Which is better? Buy a suit, a vintage Chanel, black wool suit, at a consignment store; or to buy one that looks Identical at Winners for about the same amount of money?

I think that's a definite line that can be drawn through a popluation. Really, it's not about the suit, but the concept. What is more valuable? The older, more solid, dependable; or the new, classicly styled, imported and cheap to buy.

It's on everyone's mind: Buy a new house, or a century home. Buy the newest car and acquire another loan, or buy the same car, 3 years old for half price?

Draw the link to people: the worker is older, solid, but maybe not using the tools most efficiently and so the job is in fact very tough to do now. The new kid is tech savvy and breezing through the work load, or looking like it, anyway. Perhaps not as thorough as they should be. Errors up; costs up.

Rule: the penalty for stupidity is more money.

The kids have been getting away with it, maybe, because the older one's been pulling up the slack. No? That one's going to be out the door in another year. What are you going to do about it? Do you have to face a downturn in productivity?

Succession planning again. What if you took people off their last 2 years of service, and assigned them into mentoring roles for any number of new kids on the block? Would that help with onboarding and retention and engagement....hm?

Knowledge transfer: until we can just plug them into the wall, there is something that's lost with that classic, when it finally goes into the rag bag.

I'm off to Brentwood Ave. S to a little consignment place I just found: I'm questing for a DVF wrap dress...something in a vintage print. I can hardly wait to find one--that fits.

Today was the last day of school, 2006; it's going to be a busy summer.