The Palm Beach Post from West Palm Beach, Florida • Page 46

4D THE PALM BEACH POST TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1999 THE FIRST, Holiday stamp fulfills artist's lifelong dream THE LAST YOU WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT BARRY WHITE By Douglas Kalajian falm Beach Post Staff Writer Note, to all who receive Season's Greetings from Bob and Margaret Nikosey of Boynton Beach: Do not throw away the "envelope. The Nikoseys' son, Tom, a graphic designer, has fulfilled a long-time ambition to create a postage stamp. It was a guaranteed big seller long before the first lick. It's the U.S. Postal Service's 1999 contemporary holiday design, a leaping reindeer in antique-gold silhouette.

The stamp has just arrived at postal centers among the last new issues of the century. Nikosey, 48, said he chose reindeer as a universal, pan-religious symbol of the season. And because he likes them. "We're jaded when it comes to traditional holiday imagery," he said. "I wanted something that would appeal to everyone, and that showed style, form and finesse." The postal service chose Nikosey because its art directors were familiar with his wide range of commercial work.

He has designed album covers for rock groups (including the Bee Gees), the logo for the Seattle Super-Sonics basketball team, and four Super Bowl logos for the National Football League. Nikosey, who was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., and moved to the Los Angeles area after college, said he was inspired as a youth by his stamp-collecting grandfather. "He used to tell me I should design a stamp, but I told him that you have to wait to be asked," Nikosey said. "It finally happened. It's already happening again.

He's working on second stamp assignment, for an occasion no one will celebrate. "It's called the first-class rate stamp," he said. "It's the stamp they'll use when the rates go up." dougkalajianpbpost.com Elvis' lyrics inspired White to move from crime to music Are you intimate with BARRY'S LYRICS? Barry White, The Maestro of Love, has a distinctive flair for intimate, passionate lyrics. So do a lot of other artists. See if you can find The Professor of Pillow Talk's words among those of other, well, less soulful performers: 1.

Aahh Ooh baby Ooh baby (eep on My baby Ceep on doing it tight on oh oh oh We get it together Sabykeepon Oh We get it together baby tight on teep on doing it And 111 give you baby All that I get "Jow my baby keep on I swear we get it together baby teep on keep on 2. Babe, babe, babe Whoah, Come on home. I want you to come back home yeah. Ohhh yeah. Sweet little girl ahh, You been gone too long.

You been away so long 3. Oh baby, if you wanna Be my lover You better take me home 'Cause it's a long long way to paradise And I'm still on my own Ooooooooh, shucks 4. Know there's only, only one like you Theres no way they could have made two You're you're all I'm tiving for Your love I'll keep for evermore 5. It's the way she makes me feel It's the only filing that's real It's the way she understands She's my lover, she's my friend And when I look into her eyes It's the way I feel inside Like the man I want to be She's all I ever need ANSWERS: 1. Never, Never Gonna Give Ya Up, Barry White 2.

Baby Come On Home, Led Zeppelin 3. Be My Lover, Alice Cooper 4. You're the First, the Last, My Everything, Barry White 5. She's All I Ever Had, Ricky Martin 3 Sure-fire way to get the ax: Hit a co-worker Lots of companies have security cameras, so it's no use sneaking down the back stairs with the copy machine. Or a box ofstaples.

WHITE From ID Disco Forum award for being "The Man Who Started It All." His personal start was less promising. He was born Barry Eugene Carter in Galveston, Texas, in 1944. His father, machinist Melvin White, already had a wife and children across town. He never married White's mother, music teacher Sadie Marie Carter, but was af ound occasionally. When White started school, his father caught a glimpse of the boy's birth certificate, crossed out the name "Carter" and wrote in "White." His mother moved Barry and his younger brother, Darryl, to the Watts area of Los Angeles soon after.

Throughout the '50s and '60s, both boys were in and out of gangs, but were mostly considered a gang of two. Darryl went to juvenile detention for the first time when he was 8. Barry went at age 16 after stealing thousands of dollars worth of Cadillac tires from a lot It was a song It's Now or Never by Elvis Presley that persuaded him to turn his life around. Laying in his bed, listening to a radio in another inmate's cell, he had a revelation. "I had heard the song before, I don't know, 25, 30 times, but it never hit me like it did that night" White writes.

"It became my personal message, meant only for me. 'Stop wasting your time, it said. When you get out you better change your ways. It's Now or Going to jail "was the greatest thing that could have happened to me because it showed me what it would be like without my freedom," he said during a recent phone interview. "I hated people telling me what to do, when to get up, when to use the toilet And I hated what it did to my mother." His brother wasn't as repentant.

He was killed at age 37, shot dead after an argument with another man over spare change. "We all make a choice, and that's what Daryl chose," White said. Once out of jail, White struggled for a decade to break into the music business. He'd made a name for himself as a producer and arranger around Los Angeles, but he didn't become nationally known until 1972, when he produced the hitWalkin'in the Rain With the One I Love for the trio Love Unlimited (including future second wife Glodean James). His didn't set out to be a singer or solo performer.

