The other day here, I told this story about how Henry Kloss, one of the giants in home electronics, personally intervened to help me solve a problem I was having with the Federated Group, the retailers who'd sold me one of his products.
You can imagine my amazement to receive the following message this morning from a fine journalist and my longtime friend, Joe Brancatelli. I've known Joe since well before the events in my story…
So welcome to the Twilight Zone…or Zero Degrees of Separation…
In 1982 I wrote a profile of Henry Kloss (who was a friend from my electronics-reporting career) for Newsweek. On one of the days I went up to Cambridge to interview him, he didn't pick me up at airport, but sent one of his employees. When I got to the office, he apologized and told me the story about this enraging call he'd just finished with Federated, which was his key California retailer. He explained he had to personally intervene to help one of his customers. I thought it was fascinating and wanted to get the name of the customer and do a follow-up. But, as usual with Henry, he was a bit scattered and he'd already forgotten the name and couldn't find his notes on the mess of his desk.
After reading your blog post, I realize you had to be that customer. And I remember this because I am still pissed 30 years later that I never got the story into the profile. (Well, that and the fact that they mangled my ending…)
If you follow this blog, you've no doubt noticed my life abounds in odd coincidences. Here's another one for you. Maybe I should just be amazed at all the coincidences in my life that don't happen…