A City Screams in Terror!
James Lileks discusses Halloween and has some neat horror movie posters.
Commentary by Michael Wade on Leadership, Ethics, Management, and Life
Business Week examines KFC's decision to change its recipe to get rid of trans-fat. An excerpt:
Christopher Hitchens writes on indecent exit strategies in Iraq:
Employers are checking out job applicants by running their names on Google...
The Carnival of Business is up at Mine That Data.

An extraordinary affair. I gave them their orders and they wanted to stay and discuss them.
Michael Barone talks to M&B about good news and a train wreck:
Actor and comedian Larry Miller was in a less than pricey restaurant when a special guest appeared on the Larry King Show.
In an interview, Roger Angell talks about both his writing career and editing for The New Yorker.
The executive had heard Randall, one of her peers, make some inappropriate comments of a sexual nature.
What is the difference between a lovable curmudgeon and a cruel abuser?
No wonder we liked him.
St. Louis is ranked as the most dangerous city in the United States.
Economist and ethnic studies scholar Thomas Sowell sees the main problem in Iraq has been diversity without assimilation.
If you've been in the workplace any sizable length of time, you have probably encountered people who search for insult.
Blogger has been acting strange again today. I'm posting this to see if it drags some of my other posts along with it.
Arthur Herman, writing in Commentary, believes there is a viable military option with regard to Iran and it involves going after their gasoline refineries.
A New York Times article - via Ann Althouse - on people who break up or never start relationships after learning the political views of the other person.
Law professor David M. Wagner on the New Jersey same sex marriage decision.
I once knew a supervisor who didn't shout.
We know about commercials and ads that don't attract customers but what is shocking is how many businesses pay for advertising that actually repels potential buyers.
The ugliest of trades have their moments of pleasure. Now, if I were a grave digger, or even a hangman, there are some people I could work for with a great deal of enjoyment.
What's the difference between a Sony or IBM or Toshiba laptop computer and one made at Gateway when it comes to reliability?
Want to spend less at the pump? Lose some weight. That's the implication of a new study that says Americans are burning nearly 1 billion more gallons of gasoline each year than they did in 1960 because of their expanding waistlines. Simply put, more weight in the car means lower gas mileage.
Neither prosecutor Mike Nifong nor any of his assistants have interviewed the accuser in the Duke lacrosse players rape case. They are relying solely on the police investigation.
Josh Manchester, writing in Tech Central Station, notes that the world is divided into two groups: the hunters and the hunted. An excerpt:
Theodore Dalrymple, in New Zealand for a meeting on crime, mentions some points that will surprise most of us:
VANCOUVER, British Columbia — A Canadian city under pressure for alleged sexual harassment within its fire department has ordered firefighters to wear only boxer-style underwear.
The Wall Street Journal Law Blog has an interesting post on some candid comments by Justice Clarence Thomas.
Late last night - very late due to my insomniac dog - I finished Bruce Bawer's While Europe Slept: How Radical Islam is Destroying the West from Within.
WaiterRant tells about a customer who left an unusual tip and then, something ethical happens!
Business Week looks at the reinvention of Martha Stewart:
Gerald Seymour gives his top five list of novels dealing with terrorism.
Reform always comes from below. No man with four aces asks for a new deal.
This CareerJournal article about people using corporate jargon at home is enough to make me scream:
Joel Kotkin is high on suburbs and on America’s population growth:
It's Friday. Time for some light humor.
Elizabeth W. Carroll, writing in the Oklahoma Employment Law Letter, on the dangers of employees downloading the property of others:
The cliche is correct: The simplest concepts are often the best.
Let’s say that your business is putting together “haunted houses” for the Halloween season and you need to know what will scare your customers. You’d do research, right?
The three unspoken questions of every job interview:
The controversy over whether German and French troops in Afghanistan are avoiding action in the more dangerous parts of the country is growing...and getting notice even in Germany.
The nature of every bureaucracy is to make functionaries and mere cogs in the administrative machinery out of men, and thus to dehumanize them.
Many books on food and diet are boring. Reason examines one with an intriguing difference:
The top Muslim cleric in Australia is catching well-deserved criticism after providing an unusual spiritual message:
Why does Costco work?