White was in the vocal group The Upfronts in 1960, but didn't think much of his own voice. After producing Love Unlimited, he wrote some songs and needed to "find a male singer to perform them. "It wasn't until I had my producing ears on that I finally "heard' the voice of Barry White," he writes. "For the first time, I be came fully aware of the uniqueness, the powerful romantic pull the lure of my own voice. That's when I realized I was the artist I should be recording." White recorded his first solo album, I've Got So Much to Give, in 1973.

He also created the Love Unlimited Orchestra, a 34- Eiece orchestra that recorded instrumental its and provided backup arrangements for his and the trio's performances. And he continued to produce hit records sung by Love Unlimited. lOVMiM I Ml I I f. hr iwtokrttm'imMmtt'irii-WfirtjR FIRED From ID Bob Francis, president-elect of the Human Resources Association of Palm Beach County, which has members from 200 local companies. "Most companies try to correct behavior first." But "most companies" doesn't necessarily mean "your company," and even if yours is a model of progressive and benevolent management, bebeve this: You can get fired, and it can happen in less time than it takes to say, "YouU hear from my lawyer." Francis, vice president for human resources of the AGES Group, a Boca Raton company that sells aircraft engines and other parts, offers these five ways to get fired in a flash: 1) Deck someone.

Even a half-hearted slap will get you a one-way escort to the parking lot "Engaging in a fight with a "co-worker is cause for immediate termination," Francis said. "Physically punching, accosting, assaulting." Simply getting loud and insulting (or obscene) probably won't get you fired on the spot, Francis said. Probably? "If the obscenities are racial, sexual, or violate the rights of any other protected class, the company may be obligated to terminate you," Francis said. About the only employees who aren't automatically in a protected class these days are white men under 40. So if you have to insult someone, look around for a 25-year-old white guy.

But even that's not risk-free. "Many companies have broadened harassment policies," Francis said. "Instead of just banning sexual harassment, you cant harass anyone to the detriment of their work. If your company has that kind of policy in place and you're harassing a 25-year-old white guy, you could still be in violation." So keep your hands to yourself and just be quiet 2) Get loaded. just showing up blotto could do.it but probably wouldn't "Most companies have a substance-abuse testing policy," Francis said.

"You train supervisor? hot to accuse people of being drunk or drugged, but you identify behavior that indicates someone is impaired and you get the employee to an independent lab to be tested." Photo from Love Unlimited Barry White performs at London's Royal Albert Hall in 1974. That year he had four albums 'mine, two of the orchestra's and one by Love Unlimited' on the charts at the same time. "In 1974, 1 had four albums mine, two of the orchestra's and one by Love Unlimited on the charts at the same time, along with a half dozen singles," White writes. But when disco died, the hits ebbed. White never really went away, he just coasted through the '80s and early '90s, downshifting into slow jams while everyone else in hopped on the rap train.

Today, White's star is rising again with the release this month of Staying Power his 22nd album and first in five years which just hit the Top 20 of the album charts. The CD includes duets with Chaka Khan, Lisa Stansfield (who covered White's Never, Never Gonna Give You Up a few years back), and Gerald Albright Sean "Puffy" Combs remixed White's slow-funk version of Sly Stone's Thank You (Falet-tinme Be Mice Elf Agin). White, one of the artists most frequently sampled by today's hip-hop stars, says Combs is one of the best at the "art form" of combining classic tunes with new beats and lyrics. Then there are the side projects. He lent his voice to a lookalike character on an episode of The Simpsons a few years ago.

The role helped him sell out a series of concerts in Australia, where the show is a huge hit The Voice's other gigs include the reading of Top 10 lists on The Late Show with David Letterman, and, even more bizarre, a salad dressing commercial in which a stuffed bunny with White's voice encourages viewers to "love your salad." More recently, he began appearing on the Fox hit TV show Ally McBeal. Having already used White's music, producer David E. Kelley decided to include the singer in an episode. "I've been so blessed," he said. To be still appreciated after almost four decades in the business is so amazing to me." jeffjiouckpbpost.eom you see them put it in their car, it's not difficult to establish theft," Francis said.

Lots of companies have security cameras, so it's no use sneaking down the back stairs with the copy machine. Or a box ofstaples. 4) Lie about work. Falsifying company documents probably sounds like the sort of thing you don't have to worry about. You can understand why a sales-division chief might get the heave-ho for reporting the company sold 42,869 cases of Sugar Toasted Squid Flakes when the actual total was 38.

But you're not responsible for anything of the sort are you? "If you're required to fill out a time sheet, that's a company document" Francis said. What happens if you put a "40" in the hours-worked column even though you took that long lunch to shop for a last-minute Arbor Day present? See item 3 above. That's theft," Francis said. "You're trying to steal money from the company." Think about mat next time you add up your overtime hours. Or your expense account 5) Just sit there.

