A Man with a Plan: The Legend of Fred Tuttle

Vermont has many legends, from Ethan Allen’s capture of Fort Ticonderoga to “Champ,” a seamonster supposedly living in Lake Champlain. But the legend of Fred Tuttle is perhaps the hardest to believe; yet it’s entirely true.

The story begins about ten years ago with John O’Brian, a local director who makes quirky films about Vermont such as “Vermont is for Lovers.” O'Brian made the popular film “Man with a Plan” using neighbors from in his hometown of Tunbridge as actors. The story was about Fred Tuttle, an 80 year old Vermont farmer with a 10^th grade education who was having a hard time paying his property tax. Fred discovered that Senators make a lot of money, and so he decided to run for Senate against the incumbent--a college educated lawyer—to get a job that would pay him enough to cover his expenses.

The actor who played Fred Tuttle really was an 80 year old Vermont farmer with a 10^th grade education, and really was named Fred Tuttle. Using his real name made it easier for actors to remember their lines.

Fred knew little about politics, and had no money for his campaign, so he was forced to do a grassroots campaign. One memorable speech at a county fair began with “I am a man with a plan. I am not a perfect man, and this is not a perfect plan….” By the end of the speech his only audience is a dog watching him.

Fred figured that knowing politics meant memorizing information about the 50 states, so when he was asked for his position on taxes at a debate he replied “My position is Don’t Mess with Texas.”

Naturally, the incumbent didn’t take him seriously, thinking that nobody would vote for a man with a 10^th grade education. But he did corner the incumbent by asking about his government-paid vacation to the Caribbean. When the incumbent claimed that it was a research trip, Fred replied “You expect me to believe that B*** S***.” Not surprisingly, Fred wins the election at the end based on his down-home personality and ends up in Washington.

The movie made a good run in Vermont and covered its costs. Afterwards, the movie retired to video and the cast went back to their ordinary lives.

Jump forward now about six or seven years. A Massachusetts millionaire named Jack McMullen retired from business and in looking for something to fill his time decided that it would be fun to be a senator. He realized that he had no chance running against Kennedy in Massachusetts, and so asked himself where he could buy an election. Vermont immediately came to his mind, as it has only a half a million citizens--many of which are not highly educated--and so should be easy to gather votes with a professional campaign. McMullen rented an apartment in Vermont to establish residency, though he never moved in, and declared himself a candidate for the Republican nomination for Senate.

The Vermont Republicans embraced McMullen, despite a longstanding tradition in Vermont of treating anybody not born in the state as an outsider. This bothered a lot of core Republicans, including Fred Tuttle. In fact, Fred was so bothered that he decided to run again McMullen, and O’Brien agreed to run his campaign for him.

The first order of business was collecting the 500 signatures needed to get on the primary ballet, which were collected by friends on the street, and I remember signing the petition myself. Then, in one of the greatest campaign blunders in electoral history, McMullen’s campaign challenged the signatures; something that had never before been done in Vermont.

The Secretary of State checked the names and found that 29 could not be verified. Scratching his head about what to do, the Secretary of State gave Fred an extra week to gather 29 more signatures. A week later Fred showed up at the Statehouse with 2900 signatures, accompanied by camera crews from every news station in Vermont.

McMullen’s challenge not only demonstrated his lack of respect for Vermont’s traditions, but Fred did not have the money to get his name out to the public. McMullen’s challenge provided Fred with just the publicity that Fred could not afford himself.

McMullen then went on to make a second major blunder by claiming that Fred could not be taken seriously given his background. He forgot that a large percentage of the Vermont electorate lacks higher education and works on farms, and so he came off as an outsider insinuating that a real Vermonter is a backwoods hick.

At their debate Fred asked McMullen to properly pronounce the names of ten Vermont towns from a list, and of course McMullen had some trouble with them. He also asked him questions such as "How many teats a Holstein got? (it’s four).

Does all this sound familiar? Life imitates art in an uncanny way. With McMullen continuing to shoot himself in the foot, Fred won by a landslide, and McMullen back slinked home to his Massachusetts estate.

Now that Fred was the Republican nominee for Senate, he had to run against Patrick Leahy, a real Vermonter and long-standing senator who is popular with both Republicans and Democrats. Fred ran against Leahy, but couldn’t come up with a reason to vote against Leahy. Even Fred’s own sister said that she was voting for Leahey because Fred is not the brightest bulb in the chandelier. Fred himself would eventually admit that he was voting for Leahey.

They had the most polite debate in political history, where they ate Ben and Jerry’s ice cream and couldn’t find a topic to disagree on. Fred stated in the debate that Leahy was the finest senator that the state has ever had, and Leahy reminded people that Fred represented the heart of Vermont. Leahy won, but afterwards had Fred down to Washington for a tour of the Capital and a visit to his office.

Sadly, Fred died in 2003 after picking potatoes at his farm and was buried in overalls.

Only in Vermont.

Please add any comments or thoughts you have below.

Weekly Question:

For those new to this Director’s Corner, I finish each piece with a question about Vermont, Norwich University, or something totally unrelated to anything in particular. In the past, the first person to correctly answer the question gets recognized in the following Director’s Corner.

But to avoid handicapping those who are not first to see the Director’s Corner late, after this week we will pick a winner at random from all correct entries.

Last week’s question was:

What major religion was started by a native Vermonter, and who was that Vermonter?

Matt Bambrick was the first to answer that Joseph Smith, Jr. founded the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) and was born and raised in Sharon, Vermont. By the way, the second leader of the church, Brigham Young, was also born in Vermont before moving out west to found a university.

For his winning entry, Matt receives a signed copy of the book “Risk Management for Dummies,” published by Lehman Brothers Press.

