Many of the honchos said it taught them discipline and attention to detail, traits that helped in their careers.

I was happy to know that the occasional smack upside the head or whack with the yardstick (Mom delivered her own signature brand of punishment) served a purpose beyond simple punishment for bad behavior (see: Mr. Potato Gun).

It got us ready to climb the corporate ladder.

I was about to send Dad a "Thanks for the Red Mark" card (Hallmark thinks of everything) when I got a call from my new friend, Jan Hunt in Sunriver, Ore.

Hunt is with the Natural Child Project, which, as the name implies, opposes nearly all forms of punishment for children.

"There are so many illogical conclusions in the USA Today report, I don't know where to begin," Hunt said.

Then she began.

"Just because a CEO says he was paddled says absolutely nothing about his emotional development. Haven't we had enough business scandals to show that they don't always handle ethics and other things very well?" she asked. "A successful business executive may have been spanked, but so were most people on death row."

Good point. But not as good as the George Burns example.

"George Burns smoked cigars and lived to be 100," Hunt said. "Should we encourage cigar smoking as a way to prolong life?"

Hunt also points out that most CEOs are middle-aged white men who grew up in an era when physical punishment was accepted by society. Our parents spanked us because their parents spanked them. Our grandparents spanked our parents because they were also spanked — but only after they'd walked six miles uphill to school in cardboard shoes carrying six brothers.

Everything changed, of course, in the 1970s, when researchers at the University of Namby at Pamby determined that laying a hand on your kid was, in scientific terms, "not cool, man."

Subsequent decades saw a shift from corporal punishment toward more holistic approaches. These included "time-out," "five, four, three, two ... ," and "OK, OK, I'll buy you a pony if you stop crying."

The anti-spank movement gained momentum in 2002 with a Columbia University study that said many frequently spanked children grow up to be anti-social adults.

Now there's even a "National Spankout Day" (April 30; Hallmark is working on it). It should not be confused, however, with "National Let Kaitlyn Throw a Tantrum in the Checkout Line at Target Day," which was last Saturday.

Yes, there are lots of legal, emotional, medical, religious and scientific components to the debate.

We'll ignore them and concentrate on the USA Today article.

Bottom line: If a whack is good enough for the captains of industry, it's good enough for me.

So thanks, Dad.

If someone had invented Nerf potatoes in the 1970s, I might have missed out on the big-time spanking that paved the way to my workplace success. Just think: Without that well-timed swat, I wouldn't be sitting here today.

In my peasant shirt and Earth shoes.