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A Personal Reunion (11/30/99)
I hadn’t visited Exeter in almost
thirty years, but the day I chose to make my return showed the school in
all of its autumn glory. Standing firm amidst the autumn colors, the
stoic brick-and- white-trim edifices of the Academy, resisting all
implication of change.
Liberal-Democrat Doesn’t Work Anymore
(11/29/99)
And just as I don’t think of
myself as a Democrat any more I also have to qualify the label liberal.
Though it used to have positive connotations like generous,
compassionate, and progressive, today, it means whiney and ineffectual.
House
of Cards (11/26/99)
About fifteen years ago, public
commerce was hit by an infectious plague of discounting. It wasn’t
honest discounting, mind you, but simply mountains of hype. The
discounters would start with the highest possible price and then chop it
into pieces. And they would then sell to the mindless droves.
Giving Thanks (11/25/99)
We might just give thanks for being
alive, with the opportunity to contribute our best in this extraordinary
time.
Two Ears, One Mouth (11/24/99)
My rule has always been, If you
have nothing nice to say about someone, be articulate. There are a lot
of people out there in the public eye about whom one might be
articulate. People who just haven’t a clue about decency, grace,
integrity, humility, probity, intellect or some of those other family
values learned hard at the Seton dinner table.
John Kennedy Remembered (11/23/99)
I had my little Brownie camera and
snapped off a shot. Black and white, bad angle; but you can see Kennedy
in the photo. A month later, he went to Dallas.
Call Me a Prude... (11/22/99)
Is this what we want, to reduce
adolescence girls to slutting their futures away at an ever-earlier age?
Are we to revert to some sort of meat-marketplace where the attraction
is simply availability? What happened to feminism? Yeah, right.
License to Carry (11/19/99)
Our society
is really weird about guns. In California, with some of the strictest
gun laws in the country, the lines are sharply drawn about ownership.
The knee-jerk left says no one should have guns. The knee-jerk right
says everyone should have assault weapons if they want, and even if they
don’t want.
Winter -- California Style (11/18/99)
From amidst the dry and desolate,
the first rain sparks the bright green of new grass and clover, often
overnight. Suddenly there is a feeling of possibility again, and future,
after the long senseless summer, and the disquieting fall, as the rain
raced the many fires seeking to claim another swatch of The Golden
State.
Fleece-Lined Political Pockets (11/17/99)
This Y2K crisis watch center is
just the latest example of the White House policy of irrelevant
prevention. Or is it preventive irrelevance? In any event, the tab for
this nonsense is 50-million of your tax dollars. Bye-bye.
Say Goodnight, Mr. Gore (11/16/99)
"And finally," departing
Vice President Gore would say, "To all of you, and the news media
especially, we need to start telling the truth to each other. With
people lying and cheating and others letting it go, we disgrace our
heritage. The United States of America must regain its greatness and
lead again. The world is waiting."
Better Thinking Aloft (11/15/99)
The investigators will be searching
for clues about why the jet dove 14-thousand feet in 30 seconds, then
climbed briefly, then fell into the ocean. have a theory that’s
probably not worth two cents. I base it on the sudden failure of the
flight, and the discovery of one body.
Some Observations on the Day’s News.... (11/12/99)
Now I never defend banks, but I can’t
imagine why they should have to provide cash dispensing service free to
people who aren’t their customers. So what if people have to get cash
elsewhere?
[Text version]
Items (11/11/99 -- Respect the Sacrifice)
I run across a large number of
tidbits that catch my eye or ear because they are particularly poignant,
but not maudlin, or are amusing, or clever or jus’ plain worth passing
along ‘cause they make you think.
[Text version]
T-i-i-i-i-i-me Is on My Side (11/10/99)
This is unassailable proof that the
future can send information back to the present. Which means that the
future exists simultaneously with the present, and thus with the past.
Which means that all time exists only in our own minds.
[Text version]
Al Gore in Wolf's Clothing (11/9/99)
The problem in trying to get Al
Gore to act more like a man is that he doesn’t really have much to
work with. Beyond his obvious and crippling identity crisis, he’s just
not a beat-’em-up kinda guy.
[Text version]
Bits & Pieces (11/8/99)
People magazine has
announced their selection of the sexiest man alive. No, I didn’t have
to return the award. But I gotta think that choosing the sexiest
anything is among the dumber publicity gimmicks since Marla Maples. I
mean, ya gotta wonder if real people — not the magazine — don’t
simply scoff.
The Fickle Sickle (11/5/99)
When it’s your time, it’s your
time. If your house is in the path of a firestorm, it may burn or it may
escape. If you’re in a plane that has some problem no one could see
and a part fails at 33-thousand feet, it’s your time.
Sherlock and Sir Arthur (11/4/99)
Holmes
approaches problems from the point of view that the universe is finite.
If you know all of the links, then you know the chain. "When a fact
appears to be opposed to a long train of deductions, it invariably
proves to be capable of bearing some other interpretation."
Derailed Train (11/3/99)
I suppose that we’re all too busy
with today and tomorrow to spend much thought on the past. Which of
course raises the old warning about those who ignore history are
condemned to repeat it. Frankly, I think there are wonderful signposts
to be found if we look back at from where we came.
