposium
Pascale Prefers Pie (American Pie), O’Hare Hots (Skyscrapers), New York New Wave (Blondie), Red Wing Royalty (Alex Delvecchio), and Dozing Deer.
Fave Five List: More Colleagues I Met in Dublin
Following on from the previous issue, here are more friends that I made or reconnected with at Knowledge Summit Dublin last week.
Teddy and Barry Byrne were the gracious hosts of the event and were extremely kind to me.
Bill Kaplan and Zach Wahl are two of the knowledge management thought leaders included in my book, Profiles in Knowledge.
Rocio Sanz and Ninez Piezas-Jerbi had a fun discussion with me on the bus ride back from the Wicklow Mountains. Rocio is a core group member of the KM4Dev Community and Ninez leads the KM Peer Mentoring Program.
Lukas Wünsch, Dawn Brushammar, and Stuart French: I reconnected with Dawn and met up with Stuart for the first time since he showed me around Melbourne, Australia in 2010.
Zach Wahl, Kieran McCorry, Rebecka Isaksson, Bonnie Cheuk, and TJ Hsu: I met Bonnie for the first time, reconnected with Rebecka after she and Dawn (see above) interviewed me for their Knowledge Fika podcast in November at KMWorld in DC, and met up with TJ for the first time since KMWorld 2015.
Book Best Bet
American Pie: Slices of Life (and Pie) from America's Back Roads by Pascale Le Draoulec
I bought this book in 2002. Combining my interests in pie and road trips, it was a delight to read.
From Amazon: An engaging and quirky travelogue, cultural and personal excursion, and adventure-cookbook that brings back from the highways and back roads a homemade slice of America
Crossing class and color lines, and spanning the nation (Montana has its huckleberry, Pennsylvania its shoofly, and Mississippi its sweet potato), pie—real, homemade pie—has meaning for all of us. But in today's treadmill, take-out world—our fast-food nation—does pie still have a place?
As she traveled across the United States in an old Volvo named Betty, Pascale Le Draoulec discovered how merely mentioning homemade pie to strangers made faces soften, shoulders relax, and memories come wafting back. Rambling from town to town with Le Draoulec, you'll meet the famous, and sometimes infamous, pie makers who share their stories and recipes, and find out how a quest for pie can lead to something else entirely.
Pascale Le Draoulec
An experienced writer with a Master’s Degree in Journalism from the University of California, Berkeley. Former restaurant critic at the New York Daily News (James Beard Award recipient). Founding director of Morning Glory Markets, a group of highly-curated farmer's markets in Westchester County and New York City.
Restaurant Recommendation
Skyscrapers Bar O’Hare Airport, Terminal 3, near Gate K8
We had a 5-hour layover in O’Hare on our way to Dublin. After walking around to survey the dinner possibilities, I settled on two Chicago dogs. I was not disappointed.
A proper Chicago dog is an all-beef frankfurter (such as Vienna Beef) in a poppy seed bun, topped with yellow mustard, neon-green sweet pickle relish, chopped white onion, tomato slices, a dill pickle spear, pickled sport peppers, and celery salt.
Marvelous Musicians
Yesterday was Debbie Harry's 80th birthday. I like the band's hits, including "Heart of Glass," "One Way or Another, "Call Me," and "The Tide Is High."
From Wikipedia: Blondie is an American rock band formed in New York City in 1974 by singer Debbie Harry and guitarist Chris Stein. The band was a pioneer in the American new wave genre and scene of the mid-1970s.
The band's first two albums also contained strong elements of punk. Although successful in the UK and Australia, Blondie was regarded as an underground band in the US until the release of their critically acclaimed third album in 1978, Parallel Lines. Over the next two years, the band released a string of hit singles, including "Heart of Glass" (US No. 1), "One Way or Another", "Dreaming", "Call Me" (US No. 1), "Atomic", "The Tide Is High" (US No. 1), and "Rapture" (US No. 1: the first number-one single in the United States to feature rap vocals). The band became noted for its eclectic mixture of musical styles, incorporating elements of disco, pop, reggae, funk and early hip hop music.
