human
should
read
The
Power
Of
Positive
Thinking,
by
Norman
Vincent
Peale.
I want to enthusiastically recommend this book to Everyone.
-30-
Saturday, November 21, 2009
power
Every
human
should
read
The
Power
Of
Positive
Thinking,
by
Norman
Vincent
Peale.
I want to enthusiastically recommend this book to Everyone.
human
should
read
The
Power
Of
Positive
Thinking,
by
Norman
Vincent
Peale.
I want to enthusiastically recommend this book to Everyone.
Friday, November 20, 2009
stayin' alive
Listen to this paragraph
[from Woody Allen: A Biography
by Eric Lax
1991 Da Capo Press]
> > > > "I was at an early age attracted to a certain type of woman physically," Woody said some years ago. "It's very hard to crystallize exactly the look that turned me on so much, but generally it was almost what you'd call a Jules Feiffer type of girl, the kind that appear in his cartoons with long black hair, no makeup, kind of black-clothed, leather-purse-carrying, silver earrings -- almost a joke in terms of women today. But at the time I thought they were all beautiful.
And I found out so frequently when I used to chase after those girls that they were almost invariably wanting to leave Brooklyn and move to Greenwich Village and study art, study music, get into literature -- or blow up an office building. When I also found they weren't interested in me because I was a lowlife culturally and intellectually, I had to start trying to make some sort of effort to explore interests that they had; all I knew about was baseball.
I used to take them out and they'd say, 'Where I'd really like to go tonight is to hear Andrés Segovia.' And I'd say, 'Who?' Or they'd say, 'Did you read this Faulkner novel?' And I'd say, 'I read COMIC BOOKS. I've never read a book in my life.' And so in order to keep pace, I had to read. And I found I liked what I read. It wasn't a chore for me after a while.
I found I liked Faulkner and Hemingway, although not Fitzgerald so much. Then I started reading plays. The things those women read and liked led them inevitably to Nietzsche and Trotsky and Beethoven, and I had to struggle to stay alive in that kind of company."
[from Woody Allen: A Biography
by Eric Lax
1991 Da Capo Press]
> > > > "I was at an early age attracted to a certain type of woman physically," Woody said some years ago. "It's very hard to crystallize exactly the look that turned me on so much, but generally it was almost what you'd call a Jules Feiffer type of girl, the kind that appear in his cartoons with long black hair, no makeup, kind of black-clothed, leather-purse-carrying, silver earrings -- almost a joke in terms of women today. But at the time I thought they were all beautiful.
And I found out so frequently when I used to chase after those girls that they were almost invariably wanting to leave Brooklyn and move to Greenwich Village and study art, study music, get into literature -- or blow up an office building. When I also found they weren't interested in me because I was a lowlife culturally and intellectually, I had to start trying to make some sort of effort to explore interests that they had; all I knew about was baseball.
I used to take them out and they'd say, 'Where I'd really like to go tonight is to hear Andrés Segovia.' And I'd say, 'Who?' Or they'd say, 'Did you read this Faulkner novel?' And I'd say, 'I read COMIC BOOKS. I've never read a book in my life.' And so in order to keep pace, I had to read. And I found I liked what I read. It wasn't a chore for me after a while.
I found I liked Faulkner and Hemingway, although not Fitzgerald so much. Then I started reading plays. The things those women read and liked led them inevitably to Nietzsche and Trotsky and Beethoven, and I had to struggle to stay alive in that kind of company."
-30-
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
thanks, babe
TODAY, read a book review in The New York Times Review of Books:
the book -- The Gift Of Thanks: The Roots and Rituals of Gratitude, by Margaret Visser
the title of the review: "Gratitude's Grace Can Be Itself a Gift," by Dwight Garner (NY Times book critic)
This thoughtful and entertaining piece made me think some thoughts.
--------------------------------------------------
(the first paragraph):
> > > > "It is a fact of life that people give dinner parties, and when they invite you, you have to turn around and invite them back," Laurie Colwin wrote in her bite-size masterpiece, "Home Cooking," published in 1988. "Often they retaliate by inviting you again, and you must then extend another invitation. Back and forth you go, like Ping-Pong balls, and what you end up with is called social life." < < < <
---------------------------------------------
@@@ They "retaliate" by inviting you -- that's funny!
@@@ I remember when I was in 4th grade, I talked my parents (who rarely entertained) into inviting my teacher, Miss Marek, and her fiance to dinner at our house at the end of the school year. It seems funny, now. It was a miscellaneous impulse. It was nice of my mother to do it.
