Sunday, April 30, 2017
Saturday, April 29, 2017
Nicely Done
View From the Ledge has returned in style and features an artist who uses dirty cars and trucks as his canvas.
Check it out.
Check it out.
First Paragraph
Under a low sun, pursued by fish and mounted by crows and veiled in a loud languid swarm of bluebottle flies, the body comes down the river like a deadfall stripped clean.
- From Finn: A Novel by John Clinch
- From Finn: A Novel by John Clinch
Quote of the Day
Zen does not confuse spirituality with thinking about God while one is peeling potatoes. Zen spirituality is just to peel the potatoes.
- Alan Watts
- Alan Watts
Friday, April 28, 2017
Three to Make You Feel Better
- Andrew Munro's Burning Pine
- David Kanigan's Live & Learn
- Rob Firchau's The Hammock Papers
stuff
When I'm not sure what to post I often put "stuff" in the headline and then fill in the content later.
This post is a pitiful example of the process.
The KKK Test
Another event canceled. The craven response to threats from Left-wing protesters has become a national trend.
I propose a simple question that should clarify matters for university administrators and city officials: If the Ku Klux Klan announced that it would shut down an event or a speaker, how would you respond?
My guess is that you would not cave in to them. Maintain that stance. Don't capitulate to those who would silence others.
[The argument that you cannot guarantee safety is absurd. You can never "guarantee" safety, but you can take reasonable action to prevent harm and disruption.]
I propose a simple question that should clarify matters for university administrators and city officials: If the Ku Klux Klan announced that it would shut down an event or a speaker, how would you respond?
My guess is that you would not cave in to them. Maintain that stance. Don't capitulate to those who would silence others.
[The argument that you cannot guarantee safety is absurd. You can never "guarantee" safety, but you can take reasonable action to prevent harm and disruption.]
Quote of the Day
We collect data, things, people, ideas, "profound experiences," never penetrating any of them. . . .But there are other times. There are times when we stop. We sit still. We lose ourselves in a pile o leaves or its memory. We listen and breezes from a whole other world begin to whisper.
- James Carroll
- James Carroll
Thursday, April 27, 2017
First Paragraph
His pencil wavered above the sales ledger, dipping toward the page as his statements increased in vigor, the pencil tip skimming the pad, then pulling up like a stunt plane, only to plunge at moments of emphasis, producing a constellation of increasingly blunt dots around the lone entry for that morning, the sale of one used copy of Land Snails of Britain by A. G. Brunt-Coppell (price £3.50).
- From The Rise & Fall of Great Powers: A Novel by Tom Rachman
- From The Rise & Fall of Great Powers: A Novel by Tom Rachman
Fear of Success
Whenever you see a person who over-promises and under-delivers, makes tardiness a habit and is routinely discourteous and arrogant, then it is reasonable to wonder if the individual wants to fail.
Fear of success might be more common than fear of failure.
These individuals may be ambitious but watch what they do when they get close to achieving their goal.
Many begin to back away from the finish line.
Wednesday, April 26, 2017
Standards and Free Speech
Jonah Goldberg on what the free speech debate misses. An excerpt:
. . . The free speech argument is downstream of the real dilemma: The people running what should be citadels of civilizational confidence have turned against our civilization. Maybe some atheist speaker has been banned because he would hurt the feelings of religious students, but I’ve not heard about it. In other words, these administrators aren’t principally concerned with the sensitivities of “students” or even “students of color” or female students, but of particular students who adhere to a specific ideology. The administrators use them as props and excuses to justify their ideological, quasi-religious, agenda.
. . . The free speech argument is downstream of the real dilemma: The people running what should be citadels of civilizational confidence have turned against our civilization. Maybe some atheist speaker has been banned because he would hurt the feelings of religious students, but I’ve not heard about it. In other words, these administrators aren’t principally concerned with the sensitivities of “students” or even “students of color” or female students, but of particular students who adhere to a specific ideology. The administrators use them as props and excuses to justify their ideological, quasi-religious, agenda.
Rain Producers and Rain Workers
Coaching executives, managers and supervisors often involves an exploration of how to get the job done in spite of external pressures or obstacles. It's the classic "working in the rain" situation.
But there are times when you have to address the "weather." That's much harder, of course, but far easier to accomplish than in the natural world. The answer is frequently found by repairing the broken connection between the rain producers and those who have to struggle through the storm.
