Saturday, August 31, 2024
White House Mystery
I well remember the final nudge that caused President Richard Nixon to resign.
Senator Barry Goldwater (AZ), Senator Hugh Scott (PA), and Congressman John Rhodes (AZ) met with President Nixon and told him that he would not have sufficient support to resist impeachment.
Within a day, everyone knew that. There was no mystery. It was all over the newspapers.
Fast-forward to now. There are theories, but we do not have the specific details of what caused President Biden to shift, in a single day, from staying to leaving the presidential race.
If we had a press corps, at least a few of them might be curious enough to find how just what took place and how the attention suddenly drifted from cognitive decline to whether or not the President would run for re-election. I'd like to know the names of the key players.
Coupled with this is the lack of curiosity of the general public. There seems to be great indifference as to what happened and, even more importantly, just who is currently making the major decisions while the Vice President is on the campaign trail and the President is on the beach. I realize that presidents take vacations, but these seem more detached than usual.
We are surrounded by an unhealthy lack of curiosity.
Teaching the Teachers
National Affairs: "The Miseducation of America's Teachers" by Daniel Buck. An excerpt:
I experienced the consequences during my first year of teaching. Lectures on tort law and transgender literacies didn't equip me to handle a student who slugged another in the face during class. Nor did a few mock lessons equip me to fill 50 minutes of class time for several different classes five days a week.
Friday, August 30, 2024
First Paragraph
I never knew her real name and it is quite likely that she did have one, though I never heard her called anything but Gold Teeth. She did, indeed have gold teeth. She had sixteen of them. She had married early and she had married well, and shortly after her marriage she exchanged her perfectly sound teeth for gold ones, to announce to the world that her husband was a man of substance.
- From "My Aunt Gold Teeth" from A Flag on the Island by V.S. Naipaul
Prophet
The FutureLawyer recalls spreading the gospel amongst skeptical colleagues:
The graphic, I explained to her, was the graphic used by the Florida Bar at the 1994 Bar Convention, at which I was educating Bar members about this new thing called the World Wide Web, and telling them how it would change their lives. At that time, only a few people believed me. What a difference 30 years makes.
Yesterday Evening in Phoenix
Cool breezes. Coyote scat by the garbage containers. Irrigation expected this weekend. I decided to mow the front yard. Neighbors were out walking their dogs. Have been outlining my upcoming Substack posts. Stopped by a bookstore earlier today and was stunned at the prices of some new hardcover books. Forty dollars? Remembering back to the 8th grade when I bought a paperback copy of The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich for $1.25 and thought it to be terribly expensive. A friend in New Orleans sent me a note about the Turok, Son of Stone comic books. I recalled that the series had lizard people.
One cannot always read Tolstoy.
I'm ready for September and a visit to my favorite used bookstore.
Thursday, August 29, 2024
Substack Post: Light and Shadow
My new post: "Light and Shadow" is up on Substack.
Light: Help spread the word!
Shadow: Don't procrastinate!
[Update: Link is corrected.]
First Paragraph
I'm sure that many of you will know me for my analysis of American elections. But here's something you might not know: in covering politics, I've always felt like a fish out of water.
- From On the Edge: The Art of Risking Everything by Nate Silver
DEI Sinking
Axios: Ford responds to the anti-DEI movement.
I recommend VET: Viewpoint Diversity, Equal Opportunity, Transparency.
The latter reflects the rule I stress with my clients: If you cannot shout your policies and practices from the rooftops, then they should be changed.
Wednesday, August 28, 2024
Fashion Tip
At FutureLawyer, a fashion show on how to destroy your career within seconds.
The good news is I never saw anyone dressed like that.
CorruptED
Parents Defending Education Report: CorruptED: Colleges of Education and the Teacher Activist Pipeline.
Millions to the Taliban?
We found that three bureaus—Political-Military Affairs, Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement (PM/WRA); Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM); and South and Central Asian Affairs, Office of Press and Public Diplomacy (SCA/PPD)—complied with State partner vetting requirements. However, two bureaus—Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (DRL) and International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL)—could not demonstrate their compliance with partner vetting requirements because they were unable to provide supporting documentation for many of their respective awards. Collectively, State could not demonstrate their compliance with its partner vetting requirements on awards that disbursed at least $293 million in Afghanistan.
Less Screen Time. More Page Time.
The Journal of Pediatrics report on the contemporary screen time of 9 and 10 year old children.
Tuesday, August 27, 2024
Let's Talk Shop
Check out Central Tech, a technology school in Oklahoma.
