The Janitors' Closet

A presidential pardon, of a janitorial service owner

One tends to look askance at pardons issued in the twilight hours of a presidential administration, of either party.  But here's an interesting story, from our friends at Cleanlink:

President Donald Trump issued pardons to 73 people and commuted the sentences of 70 others at the end of his presidency. One of those commuted is Robert Sherrill, a recovering drug addict who turned his life around, eventually founding Imperial Cleaning Systems of Nashville, reports the Tennessean.

Sherrill had been convicted of drug charges fueled by an addiction for which he later received treatment. Because of his rehabilitation, personal progress, and ongoing recovery, former Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam granted Sherrill clemency for the drug charges in 2019. Haslam later pardoned Sherrill's offence for escaping a Department of Children's Services Home. Those pardons allowed Sherrill to vote. 

Since leaving incarceration and receiving drug abuse treatment, Sherrill founded his commercial cleaning business and started a nonprofit that mentors at-risk kids.

After Haslam granted him clemency and a pardon, Sherrill began working to request a presidential pardon. His lawyer told the Tennessean that Sherrill is the only person he's known to have received both a state and federal pardon in his 40 years of working on clemency cases.

For more information on Sherrill, visit https://www.robertcsherrill.com/about/.

Posada

Happened to be speaking to an old friend about Posada, an Hispanic tradition that I'd taken as something similar to traditional Christmas caroling.  There's a bit more to it than that.  Here's a note from my original janitorial sales manager, Bill Black, who is still a member of our corporate board.  Bill's mother was old school Hispanic, and brought him up in both the Faith and the culture:

A Contemporary American Posada as a Multi Cultural Expression  

Robert, further to our conversation a day ago about Umberto Eco, and the field of semiotics, I very much appreciated your blog post a couple years back titled The Adoration of the Shepherd, and so I thought​ to​ share this with you. I saw this sketch yesterday making its way around the internet, while it's not the traditional crèche scene, such as the Duomo with its famed terracotta Presepe, nor is it like Tintoretto's, The Adoration of the Shepherds, it does have ​many references to the Nativity Story as depicted in the tradition of Las Posada. Las Posada is Spanish for "The Inn", and can be described as a form of folk street theater with origins in the Italian and Spanish Christmas Pageants, and perhaps with just a dash of the troubadours' cantos. A traditional Posada will have actors, a band, and two choruses, the whole group will often number over two hundred people, and will move from house to house throughout a village, or neighborhood, to recreate the story of the Holy Family's search for shelter. The performance will be repeated for nine days.

 The origins of Las Posadas date back about four hundred years, both the Augustinian missionaries from Argentina, and the Franciscan missionaries from Mexico, claim credit for starting the tradition. What is pretty certain is that both religious orders borrowed a lesson from Saint Francis of Assisi's playbook. The Italian saint and founder of the Franciscan Order is credited with creating the first creche, and both the Franciscans and Augustinians are well known for employing performance art in a popular education pedagogy to spread the Gospel. Consequently, Las Posada traditions have spread throughout the Spanish speaking, Roman Catholic, Americas, and are now finding their way into the United States. Indeed Posadas are fast becoming a tradition​ of many Protestant Churches as well, taking its place alongside the traditional Christmas caroling practice. With the appeal of its strong biblical reference, and family values, it is finding popular acceptance in evangelical churches. Even a few Unitarian Universalist congregations have held Posadas, leaving Jingle Bells and The Internationale to be sung by the carolers.   

​I have shared below the iconic details​​ that I can spot in the attached sketch from the ​biblical and midrashic nativity story. I don't know the title of the sketch, so I am simply ​calling it "​A Contemporary American Posada".

​ ​Some details are easier to see than others. I have spotted nearly thirty iconic or semiotic element​s ​for certain, and suspect there are a few more.

It's a dark and wet scene; at first you may think that against all odds the man and woman only have each other to survive in this place, and you might feel some sorrow for them.

