What Speed Means to Marketplace Listeners

		Read More Speed Commentaries • Straight Up • Define Our Goals • At What Cost? • Time and Fruit • Workaholism • Faster and Faster • Overcoming Limitations • Length of Time • A State of Mind • Theory of Relativity • What About Honolulu? • A New Career From Speed • Speed Is Nothing New • It's All Relative • We're Being Sold Speed • Speed Means Missing Out • Time is Priceless • The Ride Keeps Getting Faster • Family First • Slowing Down for Frugality • Speed Serves Me • A Fortunate Layoff • Interruptions • Our Country's Material Obsession • A Personal Slowdown • Using Speed to My Advantage • I Don't Miss Much • Not Enough Hours In the Day • Peaceful • Speed, Oh Speed • Out of Control • I Live By Speed • Happy to Be Relaxed • Speed Is Choice Index of Comments

What About Honolulu? (June 28)
Los Angeles is the slowest!?! You obviously did not include Honolulu in your study. Having grown up in New England, midway between New York (fast) and Boston (faster); and lived in the D.C. area (fast), San Diego (slow) and Cincinnati (just right!); I must say that my 3 years in Honolulu were the most relaxed pace I have ever experienced. My naturally fast walking pace earned me strange stares, not to mention running the risk (no pun intended) of knocking other pedestrians over. When I moved from Oahu back to northern Virginia, I could not believe how fast everything was: from the traffic (except in rush hour) to the newscasts to the general pace of life.

This series is certainly one of your most interesting in recent months, so thank you. Next time, though, try examining some of the "Aloha" lifestyles!

David Minifie
Cincinnati, OH

A New Career From Speed (June 28)
Speed means to me that the Internet's speed has changed my life for the better. I always wanted my own business but had no money or knowledge to start one. I have never made much more than barely $30,000 a year my whole life, and then came this Internet thing and the Web, and I found out that whatever I wish to learn about I could find on the Web.

I have a background in retail, and sell, pack, and ship orders for my employer all day long via mail and telephone sales, so I decided to try the online auctions such as eBay and Yahoo and discovered that everyday items we all see and can buy in our hometowns are not always available elswhere in the world. With only the use of my credit card I started to buy interesting items that were on sale and put them up for auction and BOOM! I made a profit and do it over and over again every day, so much so that I now have almost doubled my annual gross income, my old life of living from paycheck to paycheck is over, and I get checks in the mail now almost daily from all over the globe.

The speed of the Internet has allowed me to now have a little family business that I devote no more than 2 to 3 hours a day to. It is absolutly wonderful in the morning when I grab my cup of coffee and sit down to see that my email is full of people wishing to know where to send the money. I am very thankful for the World Wide Web and the speed in which I can learn and find what I seek. What's most interesting about all this is that 2 1/2 years ago I did not even know how to turn on a computer; I just got angry one day after so much talk about the Web and computers that I just went out and bought one, took it home, and figured it all out by myself—anyone can do it. Speed is a wonderful thing in my particular situation.

John Giannini
Davie, FL

Speed Is Nothing New (June 28)
Speed isn't a new phenomenon to Americans. I am reading Nothing Like It in the World by Stephen Ambrose. Competition and speed built the cross-country railroad in less time than anyone dreamed. In fact, those who dreamed it really didn't know how it was ever going to be built. Speed "drove" the project, and our world changed forever because of it.

One aside: In order to build this railroad, telegraph poles and lines were erected right alongside, and kept up with, the tracks that were laid each day. Each day a list of the needed items for the following day were ordered by telegraph and brought out to them on the rail line that had already been laid.

Sharon Royle
Vancouver, WA

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