Victor Davis Hanson notes the giant steps backwards in The Middle East:
If you are a political junkie, Slashdot ("politics for nerds") has a posting with some nifty sites to monitor the results of congressional campaigns.
"We look at it and do not see it."
The House Next Door lists five great movie monologues.
Abigail Thernstrom, Harvard professor, author, and member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, finds much to admire in the message of Bill Cosby and Juan Williams:
I have two very rare photographs. One is a picture of Houdini locking his keys in his car. The other is a rare photograph of Norman Rockwell beating up a child.
George Orwell’s essay, England Your England, written in 1941 resonates today.
When primitive automobiles first began to appear in the 1800s, their engines were based on steam power, the same power source which had motivated the Industrial Revolution. Steam had already enjoyed a long and successful career in locomotive powerplants, so it was only natural that the technology evolved into a miniaturized version which was unshackled from the rails. But these early cars inherited steam's weaknesses along with its strengths. The boilers had to be lit by hand, and they required about twenty minutes to build up pressure before they could be driven. Furthermore, their water reservoirs only lasted for about thirty miles before needing replenishment. Despite such shortcomings, these newfangled self-propelled carriages offered quick transportation, and by the early 1900s it was not uncommon to see such machines shuttling wealthy citizens around town.
Somehow the concern of running out of Halloween candy seems minor:
Ask Uncle Bill discusses the concept of “never complain, never explain":
Livestock farmers in Slovenia, only two years after joining the European Union, are proving as imaginative as Italian olive growers when claiming Brussels subsidies.
If a foreign visitor wants to get a sense of the American heartland, reading the columns and blog posts of James Lileks is a good start. Today, he’s discussing Halloween. An excerpt:
Slow Leadership has a great post on the limits of leadership techniques.
I routinely read European newspapers and magazines.
I don't know where this bit of advice came from but it's making the rounds of the Internet:
Adfreak looks at a survey that reveals which baseball teams we like to hate and notes that the World Series between the Detroit Tigers and the St. Louis Cardinals doesn't trigger raw emotions.
If you are a worrier - and I am one of Olympic caliber - you might enjoy Edward Hallowell's extraordinary book, Worry.
Mark Steyn is looking at population stats again:
Business Pundit has an interesting analysis of this study, which finds a weak link between diversity and turnover; i.e., diversity does not in itself help you to retain employees.
David Maister, who has devoted his career to advising professional service firms, has raised an interesting question: What do consultants know?
From an interview with David Murrow, author of Why Men Hate Going to Church:
Want to be a political commentator on the television news programs?
Former Enron executive Jeff Skilling has been sentenced to 24 years and four months in prison.
The sign of a real sickness in the legal profession:
Most Haunted, a big television hit in Britain, has an admirer at The Telegraph:
"That's very creative."
Dustin Hoffman on the film biz:
Bruce Bawer, writing in The Hudson Review, examines several books on the crisis in Europe.
He also has a blog.
Writing in The Christian Science Monitor, Marilyn Gardner notes the rise of niceness in the workplace:
Justice Antonin Scalia on the press reporting of court decisions:
Slow Leadership looks at ego-free leadership. An excerpt:
Dog Bites Man: The BBC is biased.
An extraordinary firm is closing its doors.
Joseph Epstein, one of the best essayists out there, on the relationship between facts and ideas:
There have been Blogger problems today. They've inhibited posting; turning the fastest computer into a Commodore.
Her co-workers didn't take on as many assignments as she thought they should. She shouldered the extra work and said nothing, but she felt their failure to volunteer was a character flaw.
Writing in The Telegraph, Sir Robert Knox-Johnston, 67, reflects on the challenge of a solo yacht race around the world:
Michael J. Totten, travel writer extraordinaire, is storm chasing on the Navajo reservation.
The West Virginia Employment Law Letter examines the legal dangers of asking to see an applicant's driver's license before making a conditional job offer.
Do some people begin to lose I.Q. points when they become school administrators?
The drug lords at war in central Mexico are no longer content with simply killing their enemies. They are putting their severed heads on public display.
Writing in Fortune, Justin Fox examines the impact of corporate CEOs. An excerpt:
Entertainment Weekly talks to the Project Runway runners-up and Tim Gunn.
