Topic : Details

During the many months of modeling and molding it took to create her 9-foot, 800-pound Babe Ruth in bronze, the artist Susan Luery met countless experts and aficionados. Details were researched and debated. Did the Babe wear his belt buckle on the left or right? Was his hat cocked to the side or worn straight? No fact was too small to escape scrutiny. Except one. The bronze Babe, unveiled at the northern Eutaw Street entrance of Oriole Park, is leaning on a bat and clutching on his hip a right-handed fielder’s glove. The real Babe was a lefty. Ms. Luery, who admits to “not being very astute in the fine points of sports,” said she worked with a vintage glove sent over by the Babe Ruth Museum. She says she believed the glove was Ruth’s. Communication error? “Yes,” said Mike Gibbons, the museum director. Or, as Ms. Luery puts it: “It was the right glove on the wrong man or the wrong glove on the right man.”

From The Baltimore Sun, quoted in Parade, December 31, 1995, p. 12

In the year 1210 King John of England had an idea. For many years the Royal Forest was available to all who paid the usage fee. Paying this tribute to the crown allowed nobleman and peasant alike to hunt, fish, and frolic on the regal property.

The king, looking to reduce the strain on this resource and increase the empire’s income (to help support the war with France), decided to raise the usage fee and restrict use of the forest to the upper classes. To carry out this decree, he appointed Thomas Mulberry as Royal Forester.

However, it wasn’t long before Thomas realized he had a problem. The king expected a certain amount of revenue each month, but there simply weren’t enough customers among the upper classes to maintain the projected revenues.

In order to keep to the crown’s budget, Thomas decided to allow use of the forest by some of the local peasants at a discounted rate. This kept the king’s coffers filled and, at the same time, still restricted the use of the land to the upper class and a relatively small number of peasants.

After six months, the king summoned Thomas to report. “Well, my Royal Forester, is my plan working as expected?” asked the king.

“Yes, your highness,” replied Thomas. “Revenues are as projected.” The king was obviously pleased. Added Thomas, “There was one problem, but I managed to solve it.”

Thomas described how there were not enough noblemen to maintain the budgeted revenues and how he allowed some local peasants use of the land at a discounted rate. The king listened intently and offered an occasional “Uh-huh,” or “Yes, I see.”

The following morning Thomas was hanged for treason.

Tom O’Keefe, writing in Magazine Week

Success is often reached through the little stuff. When Pat Riley coached the Los Angeles Lakers from 1982 to 1990, the team won four NBA championships. In taking over the New York in 1991, Riley inherited a team with a losing record. But the Knicks seemed able to play above their abilities and even gave the eventual champions, the Chicago Bulls, their hardest competition in the play-offs last May.

How does Riley do it? He says his talent lies in attention to detail. For example, every NBA team studies videotapes and compiles statistics to evaluate players’ game performances. But Riley’s use of these tools is more comprehensive than that of his rivals. “We measure areas of performance that are often ignored: jumping in pursuit of every rebound even if you don’t get it, swatting at every pass, diving for loose balls, letting someone smash into you in order to draw a foul.”

After each game, these “effort” statistics are punched into a computer. “Effort,” Riley explains, “is what ultimately separates journeyman players from impact players. Knowing how well a player executes all these little things is the key to unlocking career-best performances.”

Little Things Do Mean a Lot by Robert McGarvey, Reader’s Digest

Russian composer, pianist, and conductor Sergei Rachmaninoff was once honored at a dinner hosted by fellow pianist Arthur Rubinstein. During the course of the evening, Rachmaninoff said he thought the Grieg piano concerto the greatest ever written. When Rubinstein said he had just recorded it, Rachmaninoff insisted on hearing it then and there. During coffee, Rubinstein put on the proofs of the record and Rachmaninoff, closing his eyes, settled down to listen. He listened right through without saying a word. At the end of the concerto he opened his eyes and said, “Piano out of tune.”

Today in the Word, December 15, 1992

In the operating room of a large hospital, a young nurse was completing her first full day of responsibilities. “You’ve only removed 11 sponges, doctor,” she said to the surgeon. “We used 12.”

“I removed them all,” the doctor declared. “We’ll close the incision now.”

“No,” the nurse objected. “We used 12 sponges.”

“I’ll take full responsibility,” the surgeon said grimly. “Suture!”

“You can’t do that!” blazed the nurse. “Think of the patient.”

The surgeon smiled, lifted his foot, and showed the nurse the 12th sponge. “You’ll do,” he said.

Today in the Word, April 7, 1992

As Vice President, Richard Nixon came upon President Eisenhower one day signing an immense stack of mail in his office. Mr. Nixon watched quietly for a moment and then asked the General how, with all that mail, he ever found time to think about the big problems of the country.

Ike replied: “Dick, I really haven’t spent that much time on these letters. In fact, in some instances they probably don’t even say exactly what I want them to. But you’ve got to learn that, if you get bogged down in all the fine print and little detail you’ll never get anything accomplished as President.

Bits & Pieces, April 30, 1992