Leaders need to keep an important aspect of management in mind: that all bold ideas have ripples throughout the organization. There are trade-offs as people choose between competing priorities and then there are times when the demand on available resources reaches a limit. When the latter occurs, eloquent efforts at motivation will do little that is positive.
Quote of the Day
The executive branch of the United States is the largest corporation in the world. It has the most awesome responsibilities of any corporation in the world, the largest budget of any corporation in the world, and the largest number of employees. Yet the entire senior management structure and team have to be formed in a period of seventy-five days.
- H. R. Haldeman
- H. R. Haldeman
Tuesday, April 25, 2017
"Sheriff with a Deadly Addiction"
In 1899, Frank sent out an invitation to a hanging, required by law of Arizona Territory sheriffs, which President William McKinley failed to see the humor in. It stated: “Latest improved methods in the art of scientific strangulation will be employed and everything possible will be done to make the proceedings cheerful and the execution a success.”
Read the rest of the True West magazine article. Great photographs. Tragic story.
Read the rest of the True West magazine article. Great photographs. Tragic story.
"Life with a Star"
If I could add a book to the "required reading" list in high schools, it would be Life with a Star by the Czech author Jiri Weil.
Its main character is a Jew in Prague who is attempting to survive as repression by the Nazis steadily increases. The book's power comes from its understatement. The Germans are always referred to as "they" and the protagonist's daily challenges, which often involve finding enough to eat or figuring out how to get from one place to another without attracting undue attention, are powerful and memorable.
An excerpt:
"Hello, sheriff!" a boy called to me. And everyone laughed, but I knew they weren't laughing at me. I laughed too. It was a funny thing to be going about with this emblem. It was a masquerade that was alien to a world where people worked. It belonged to a fair, to a Punch and Judy show, to somersaults, powdered faces, and kicks in the behind.
Weil managed to elude the death camps by faking his death and hiding in Prague. His other Holocaust-related novel, Mendelssohn Is on the Roof, is also excellent but Life with a Star has a quiet message that never leaves you.
First Paragraph
The First Missouri Mounted Volunteers played an honorable part in the year of decision, and looking back, a private of Company C determined to write his regiment's history. He was John T. Hughes, an A.B. and a schoolmaster. Familiarity with the classics had taught him that great events are heralded by portents. So when he sat down to write his history he recalled a story which, he cautions us,was "doubtless more beautiful than true." Early in that spring of 1846, the story ran, a prairie thunderstorm overtook a party of traders who were returning to Independence, Missouri, from Santa Fe. When it passed over, the red sun had sunk to the prairie's edge, and the traders cried out with one voice. For the image of an eagle was spread across the sun. They knew then that "in less than twelve months the eagle of liberty would spread his broad pinions over the plains of the west, and that the flag of our country would wave over the cities of New Mexico and Chihuahua."
- From The Year of Decision: 1846 by Bernard De Voto
- From The Year of Decision: 1846 by Bernard De Voto
Quote of the Day
We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.
- Teilhard de Chardin
- Teilhard de Chardin
Monday, April 24, 2017
First Paragraph
Bach the musician is an unfathomable genius; Bach the man is all too obviously flawed, disappointingly ordinary and in many ways still invisible to us. In fact we seem to know less about his private life than about that of any other major composer of the last 400 years. Unlike, say, Monteverdi, Bach left behind no intimate family correspondence, and very little beyond the anecdotal has come down to us that can help in painting a more human portrait or to allow a glimpse of him - as son, lover, husband or father. Perhaps there was a fundamental reluctance in him to pull back the curtain and reveal himself; unlike most of his contemporaries, he turned down the opportunity to submit a written account of his life and career when the opportunity arose. The limited, heavily edited version that we have inherited is one he himself spun and handed down to his children. It is not surprising some have concluded that Bach the man is something of a bore.
- From Bach: Music in the Castle of Heaven by John Eliot Gardiner
- From Bach: Music in the Castle of Heaven by John Eliot Gardiner
Presidential Desks? Not Quite.
This article from Town & Country on an expert's view of the neat versus messy desk habits of U.S. presidents not only comes across as biased, but also as ignorant.
For example, anyone who spent ten minutes studying Nixon's management style knows that the photo used was clearly unusual. Study Carter's management style and you'll conclude that it was far from focused.
I also like the wholly subjective call that some examples are staged while others are not. [The most staged item of all was probably the Nixon photo.]
Articles such as these illustrate a common problem with modern journalism: blending bias with ignorance in order to produce a quick hit piece.
That may work provided the readers know nothing about the subject.
