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Zachary Taylor

Claim to Fame: 12th president of the United States.

How He died: On July 4, 1850, Taylor ate a bowl of fresh cherries and iced milk. Hours later, he complained of stomach pains and diarrhea; on July 9 he died.

Historians have always assumed Taylor died of natural causes; but rumors that he was poisoned with arsenic have persisted since his death. Taylor opposed the extension of slavery into newly admitted states; conspiracy theorists speculated he was murdered by pro-slavery forces.

After the funeral: In 1995, Taylor’s heirs consented to an exhumation to settle the controversy once and for all. Result: The tests were negative. "President Taylor had in his remains only minuscule levels of arsenic—consistent with any person who lived in the 19th century," forensic anthropologist Dr. William Maples writes in Dead Men Do Tell Tales. "The possibility that another poison was used to kill Taylor is extremely remote…On the face of this evidence, the verdict of history must be that Zachary Taylor died of natural causes."

World Geography

Bungalow

From: Bengal, India

Explanation: England’s 200-year occupation of India led to many borrowed Hindi words. An Indian bangla is a one-story house, often with a roofed porch (in Hindi, a veranda). Bangla—which literally means "from Bengal"—was anglicized to bungalow.

Source: The B.R. Institute Reader,The B.R. Institute, PO Box 1117, Ashland, OR 97520

Employees Reputation Role

How your employees view your organization affects how the public views it. So you should involve your employees in nurturing the organization’s reputation, says public relations expert Davis Young. His tips:

Build an "organization radar screen" to read the blips from focus groups, confidential employee surveys and interviews, and small-group meetings at every level. Caution: Putting the CEO in front of employees will usually produce only positive readings.
Don’t drag employees in and talk at them. You’ll gain little with presentation but a lot with conversation. Maintain a dialogue that cuts across all units and shares organization values and expectations with employees.
Respond quickly to employee concerns. Tell them which ones you can act on and which ones you can’t. And be sure to tell them why you can’t.
Keep the dialogue and feedback going with regular reports that tell employees: "Here’s where we are, and here’s where we’re going."
Source: Management Review, 1601 Broadway, New York, NY 10019.

Do You Delegate Often Enough?

Ask yourself these questions to determine if you should delegate more responsibilities:

When you return from time off, is your in-box too full?
Do you worry about things going wrong when you’re out of the office?
Do you still face the same tasks and worries you did before your last promotion?
Do people frequently interrupt you with requests for help?
Do you have difficulty staying on top of your workload because too many details drag you down?
If you can answer "yes" to any of the above questions, you need to consider delegating more of your tasks.

Source: Odette Pollar, writing in Successful Meetings, 355 Park Ave. S., New York, NY 10010.

Basic Roles Help Meetings

To make your meetings more productive, fill each of these roles:

Record keepers record the official minutes of each meeting and distribute prior meeting notes before each meeting.
Timekeepers inform everyone of the time limit agreed to for each portion of the meeting. They also remind participants when time is almost up.
Recorders make notes on a flip chart or chalkboard as the meeting progresses.
Chairpersons enforce the rules of order, keep discussion focused and get everyone involved.
Source: Productivity Views, Box 488, Westford, MA 01886.