How hard it is, sometimes, to trust the evidence of one's senses! How reluctantly the mind consents to reality! -Normar Douglas

Some people are still unaware that reality contains unparalleled beauties. The fantastic and unexpected, the ever-changing and renewing is nowhere so exemplified as in real life itself.-Berenice Abbott

It is and it must in the long run be better for man to see thing as they are than to be ignorant of them.-A. E. Houseman

My name is Barbara Bobit Logue and I'm the DH (Designated Hitter) for Pop [Ed Bobit] when he's too busy on the meeting/press preview circuit. While this assignment has come up over the past dozen years it was my impression that the Great One could handle anything and my contributions were over. And how much busier can he be than me with three kids under six?

Anyway, this "editorial" folder file got to me with nothing more than a deadline. Pop's notes, scribbling and clippings go back to when US Fleet Leasing purchased Crocker National's, leaded fleet and that was 1977. From Pop's notes this merger business isn't over yet. References to GE's activeness in acquisitions abound with Ford, bank, and others changing the well known "household" name we've grown to recognize over the years. Where does it end? There's no clue in this file.

Pop does seem to have GE's assurance that they intend to be a leader and establish equitable rate which have been needed to give lessors a decent break for their services. But the big question mark and subsequent scribblings indicate that it probably can only last so long. Pop predicts that there should be this kind of sanity within the marketplace but there always remains the "aggressive marketers" whose main tool is constantly undercutting competition. It seems to me mat it can't he much different than those rental ear sales where the paper dealer goes along breaking even with a net-net of $25 a car when lo and behold some other dealer (also with questionable arithmetic) grabs the business for $15. That's American enterprise.

If that seems crazy, how about the import makers getting stronger in the fleet market with the yen doing such a dramatic turn-about? Has anyone ever figured out what they could have been selling those Toyotas, Hondas, and Nissans for two years ago before most didn't have U.S. production and the dollar was at its high? It probably does explain the "voluntary" quotas.

There's one long note that's either undecipherable or Pop was heavily under the influence of the bubbly. Apparently the three new auction conglomerate giants (and. yes, GE is one of those, too) may have the capability of creating a plan to take all the pain out of getting rid of the used fleet car. Imagine if you had the chance of literally turning over the responsibility of the car on the day you bought it and never again worry about its ultimate value. That's really Star Trek stuff.

My report just wouldn't be complete without a small mention that Pop's football team (MSU) finally (22 years) made it to the Rose Bowl, and he's been bonkers for the past month after celebrating with all his old cronies. I do hope your New Year was half as good as his.