Tom Peters once observed that if airline passengers put down their tray tables and see coffee stains, they wonder about the condition of the plane’s engines.
We all make mistakes - I caught a glitch on the blog this afternoon - and most of our blunders are probably quickly forgiven.
But how many are the equivalent of the coffee stains on the tray table?
What might come out of the post-election report of the Iraq study group headed by James Baker and Lee Hamilton?
From National Review: Rob Long's satiric take on focus group testing of the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric:
BusinessPundit has a great post on the dangers - nay, the evils - of multitasking.
Lileks plans his weekend. Sound familiar?
Noted military historian John Keegan rejects the comparison of Iraq with Vietnam and is right on target with his identification of the media’s negative role:
Ms. Dewey, a search engine that talks to you.
Overlawyered notes that after a smoking ban, citizens in Omaha are being encouraged to call 911 if they see illicit smoking.
This Labor Prof Blog post on whether a manager can be sexually harassed by subordinates sparks certain concerns:
Lemony Snicket, the bizarre and highly successful series of children's books has come to an end.
Attention Mark Foley: This New York magazine article indicates that publishers should think twice before giving a big book deal to someone who's been at the center of a scandal.
Mark Steyn on the population crisis of the future. An excerpt:
Recently, I was talking with an executive about the frustration and conflict that can arise when a variety of styles comes together in a meeting...and no one recognizes the differences.
If you've ever been in a start-up that experienced problems, you'll recognize a lot of the points in this Paul Graham essay on 18 mistakes of start-ups.
Military analyst Ralph Peters questions a new counterinsurgency doctrine. An excerpt:
Mark your words, as a matter of caution when with rivals, and as a matter of decency, when with the rest. There is always time to add a word, but none in which to take one back: speak, therefore, as in a testament, for the fewer the words, the less the litigation: make of that which is of no importance the training ground for that which is: reserve has an aspect of divinity about it: he too easy of speech, shortly falters and falls.
Jonathan Rauch on honor wars. An excerpt:
Business Opportunities Weblog examines a landscaper's plan to sign up 100 new customers.
Breakfast: It's the most enjoyably lethal of all meals, if done right. Pancakes, bacon, eggs and hash browns. Of course, you might as well inject a tube of tub caulk into your veins, same effect. Since I want to fit into my pants, I have the Breakfast of Denial -- overpriced yogurt and a small pathetic sausage, squeezed in a napkin to extract all the deadly juices until it tastes like a maple-flavored Duraflame log.
Tony Corn, who teaches European Studies at the U.S. Foreign Service Institute notes a change in the approach to strategy:
At Tech Central Station, Glenn Harlan Reynolds, aka Instapundit, writes that when Target and Eddie Bauer are selling survival kits, we've all become Soldier of Fortune-types.
The winner of the Darwinian reality show Project Runway will be announced tonight.
If you want to send e-mail to someone who is computer-challenged, the Presto Printer might be the answer.
It's sad but true: If you run for office, people are going to check out your hair...or lack of it.
Dr. Betty Spence, president of the National Association for Female Executives, has a list of books that she recommends to women who want to advance in the workplace.
How does the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission categorize people?
One of the surest signs of a bad or declining relationship is the absence of complaints from the customer. Nobody is ever that satisfied.
Could the 2010 Land Rover be 1,100 pounds lighter due to an aluminum structure?
A rather interesting list:
Alan Dershowitz, who caught holy hell for suggesting the use of "torture warrants" a few years ago for extraordinary "ticking bomb" circumstances, notes that former President Bill Clinton recently stated that such warrants would be feasible and the press has yawned.
In many workplaces, lawyers are the high priests brought in by upper management to confer special blessings upon various courses of action.
Not a bad move. I would have gotten more out of this than that biology class I took:
This article from The New Yorker about an unusual Yale student/job applicant is both amusing and sad.
Here's a productive mental exercise and not just for CEOs: firing yourself (in your mind), then asking what your replacement would do:
According to witnesses, [Dutch filmaker Theo] van Gogh had said to his murderer (who at the time was living on welfare payments from the Dutch government) : "Don't do it! Don't do it! Mercy! Mercy!" And: "Surely we can talk about this." The blunt, outspoken van Gogh had been an unsparing critic of European passivity in the face of fundamentalist Islam; unlike most Europeans, he'd understood the connection between the war on terror and the European integration crisis, and had called America "the last beacon of hope in a steadily darkening world." Together he and Hirsi Ali had made a short film, Submission - he'd directed, she'd written the script - about the mistreatment of women in Islamic cultures. Yet at the end, it seemed, even he grasped at the Western European elite's most unshakable article of faith - the belief in peace and reconciliation through dialogue.
