Update: WWGD? What Would Grandma Do?

This updated post first appeared on November 11, 2008. The concept is even more relevant today.

It was no surprise President-Elect Obama gave so much credit for his success in life to his beloved late Grandmother ‘Toot.’ Grandmothers have long been the rockbed of solid values, common sense and abiding love. Some 2.5 million children in our country are being raised by their Grandmas, ensuring that new generations are growing up with daily nudges about thrift, frugality, common sense and substance, along with hefty helpings of broccoli and roast chicken with too much limp parsley.

If Grandmothers had been in charge, Wall Street would never have imploded, gas would never have hit $4.99 a gallon, little Johnny would never max out his (Kardashian) Visa and no one would have heard of IndyMac or AIG. No one would be subsisting on high fructose corn syrup, partly hydrogenated fats and maltodextrin. No one would be suffering from an extended case of Affluenza, feverishly fed by what Grandma would call “stuff and nonsense.”

This is why so many savvy folks on the brink of life and business decisions are asking themselves one key question: WWGD? What Would Grandma Do?

Here’s a snapshot of Grandma’s Financial Policies:

• Grandma would applaud KMart and Sears for their return to the Layaway Plan. (She’d also applaud eLayaway, the pioneering layaway technology company, which recently launched Spanish version eApartado.com for this 50-million strong segment.)
• Grandma would mourn the Sarah Palin who shopped at Saks while applauding her for (formerly) bringing the whole family in to buy at Anchorage’s Out of The Closet secondhand store.
• Grandma would applaud the rise in trust of local banks — 66% of consumers in a recent study said they had confidence in local banks, versus fewer than 25% trust US (big) banks. She’d nod sagely when learning (via Edelman’s 2011 Trust Barometer) about the dramatic three-year drop in trust in banks in the West that keeps this industry stuck at the bottom in global industry rankings
• Grandma would applaud signing up for the local bank’s Christmas Club. Remember, Grandma put $5 in her Christmas Club account every week or month –frugally setting aside her ‘egg money’ (okay, sorry that was Aunt Bea) so by Christmas she would have a nestegg to spend. She’d likely invest in the smart daily deals on classic childhood toys and goodies (think footies & tricycles with streamers) at the newly re-launched Hopscout.
• Grandma would be suspicious of gift cards.
• Grandma gave you US Savings Bonds on your birthday. (Okay, not so fun) (Grandma would likely recommend EFTs –and she surely would have bought Apple early because of that nice boy Woz who looks like his Nana cooks for him.)
• No credit cards, no interest rates, no late fees. Cash is king, especially when saved painlessly week by week. (Grandma would like Bundle’s list of the Top Spending Cities and suggest you get the heck out of Austin and relocate to Toledo.)
• Grandma knew no one in Nigeria, much less a Prince who left her money.

If things get really tough, Grandma would find herself a part-time job, probably by social networking with her Facebook canasta group or selling her tea cozies on etsy. She could always take up knitting, like these famous Swiss Net Grannies, who will personally knit you a pair of socks. Just pick your Granny!

What would YOUR Grandma do?

Sarah Palin Ups SNL To Best Ratings in 14 Years.

Guru’s Update on the exploding Viral Views: NBC’s own capture of the view count of Palin’s opening monologue is tracking some 580,000+ views to date. By the time Monday hits, it’ll be well into seven figures. Or more. Palin’s “Moose Rap” runs more than 300,000. Many of them from my daughter’s dorm at Berkeley.

There’s no telling if the real Sarah Palin’s appearance on the late night legend “SNL” will improve the McCain/Palin ticket’s odds in 15 days. But it sure gave Saturday Night Live a big bump (kudos to the uber-pregnant Amy Poehler) in the ratings. The Moose Rap will now enter the show’s long history of watercooler classics.

View Amy & the Eskimos here: The Moose Rap

This would be the highest-rated “SNL” since March 12, 1994, when Olympic skater Nancy Kerrigan — skating with the late, great, ever-graceful Chris Farley –was the host and Aretha Franklin the musical guest. “SNL” would also be the third-highest-rated show of all last week, including primetime, following only ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars” (12.0/18) and CBS’ “CSI” (11.2/17). So does that mean 82-year old Cloris Leachman beat out the beehived babe?

The show opened with a conversation between the real Palin chatting with executive producer Lorne Michaels while Tina Fey portrayed Palin in front of the studio audience. Among other things, Palin tried to get Michaels to agree to let her play Fey on “30 Rock,” on which Michaels is an executive producer. But Michaels declined, saying that nobody watches “30 Rock.” She was then introduced to Alec Baldwin, another “30 Rock” star who after lambasting her politics, then tells the Governor: “You’re hotter in person.”

Also on the show was host Josh Brolin, star of the new Oliver Stone movie “W”, and actor Mark Wahlberg, cracking jokes about his hip “Entourage” credentials.

Saturday’s show was up 161% compared with the average last October (4.1/10). It’s also up 47% compared with the Oct. 4 “SNL” that averaged a 7.3/18. The real SP averaged a 10.7 rating/24 share in the 56 metered markets, according to preliminary estimates released Sunday by Nielsen Media Research.

Thanks to always in-the-know THR’s Political Theater Blog.

Guru’s Note:  Not surprisingly, the media (‘liberal + regular liberal’) is going wild with SP’s appearance on SNL.  Commentator Pat Kitano has a good piece on his blog, which also links to the buzzy Election 2008 twitter site.

So Not Sarah Barracuda.

Tomorrow, Saturday September 6, 2008 is the Ladies Who Launch Live event, also known as BYOB, Be Your Own Boss. Jam-packed with energy and inspiration plus plenty of practical tools for designing your own destiny, the daylong workshop is a true celebration of creativity and entrepreneurship as a lifestyle.

The Inevitable Anti Sarah Palin Facebook Page.

In the wake of this morning’s news, here’s a new Facebook page with 1,666 fans and growing. Don’t you love the way social networking has blossomed into such a powerful vox populi tool?

Fanning the Sarah Palin Social Networking Frenzy.

Social networking site Facebook is leading the pack (so far) of Sarah Palin fans. As of this noon today, the Governor’s Politician’s Fan Page was booming, with 31,803 fans and counting, many of them active and posting.

The VP Candidate also has a MySpace page, with 1591 Friends to date.

And a Ning page.

Linkedin.com is showing a Sarah Palin as an employee of a Metro Hotel in Australia. And here’s what shows up when I search on Hi5.com for Sarah Palin.

Guru’s Update at 11:25 p.m. Pacific: Sarah Palin Facebook page now up to 35,926 supporters.

While Leon Trotsky seems stuck at 1272 fans.