nortel n. a spectacular erosion of value. v. in the face of impending doom, to stifle common sense and better judgement in order to foolishly maintain a positive outlook
At its height in 2000, Nortel Networks employed close to 95,000 people and had a market capitalization larger than the combined value of Canada’s big six banks. The 800-lb gorilla of the Toronto Stock Exchange, its $1,200+ share price (adjusted for consolidation) accounted for one-third of the index’s value.
We’re not sure if the following is a cryptic clue about the (we’re assuming) devastating lyrical candidness of the new U2 album due on March 3, but here is an excerpt of the band’s frontman sounding off in the first of Bono’s dozen planned op-ed columns for The New York Times in 2009:
There’s a voice on the speakers that wakes everyone out of the moment: it’s Frank Sinatra singing “My Way.” His ode to defiance is four decades old this year and everyone sings along for a lifetime of reasons. I am struck by the one quality his voice lacks: Sentimentality.
I salute Glenn MacDonald for his recent PopMatters article “Facebook and the Death of Distance,” which confirms my paranoid suspicions:
Facebook is like having a dozen rolling high school reunions simultaneously, plus grade school, and college, and every summer camp you ever attended.
Gee, what’s the catch?
Boxing Day. In Canada, the tendency every year come Dec. 26th has less to do with tidying the home and more to do with ‘cleaning up’ on big-ticket bargain$. It only makes sense to get value for our dollars in economic times such as these. Still, DRIVEN would like to think that the final few days leading up to year’s end could be spent looking inwards. Let’s examine this noble idea in the context of the other kind of boxing: the noble sport itself.
DECEMBER 24, 1968:
“Oh, my God! Look at that picture over there! Isn’t that something…”
—Apollo 8 crew member Frank Borman