 ​"Jose" (1) is dressed in workman's clothes, perhaps as a construction day laborer, perhaps as a carpenter (2), he is presumably searching (3) for a place for them stay, they both have wedding rings (4), and the back pack (5) could indicate they have been on the road. The signs are in English, and the couple is likely Hispanic, they are cast as strangers in a strange land (6). The woman is pregnant (7), and wears a sweatshirt that says Nazareth (8) High School, perhaps indicative of her young age (9), most Catholic scholars believe Mary was about 14 years old when she gave birth to Jesus. The heads of both the woman, and Jose, appear to have halos (10), with a deference paid to the woman's halo, iconography of Mary often has a halo of shooting stars (11), her halo has the word "SAVE" (12). A dove appears above the woman and her womb (13), an iconic reference that the Holy Spirit is protecting the woman and her unborn child. The woman is sitting on a small mechanical toy horse (14), most Spanish painters would show Mary arriving in Bethlehem on a donkey, the nativity donkey foreshadows that The Messiah will ride into Jerusalem on a donkey. Many Spanish speaking mothers have told their teenage children whenever they complained about the old family car, "El Cristo montó en y salió en un burro", The Christ rode in, and out, on a donkey. There is no room, "No Vacancy" (15) at Dave's City Motel (16), Bethlehem was the "City of David". The words "New" and "Man ger" (17) appear on the sign. There are several "signs" in the window, one with a star (18) above the woman, one that depicts a man riding on a camel across the desert with the word "WIESMAN" (19), and a poster says "Good News" (20) and shows a candy bar with perhaps a carmel (21) filling, it may be a reference to Our Lady of Mount Carmel, and the Carmel Mountains. A sign below seems to look like a campaign poster that might read "ELECT HEROD" (22). The name ZEKE, 3415-16 (23), is written on the side of the pay phone, a reference to Ezekiel 34:15-16, "I myself will tend my sheep and have them lie down, declares the Sovereign Lord. I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak, but the sleek and the strong I will destroy. I will shepherd the flock with justice". There is a sticker with the last four letters of the word "GLORIA!" (24) on the post supporting the payphone and message. Two words, "Word" and "Flesh" (25), if taken together could mean "The Word made flesh" are written in graffiti on the base of the mechanical horse, and the machine is "Out of Order", broken (26). The newspaper on the sidewalk has three adds, "Shepherd Watches" (27), and next to each other "Glad" and "Tide" for Glad Tidings (28). There is a bright small green seedling just starting to grow out of a crack in the sidewalk (29),The Shoot from the Stump of Jesse. I suspect the bottle has a meaning, however it escapes me as to what it could be. A frequent element that is missing in the sketch is the placement of Mary's feet on the head of a serpent, perhaps it is the power cord, I think it would be a stretch.

I'm part of a COVID vaccine trial

A janitorial client of ours is running the Oxford University Covid-19 vaccine trial in Arizona; I volunteered to be part of the study a bit ago, have had the first injection with no significant problems, and go in for the final dose next week. Figure it's about the least I can do to help move us in the direction of a vaccine for the coronavirus. Here's a link to the site, should you like to participate (and to have a shot - no pun intended - at a vaccine well in advance of the rest of the population):

https://www.cctresearch.com/active-trials/arizona-clinical-trials#!/study/95

What we're doing as a firm, of course, includes ramped-up ongoing disinfection of touchpoints and surfaces, ongoing, for our clients, aggressive use of personal protective gear, and quick response with our electrostatic disinfection equipment when a client, or anyone else, has an exposure.

Covid-19 disinfection

Just caught a news item - United Airlines is now using the Clorox Total 360 electrostatic disinfection system in its terminals; this is in addition to its use in its airliners.

As far as I can tell, Clorox electrostatic equipment is the best available to disinfect generally, and specifically to kill Covid-19 coronavirus.  That's why we use it in our disinfection program, both for our ongoing janitorial clients and for exposure response for the wider community. Here's what they say about United's program:

"The Clorox Total 360® System charges and atomizes the Clorox disinfecting solutions to deliver a flow of charged particles that attract to surfaces with a force stronger than gravity. This allows the product to reach and uniformly coat germ-prone surfaces, including areas that conventional trigger sprays may easily miss."

Quite an advance over previous technology!

 

How CBN came into the possession of PO Box 17, Phoenix AZ, by Bill Black

We begin some 50 years ago, two years after I graduated from Saint Mary's High School; I was working for Sam Drey. To appreciate the full story, I must first explain the relationship I had with Sam, and what he taught me.

Working for Sam Drey was the first real job I had as an adult; as you'll recall, Sam was quite a character. Before he retired to Arizona, Sam was a 'ward healer' and 'fixer' in Chicago. His cousin was Jake Arvey, former Chairman of the Cook County Democratic Party Central Committee and the Democratic Party National Committeeman for the State of Illinois. He was a power in Chicago.

In addition to the political work that Sam took care of for Jake, Sam was a produce jobber. Sam had retired to Phoenix. I met him while volunteering on some political campaign. Sam took a liking to me, and offered me a job. I would be Sam's driver and "Go-for".

My duties for Sam included picking him up at his home in the morning, then driving him to Katz's Delicatessen on North Central Avenue where we ate breakfast with the gang. I would then drive him to his office.

