Differences Between Life and the Movies - A Series

In life, you don't always know when you dodged a bullet.

Yo

View From the Ledge provides some inspiration from Rocky and the Stallone story behind it.

Art Break: Bakst

Art Contrarian looks at the work of Leon Bakst.

We've Always Done It That Way

We've always done it that way and if times are hard perhaps we haven't done enough or we don't have people who know how we've done it in the past or money, more money always helps, and so we need to renew our efforts and pour in more resources until we turn this thing around and do that as vigorously as possible but we aren't fools so we have a plan in place in case that doesn't work:

Repeat the first paragraph.

First Paragraph

Thirty-four long, sweet summer days separated the morning of June 28, when the heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire was shot to death, from the evening of August 1, when Russia's foreign minister and Germany's ambassador to Russia fell weeping into each other's arms and what is rightly called the Great War began.

- From A World Undone: The Story of the Great War 1914 to 1918 by G. J. Meyer

Language to Remember and Use

"His bugaboo was insincerity and he would rather be thought unfriendly than insincere."

Quote of the Day

Knowledge may give weight, but accomplishments give luster, and many more people see than weigh.

- Lord Chesterfield

Cherry Oatmeal Cookies

Kurt Harden has once again done a great public service by posting this recipe. I passed it along to one of my sisters who baked them and awarded them gold stars. [The idea, of course, was she was supposed to send some to me but that must have slipped her mind.] 

Now I'll have to make them myself. They are worth the effort.

Find Something Beautiful Today

December 7, 1941

From a National Parks Service lesson plan on the attack on Pearl Harbor:

A chart on brothers serving on the U.S.S. Arizona.

How to Be a Loser

Part of a continuing series:

1. Make a habit of blaming others for your misfortunes or your lack of success.
2. Have an inflated view of your abilities.
3. Always take the easy road.
4. Believe that the single greatest characteristic of winners is luck.
5. Put achievement after reward.
6. Expect a level playing field.
7. Focus only on technical performance and neglect your "people skills."
8. Don't keep your promises.
9. Don't hone your skills.
10. Don't delay gratification.
11. Treat people as objects.
12. Hang around with people who encourage your bad habits.
13. Stay in the bleachers.
14. Only strive for "good enough."
15. Have lots of goals and pursue them all.
16. Sleep in.
17. Expect others to read your mind.
18. Have a negative attitude.
19. Win every argument.
20. Mistake talk for action.
21. Scoff at values and standards.

Quote of the Day

They shall not pass. 

- Slogan of the French army at Verdun

The Real Work

My boss rocked forward in his chair. Now he pointed that index finger at me, "You are my real work." He paused and looked me in the eye.

Read the rest of Wally Bock's post here. You'll be glad you did.

You May Already Be a Winner

At Anderson Layman's Blog, a lottery winner in Ohio tells his story.

Film Break

The trailers for:

• "Inside Llewyn Davis" [The latest from the Coen Brothers]
• "Angel Face" [Film noir]
• "The Testament of Doctor Mabuse"  [Wow]

Reading and Thinking

We read and think as a natural part of our jobs but we may do justice to neither if specific time is not set aside for those activities. Multitasking only goes so far and it is important to devote some uninterrupted time to absorbing and pondering information.

My guess is we sense this is the case. Like other uncompleted projects, these gnaw at our subconscious, creating an anxiety produced by the knowledge that something isn't quite right.

If fortunate, we sense a missing perspective. If really fortunate, we find it.

We Have a Program!

If we write a bunch of rules, hand out impressive titles, snare some generous funding, require special certifications, impose plenty of due dates, test and re-test, measure and re-measure, create new rewards and punishments, have a snazzy web site, and put up a bunch of motivational posters, we'll have a program.

Whether we'll produce positive results, of course, is another question but why ask?.

Language to Remember and Use

"He sincerely believed that a leviathan state would respect personal liberty."

Quote of the Day

I see my purpose in life as making the world a happier place to be in.

- David Niven

CoolTools: The Book

Yes, there is a CoolTools book.

Big Phone, Little Money

FutureLawyer may have finally persuaded me to upgrade from my flip phone. 

This big sucker looks like I could use it to drive nails or club hoodlums. The cheap part is also appealing. 

Art Break: Anquetin

Art Contrarian looks at the work of Louis Anquetin.

Nelson Mandela, R.I.P.

The passing of a giant.

"If I had my time over I would do the same again. So would any man who dares call himself a man." 