@@@ Someone told me year ago that a family in the little farming community where I spent my high school years had an Open House when they finished building their new house. The whole town was invited and no one came. (!) Good grief.
@@@ Recently I was in a conversation with someone about the business enterprises people get into where they can sell to their friends -- Mary Kay, Tupperware, etc. etc. -- I said, back in the 60s when "housewives" wanted reasons to "get out of the house" those businesses enjoyed a certain popularity -- a [pick-the-brand] party was a treat, an opportunity to socialize. Now that everyone works outside the home, most women are not looking for reasons to "get out of the house." People don't have time.
The woman I was talking with said, "Yes, now no one wants to go anywhere, and they don't want anyone to come over."
----------------------------
[from Garner's NYTimes review]
> > > > Colwin wasn't complaining, exactly. She liked dinner parties. But she would also have liked Margaret Visser's observation, in her new book, "The Gift of Thanks," that the word "host" is related through Indo-European roots to the words "hostile" and "hostage." Dinner parties are complicated things, where obligation and gratitude collide and overlap -- and sometimes crash and burn. < < < <
----------------------------------- A friend of mine, Sarah, began the practice of writing and mailing a Thank-You note to each person who gave her a gift, at birthdays and Christmas. I copied her -- I liked that tradition! I mailed Thank-You notes for each "gift-y" occasion, and I felt like Princess Diana because I read that she was a great Thank-You note writer, also.
My friend Sarah thanked me once, for the nice Thank-You note I had written to her; and I said Thank you, and then we laughed, realizing this could go on and on and on if we started thanking each other for each kind thank-you note.
-------------------------------
[Garner's review] > > > > ..."The Gift of Thanks" is a scholarly, many-angled examination of what gratitude is and how it functions in our lives.
Gratitude is a moral emotion of sorts, Ms. Visser writes, one that is more complicated and more vital than we think.
English speakers are obsessed with the terms "thanks" or "thank you." We often say these words more than 100 times a day, she writes, in a flurry that many other cultures find baffling. < < < <
-----------------------------------------------------------------
"Thanks fah-yuh help."
I will never forget Mary McDonough. She was my boss at one of my first jobs after college -- First National Bank of Boston. When Mary asked me to do something, she would say when, and (if necessary) how, to do it, & take questions if I had them, and then she would finish our interaction with the phrase "Thanks for your help" only with her Boston accent it came out, "Thanks fah-yuh help."
I used to think, "I'm not technically helping her -- I'm doing my job in the form of following her directions." But I'll tell ya, "Thanks fah-yuh help" made every day smooth, pleasant, and productive.
Think Mary was genius.
------------------------------------
[Garner review] > > > > Ms. Visser acknowledges that simple politeness is the grease that keeps society running and, conversely, how much hostility can build up among people when words like "thanks" are not spoken. < < < <
---------------------
During the years when I worked as a lobbyist I always noticed (and enjoyed) how, during floor debate, senators and representatives would refer to each other as "my good friend." Larry Gabriel would get up to oppose a bill that had been introduced by Ed Olson and begin by saying, "I know my good friend Ed Olson has done a lot of research on this subject, and..."
It was, not always but often, "my friend so-and-so" or "my good friend so-and-so" as you laid the groundwork for opposing or even killing the other guy's bill.
Decorum.
--------------------------
And now it's like, I'm onto the subject of Good Manners more than Gratitude.
But they go together.
Or, one leads to the other.
Vast subject.
More thoughts / observations another day.
Thank you.
And thank you.
Thank you, too!
OK that's it.
the book -- The Gift Of Thanks: The Roots and Rituals of Gratitude, by Margaret Visser
the title of the review: "Gratitude's Grace Can Be Itself a Gift," by Dwight Garner (NY Times book critic)
This thoughtful and entertaining piece made me think some thoughts.
--------------------------------------------------
(the first paragraph):
> > > > "It is a fact of life that people give dinner parties, and when they invite you, you have to turn around and invite them back," Laurie Colwin wrote in her bite-size masterpiece, "Home Cooking," published in 1988. "Often they retaliate by inviting you again, and you must then extend another invitation. Back and forth you go, like Ping-Pong balls, and what you end up with is called social life." < < < <
---------------------------------------------
@@@ They "retaliate" by inviting you -- that's funny!