The office was small, a one room cinder block building, only 20 by 30 feet, with one door and three windows. It sat on the edge of the sidewalk, on the parking lot of the Jewel Box Pawn Shop, across the street from the Hotel Westward Ho, caddy corner from the Old Post Office Building near the Northeast corner of Central Avenue and Fillmore in downtown Phoenix.

Sam shared the room with a CPA, an old guy named Bernie. A handful of old buddies were always stopping in. The place had the ambiance of a barber shop or shoeshine stand.

Sam was about 70 years old at that time. He was thin, short, and always wore Windowpane Check patterned sports coats, with gray or black dress slacks, penny loafers, a red tie, and thick black horn-rimmed eyeglasses. Think of Johnny Carson, without the eyeglasses, and you'll get the picture.

Although Sam was retired, he still kept a few business deals in his pocket. As I mentioned, Sam was a produce jobber, and he dealt in box cars of onions. Sam was called 'the king of onions'.

When somebody needed onions, Sam knew where to find them, and at the right price, for which he took a small commission. When you're dealing in box cars of anything, the pennies add up. That was one of the lessons Sam taught me.

Another lesson was about the importance of relationships. They also add up, especially all the little ones, and Sam had boxcars of little relationships.

In the morning Sam would sit with his friends at Katz's and kibitz; then I would drive him to the office, and he would be on the phone pretty much nonstop through the morning.

I would sit behind a small desk next to his, place his calls, run errands, file papers, and watch the master. It was a great opportunity for a young man to learn how to tend to relationships, and make a deal. it was very much... old school.

One of my duties in the morning was to scamper across Central Avenue to a smoke shop in the Hotel Westward Ho, and purchase a stack of assorted daily newspapers. In addition to The Phoenix Gazette, The Arizona Republic, The Tucson Daily Star, The Scottsdale Progress and The Mesa Tribune, Sam would read over The Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Kansas City Star, The Saint Louis Post Dispatch, and any other newspaper that he might think of that day.

As far as I know, Sam never read a book, but he would always glean eight to ten newspapers a day. I recall that he once called Rabbi Plotkin and asked him if it was permitted to read some small pamphlet on Jewish culture. He said, "If Rabbi says it's OK, then fine; if Rabbi says it isn't, it's in the trash."

The newspaper routine was always the same. Sam would see an article in a paper, circle it with a pen, and jot a name on top of the page; he would then hand the paper to me. I would cut the article out, put it in an envelope, address the envelope to whomever he wanted it sent to, and then hand the envelope back to Sam. He would jot a quick note, place it in the envelope with the article, and then hand it back to me again. Then I would put a stamp on the envelope, seal it, and walk across the street with it to the main post office, where Sam had a post office box. There, I would hand the letter off to a mailman at the counter, and then check Sam's post office box. If I recall correctly, his box number was somewhere in the 40s.

For lunch we would go over to the Arizona Club, which at that time was located in the Luhr's Building; later it moved to the top floor of the First National Bank Building. Or, we might go to the Adams Hotel, or the Hotel Westwood Ho, or the Phoenix Press Club, or to Durant's. Sometimes we might slum it for lunch, and go to The Busy Bee Coffee Shop, the Roadrunner Truck Stop, or The Nogales Café. Wherever we went, Sam was always kibitzing with someone.

Sam taught me that with a good joke, and a story, you could move mountains, or boxcars anyway. And it was important to stay connected to people.

Anyway, at some point I said to Sam that I wanted to start a business for myself, and I wanted to get a post office box at the Main Post Office, and I wanted a post office box with a low number.

Why the low number, you might ask

Well, I wanted to go into business as a political and promotions consultant. I was going to call myself a 'press agent'. The only two problems with that plan were, one, I didn't know anything about what I wanted to do, and two, I didn't have any money.

I bought my suits at the Disabled American Veterans thrift store, and if I was really lucky, I might find a nice suit that fit me from Goldwater's Department Store, or Hanny's Men's Store. That would be a good week.

Sam would say to me, "always get quality, and always get it for a bargain."

I couldn't afford the tuition to attend an Ivy League College, to say nothing that I didn't have the grades to get in to an Ivy League or Stanford, so I went to Phoenix Junior College.

And, I figured that since if I didn't actually have the blue blood bonafides and credentials, at least I could snag a prestigious address for a business card. The only problem was I didn't have money to rent a prestigious location, or any location at all.

So, the way I figured it, a P.O. Box with a low number would convey some panache.

