Jonathan Miller's Blog, page 42
July 29, 2014
John Y’s Musings from the Middle: Building Blocks
You know, maybe…. learning to play with building blocks is the most important activity we learn as children.
Because we continue– metaphorically speaking–to play this game our entire lives.
Everytime we experience something new or learn some new piece of information or glean some new insight about life it is like we collect a new block we can play with–to help build something with.
So, I guess we should ask ourselves each day, “What are we building today with our building blocks?” And, “Which bu...
Erica and Matt Chua: He Said/She Said: Japanese Fashion
When you hear “Japanese fashion”, what do you think? Middle-age men wearing Disney World hats, Las Vegas t-shirts and enormous cameras? Or do you think the Harajuku women, dressed up like dolls, anime characters, and the occasional horse head? Are their fashion choices representing craziness or self-expression in a repressive society? Read our takes then have your say in the comments below.
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HE SAID…
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Fashion in Japan isinteresting. “Interesting” used in a Minnesota-nice sort of way, as in, “it...
July 28, 2014
Dave Goldberg: Barcelona and the 6%
“We could simply pack our bags and catch a plane to Barcelona ‘cause this city’s a drag.”
- Holiday in Spain by Counting Crows
If you’re reading this, there’s a decent chance I’m catching you on a mobile device. And according to the latest Pew data, 6% of U.S. consumers are mobile ONLY. No home phone. No computer. And from what I saw atMobile World Congress(MWC) last month in Barcelona, this number is guaranteed to rise.
One of the major conversations at the conference centered on device form fa...
John Y’s Musings from the Middle: The Marshmallow Test
The “Marshmallow Test,” Batman, and law school (and life) lessons.
Ever since my sophomore year in college, after renting the movie the Paper Chase (about life at Harvard law school) and watching it three consecutive times (the third time as the sun was rising the next morning), I knew I wanted to go to law school.
25 years ago this fall I started law school at the University of Kentucky. Law school, for me, was one of those transitional and transformational experiences. The experience has a wa...
Saul Kaplan: Weird Is In
I have to admit when I was growing up and when we raised our children I thought weird was out. Weird was isolated, ostracized, dismissed, and definitely not cool. Turns out I was wrong. Weird is in. Weird is unique, refreshing, remarkable, and definitely cool. It just took me a while to figure it out. The evidence is all around us. Two personal reminders of how weird can be an advantage are a recent trip to Austin, Texas and reading Delivering Happiness by Zappos CEO, Tony Hsieh.
I was asked t...
July 27, 2014
David V. Hawpe: Fancy Farm, Mitch McConnell and Blackdamp
Alison Grimes ought to remind the Crowd of Fancy Farm that Mitch McConnell is choking the U.S. Senate with blackdamp.
Given what McConnell knows about coal mining, aides may have to explain to him that blackdamp is a mixture of debilitating gases – as one dictionary puts it, a miasma “incapable of supporting life or flame.”
Fancy Farm is, of course, the political picnic in Graves County on the first Saturday in August that traditionally opens the Kentucky political season. St. Jerome’s Parish b...
John Y’s Musings from the Middle: Fancy Farm Redux
Next Saturday,on what we hope is a sunny and inviting Kentucky summer afternoon, our state will be host to an annual political tradition we call Fancy Farm.
Fancy Farm is Kentucky’s political equivalent of the ancient legal practice of trial by ordeal–where the accused is set on fire or tied up and thrown into a river to determine guilt or innocence. If the accused survives, they would be presumed innocent. In Kentucky’s political version, a politician who survives Fancy Farm, is presumed poli...
July 25, 2014
John Y’s Musings from the Middle: Wendell Ford
A very special evening.I attended the annual Wendell Ford dinner tonight.But someone was missing, the honored guest himself, who is home tonight battling lung cancer courageously and magnanimously. Even cancer, as sinsiter and destruct…ive a force as it is, must be ashamed to find itself hosting someone so beloved and beneficient as Wendell Ford. (And, yes, someone also so ornery and determined.)Wendell may not have been in attendance but no figure has ever– in my experience– been more presen...
Julie Rath: Look Taller With These 11 Tips
Do you ever wish you looked a little taller? Many of my clients, even if they are above average height, list this as an image goal. At 5′ 1″ myself, I appreciate the sentiment. Luckily for us vertically-challenged folks, we can use clothing as smoke and mirrors to achieve (or at least get closer to) the look we want.Below are 11 tips on how to dress so you look taller:
Patterns and Color
1) Wear the same color (or at least similar tones of color) on top as you do on bottom. That way, you avoid...
July 24, 2014
John Y’s Musings from the Middle: Losin’ It (Not a Diet Post)
Losing it!
After receiving 3 calls in less than 5 minutes from a telemarketing company—and all 3 interrupting an important business call– I decided to retaliate.
I called back the number and got an answer from a robotic telemarketing sales rep and I said, “Hello. How are you doing today? I’m interrupting your day to try to sell you some s**t you don’t need. Do you have a few minutes to talknow?”
And then I gave the real reason I was calling and asked that my number be removed from their call lis...
