To:	Janet Walker, Executive Committee
From:	WTH
CC:	Everyone
Re:	Coat Hangers
Date:	February 12, 2001

The elegant wooden coat hangers in the main closet, imported at great personal expense from Kilian's Hardware in fashionable Chestnut Hill, are my belated Holiday Gift to the firm.

I grew weary of wondering:

• Would the wire or plastic coat hanger selected by a client survive a two-hour meeting?



• If not, would a client risk injury from a hanger shard when she furiously gathered her trampled sable off the closet floor and thrust her arms into the sleeves as she stormed out of the office?



• Would the slogans on our hangers engender image or product confusion:

  We love your drycleaning!
  Mafucci Morticians -- The Last Ones to Let You Down
  Club Risque - Sponsors of Wing Bowl?

Truthfully, I ordered these before Janet (moved, perhaps, by Jen Owens' unsuccesful but heartfelt campaign promise) took the halfway measure of replacing our plastic hangers with better plastic hangers. My own hangers, which are individually hand crafted by Taiwanese descendants of Antonio Stradivari, simply could not be rushed. I've left Janet's replacements in the closet (inconspicuosly placed) and removed only those hanger-on hangers that most offended me. Even those have been placed in a box for possible recycling or long term storage next to Miriam's Island of Dead Computers. I did throw away the significant amount of hanger shrapnel that I found on the shelf and the floor of the closet. Why do you suppose people save broken hanger arms?

A belated Happy Holiday. This is just the first step in a general closet upgrade program. Next year, bigger and better door magnets!

And, of course, a response. This from John Summers:

Bill: Thank you very much for the update on the roll out of the new hangers.

In your excitement, however, I think that you have left some folks behind. Up until recently, the main closet on 28 housed only 11 skinny white plastic hangers, 3 wire hangers and several of those curious hard clear plastic things with cut aways (to hold skirts I think). Janet Walker was then generous enough to locate an additional 11 more classy hangers. (Thank you Janet.) Now we have about 25-things-to-use-to-hang-up-coats-with-that-could-be-called-hangers.

The news communicated in your e-mail thus raises several issues that I have been giving some thought to for quite a while.

First, should the 27th floor closet have better hangers than those on 28? I understand that the reception desk and the conference rooms are on 27, so that, I suppose, would favor having better hangers on 27 than 28. But due consideration should be given to the fact that the 27th floor closet is used by our colleagues so they are able to avail themselves of the new fine hangers. Thus, for 28'rs to be treated equally with 27'rs, the 28'rs should have access to fine hangers. (And to anticipate one of your potential responses, it is not enough that those on 28 could use the 27th floor closet because we have no closet on our floor with good hangers.)

Second, shouldn't all the hangers in any one closet be the same? We on 28 now have a jumble of hangers; some ok, some thin plastic and some ghastly looking things. This creates a bit of a rush-to-grab-a-hanger problem. Dan, for example, is always in very early and takes one of the best hangers. First in time is not always first in right.

May I suggest that the new space committee form a hanger subcommittee. I propose that Jen Owns be on the Committee because she is located somewhat near the closet; Tad Levan would be a good candidate because he is reluctant to voice his concerns about firm matters and this role would help him find his "voice"; Sharon McKee is in charge of the coffee group and there may be some synergies that we could realize; and Mark Aronchick could join as well because it would be helpful to have some Board guidance. I would be glad to help out as well.