Here's To Mavens
For those of you who don't know the meaning of the word

"maven", it is a yiddish word

meaning an all-knowing person. You know, the person who can tell you anything you want to know about almost everything and has an opinion to go along with it. Mavens come in two categories. There are run of the mill mavens and there are specialists. Among the specialists you will find clothing mavens, political mavens, medical mavens, sports mavens and money mavens, to name just a few.

Mavens come in all sizes and shapes and one does not have to be Jewish to be a maven. We must concede, however, that some of the best are Jewish or at least they'll tell you so. They are advisors par excellence. As an example, we offer the wisdom of an old friend comedian Jackie Mason. Mason is a maven's maven.

Now that you have some background on mavens, let's consider how their advice could have affected mankind and history. Ponder on this thought for awhile: How might history have been changed if some of the world's most famous people had a good maven or even just a fair one, to advise them.

Do you think a good maven would have let Napoleon go to Waterloo? How about Caesar going to the Forum that illfated day? No maven in his right mind would have let that happen. A real maven would have convinced Lincoln that Booth wasn't such a great actor. A baseball maven would tell Pete Rose, "Play the Lotto". A political maven would have told Nixon to leave the tape business to the Band-Aid people. A job maven would have nixed a resume to Enron. An Internet stock maven would say "Buy only medical stuff, there's always a need. A sports maven might say "Don't unpack your bag if you're a manager of the the Pittsburgh Pirates or Kansas City Royals Ball Clubs.

They're also great for quotes. As examples, mavens suggest: "To err is human, to find someone to blame it on is ingenious", "a penny saved is ridiculous", it's a mistake to let any mechanical object know you're in a hurry", "What the large print giveth the small print taketh away." These are but a few.

This is only a small sample of the importance of mavens. Next time you meet one (you'll know them by their swagger) please give them the proper recognition they think they deserve.

-Jim Mahoney