@@@ I remember when I was in 4th grade, I talked my parents (who rarely entertained) into inviting my teacher, Miss Marek, and her fiance to dinner at our house at the end of the school year. It seems funny, now. It was a miscellaneous impulse. It was nice of my mother to do it.
@@@ Someone told me year ago that a family in the little farming community where I spent my high school years had an Open House when they finished building their new house. The whole town was invited and no one came. (!) Good grief.
@@@ Recently I was in a conversation with someone about the business enterprises people get into where they can sell to their friends -- Mary Kay, Tupperware, etc. etc. -- I said, back in the 60s when "housewives" wanted reasons to "get out of the house" those businesses enjoyed a certain popularity -- a [pick-the-brand] party was a treat, an opportunity to socialize. Now that everyone works outside the home, most women are not looking for reasons to "get out of the house." People don't have time.
The woman I was talking with said, "Yes, now no one wants to go anywhere, and they don't want anyone to come over."
----------------------------
[from Garner's NYTimes review]
> > > > Colwin wasn't complaining, exactly. She liked dinner parties. But she would also have liked Margaret Visser's observation, in her new book, "The Gift of Thanks," that the word "host" is related through Indo-European roots to the words "hostile" and "hostage." Dinner parties are complicated things, where obligation and gratitude collide and overlap -- and sometimes crash and burn. < < < <
----------------------------------- A friend of mine, Sarah, began the practice of writing and mailing a Thank-You note to each person who gave her a gift, at birthdays and Christmas. I copied her -- I liked that tradition! I mailed Thank-You notes for each "gift-y" occasion, and I felt like Princess Diana because I read that she was a great Thank-You note writer, also.
My friend Sarah thanked me once, for the nice Thank-You note I had written to her; and I said Thank you, and then we laughed, realizing this could go on and on and on if we started thanking each other for each kind thank-you note.
-------------------------------
[Garner's review] > > > > ..."The Gift of Thanks" is a scholarly, many-angled examination of what gratitude is and how it functions in our lives.
Gratitude is a moral emotion of sorts, Ms. Visser writes, one that is more complicated and more vital than we think.
English speakers are obsessed with the terms "thanks" or "thank you." We often say these words more than 100 times a day, she writes, in a flurry that many other cultures find baffling. < < < <
-----------------------------------------------------------------
"Thanks fah-yuh help."
I will never forget Mary McDonough. She was my boss at one of my first jobs after college -- First National Bank of Boston. When Mary asked me to do something, she would say when, and (if necessary) how, to do it, & take questions if I had them, and then she would finish our interaction with the phrase "Thanks for your help" only with her Boston accent it came out, "Thanks fah-yuh help."
I used to think, "I'm not technically helping her -- I'm doing my job in the form of following her directions." But I'll tell ya, "Thanks fah-yuh help" made every day smooth, pleasant, and productive.
Think Mary was genius.
------------------------------------
[Garner review] > > > > Ms. Visser acknowledges that simple politeness is the grease that keeps society running and, conversely, how much hostility can build up among people when words like "thanks" are not spoken. < < < <
---------------------
During the years when I worked as a lobbyist I always noticed (and enjoyed) how, during floor debate, senators and representatives would refer to each other as "my good friend." Larry Gabriel would get up to oppose a bill that had been introduced by Ed Olson and begin by saying, "I know my good friend Ed Olson has done a lot of research on this subject, and..."
It was, not always but often, "my friend so-and-so" or "my good friend so-and-so" as you laid the groundwork for opposing or even killing the other guy's bill.
Decorum.
--------------------------
And now it's like, I'm onto the subject of Good Manners more than Gratitude.
But they go together.
Or, one leads to the other.
Vast subject.
More thoughts / observations another day.
Thank you.
And thank you.
Thank you, too!
OK that's it.
-30-
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Monday, November 16, 2009
Resist SOUND BITES
I think we should all resist the
Sound Bite Culture
which 24-7 cable news inaugurated and has perpetuated.
Sound Bites (or sight-bites, with the photographs and film footage)
are not necessarily (some would probably say are Rarely)
legitimate News.
Bites (sound / sight) are just a seconds-long thing-ie
to "grab" our attention
(so tired of word "grab")
and --
sell us
soap
diets
anti-depressants.
or etc.
What's the antidote?
I like to read something that says "analysis"
Sound Bite Culture
which 24-7 cable news inaugurated and has perpetuated.
Sound Bites (or sight-bites, with the photographs and film footage)
are not necessarily (some would probably say are Rarely)
legitimate News.