Questions: Not Just for Monday
Are you:
- Initiating or reacting?
- Advancing or restoring?
- Taking action or pretending to act?
First Paragraph
Every year officials from the Cochise County, Arizona towns nearest the border get together with their Sonora, Mexico, counterparts for sport and pleasure. They call the event "A Celebration Nation to Nation." In the spirit of international amistad, politicians on both sides proclaim their mutual and eternal goodwill. On other days they might take issue over the problems of migration, drugs, pollution, and smuggling, but on this day the abrazo, the embrace, is in order. As part of this annual observance, officials play volleyball against each other in a game advertised as "a symbol of solidarity and a hand of friendship extended."
- From On the Border: Portraits of American's Southwestern Frontier by Tom Miller
- From On the Border: Portraits of American's Southwestern Frontier by Tom Miller
Quote of the Day
I don't wait for moods. You accomplish nothing if you do that. Your mind must know it has got to get down to work.
- Pearl S. Buck
- Pearl S. Buck
Sunday, April 23, 2017
Essential Bach Mixes
At Cultural Offering, of course.
Theory: If you listen to Bach on Sunday, you'll have a better week.
To Le Pen or Not to Le Pen
For those of us who enjoy the intricacies of French politics, there is streaming news regarding today's election at France 24.
First Paragraph
There have been two moments in my life when everything changed. Moments when things could have gone either way. Moments when I had to make a choice.
- From Just One Damned Thing After Another (The Chronicles of St Mary's Book One) by Jodi Taylor
- From Just One Damned Thing After Another (The Chronicles of St Mary's Book One) by Jodi Taylor
Saturday, April 22, 2017
"No Good Deed Goes Unpunished" File
Althouse makes a valid point about criticism of the new uniforms for employees of McDonald's.
"Soul-crushing?"
Please.
"Soul-crushing?"
Please.
The French Vote
The Telegraph has a detailed article on tomorrow's elections in France.
The French political scene is always fascinating. Expect the unexpected.
First Paragraph
The world we work in today is not the world of Michelangelo, of Marie Curie, of Ernest Hemingway, or even of Paul Rand. It is a new world, empowered and entranced by the rapid-fire introduction of new technologies - a world where our metaphysical front door is always open, where anyone can whisper in our ear, where a "room of one's own" no longer means you're all alone.
- From Manage Your Day-To-Day: Build the Routine, Find Your Focus, and Sharpen Your Creative Mind. Edited by Jocelyn K. Glei
- From Manage Your Day-To-Day: Build the Routine, Find Your Focus, and Sharpen Your Creative Mind. Edited by Jocelyn K. Glei
Friday, April 21, 2017
Campus Alert
The Onion: "Berkeley Campus On Lockdown After Loose Pages From 'Wall Street Journal' Found On Park Bench."
Miscellaneous and Fast
Matthew Lang steps back from Twitter.
Eclecticity Light shows the armadillo's defense.
Andrew Munro notes a great line about the Internet.
The trailer for "Versailles."
Ross Runkel expects 10 changes in NLRB rules.
The Simpsons: Mr. Burns visits Yale.
The Queen's Birthday
Queen Elizabeth II was born on this day in 1926.
Extraordinary person. An extraordinary life.
Imagine being in the room for her meetings with the British prime ministers who have served during her reign:
- Winston Churchill
- Anthony Eden
- Harold Macmillan
- Alec Douglas-Home
- Harold Wilson
- Edward Heath
- James Callaghan
- Margaret Thatcher
- John Major
- Tony Blair
- Gordon Brown
- David Cameron
- Theresa May
Kneed
My knee hurts.
Not the one that got messed up many years ago when I was with the Army of the Potomac but the other one.
The good one.
I have a ton of things to do and nursing a bum knee is not on my list. Spent some time last night looking for a password which I failed to enter in the ultra-secret password book (I know, I know) and so I have taken the advice of FutureLawyer and have purchased 12 smartwatches. No, wait, not that advice. I've gone on LastPass and have begun The Long March to store my passwords in a secure spot where I'll only need to remember ONE password.
I feel better already.
In the meantime, I'm hauling out the Sloan's Liniment that I've stored in the back of a drawer lest my wife read the expiration date and throw it out. I don't think it even has an expiration date but if it did I'd ignore it because I subscribe to the notion that medicines improve with age. Besides, the stuff is supposed to hurt. I've heard that the new stuff is a weak version of the killer liniment that was so much a part of my tormented childhood but that just means I'll put on more.