I had a plan, my card would read:

William J. Black

Press Agent

Post Office Box "#"

Phoenix, Arizona 85001

Phone: ALpine 8-7611

Of course, I would spell out 'Post Office Box', to further highlight the single, or two digit, number, and I would use the older 'alpha prefix' for the phone number. "Yah, that's class", I told myself.

When I went to get a post office box, I was told by someone working the front counter of the Post Office that the PO Boxes with low numbers where reserved for large companies, law firms, and banks; and it would not be possible for an individual, much less a college kid, to get a post office box with low number.

I mentioned this to Sam. Well, Sam knew most everyone at the main post office, and he said to me, "Blackie" (that's what Sam called me) "go talk to so-and-so in the back, his desk is by the loading dock, and tell him 'Sam sent you'". So, I went and talked to so-and-so, and I said "Sam sent me", and I told that guy that I wanted a post office box with a low number.

Well, that guy said "that might be hard to do… but give me a couple of weeks, and I'll let you know". About a week later, when I was picking up the mail for Sam, that same postal employee motioned me over to the counter, and he said, "I've got a box for you".

I said, "Great, what is it?" He said, "Box 17".

I was flabbergasted that I could get such a good number. He smiled and said "Just tell Sam that I took care of you". "Of course and thank you" I replied.

That's how I got Post Office Box 17.

A few years after that, when I joined CBN, you'll recall that as part of our agreement, I transferred my ownership of Post Office Box 17 to CBN, with the understanding that I could always use it for my personal or business needs, and if CBN where to ever give up the box, I would have first dibs on it.

Relationships. You never know where they might lead.

Sam was a great story teller, he never forgot a name, and he could remember the smallest detail about a person he met yesterday or thirty years ago. He was a networker, a dealmaker, and a natural mentor.

Bobby, every time I see Post Office Box 17 on our letterhead, I remember Sam.

The CBN Way: "If it's not bright, it's not right."

A note from a team member of 40-plus years standing:

Robert, we have been talking lately about CBN’s culture, and how the company's culture sustains the values and virtues that shape our work, and how our work shapes who we are.

As an illustration of what this means to me, let me tell you a story that a mutual friend of ours, Arthur Brodsky, told me about ten years ago.

When Arthur told me this story, he said it occurred about ten years before he told it to me, so that would be about 20 years ago. Arthur said that he, and a friend of his, James, had been working together on a community volunteer service project, and in the process, they were asked to clean a bathroom, and the bathroom was rather grody. Arthur said the bathroom smelled awful, and it looked worse than you could possibly imagine. None of the other volunteers wanted to do that job, however James and Arthur agreed to clean it up, and so they rolled up their sleeves and dove into it.

When Arthur and James were done cleaning the bathroom, Arthur looked at the porcelain sink that James had just cleaned and he said, "Wow, James, that sink is really, really, clean". Arthur said the sink had looked so bad when they first saw it, that you couldn’t see any of the porcelain, and now the sink looked immaculate. The walls, the floor, the fixtures, everything in the restroom were immaculate. After Arthur expressed his admiration for the effort James had put into cleaning the sink, he hinted that perhaps it was not really necessary to clean it that well, and James replied, "If it's not bright, it's not right".

Arthur was puzzled by that comment, and he asked James what he meant by that. James then told Arthur that about ten years earlier he worked for a cleaning company where his brother was the operations manager. James said the cleaning company's name was CBN, and that CBN taught him to do things "the CBN way". Arthur had heard of the name CBN before because he knew Bob Croft, CBN’s owner, from the Salt River Brass Band.

Arthur asked James to say more about "the CBN way". James said it's not enough to clean a sink and leave any spots, stains, smudges, or any residue whatsoever, and further, the fixtures had to shine, and the porcelain had to be whatever color it was when the sink was new. James went on to say that when he worked at CBN, the company operated a service school to train janitors how to clean a building properly.

One of the key principles CBN taught James was that a job is not done until it's done right, and it's not done right until it's done completely, that's the CBN way.

Arthur said he appreciated the integrity that James showed that day. In the early years of CBN, we ran a janitor's training school once a week, classes met for six to eight hours every Saturday. We taught

• the proper use, maintenance, and repair of cleaning equipment and tools;
• the proper use and storage of chemicals;
• the best cleaning methods for various hard floors and carpeting;
• dusting and dust control;
• trash collection and recycling;
• windows cleaning;
• workplace cleaning strategies and workflow for individual, and team cleaning;
• estimating and business math;
• inventory control;
• vehicle organization routing and planning;
• company forms, record keeping and communication;
• work safety;
• building security;
• quality control;
• customer service.

The curriculum was rather comprehensive.

The training program was a significant investment of CBN's time and resources to develop janitors and staff, it was not just about techniques and knowledge, it was also about fostering good character, and that was management's commitment to the CBN way.