And bring back shop classes in the public schools.
Saving the Universities
Commentary magazine: Yuval Levin on "A New Hope for Saving the Universities." An excerpt:
The pathbreaker was the School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership at Arizona State University. Launched in 2017 with strong backing from then-governor Doug Ducey and key state legislators, SCETL is a new freestanding academic unit within a major state university. It has the power to do its own hiring, promotion, and tenure. It can approve courses and grant degrees. It’s not an outside organization at the margins of a university but an inside institution with a claim on a portion of a flagship state school.
A Major Civil Liberties Scandal
After years to refusing to release documents on censorship, Mark Zuckerberg has finally come clean and admitted that the Biden-Harris Administration pressured Facebook to censor Americans.
- Jonathan Turley
From the August 26, 2024 Letter by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to the Chairman of the House Committee on the Judiciary:
In 2021, senior officials from the Biden administration, including the White House, repeatedly pressured our teams for months to censor certain COVID-19 content, including humor and satire, and expressed a lot of frustration with our teams when we didn't agree. Ultimately, it was out decision whether or not to take content down, and we own our decisions, including COVID-19-related changes we made our enforcement in the wake of this pressure. I believe the government pressure was wrong, and I regret that we were not more outspoken about it.
We need names. The very idea of any administration forming an alliance with a major tech company to squelch freedom of expression should be repugnant.
First Paragraph
Napoleone di Buonoparte, as he signed himself until manhood, was born in Ajaccio, one of the larger towns on the Mediterranean island of Corsica, just before noon on Tuesday, August 15, 1769. 'She was on her way home from church when she felt labour pains,' he would later say of his mother, Letizia, 'and had only time to get into the house, where I was born, not on a bed, but on a heap of tapestry.' The name his parents chose was unusual but not unknown, appearing in Machiavelli's history of Florence, and, more immediately, being the name of one of his great-uncles.
- From Napoleon: A Life by Andrew Roberts
Monday, August 26, 2024
Acquired Wisdom
Whenever you're having a good time, you probably should be somewhere else.
- President Bill Clinton
Leadership Is a Responsibility, not a Caste
My new Substack article is up.
Check it out. Spread the word.
First Paragraph
"The ancient Greeks defined hubris as the worst sin a leader, or a nation, could commit. It was the attitude of supreme arrogance, in which mortals in their folly would set themselves up against the gods. Its consequences were invariably severe. The Greeks also had a word for what usually followed hubris. That was called peripeteia, meaning a dramatic reversal of fortune. In practice, it signified a falling from the grace of a great height to unimaginable depths. Disaster would often embrace not only the offender, but also his nearest and dearest, and all those responsible to him."
- From Hubris: The Tragedy of War in the Twentieth Century by Alastair Horne
Substack Planning
I am planning an extensive range of Substack articles. Most will deal with leadership and management but there will also be essays on ethics, communication, modern life, connecting dots, communities, literature, technology, culture, politics, history, success, failure, and a bunch of other topics that an old management consultant who's studied the tricky gaps between intent and achievement thinks are worthy of attention.
A lot of the stuff will be free but even the paid material will cost far less than many books, magazines, or workshops.
Check it out. Spread the word.
Join The Practical Advice Movement.
Sunday, August 25, 2024
Saturday, August 24, 2024
An Important Notice
I plan on posting two times (or more) every week. The lengthy format permits me to elaborate on various topics.
My blog and X accounts will continue. I'm also exploring the possibility of a podcast.
Check it out!
Return to Old School
I'm back to using a fountain pen to handwrite drafts and I couldn't be happier.
Thoughts flow more smoothly and there is an artistic aspect to the handwritten page.
It has, oddly enough, expedited the writing process.
Related issue: I'll be updating you soon about my Substack account.
[Photo by John Jennings at Unsplash]
Friday, August 23, 2024
Friday Culture Break
So many great lines!
Back by popular demand: The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T. S. Eliot.
In the room the women come and go
Talking of Michelangelo.
Thursday, August 22, 2024
The Unwrapped Gift
During coaching sessions, I occasionally notice an "unwrapped gift" in the room: an activity that the person would really like to do and would be quite capable of doing and yet, for some reason, has not tried.
Careful listening is necessary, but there is a magical moment when that unwrapped gift is noticed.
Transparency Now!
Pension Warriors Edward "Ted" Siedle is conducting a forensic audit of the Minnesota Teacher Retirement Association.
