theBusiness

Name Dropping Redux
Raising The Bar
by Lyle R. Hill

I answered the phone on its fourth ring but before I could offer up my usual greeting the caller spoke.

“Hey, Hill, how’s it going?”

“It’s going okay,” I answered, instantly recognizing the voice of Jungle Jim Bruney. “What can I do for you?”

“Well, Hill, I ran into those two brothers you do business with … you know who I’m talking about, one is very smart and the other one is real good looking … and your name came up and so now I got a question for you.”

“Do you mean the Studt brothers, Doug and Brad, or the Helfers, Joel and Harvey?”

“No, not them. I think one is named Lou.”

“Then you mean the Nutini brothers, Peter and Lou.”

“No, not them either, but how’s Pete Pontikis doing?”

“He’s good, but by any chance do you mean the Dean brothers, Ray and Eric?”

“No, I like those guys but it wasn’t them. The two I’m talking about were having lunch with a guy named Greg at the time but I don’t remember if Greg was his first or his last name.”

“Greg Catalano, Greg Demirdjian, Greg Saroka or maybe John Greig?”

“Maybe the guy’s name was Craig and not Greg. Now I’m not so sure. Tony Lampl, Al Hardt, John Dunn and Dave Stevens were there too so it must have been some type of a meeting. There was even a guy there that looked a lot like Bill Zientarski.”

“Could it have been Craig Macgregor that they were with?”

“No, I know him. By the way, Hill, before I forget, I want to compliment you on your blog that featured Lenny Rand and Ralph Ross. I always admired those two and hey, didn’t Dan Simon and Joann Duncker get their start working for those guys? Your blogs about John Luckett, Fred Wolf and Sheri Law were good too.”

“You’re driving me crazy, Bruney. How hard could it be to remember their names?”

“You know, Hill, as long as we’re talking about names, I’ll give you one … Angus MacMillan … now there’s a name you won’t forget. Or how about Joe Landsverk, Stan McFalls or Tom O’Malley? Now those are cool names.”

“Those aren’t so great Bruney. How about Mark Miller, Mandy Marxen or Mark Melvin? And let me see you top Danik Dancause, Tara Taffera or Fearless Freddie Fulton.”

“You like those alliteration things don’t you, Hill?”

“I really do, but listen, we’re getting off track. Are you sure the two guys you’re referring to were brothers … one smart and the other good looking … because the only two guys left that are brothers and might fit that description would be Terry (aka T-Bone) and Kevin (aka Meathooks) Thomas.”

“Now that you mention it, Hill, I’m not so sure they were brothers but maybe just two guys that are always together. You know, like Joe Sousa and Kerry Reid or Bob Price and Mike Nicklas. But I’m positive one of them was named Lou. I would have sworn I heard either Stan Gibbons or Beth Whitton call one of them Lou.”

“How did Gibbons and Whitton get into this story?”

“I just threw them in. It was either them or Jim Lurie and Jay Nichols. Although Paul Bieber or Paul Daniels would have worked just as well. And by the way, as long as we’re off target here, Debbie Olsen and Abe Asllani said to say hello to you the next time we spoke.”

“Thanks, Bruney, and Larry Jones, John Weise and Judy Camp told me to offer you their best the next time I talked with you.”
“By the way Hill, how is my old friend Jerry doing?”

“Which Jerry … Jerry Schor, Jerry Braun, Jerry Metz, Jerry Darr, Jerry Truty or Jerry Hnetynka?”

“Actually I meant Jerry Grossberg. I always liked him.”

“I just talked to him. Ben Stanton gave him my number. He’s doing well. But let’s get back to trying to figure out who these two guys were because the curiosity really is killing me.”

“Okay, Hill, the one named Lou was very tall and kind of lean. The other was almost as tall but much bigger overall. Kind of a tough looking character and I think the guy named Lou referred to him once or twice as Mr. Q or Q-Ball or something like that.”

“I got it. It was Lou Cerny and Wally Quasthoff.”

“Hill, that’s it. That was their names. Boy am I glad we figured that out.”

“Okay, Bruney, now that we’re done with all that nonsense, why did you call? What did you want to ask me?”

“Well, Hill, about 10 years ago you wrote an article on name-dropping and crammed 50 names in it from within the industry and you claimed it was a name dropping record for a one-page article. I’m just wondering if you’re ever going to try to break that record.”

“Thanks to you, Jungle Jim Bruney, we just did. I count 65 … let me know if you disagree.”

Lyle R. Hill is the managing director of Keytech North America, a company providing research and technical services for the glass and metal industry. Hill has more than 40 years experience in the glass and metal industry and can be reached at lhill@glass.com. You can read his blog on Wednesdays at www.usgnn.com.

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