SOXfirst blog has a great post on Warren Buffett's warning that "everyone else does it" doesn't hack it when it comes to ethics.
Some time management guru whose name escapes me - that saves time! - once said that we suffer more stress from the projects that are not completed than from the ones that are never started.
So those are your choices: Bold Action or Steady Incrementalism.
Either way, you'll feel better.
Problems are the natural offspring of change, so you'll see plenty of them in the years to come. Build a name for yourself as a problem-solver, and you'll be a valuable person to have around.
As the finale of Bravo’s Project Runway reality show nears, New York magazine has an interesting take on the program's appeal and some predictions. (Could there be a German surprise?)
Law firm consultant Karen Katz has developed a new training tool:
Without his cape, Silver is introverted, risk-adverse, and better at talking than listening. But Attorney Man — creative, forward-thinking, knowledgeable about his clients’ business — develops his own book of business. A satisfied client gushes: “Wow! Look at those learned hands!”
Read the rest here.
Mark Steyn sees deeper meaning in a Reuters news story:
There is an interesting twist at this week's Carnival of the Capitalists. The first segment to be posted contains the best posts from the past, as determined by the submitters.
There's a discussion at CareerJournal on "What is the toughest interview question you've ever had?"
Matt Labash, writing in The Weekly Standard, explores the nation’s most unusual gubernatorial candidate:
Pestered by unwanted calls where a telemarketer disregards your responses and plods through a script?
I have been reading Follow the Other Hand by Andy Cohen.
In a recent poll, more than 70 percent of teenagers said they'd give up TV before giving up their computers or the Internet.
In an ad that is sure to get attention, Napster has a stripper giving money to the patrons.
We had to take our dog to a vet this morning. (It's a group of specialists and they have Sunday hours.)
We are family.
And now for something completely void of substance.
House of Caduceus on the personal cost of a lawsuit won:
This is the sort of alarm clock that all of you Zig Ziglar types will enjoy.
Slow Leadership examines a survey finding that members of senior management rate their personal quality of life lower than do terminally ill patients.
Michael Novak recalls his ties to Eugene McCarthy and Robert F. Kennedy:
It was interesting, mainly in how little people have changed personality-wise.
I'm going to my Camelback High School reunion tonight.
Is Andy Stern of the Service Employees International Union the model of the new labor leader?
Some food police at a primary school in Britain have clamped down on a serious problem:
Slate asked some bloggers and booksellers for their "favorite little-known reads."
Business finds a way to satisfy the most unusual needs and now there's a product for a sizable population: slobs.
It's Saturday. You need a smile.
On the Moneyed Midways, with its collection of posts on management, business, and finance, is up at Political Calculations.
Learning-related disability complaints, such as Attention Deficit Disorder, have risen significantly.
Mike Murphy gives his top five list of books by political insiders.
Google processes roughly one billion searches per day, with only a third coming from inside the United States.
Daniel Henninger explores what we should know about YouTube. An excerpt:
Bosses, like the rest of us, like to be read and protected.
Ted has studied Ellen's professional background, knows which individuals are her allies and which ones are adversaries. He incorporates that knowledge into his decisions.
Karen knows little of Ellen's alliances or background. As a result, she doesn't consider any of those factors when making her decisions.
Which person would you rather have working for you? Ted or Karen?
Michael J. Lewis, writing in Commentary, on Hollywood and 9/11:
As one who cannot stand networking events that resemble shark tanks - the very term "networking" is odious - I liked this CareerJournal article on how just a few minutes here and there can make a big difference.
Fortune has a slide show of the best business class seats.
Scott Adams, the creator of the Dilbert cartoon strip, has created the unified theory of everything financial. Its points are:
There’s no mistaking the North Koreans for the Swiss. A Times of London report from the Chinese-North Korean border:
Is nuclear power the answer to our future energy needs?