Like to help with a vaccine test?

One of our janitorial clients, CCT Research, is currently enrolling volunteers for a COVID-19 vaccine test.  I understand it's the Oxford University developed vaccine, so I tend to trust it a bit more than I might if it were from, say, Russia. I volunteered a few days ago; they are looking to start interviewing folks shortly.

From our client:

Please head to our website and have each person fill out their contact info and one of our recruiters will reach out! https://www.cctresearch.com/active-trials/arizona-clinical-trials#!/study/95

They're good folks, and could use the help.  I figure it's something one ought to do - and, it's a chance to get a possibly useful vaccine months before the rest of the world.

Don't jump to conclusions

We're doing COVID-19 disinfections, and also focusing on ongoing disinfection to protect our regular janitorial clients from the novel coronavirus, so I try to keep on top of the whole field.

An article on the subject in Cleaning and Maintenance Management well illustrates the dangers of drawing conclusions without considering all possibilities.

The lead paragraph notes an increase in hospital acquired infections (HAI) and the suggestion that the cause might be the CDC's decision to suspend, for several months, its mandatory inspection and infection reporting program. Make sense, and should you read just the first paragraph, that might be the conclusion you'd draw.

But the article also immediately mentions that hospitals are quite stressed (both staff and facility) by the flood of viral patients, which could well account for the increase (even in janitorial, when we're overworked and under stress, we make mistakes).  Further, folks with minor ailments are tending to avoid hospitals these days; thus, only the "sickest of the sick" check in, and are likely more prone to complications - such as HAIs. And, finally, the study was based on only two hospitals.

Make a habit of reading, not just the headline or the lead paragraph, but the whole article.

A COVID-19 question

Given our decades old focus on cleaning for health, we've lately developed something of a focus on COVID and coronavirus decontamination - both in our ongoing commercial cleaning, and in providing quick response to both clients and the general public in event of a virus exposure in a given facility.  Thus, I try to keep abreast of developments of knowledge of the virus, and of its implications.  And I think a bit about it.

Here's something I've not seen addressed.

In Arizona, as in most jurisdictions, we approximate numbers of infected individuals, over time, by looking at the most recent percentages of infected in our daily "virus present" test results.  Now, those tests - the nasal swabs and so on - report whether the subject has "live" viruses currently in his system, and thus is currently "sick" and able to infect.  This has nothing to do with any antibodies he might have in his system.  If we see, as we have lately, a 15% infection rate, we conclude that 15% of the population has been infected and will shortly be immune (or dead).  We need something like a 60 or 70% percent immune rate for "herd immunity", so we've a long way to go.

But: If I tested negative today, there is no way of knowing (from that test) if I'd had the virus, perhaps with no symptoms, some time ago, and am, while now not sick, immune.  There are some unknown number of immune folks out there that we're not counting. 

For example, if we assume that an average infection lasts 30 days (likely over-generous), and we've been seeing similar positive results for 4 months (120 days), then, all else being equal, our immune rate, when the current crop recovers, is more like 60%.  And thus we're closer to herd immunity than we might think.

The only way to know is to test, randomly, for antibodies.  And we're not doing that.

 

Social costs of COVID-19

In between providing commercial janitorial, with an emphasis on pathogen, including COVID-19, control, and doing a good bit of specifically Coronavirus disinfection service, I'm noticing much less opportunity for any social and creative endeavor.

There is much social interaction that we've lost in this time of lockdowns.  The old 4th of July photo is of the Scottsdale Trombone Choir, which I've played in for 30-some years, and managed for a few.  I've also played for years in the Salt River Brass Band, and in an amateur concert band.  All the groups are on hold for the foreseeable future.  Our audiences - free admission  for two of the  groups and ticketed, generally through a season subscription, with Salt River, are no longer enjoying live music, and are doubtless getting a bit stir crazy, with few places to go.  Our musicians lack the comradery, and the challenge, of preparing and performing rigorous music for a discerning audience, and of honing, and enjoying, their skills. 

None of these losses, both to people and to society, figure prominently in economic stats, or in much of anything else.  But they are nonetheless real, and hurtful.

Further, it looks like the virus is not going away anytime soon.  Current thinking is that immunity after recovery is both fleeting and fragile, so the "herd immunity" we've been awaiting is unlikely.  And, since a vaccine depends on the same bodily reactions as does one's post recovery immunity, the benefit from a vaccine, should we get one, is similarly likely to be both fleeting and fragile.

This all might be the "new normal".  Should we give up much of what makes life worth living to, sometimes, avoid the disease?