Believe it or not, there are companies that don't want to pay people who don't do their work. Do lousy work and youll probably get a chance to do better. But if you simply refuse to do the work the boss assigns, that's insubordination and you're out "There are few valid reasons for refusing to follow a direct order," Francis said. "You have to do it unless they're asking you to break the law or to do something that would jeopardize yourself or someone else." What if it's something stupid? "You can file a grievance or complain later," Francis said. What if it's worse than stupid? come in here and rub my "Very few employers would terminate somebody whose supervisor gave them an outlandish order," Francis said.

You probably already have a good idea whether your company is one of those few. "Most employers are reasonable, but some take the position that you should just do what you're told," Francis said. "They fire people and no one challenges it because nobody really wants to work in a place like that." What if you do want to work in a place like that? What if all you ask is a chance to remain employed even if it means staying sober, honest, nonviolent and even downright obsequious until that first Social Security check arrives? "Just make sure your don't do anything you wouldn't be happy to have your family read about in the newspaper," Francis said. "If not, maybe you shouldn't do it" dougkalajianpbpost.com Barry's best TIPS ON LOVE Even as a teenager, Barry White knew about love. In his new autobiography, Love Unlimited, he writes that he get his start in the love business by helping couples in his neighborhood patch up their relationships.

At age 14. Seems he helped talk a little sense into an older friend who had love troubles and the beau brought his girlfriend to see the future Maestro of Love. "By the end of the year, I was see- ing 22 couples," he writes. "I'd give them common-sense advice." White gives a patch of pointers to lovers in an essay, "Practice What You Ladies, be cautious in your selection of men. Don't get into a relationship first and then complain that there is nothing you can do that's going to change your man.

Know who he is going in and make sure you like what you know. Men, be yourself. Don't go promising what you can't deliver. Don't say in the heat of the moment you'll buy them a washer-dryer, a big house, a new car, furs, jewelry, all of that which you think will make you a better man in their eyes. Don't try to put a price tag on your love.

You will have done nothing more than helped achieve the opposite. YouU have taken your eye off the love ball. Ladies, there will be times when your man has to be alone. Don't take this as a rejection. Let him wander through the solitude of his own mind.

Let the mind expand and the emotions will likely come along for this ride. When he is ready for you, youll know. Men, don't try to fool yourself. If you aren't true to yourself, you will wind up exposing yourself in so many ways be- fore the very eyes of the one you want most to impress. Ladies, you have the advantage, be- cause you know how to listen better than men.

We're too busy listening to our own egos. Get through that, and you will find the inner soul of your mate. Remember, men, she wants to lis- ten. She wants to get next to you, know you, get into your soul. It's called being in love.

Never, never treat or talk to a lady like she isn't someone special. There really is no other way. Remember please there is nothing in this world worth having if you don't have a man or a woman to Sexy? It's what a man says, does ple. Do you? You wrote that it wasn't until you put on your producer's ears that you recognized how unique your singing voice was. I realized it in 1973 the year of my first album.

It just had an effect on people that was immediate and real. When did your voice change? I was 14. It changed virtually over night I woke up one morning, saw my mom standing up at the top of the stairs and said, mom." It scared the hell out of the both of us. It was totally unexpected. My chest rattled; I mean vibrations.

My mother was staring at me, and I was staring at her. The next thing I knew her straight face broke into a beautiful smile. Tears came down her face and she said, 'My baby's a man Who gets to play Barry White in the movie version of the book? Will Smith is already doing Muhammad AIL I don't know yet We're supposed to decide by the end of the week. Who could pull it off? If you say Harrison Ford, we're not going to believe you. I don't know.

That's part of the problem. It's not going to be Harrison Ford, though. I know that From ID Singer Sheryi Crow said in Playboy that when it's time to get intimate, she puts on Barry White music. What does Barry White put on the stereo when he's ready to make love? I don't need music, that's the last thing I need when I'm trying to make love. It's too distracting.

Why do women respond so forcefully to you and your music? k. I have no idea. I really don't To each his own, I guess. Every fashion magazine is making a big deal about how larger men and women are now considered sexy. You were ahead of your time in that you never let that get in your way.

Why didn't it? I'm not an entertainer or star with a big ego. I'm not a singer. I'm Barry White and I'm overweight. My weight goes up and down and that's just the way it is. I've always believed it's what a man says and does that makes him sexy.

James Earl Jortes once said he never thinks about his voice or how it affects peo Unless the results are clear-cut you may get a second chance, along with the strong suggestion that you take advantage of the company's employee assistance program. The same would be true If the results showed you were numbed to the gills but you could produce a prescription. It's essential, however, you resist the urge to bring pals like Jack Daniels or Jim Beam to the office. "Actually consuming alcohol or any illegal substance while on the jpb is enough to get you terminated on the spot" Francis said. 3) Steal something.

Usually, it takes a while to make a theft case against an But not always. And when it's clear-cut, thievery can be an immediate firing offense. "If somebody picks up a computer and goes out the door and share it with. -JeffHouck.