Blondie disbanded after the release of their sixth studio album, The Hunter, in 1982. Harry continued to pursue a solo career with varied results after taking a few years off to care for her partner Stein, who was diagnosed with pemphigus, a rare autoimmune disease of the skin. The band re-formed in 1997, achieving renewed success and their sixth number one single in the UK with "Maria" in 1999, exactly 20 years after their first UK number one single, "Heart of Glass".
The group toured and performed throughout the world during the following years, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006. Blondie has sold over 40 million records worldwide and continues to actively perform. The band's eleventh studio album, Pollinator, was released on May 5, 2017.
Deborah Ann Harry (born Angela Trimble on July 1, 1945 in Miami) is an American singer, songwriter and actress, known as the lead vocalist of the band Blondie. She was adopted as an infant and raised in Hawthorne, New Jersey. After attending college, she worked various jobs, including as a secretary (including at the BBC in New York), dancer, and Playboy Bunny, before breaking through in the music industry.
Call Me
Heart Of Glass
The Tide is High
One Way Or Another
My Playlist
Sports Star
Alex died yesterday at the age of 93. He was one of the all-time greatest hockey players and a hero in Detroit.
Red Wings' 'great artist' Alex Delvecchio dies at age 93 by Ted Kulfan of the Detroit News
Delvecchio, a quiet magician who played in Howe’s shadow in the opinion of many but was immensely talented in his own right, died Tuesday at the age of 93.
The line of Howe, Delvecchio and Ted Lindsay was known as “The Production Line II” and formed one of the most prolific scoring units in NHL history. Sid Abel formed the original Production Line with Howe and Lindsay before being traded to Chicago in 1952.
Delvecchio played in 1,550 games with 456 goals, 825 assists and 1,281 points. When Delvecchio retired in 1974, he ranked second to Howe in all three categories. The Red Wings retired his No. 10 jersey in 1991.
Delvecchio finished among the NHL’s top 10 scorers 10 times in 14 seasons from 1955-56 to 1968-69. He scored 20 or more goals in 13 of his 22 full Red Wings seasons (two seasons with 19) and had 30 or more assists 17 seasons.
With Howe and Frank Mahovlich as his wings, Delvecchio had his best season in 1968-69, with 58 assists. Howe had a career-best 103 points.
Delvecchio went on to coach the Red Wings for four seasons (1973-77) and was named general manager in 1974, serving in both roles until 1977. That same year, Delvecchio was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame and entered the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame.
Delvecchio possesses some of the biggest moments in Wings' history, including a two-goal performance in Game 7 of the 1955 Stanley Cup Finals and scoring seven goals during the Wings' 1956 Stanley Cup run.
Delvecchio was named one of the NHL’s 100 Greatest Players as part of the league’s centennial celebration and has his No. 10 jersey hanging in the rafters and a bronze statue on the concourse of Little Caesars Arena.
Alex Delvecchio, Detroit Red Wings legend, dies at 93 by Gene Myers of the Detroit Free Press
The last surviving star from Detroit’s greatest sports dynasty, Alex Delvecchio helped the Red Wings reach the pinnacle in the 1950s, struggled mightily as they hit bottom in the 1970s, and segued into an elder statesman with a retired number, a bronze statue, and ceremonial roles celebrating the franchise’s renaissance in the 1990s.
Always popular among fans, players and press, universally heralded as one of the NHL’s 100 greatest players but always considered underrated by his peers, he was a three-time Lady Byng winner (for sportsmanship and gentlemanly conduct) on the ice but a lifelong Lady Byng winner off the ice.
From Wikipedia: Alexander Peter "Fats" Delvecchio (born December 4, 1931 in Fort William, Ontario, Canada; died July 1, 2025 in Rochester, Michigan) was a Canadian professional ice hockey player, coach, and general manager who spent his entire National Hockey League (NHL) career with the Detroit Red Wings. His playing career lasted from 1951 to 1973. At the time of his retirement, he was second in NHL history in number of games played, assists, and points. He is one of three NHL players to spend their entire career with one franchise and play at least 1,500 games with that team (the other two, Steve Yzerman and Nicklas Lidström, also played for the Red Wings). Delvecchio was the last surviving member of the Red Wings' 1954 and 1955 Stanley Cup teams.
Career Highlights
Picture Pun
I’ll bet you four bucks you can’t come up with a better caption.
