Back of the Envelope

They shared a hotel room but didn't sleep together. It surprised Ryan that this seemed strange to him. The girl, though she insisted they would one day marry, had no intention of having sex until they were married because of her religious beliefs. She said all this without any prompting from Ryan. She seemed to think every guy was just looking for a chance to bed every girl they met. Ryan had told her, rather acerbically, that he had no intention of sleeping with a woman on the first date, even if they were engaged--he had quickly amended that the last part had been sarcastic and he did not in the least bit believe that they were supposed to marry. And what he didn't say aloud was that while he thought she was attractive enough, he wasn't sure it was wise to even sleep in the same room with this strange woman who saw things and thought she was his fiancee. So if neither of them had the least intention to sleep with the other, why did it seem so odd that they were not doing so? He realized, as he lay in the dark listening to her soft breathing, that it was all a product of his culture. If this had been a movie, he was certain they'd be sleeping together. It made sense: guy saves girl from certain death (or something), they share a hotel room while hiding from the mysterious man chasing them, guy sleeps with girl. That was the natural and logical progression; he could even remember a couple of movies where that exact sequence had happened. And considering his movie-going habits, that must mean it was pretty predominant. Except, in the movies, the plot would normally make more sense.

He was just about to drift to sleep when he remembered that short, doubtful, insincere prayer he'd said just before all this started. God, he decided, had a bizarre sense of humor. Still, the prayer had been answered in a way, so he decided another, more serious one couldn't hurt. "God, help me through this." He glanced in the direction of the girl, breathing softly as she slept. "Help us both through this."

I’m trying to figure out where the system is breaking down. Because it’s one thing to receive an unsolicited proposal from a first time novelist through the blog that’s rough and not-ready-for-prim-time. It seems like it’s quite another thing to receive a proposal that’s of virtually similar quality from an agent. That, to me, is a system breakdown.

No offense writers, but we need to be harder on you. YOU need to be harder on you. First drafts shouldn’t cut it. Dialogue manacled in cliché shouldn’t cut it. Inauthentic genre books plotted and detailed from Hollywood movies and not hardcore, intensive research shouldn’t cut it. Voiceless narrative without the punch of imaginative personality shouldn’t cut it.

Hundreds of new branches are to open here, and most will throw bankers' hours out the teller window. Bankers are busily courting former Gap and Old Navy managers to transform their branches into user-friendly retail outlets. Free or cut-rate deposit services are expected to become the norm, and customers who demand lower fees from their banks can expect to be obliged. Commerce Bank, a fast-growing New Jersey operation with an emotionally driven team approach to making depositors happy, opens its first branch here next month and promises 200 in the region by 2010.
...
During much of the 1990s, banks often seemed intent on thinking up new ways to infuriate customers. They cut back on tellers and hours, creating long lines during peak hours to encourage more customers to use lower-cost automated teller machines or online banking.

Annoying nickel-and-dime fees for basic transactions became common at large multistate banks, including First Chicago Bank, which in 1995 attracted national attention for slapping a $3 fee on customers who asked tellers for help.
...
"Banks are terribly bureaucratic," said Arlington resident Don Parker, 67, a consultant who became a customer of First Horizon's Glebe Road branch several months ago because it offered a different style of banking.

Parker had been a customer of several local and national banks since moving to the area in 1964, and had gone through numerous mergers in which banks changed the signs over their doors every few years. He found that when he needed help with deposit or loan products, as he did in establishing a line of credit last year, he was pushed to talk to someone in North Carolina rather than in his branch. At First Horizon, he said, branch managers were able to help him with anything he needed — be it his condo-association account, his credit line or other matters — and even suggested ways for him to save money.

"It seems like it's managed locally," he said of First Horizon. It also helps that the bank is open until 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday. "I work. The only time I can come into the bank is in the evenings or on weekends."

Such individual service, offering highly customized products for each customer and doing it when its convenient, is a far cry from the past 20 years, when most large consumer banks built up their bottom lines by acquiring more banks, cutting costs and jacking up fees.