Miscellaneous and Fast

The rebel yell: As demonstrated by some Confederate veterans.
The trailer for "Deception."
Michael Josephson: Six Rules of Credibility.
Joseph Epstein on remembering JFK and the JFK myth.
Odds Bodkin tells the story of Beowulf.
A freelancer experiences insurance cancellation.
The trailer for "Bloom."
Glenda Cooper does not want a Monty Python reunion.
The Hammock Papers remembers Horace Greasley, defiant POW.

Leadership Danger Signs

1. Style trumps substance.
2. Activity poses as action.
3. Good intentions replace results.
4. Excuses are piled on top of excuses.
5. Deadlines are illusory.
6. Hope is a strategy.
7. There's a lot of talk about how hard people are working.
8. Words are parsed to evade commitments.
9. No one seems to be in charge.
10. Top management keeps claiming that it has been surprised by problems.

Language to Remember and Use

"The Roman commander had promised to decimate the rebellious legion and so one in every ten men was killed."

Quote of the Day

Among the forces that have shaped human behavior, boredom is one of the most insistent and universal.

- Robert Nisbet

Music Break

One of the best recordings of Aaron Copland's "Lincoln Portrait." Adlai Stevenson is the narrator.

Romantic Hideaway Update: The Gobbler

"It's going to be a futuristic, state-of-the-art motel with every modern convenience from water beds to 8-tracks. The entire dining area will be covered in deep-pile pink and purple carpet. But wait - here's the best part. It will look like an abstract sculpture of a giant turkey. We'll bill it as a romantic getaway - and call it The Gobbler!"

Read the rest of James Lileks here.

Film Break

The trailers for:

• "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire"
• "Young Winston"
• "The Lawyer"
• "Prague 2013"
• "Conspiracy"
• "Moulin Rouge!"

Uncoiled Power

An analysis of the swing of batting great Ted Williams.

First Paragraph

Early in June of 1956, the summer in New York burst forth temperate and bright, the colors deep, the wind promising. This was the beginning of the summer that was to see the culmination of a chain of events that had begun, like everything else, at the beginning of the world, but had started in a practical sense in March of the previous year, when the Saromsker Rebbe opened the wrong drawer.

- From Perfection (a short story in The Pacific and Other Stories) by Mark Helprin

Justice Thomas

Althouse has the interview with Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas that is getting so much attention. I was active in a group of public sector EEO officers years ago when he was head of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and he graciously agreed to speak at one of our early conferences. He won over what could have been a very tough audience.