I've tried ointments and the fancy icy stuff that turns hot. This knee demands serious heat.
I'll know it's working when every password I've ever known flashes before my eyes.
[UPDATE: The Sloan's worked. Great stuff.]
Quote of the Day
The obvious is that which is never seen until someone expresses it simply.
- Khalil Gibran
- Khalil Gibran
Thursday, April 20, 2017
"Her Opponent"
Althouse: An off-Broadway play is going to feature actors playing Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, but with the sexes switched.
This stems from an experiment that was very revealing as to why Trump won.
Europe and Its Cultures
With the French elections on the near horizon, it makes sense to revisit a brief video of Mark Steyn's perspective on multiculturalism.
Quote of the Day
- Does this action attempt to deceive anyone or allow anyone to be deceived?
- Does this action gain or allow the gain of a privilege or advantage to which I or someone else would not otherwise be entitled?
- Would I be satisfied by the outcome if I were on the receiving end of the action?
- The U.S. Military Academy's Rules of Thumb
Wednesday, April 19, 2017
From India to France
Tanmay Vora's sketchnotes have gained a lot of well-deserved attention and they are about to get more.
As he notes here, he's been interviewed for a French book on the subject.
Words Wrapped in Gauze
Surgical strike.
Collateral damage.
Investments in infrastructure.
Revenue enhancements.
Reduction in force.
Urban renewal.
Language. Always watch the language.
1918: The Mother of All Pandemics
By the early 1990s, 75 years of research had failed to answer a most basic question about the 1918 pandemic: why was it so fatal? No virus from 1918 had been isolated, but all of its apparent descendants caused substantially milder human disease. Moreover, examination of mortality data from the 1920s suggests that within a few years after 1918, influenza epidemics had settled into a pattern of annual epidemicity associated with strain drifting and substantially lowered death rates. Did some critical viral genetic event produce a 1918 virus of remarkable pathogenicity and then other critical genetic event occur soon after the 1918 pandemic to produce an attenuated H1N1 virus?
Read the rest of the article at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Quote of the Day
I was equally struck by my colleagues' lack of concern. They seemed completely unworried, as if none of this had anything to do with them - that, for all their education, university professors can't even imagine political developments having any effect on their careers: they consider themselves untouchable.
- From Submission by Michel Houellebecq
- From Submission by Michel Houellebecq
Tuesday, April 18, 2017
The Starbucks Experience: In But Not Of
Cultural Offering and FutureLawyer weigh in on Starbucks.
FutureLawyer likes Panera Bread which is so yuppified it makes Starbucks look like a steelworkers' bar. [If there are any videos of Cultural Offering at Panera Bread, please send them along.]
I like Starbucks. It is a convenient and comfortable meeting spot. I ignore the computer users who are tapping away at, no doubt, the next War and Peace. The Americano is a nice watered-down version of their strong coffee. When ordering I still use small, medium, and large rather than their menu lingo. That immediately signals "out of touch" to the staff and thus is desirable.
One item: I have not noticed the shoes of the other customers.
First Paragraph
Rahm Emanuel was so cold he could see his breath as he crossed the White House parking lot and entered the West Wing lobby. It was December 5, 2008, an unusually frigid morning in Washington, D.C. But it wasn't the weather that sent a chill through Emanuel; it was the unbelievably daunting challenge that lay ahead.
- From The Gatekeepers: How the White House Chiefs of Staff Define Every Presidency by Chris Whipple
- From The Gatekeepers: How the White House Chiefs of Staff Define Every Presidency by Chris Whipple
For Creativity and Productivity
- Take a nap.
- Give yourself less time for completion.
- Take a long walk.
- Sit in a chair and do nothing until you're ready to get to work.
- Work on an unrelated chore for additional ideas.
- Write a one-page description of what the work will entail. Consider using Situation, Mission, Execution, Administrative Support and Conclusion as components.
- Complete a detailed outline based on that description.
- Complete all of the prep work.
- Use interim deadlines.
- Do one small segment in the next hour, another in the hour after that, and so on
- Remember that the best is the enemy of the good..
Monday, April 17, 2017
Information's Companion
There are times when telling them a little may be telling them a great deal and telling them too much may be telling them too little.
Quote of the Day
There is no such thing as the right way for a manager to operate or behave. There are only ways that are appropriate for specific tasks in specific enterprises under specific conditions.
- Theodore Levitt
- Theodore Levitt
Sunday, April 16, 2017
Saturday, April 15, 2017
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