The Toledo (Ohio) Blade editorial stated, "A cursory look at the Minnesota Teacher Retirement Association leads to the conclusion that they're either a world class pension or they're cooking the books."
Wednesday, August 21, 2024
An Innocent Mistake?
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that job growth has been far weaker than previously reported.
First Paragraph
"Of all the things that drive men to sea, the most common disaster, I've come to learn, is women. In my case, it was a spirited Boston schoolteacher named Isadora Bailey who led me to become a cook about the Republic. Both Isadora and my creditors, I should add, who entered into a conspiracy, a trap, a scheme so cunning that my only choices were prison, a brief stay in the stony oubliette of the Spanish Calabozo (or a long one at the bottom of the Mississippi), or marriage, which was, for a man of my temperament, worse than imprisonment - especially if you knew Isadora. So I went to sea, sailing from Louisiana on April 14, 1830, hoping a quarter year aboard a slave clipper would give this relentless woman time to reconsider, and my bill collectors time to forget they'd ever heard the name Rutherford Calhoun. But what lay ahead in Africa, then later on the open, endless sea, was, as I shall tell you, far worse than the fortune I'd fled in New Orleans."
- From Middle Passage: A Novel by Charles Johnson
Tuesday, August 20, 2024
Office Reorg
Just found a letter from Donald Rumsfeld regarding a question I had about his tenure as White House Chief of Staff.
I'm a little behind on my filing.
We Need Free Thinkers
The Free Press: Peter Savodnik has a profile of John Fetterman.
Victor Davis Hanson on the myriad projects of the 2024 campaign.
Sage Advice
From The New York Times interview with Craig Johnson:
How do you sign books for your fans?
If somebody’s been standing for an hour to have three minutes of your time, don’t you owe them the best three minutes you can give them? Make eye contact, shake their hand, ask them about themselves and then sign their book with a genuine smile. It’s the very least you can do.
Monday, August 19, 2024
The Perils of Constitutional Pragmatism
Commentary magazine: Michael Woronoff reviews Justice Stephen Breyer's new book on judicial reasoning and the Constitution.
"Pragmatism" can be a burglar's crowbar.
A Solution to Housing Hell in Canada: Vote Out the Trudeau Government
A Reuters article on Trudeau surviving a no confidence vote. Key quote:
The next federal election must be held by October 2025 and recent surveys of public opinion show the Conservatives will easily defeat the Liberals, who have been in office since November 2015.
An Unusual Career
Want to read about a career that would make an amazing movie?
Read the story of Palmer Luckey in The Tablet. An excerpt:
Let me show you: Luckey is the owner of the world’s largest video game collection, which he keeps buried 200 feet underground in a decommissioned U.S. Air Force nuclear missile base—which is the kind of thing a man can afford to buy when he single-handedly turns virtual reality from the laughingstock of the technology industry into a multi-billion-dollar enterprise by inventing the Oculus Rift in a camper trailer parked in the driveway of his parents’ duplex in Long Beach, California, where at 19 years old he lived alone and survived on frozen burritos and Mucho Mango AriZona tea.Keep a Sharp Eye
Once put to bed, problems have a habit of crawling out again.
It is a bold (or reckless) person who assumes that a solution is permanent. Many an old timer, if permitted to review current challenges, will spot several that are old acquaintances.
And don't just keep an eye out for the return of old problems. New ones, quietly ushered in by an array of solutions, will eventually compete for your attention.
Sunday, August 18, 2024
Saturday, August 17, 2024
Immigration Nitwittery in Europe
'The [European] continent is like a patient who has had a cancer, Hitlerism, and who, to prevent any chance of relapse, is operated on and reoperated on by his surgeons ... in such a thorough manner that they one by one deprive him of all vital functions. He will die, no doubt, but at least it will not be of Nazism, fascism, racism, or anti-Semitism."
- Renaud Camus, "Speech Before the 17th Chamber" in Enemy of the Disaster: Selected Political Writings.
Is Our Future a Blue Screen of Death?
Tightly coupled systems are making our power grid, our supply chains, and our digital networks more prone to hair-trigger breakdowns. The problem is compounded when many different organizations rely on the same software or hardware. Most of the world’s businesses use the Windows operating system. And a large share of those rely on CrowdStrike software to protect them from hackers. That’s convenient for everyone. But the ubiquity of the Windows operating system is precisely what made so many networks vulnerable to hidden flaws in a routine software update. If our software platforms were more varied, no single problem would be as likely to take out a huge chunk of the world’s computers at once.