Trains...Part II (11/2/99)
Here, we could feel why we had come
to Stratford. Seventeen feet beneath a stone marker in the floor in the
church, lies whatever remains of a man who touched more lives than
perhaps any other in history.
Trains ‘n Coaches ‘n Planes (11/1/99)
We didn’t go abroad last year,
for a variety of reasons, but this year, as something of a belated
honeymoon, we decided to escape in a wholesale manner.
Einstein Was Right (10/29/99)
Colonize the moon? Who are they
planning to send, the elderly and drug-addict welfare mothers? Hey, then
you don’t need water anyway, right?
Net News Is Net Loss (10/28/99)
Call it Nixon’s revenge, but with
the creation of television news celebrities came an influx of people,
both at the network and the local levels, of people who were in it for
the fame and not for the journalism.
Chamber of Horrors (10/27/99)
I had thought, however, that they
would like to get a professional assessment of what they were doing, at
least to be able to say that they were on top of things. Wrong. Be cool
fellas, the emperor looks great.
Political Labels Mean Little (10/26/99)
That leaves mainstream Republicans,
currently led — and I use the term loosely — by Trent
"Empty" Lott and Denny Hastert. These people aren’t yet
within sight of the vision thing.
Coming to a Theater in You (10/25/99)
Imagine what would happen if we
discarded the presumptive hallmarks of success, and truly considered
what is possible. I think it would blow your mind. Well, at least expand
it.
Naked Pixels (10/22/99)
Since you can’t keep your
children from running into naked people cavorting on the Internet, you
can either ignore the subject, or speak to them about it. I’m saying
this as an adult who has never had children, so consider the source.
Dreading the Typo (10/21/99)
When I finally caught it -- after
it had been faxed to about thirty people -- I noticed that I had spelled
announce with only two n’s. Aaaarrrrgggghhhhhh!
What a Coincidence (10/20/99)
The larger reality often manifests
itself in synchronicity, the coupling of significant events so
extraordinary that it defies the term coincidence. Here are some
personal examples of synchronicity.
Barbarians to Bureaucrats (10/19/99)
The problems arise when they choose
to promote the ramrod, who might have been a good implementer, but
needed to get direction from above. This is especially a problem when a
top salesman is made sales manager.
Pay Less for Health Care (10/18/99)
You don’t buy your car or your
house or your children’s education through insurance companies, why
your health care? Consider that insurance companies necessarily are
making decisions about your health care based on how little you can cost
and how much profit they can make.
Local Television Snooze (10/15/99)
But it’s not just bad
business. When they call it news and it’s nothing more than electronic
wallpaper of car crashes and press conferences, the stations are
misleading their audience and dumbing down the community.
One Ringee-Dingee (10/14/99)
Now think about this, does it
really make sense to send a bill for less than a dollar to a former
customer whom you’re probably gonna try to get back? I don’t think
so. There’s the cost of the billing, the paper, the envelope, and the
postage. And my ire.
Synchronous with a Larger Reality (10/13/99)
Consider that each of you is one a
billion similar human beings, but you are unique. What is the value of
your uniqueness? What are you doing about it?
What a Grand Day! (10/12/99)
Today found us having a first
meeting over a delicious lunch with two very bright, caring people who
are exploring whether Peter and I might play a role — a significant
role — in an important race next year. It was an extraordinary
meeting. It was not about statistics and tactics, but about integrity
and purpose.
Check-Ride
(10/11/99)
Then we flew off up into the wild
blue where the real test was. I had to fly the plane in a steep turn
while maintaining altitude and speed. The first try was a mess. Try
number two was okay. And on the third, Johnny covered up some of
instruments, forcing me to reckon from the landscape.
Language and Assimilation (10/9/99)
Call me alarmist, but our failure
as a society to insist on one public language is an indication that we
are coming to the end of our civilization. I don’t mean all of
civilization as in everyone dying, but rather the culture. Our set of
social mores, rules, and goals just don’t apply any more.
Poly-Ticks (10/8/99)
According to recent polls, the
people of Alabama were pretty much on the fence about a lottery,
concerned that their state government wasn’t honest enough to run in
right. They were on to something.
Bits & Pieces (10/7/99)
The former Clinton concubine
complained, "I have wrinkles now! Nobody thinks I'm 25 anymore. Ken
Starr should pay for a face-lift." Monica honey, wrinkles are gonna
happen when you wince a lot.
The Art of Dung (10/6/99)
These dogmatists haven’t a clue
about social structure, beauty, or form. They use false issues to
celebrate the depravity of pseudo-artists who are just looking for money
and recognition.
Proud to Know Her (10/5/99)
It wasn’t for the glory, but for
the opportunity to help relegate the old-boys-network to the trash bin
of history.
But Does She Whinny (10/4/99)
Winston Churchill’s granddaughter
doesn’t like the fact that she looks like her famous forebear. She’s
pushing 50, but no, I don’t know if she smokes a big cigar.
Bits & Pieces (10/1/99)
They’ve now come out with
medicine for extreme cases of shyness. Gimme a break. How ‘bout just a
little cayenne pepper under the tongue.
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