Mayor of Simpleton, CSR and One-Hit Wonders

I'm not proud of the fact that I never learned much,
just feel I should say;
what you get is all real I can't put on an act,
it takes brains to do that anyway.
And I can't unravel riddles, problems and puns;
how the home computer has me on the run.
And I may be the Mayor of Simpleton,
but I know one thing and that's I love you.

To put on an act. Fingir, cuando quieres engañar a alguien.

To unravel. Desenmarañar.

These lyrics are from one of my favorite XTC songs, “Mayor of Simpleton,” that I discussed recently in Music. I discovered the group in 1979 while in junior high school. My friend, Pat, and I used to spend afternoons listening to records by groups like XTC, Killing Joke and The Damned. XTC is a band from England that was more concerned about making good music, not necessarily commercial music. They never sold out.

*To sell out. Venderse.
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Last week in Business you may have heard me talk about CSR, Corporate Social Responsibility. This is the big thing now in business. Whether big businesses like it or not, they’ll implement CSR. Some multinationals today are more powerful than the governments of some countries they operate in, so the idea here is that they’ve got the responsibility to make a positive impact on the world. This includes being sensitive as to how they affect our lives by considering the social impact they have on stakeholders and the environment.

Stakeholders. Grupos de interés para una organización: empleados, clientes, proveedores, accionistas, comunidad…

I’ve worked with a couple consulting firms on this issue. There is concern that big business might not want to give back to society, however companies should pay attention: recent studies demonstrate that CSR can increase sales, reduce overhead and improve brand image.

Overhead. Gastos generales.

Last Friday’s Flashback segment took us back to 1989. That’s the year I decided to quit my job at Nuveen, a Chicago-based investment banking company, load up two enormous suitcases and jump on an Iberia flight to Madrid. Thoughts that come rushing back to my brain when I arrived to Madrid in 1989 include lugging those two enormous suitcases through Plaza de España and listening to Martika’s “Toy Soldiers” at a hostel on C / Génova.

To load up. Cargar.

To lug. Llevar, arrastrar (algo pesado).

Other songs that made it big that year in the USA included “When I See You Smile” by Bad English (the phrase “one-hit wonder” comes to mind…) and “Right Here Waiting” by Richard Marx. All in all, a pretty bad year for music.

One-hit wonder. Grupo o cantante de un solo éxito.

Lucille Ball died that year too. I used to watch “I Love Lucy” re-runs on TV after school. The show became the first to incorporate the idea of prime time TV. Originally, the show was seen live in New York and Chicago (in the Eastern and Central U.S. time zones, respectively), but people living in the Mountain time zone (like Denver) and in the Pacific zone (Los Angeles) saw the recorded version.

Re-run. Una reposición.

Prime time – La hora de mayor audiencia.

And, as always on Flashback, I mentioned some of the TV series that were on Spanish TV that year. These included: Brigada Central, Matraca no!, Un cesto lleno de libros, Pasacalle, Aventura 92 y El séptimo cielo.

Published by: Drew Crosby