- Nelson Mandela

Tom Wolfe

Dated, but still interesting: Time magazine's interview with Tom Wolfe. 

I wonder if young people still read Wolfe. If not, they are missing a very perceptive mind. 

The Hotel Has a Grilling Area

Spiegel reports on a cannibalism case in Germany:

The vast majority of forum-users, criminologist Petra Klages told Die Welt, are only interested in safely playing out a fantasy. Somewhat ominously, however, users for the forum are able to check a box marked "I'm interested in more than just role play."

And He Should Wear a Cape

Ann Althouse feels there is one person who can save Obamacare.

25 Blogs

Kurt Harden, who writes the marvelous Cultural Offering blog, has updated his list of 25 Blogs Guaranteed  to Make You Smarter. I am honored to be in that group.

Management Challenges

• To know what's really going on. 
• To plan without stifling. 
• To achieve and then change. 
• To foster trust. 
• To learn from fools. 
• To shun empty results.
• To be close enough to care and far enough to see. 
• To simplify your message. 
• To listen to the whispers. 
• To adopt the proper pace and timing. 
• To hear the unsaid.
• To resist smugness. 
• To know what is unknown.
• To spot a dodge.
• To distinguish between friends, enemies and those in-between.
• To listen to dissent.
• To fight fatigue.
• To know what's said in the boardroom and the lunchroom.
• To build the right team.
• To calm the nervous.
• To sense when to push and when to back off.
• To know when to be the hedgehog and when to be the fox.

Language to Remember and Use

"If it was a cabal, it was the first one with a public relations office and a magazine."

Quote of the Day

An officer or noncommissioned officer who loses his temper and flies into a tantrum has failed to obtain his first triumph in discipline.

- Noncommissioned Officer's Manual, 1917

Catching the Wave

I taught Equal Employment Opportunity to a great group today. Their questions and observations were of the highest quality and made the session a presenter's dream.

May each training day have a group like that.

First Paragraph

The child with thirty-six years to live is being hunted.

- From Killing Jesus by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard

Entertainment Break

The trailers for:

• "Killing Season"
• "Borgia"
• "Twister"

Mentors

Pershing taught Marshall who taught Eisenhower and a host of others. It is natural for this to illustrate the importance of a leader who teaches but it should also show the value of a leader who learns.

Language to Remember and Use

"The sales representative provided a combination of insight and balderdash but they weren't sure which was which."

Quote of the Day

As a boy I never kept watch for the first robin. My eye was out for the first newspaper articles from the small Florida towns where the major league baseball teams went for spring training. Bradenton! Lakeland! Clearwater! Vero Beach! "Come on down" those places called to me, and I vowed that some day I would.

- William Zinsser

Bock: By and About Leaders

As he does every week, Wally Bock leads us to interesting articles about leaders.

More Reading to Consider

The Washington Post gives its list of top books in 2013.

Art Break: Zorn

Art Contrarian looks at the work of Anders Zorn.

Running to the Parking Lot

I once worked in a building which had an informal schedule that everyone knew. There was a time of day beyond which you would not work unless it was an emergency because that was when the odds of getting safely to your car began to drop. You could look out your office window and see "the second shift" taking over the streets.

I recently remembered those days while talking to an executive who had just left his office after 8 p.m. and had walked to his car which was parked in a lot near, but not adjacent to, his office. That practice is not unusual in his area.

A small sign of how crime rates and office location affect productivity.

You, Only Better

Yes, brothers and sisters, you can now get it in the United States.

Hire a Burglar

So here's the deal. You contract with a firm to burgle your office. The specific rooms can be specified and items with a red dot - one of those little stick-em things you can find at any office supply place, won't be taken. [You might want to hang on to your laptop.]

All else will be grabbed overnight. Nothing will be left but the red tag items and you only get a limited number of those.

As time goes by, you receive notes from the "burglars." One might say, "We have the Grimshaw file. Send us $40 bucks or it's a goner." Another may threaten to deep-six that ashtray you brought back from Mexico unless you send them 20 dollars.

You get the point. You can buy back anything you feel you really need or want. All will be entirely legitimate. There will be no insurance claims. After a certain period of time, the firm will shred any document which might be confidential. The rest can be kept, sold or tossed out.

Now here's the question: If such a firm existed, would you be tempted to use its services?

Language to Remember and Use

"His first car was so old it had a rumble seat."

Quote of the Day

Know your lines and don't bump into the furniture.

- Spencer Tracy