Read all of the essay by James B. Meigs in Commentary magazine.
The EU Needs Some Serious Blow-Back
The Hill: Jonathan Turley looks at the European Union's efforts to restrict America's freedom of speech.
The Eternal Return of Bad Ideas
Jonah Goldberg on the stupidity of price-fixing. An excerpt:
I use scare quotes around “doing something” because that’s basically a lie in terms of reality. But where the apologists see a greater truth is in the idea that something—nay, anything—can be done with the right people in charge. Tell some people that the New Deal didn’t actually end the Great Depression and they get very angry, because the point is that it tried. The New Deal represents the idea that the government, when controlled by the right people, can do all the things. The New Dealers ordered the slaughter of some 6 million baby pigs to get the price of bacon “right”—at a time when many Americans were going hungry. “So what?” the apologists ask, “At least they tried!”
Friday, August 16, 2024
China and Our Children
The National Association of Scholars has issued a new report on China and our children.
The Original Decline and Fall Guy
UnHerd magazine: Samuel Rubinstein spends a summer with Edward Gibbon. An excerpt:
Both in his Memoirs and in Decline and Fall, Gibbon endorsed Adam Smith’s suggestion that university education would be improved if, instead of receiving a fixed stipend, lecturers were tipped by their students. The salaried professor, after all, made a mockery of the pursuit of learning for its own sake: Aristotle or Plato would never have “degenerated from the example of Socrates as to exchange knowledge for gold”. Perhaps it was not just his fervent anticlericalism, therefore, that so ruffled academic feathers.
One of the Most Important Books of Our Time
Once boys got smartphones, they - like girls - moved even more of their social lives online, and their mental health declined.
- Jonathan Haidt, The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness
Thursday, August 15, 2024
Some Requests Are Very Attractive
A national organization wants me to teach a special class on courage and ethics.
I'm on.
First Paragraph
On the afternoon of March 25, 2014, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg made a surprise visit to a SoCal-based start-up, where from the front of the small workplace kitchen, he proceeded to share some big news, discuss Facebook's grand vision, and geek out over a long-sought-after wearable technology that he believed would dominate the future.
- From The History of the Future by Blake J. Harris
What If?
What if higher education responded to plummeting public confidence by demanding a whole lot more of their students, especially through extensive core requirements? Or if professors gave grades that reflected actual performance? Or if administrators responded to rules-breaking through summary expulsions? What if the news media, also facing declining levels of trust, stopped catering to their least literate readers, stopped caring about their angriest ones, stopped publishing dumbed-down versions of the news, and stopped acting as if journalism is just another form of entertainment?
- Bret Stephens, "Conservatives Thinks the Market Always Gets It Right. It Doesn't." [The New York Times, 2024]
After the Lawfare, Comes the Backlash
If an American presidential candidate is imprisoned after such a travesty of a trial, then we will be in for very bad times ahead.
Here's hoping this can be headed off.
Andrew McCarthy: Prepare for Trump to be sentenced to prison on September 18.
Wednesday, August 14, 2024
Preserving Character, Culture, and Courage
Joshua Trevino reflects on his time in England. An excerpt:
America is rooted in England, we feel Aristotelian philia for it — that civic friendship, united in a noble and common purpose, that is the indispensable prerequisite of nationhood — and so England becomes surpassingly important for us. We do not understand ourselves without understanding it. We also do not understand the universality underlying American propositionalism without grasping England and its achievements. I reflected upon this as I told my son, time after time, across London: this is a memorial to men who saved the world. This is Elizabeth: she defeated the Habsburg imperium. This is Drake: he turned back the Spanish at sea. This is Nelson: he confined Napoleon to Europe. This is Churchill: he waged the twilight fight against Hitler. London defied the Blitz, alone. Twice we encountered memorials related to the 1982 Falklands War, and I told him: even here a principle was at stake, and had Britain not defended it, the whole world would have suffered.
Comparative Government
I've alluded to this earlier but one of the hardest and most interesting classes I took as a government major in the Sixties was Comparative Government.
Our test questions, all of which involved essays, required comparisons of the governments of the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Switzerland, the Soviet Union, Japan, and a few others that don't come to mind.
In other words, you had to know the material and juggle the essentials.
The good news was that it was complicated but interesting.
I see political commentary nowadays in which it is clear that the author has no idea of various political systems or even the basics, such as how a government differs from a church.
This is very disappointing.