Bites (sound / sight) are just a seconds-long thing-ie
to "grab" our attention
(so tired of word "grab")
and --
sell us
soap
diets
anti-depressants.
or etc.
What's the antidote?
I like to read something that says "analysis"
-30-
Friday, November 13, 2009
A Bully Pulpit
"The presidency [of the United States] is a bully pulpit."
Someone said that, think it was Teddy Roosevelt.
"Bully" used in the old-fashioned way does not mean what it means today, i.e., horrible (and probably incompetent) person badgering, berating, threatening you.
Back then it meant, sort of, terrific, strong, effective.
So when he said "bully" he meant "excellent" (or/and terrific, strong, effective...)
The presidency, he was saying, was a great opportunity to make points, put ideas in people's minds, and SET A POSITIVE EXAMPLE.
The Bully Pulpit.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At Easter last spring, the spectacle of President Obama reading aloud to a group of children on the White House lawn was a good case in point. Setting the example of reading to your children would be great if it was the mother; in this case, the father reading to the children....Wow. Can't put a price on that.
(The book he was reading was "Where The Wild Things Are" -- ['have you ever had a wild rumpus?']...!)
It might still be up on YouTube -- it was great.
Jackie Kennedy.
Not, of course, President, but as First Lady she set a terrific example, with her historical restoration of the White House and her prioritization of cultural experiences: artists, musicians, writers / poets, etc. were invited to the White House, 1961-63.
Pres. Reagan.
He set an example of optimism, and tempered his strength in conviction and leadership with a lightness of spirit -- sense of humor, appreciation of life experience, and people, which I thought complemented and enhanced the classic American brand of Optimism which he seemed to not only promote, but more importantly, reflect.
Can a guy who acted in a movie with a gentle chimpanzee as a co-star be President of the U.S.?
Yes, he can.
Weekend.
Someone said that, think it was Teddy Roosevelt.
"Bully" used in the old-fashioned way does not mean what it means today, i.e., horrible (and probably incompetent) person badgering, berating, threatening you.
Back then it meant, sort of, terrific, strong, effective.
So when he said "bully" he meant "excellent" (or/and terrific, strong, effective...)
The presidency, he was saying, was a great opportunity to make points, put ideas in people's minds, and SET A POSITIVE EXAMPLE.
The Bully Pulpit.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At Easter last spring, the spectacle of President Obama reading aloud to a group of children on the White House lawn was a good case in point. Setting the example of reading to your children would be great if it was the mother; in this case, the father reading to the children....Wow. Can't put a price on that.
(The book he was reading was "Where The Wild Things Are" -- ['have you ever had a wild rumpus?']...!)
It might still be up on YouTube -- it was great.
Jackie Kennedy.
Not, of course, President, but as First Lady she set a terrific example, with her historical restoration of the White House and her prioritization of cultural experiences: artists, musicians, writers / poets, etc. were invited to the White House, 1961-63.
Pres. Reagan.
He set an example of optimism, and tempered his strength in conviction and leadership with a lightness of spirit -- sense of humor, appreciation of life experience, and people, which I thought complemented and enhanced the classic American brand of Optimism which he seemed to not only promote, but more importantly, reflect.
Can a guy who acted in a movie with a gentle chimpanzee as a co-star be President of the U.S.?
Yes, he can.
Weekend.
-30-
Thursday, November 12, 2009
flatlined
A senior in high school told me earlier this week that the reason American workers' real wages have flatlined since the 1970s is because women went to work.
I said, "You're crazy, come on."
He says in the 1960s most households had one wage earner and by the 80s most households had two wage earners. He said doubling (approximately) the number of people working held wages at a lower level -- "supply and demand."
I earned my B.A. in English literature, while my young friend is majoring in some type of Economics starting next year, so I didn't dare argue with him. He made it sound good, but surely that can't be the reason. There's got to be some caveat which neither one of us could see.
Just what I need.
More LIFE MYSTERIES.
I said, "You're crazy, come on."
He says in the 1960s most households had one wage earner and by the 80s most households had two wage earners. He said doubling (approximately) the number of people working held wages at a lower level -- "supply and demand."
I earned my B.A. in English literature, while my young friend is majoring in some type of Economics starting next year, so I didn't dare argue with him. He made it sound good, but surely that can't be the reason. There's got to be some caveat which neither one of us could see.
Just what I need.
More LIFE MYSTERIES.
-30-
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)