Next week’s question is:

What major event happens at Joe’s Pond each spring?

One winner picked at random from all correct entries will receive a copy of my latest book “The Overlooked Importance of the Wet Bar for Emergency Operations Centers.”

Please send all submissions to me at jorlando@norwich.edu

Publishing without Perishing

One difference between an undergraduate and graduate education is that an undergraduate learns the current body of knowledge in the field, whereas a graduate student is expected to go beyond that understanding to question and critique common beliefs. Part of this questioning process comes through publications.

Publishing is also a good way to increase your marketability. A body of work demonstrates many of the characteristics that are in high demand among employers; such as communication skills, leadership, passion, and engagement with the profession. It also shows recognition of your work, and hence competency, by your peers in the field. Plus, publishing is personally satisfying as well. It feels good to know that you are advancing understanding in the field, and ultimately helping to steer the direction of your profession.

While your coursework is a good place to gather ideas and develop your writing skills, writing for publication is different from writing for classwork. Graduate schools often do a poor job of preparing students to publish, thinking that the skill will come by osmosis through informal relationships with faculty around drinks at the campus pub. At Norwich we are formalizing that process of preparing to publish, and I would like to start by providing some important tips to getting published.

Topic, topic, topic
Just as the three most important qualities that determine real estate value are location, location, and location, at least half of getting published is coming up with a publishable topic. Many potential authors forget that they are writing for someone else, not themselves. Your idea may be brilliant and interesting to you, but unless it interests others, you will not get published.

Creativity and originality are the keys to getting published. One business continuity magazine editor told me that he was getting sick of the same old “Oh my God, we’re so unprepared” article (as he put his hands on his head mimicking a panicked expression). Editors are desperate for something new, and a new idea will get noticed.

Finding an original idea often comes by looking at things from a unique perspective. My degree is in Philosophy, and I teach medical and business ethics at the undergraduate level. But I’ve published articles in all of the major business continuity journals because I bring a unique perspective to the issues. For instance, I delivered a very well-received presentation on business continuity ethics by applying medical ethics concepts to business continuity. So ask what unique perspective you can bring to the table on a business continuity issue.

It’s best to start with something from your own background. Are you the business continuity manager at college? Write about business continuity in higher education. The topic is unique because higher education is one of the few industries where a business continuity plan has to consider the health and safety of the customer as well as employee. Then ask how the lessons apply to other industries as well.

Research before Writing
Each journal has a unique audience, topic interest, and writing style. Matching these three is a key to getting the editor to accept your paper. Many writers try to save time by using the scattergun approach of sending the same article to all of the journals in their field. But this will drastically raise your rejection rate, and if every journal rejects the article—which is certainly possible—then they are not likely to accept a resubmission in the correct format. Plus, editors take offense to writers ignoring their journal’s style requirements, and will be predisposed against any future submissions from you. You’re must better off tailoring the article to each individual journal, and this means starting with research about the journal.

Start by looking at examples of articles in the journal to get a sense of what they like. Also research the writing requirements for the journal. Do they want something in an easy-going first-person voice, or an academic third person voice? What kind of length do they want? You may have to restructure the article to fit the format of different publications. It’s worth the effort. Also understand that if you do get published, your article will likely get chopped to fit space requirements, so don’t get too wedded to the final version.

It Takes a Village
Newspaper reporters work on daily deadlines and have to send their article in immediately after finishing it. But a university professor would not consider submitting an article to a journal without first having it looked over by an outside reviewer, and usually more than one. It’s a proven fact that we have a hard time seeing our own grammatical mistakes; I know that I do. We tend to read through errors. I’ve heard that the best way to proof your own material is to read it backwards because we use the context of a sentence to read through errors. This is probably good advice, but when it comes to publishing, get someone else’s review before sending it out. They will not only catch your errors, but also may give you some good ideas for elevating your work.

Your best bet is to use the NUMSBC Yahoo group (You did join, right?) to get comments on your work from fellow students and instructors. Put your work into the Files section and send out a message soliciting input from others. Contact me if you are unsure how to join.

Get Known
They say that getting to NFL Pro Bowl is hard, but getting back is easy, and the same can be said of publishing. Like everyone else, editors are overworked, and will cut down their workload by looking past names they do not recognize in favor of those with a proven track record. If you are not known by the editor, then you should find a way to make contact with him or her before sending in the work. Try to corner the editor at a professional conference to discuss your idea, as most journals in the field are aligned with conferences. If you can’t make personal contact, try to find someone on the journal’s editorial or advisory board who is willing to make contact on your behalf. Here again is where networking comes in handy. Your instructors might also be able to make the connection, as all are known in the field.

If all else fails, simply call or email the editor to ask if your topic would be of interest to the journal. Even if you’re pretty sure that the editor will like the topic, making the connection will cause the editor to expect your work, increasing the chances that it will be noticed. Plus, the editor might provide some suggestions on ways that you can cast your topic to make it even more interesting to the journal’s audience.

Weekly Question:
I would like to first recognize Matt Bambrick for correctly answering last week’s question:

What is Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom?”

Answer: It is the northeast corner of Vermont, roughly the area east of I-93. It is often considered the “real” Vermont of small towns, farms, and dirt roads. The movie “Where the Rivers Flow North,” with Michael J. Fox (who owns a home in Vermont), took place in “Kingdom County,” an inside reference to the Northeast Kingdom.

For his winning submission, Matt receives a copy of the 4 volume musical set “100 Songs about Business Continuity,” which includes the Bruce Springsteen hit “Born to do BIA.” Congratulations Matt.

This week’s question is:

What major religion was started by a native Vermonter, and who was that Vermonter?

The winner will receive a signed copy of the book “Risk Management for Dummies,” published by Lehman Brothers Press.