Newark on My Mind
I do plan to get to Newark, Ohio no later than next year so I can hobnob with its blogging wizards and solve the problems of the world.
Drafts and More Drafts
I wasn't feeling well yesterday but managed to get two important drafts done. Will be pounding away on others today.
A book manuscript is also being expanded and some long-overdue appointments will be made.
An old friend of mine recently confessed to being lazy. (He's not.)
I was shocked at his confession.
I am a towering castle of sloth.
Tuesday, August 13, 2024
Poisoned Apple
The Apple Entrepreneur Camp application process shows the modern forms of discrimination.
Innovation and Community
Nestled in historic Prescott Arizona, you will find a community vibe like no other. Come relax and enjoy a one-of-a-kind coffee or favorite beverage from the state’s largest self-serve beer taproom. Do you feel like a whiskey and cigar? No problem. Come enjoy our spirits in your favorite lounge chair for the ultra relaxation experience. Do you want a workout in our brand new gym, you can find that too.
The Not Doing List
Every "To Do List" has an invisible "Not Doing List."
Some of the "Not Doing" items, of course, will be unknown, but many can be revealed by simple reflection.
Common "Not Doing" projects involve physical exercise, connecting with old friends, volunteering for good causes, and writing thank you notes.
But the list can be much longer. I'm preparing one to go along with my "To Do List" if only as a reminder to attend to some very important items.
First Paragraph
He was only a few blocks from the hotel when he realized he was being followed. The sudden rain had emptied the big square, so there were only a few scattered umbrellas, no crowd to melt into. Footsteps you could hear, keeping a steady pace with his. When he stopped by one of the streetlamps, haloed in the misty drizzle, the footsteps stopped too. Not professional, then. In Berlin they'd be almost on top of you before you knew, your skin tingling with it, the fear. But maybe the Italians weren't as well trained. Or maybe he was imagining it, so close now, escape just hours away, alert to any sound, ears turned up like a dog's.
- From Shanghai: A Novel by Joseph Kanon
Monday, August 12, 2024
The Immortal Lileks
James Lileks has written his last column for the Star Tribune.
But his web page is still here and, among many things, it has The Gallery of Regrettable Food and Interior Desecrations.
Range-Free Kids
Jonathan Haidt: Kids sent off on two-day, unsupervised, camping trip without smartphones.
They flourished.
The God That Failed
In The Tablet, Shalom Goldman examines the influence of a book of essays by former communists.
I read The God That Failed as a Government major back in the Sixties.
I wonder how many students and professors are reading it today.
[Photo by J Z at Unsplash]
Leadership Failures
One of the most frustrating things about modern society is not that we have problems. All times have problems. It is that there are significant problems for which either no one is seriously working on a solution, or the chosen solutions are obviously not working.
Sunday, August 11, 2024
Saturday, August 10, 2024
Discord in Britain
The warning signs have been present for years, but for every person who tried to tip-toe through the minefield of topics pertinent to this disorder—society, culture, religion, disenfranchisement, racism, the speed of change, feelings of powerlessness—there were ten more who wanted to bury their heads in the sand.
Checks, Balances, and the Press
If the news media almost unanimously favor a presidential candidate, do not count on honest news coverage if that person is elected.
There is an advantage in having an adversarial relationship between the president and the press. Should a scandal arise, you will learn of it quickly and vividly and without the quiet news suppression that is done when the president and the reporters are friends or ideological soulmates.
Friday, August 09, 2024
Anticipation
"Prevent trouble before it arises. Put things in order before they exist."
- Tao Te Ching
Connecting Dots
Generational differences. Lack of viewpoint diversity in university faculties. The decline of Human Resources. The history of Christianity. The rise of Diversity Management. Bias in the law and medical schools. The new business model for journalism. Gated communities. Bowling alone. Industrial arts. Caring surpassing courage. Managerialism. Farming communities. Professional tribes. Careerism. The rise of anti-heroes. Pareto. French politics. Declining attention spans. Remote work. Smartphone addictions. Hidden ideologies. Acceptable prejudices. Bureaucratic slants. Sleep. Trust. Israel. The decline of conversation. The war against boys. Unconventional religions. Chinese history. Pragmatism's limits. The Austro-Hungarian Empire. The Maginot Line. The psychology of prisoners of war. Reforming college. The shallowness of elites. Credentialism. The importance of truck driving. Artificial Intelligence. Elon Musk. Donald Trump. Daniel Patrick Moynihan. Lee Kuan Yew. The trades. Particularism. Mission creep. Preserving freedom.
A partial list of where my thoughts are nowadays.
Bear with me.
Another Time
Sherman Billingsley stood at Table No. 1 and waited for his customers. The numbers of the tables are important at the Stork Club and No. 1 is right as you come in and No. 28 is on the aisle where Connie Bennett sat. No. 50 is in the back, in the Cub Room, and the whole country knows that only one man sits at Table 50 in the Stork Club. Table 50 is Walter's table. W.W. would be in later on, at midnight. He always came. So did everybody else. And Billingsley waited at Table No. 1 for Morton Downey, Brenda Frazier, Gene Tierney, Ernest Hemingway and Doris Duke.
- From "Stork Club Closes an Era" in Essential Writings by Jimmy Breslin [Library of America]
Thursday, August 08, 2024
The Missing Ingredient
Papers and more papers. Reading and more reading.
This day required more sloth.
The Foreign Agent Issue
"In a new filing, [Special Counsel] Weiss released evidence on Hunter [Biden] seeking money to advance the interests of a Romanian on United States policy."
Jonathan Turley on a new twist in the Hunter Biden case.
Documentary Summer: Shoah
The film is over nine hours long, but it is probably the best documentary ever made.
It's a Problem? Meh.
You've heard of the old rule: Don't bring a problem to your supervisor unless you also have a recommended solution.
That rule doesn't resonate with many business writers. They are comfortable declaring that this or that is a problem but get very tight-lipped when it comes to proposing solutions.
Aside from the frustration that such intellectual shrugs produce, there is a callousness that seems to be rather woke. Notice the nonchalant way in which dire statistics on male suicide or educational setbacks are revealed; a coolness that would never be acceptable if the sexes were reversed.
They should be far more forthcoming on causes and solutions.
Wednesday, August 07, 2024
What Our Political World Once Was
Senator Barry Goldwater, the godfather of modern American conservatism, was a close friend of John F. Kennedy's. After Kennedy was elected in 1960, Goldwater and JFK toyed with the idea of a 1964 presidential race where the two of them would share a platform around the country and debate the issues.
That charming dream ended with President Kennedy's assassination. In the ensuing years, the American political world acquired a lot of sharp edges. There was little friendliness in the 1964 presidential race between Lyndon Johnson and Goldwater. Ideological divisions deepened throughout the nation, 1968 became a hellish campaign year, and we have not recovered from years of partisan bashing.
Consider the races between Eisenhower and Stevenson and even the one between Kennedy and Nixon.
Those were gentler times.
Tuesday, August 06, 2024
Our Air Conditioning Went Out Last Night
Character building exercise.
[Photo by Carlos Leret at Unsplash]
Increasing the Blend
I realize there are majors and minors, but nonetheless wonder if a person who earned several bachelor's degrees in related subjects (e.g. government, history, business, and economics) would be better informed than one who went on to get a master's and doctorate in only one subject.
[Photo by Christopher Yoder]
Monday, August 05, 2024
Our Times
"Ever have the feeling that you're at a 3 ring circus where the lion just bit the lion tamer's head off, and everybody else is just talking about the clowns."
- David Burge
- David Burge
Punishing the Customers
Patrick Rhone is not the only person who dislikes the plastic shields now blocking products in some stores.
Each time I have encountered those barriers, I have bought elsewhere.
Getting into It
Nina watched the laboratory clock; the hands sweeping across the large, clear face showed almost five. In thirty minutes, it would officially be Friday night, which meant an evening with her boyfriend and - for two whole days - no smelly chemicals. She would wait a few more moments, do her final round and then leave on time. She studied the hands of the clock.
- From Bram: A Spy Story by Nicholas Bate
First Paragraph
I remember one evening in 1994, steaming in a hot bath, when it suddenly occurred to me that I might have finally run out of Mondays on The Hot Zone, a movie I'd been working on more or less constantly all year. Every Friday, after I'd spent a full week keeping the package - the director, script, and stars - together, it would fall apart again. Every weekend I had to hustle to put it back together. Every Monday morning the press would call to ask (for example), "Is it true that Ridley Scott [the director] is dropping out?" "Of course not," I would reply, relieved not to be lying (at least for the moment). Then the package would threaten to fall apart again, I would put it back together, and another Monday would come. "Of course not." "Of course not." "Why would you think that?" It was the most unstable project I'd ever worked on.
- From Hello, He Lied and Other Truths from the Hollywood Trenches by Lynda Obst
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