This Moment: The Blog - Jessica C. McWade, Ed.D.

Now That's a Leader #63: Sarah Fitzpatrick

noreply@blogger.com (Jessica C. McWade) — Wed, 20 May 2026 11:58:36 -0400

Journalism today is bloody and bruised at the hands of an authoritarian who, as with all authoritarians, is inconvenienced by the truth and attacks legitimate media speaking that truth. Journalism is not dead, however. Take The Atlantic under Editor Jeffrey Goldberg. The magazine has hit its stride just when we need as much no-punches-pulled reporting as possible.

Sarah Fitzpatrick's recent reporting about the current FBI director for The Atlantic is as essential as it is painful. She earned her investigative journalism chops at NBC News and 60 Minutes. She teaches investigative journalism at Columbia’s Graduate School of journalism, as well, undoubtedly inspiring and equipping new generations of tough-minded journalists. Two recent Atlantic pieces by Fitzpatrick illuminate repeated cases of astonishingly bad judgment on the part of the FBI director. These are meticulously researched stories from many current and former FBI and Justice Department sources. The results of this reporting would be highly problematic with any top government official, but it's frighteningly dangerous in an agency largely known after J. Edgar Hoover's imperious reign for its judgment, prudence, steadiness, and sobriety.

Predictably, of course, the FBI has launched a criminal investigation of a reporter who is simply doing her job, and doing it well. After all, let's not have the First Amendment get in the way of state-sponsored injustice. The FBI director has also filed a $250 million defamation lawsuit against The Atlantic. The latter is a dubious proposition, but let's hope it proceeds because it stands no chance of succeeding and the discovery process will likely reveal even more serious concerns within the FBI.

So much of journalistic excellence today is demonstrated by women such as Sarah Fitzpatrick. They often ask the toughest questions at press conferences and in scrums, only to be called names and denigrated in petty fashion by the commander-in-chief. "You're terrible. You're the worst person. Who are you with?" ... "Oh, everyone knows they're fake news." How about calling Bloomberg's Catherine Lucey "piggy" or criticizing CNN's Kaitlin Collins for never smiling, which apparently girls are supposed to do all the time. Of course, he never answers any of their questions.

I came of age inspired by The Washington Post's Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, but I also entered adulthood when Judge William Webster, a Republican, was nominated by President Carter to lead the FBI and continued to serve in that capacity under President Reagan. Here was a man in every way the opposite of the current FBI boss - extensive relevant background, brilliant, judicious, careful, apolitical, stable, and fair. To measure the span between Judge Webster, who I always admired, and the individual currently running the FBI is to understand how very far we have a fallen as a nation.

Sarah Fitzpatrick image courtesy of The Atlantic.

Oh That's Rare: China's Enormous Strategic Advantage

noreply@blogger.com (Jessica C. McWade) — Tue, 19 May 2026 11:12:47 -0400

Perhaps last week's U.S.-China summit was a "success" in the narrow sense that the Americans were not humiliated. Well, maybe not. Officials, analysts, reporters, and observers have been providing widespread commentary on how subservient and obsequious the U.S. President was to the Chinese dictator Xi. Ugh!

The critically important subject of rare earth minerals (17 crucial metals) hovered over the summit. These raw materials are central components in a vast array of products from electronics, EVs, and other renewable technologies to traditional automobiles and medical diagnostics. They are also indispensable to a large number of military systems including jet engines, guided missiles, radar, and sonar. In short, modern life is not possible without them.

The U.S. suffers a massive strategic vulnerability here, however, since China accounts for two-thirds of the world's rare-earth mining, 85 percent of its refining, and 90 percent of its production. While the U.S. has its head up its collective ass in ridiculous, hate-filled "culture wars," the Chinese dominate the rare-earth market. This is preposterously dangerous since the U.S. relies on China for 75-80 percent of its total rare-earth imports.

At a Council on Foreign Relations meeting on Friday, the Council's Heidi Crebo-Rediker said, "China has a Sword of Damocles over the world" and they are certainly not afraid to use this leverage. She said that the Chinese threatened to shut off the supply of rare-earth minerals to the U.S. when the latter imposed its foolish tariffs. The U.S. Administration instantly capitulated, of course. The U.S. subsequently made matters much worse with its war of choice in Iran, massively depleting its missile stockpiles. The cost of replenishment that relies on rare-earth minerals will be staggering and continue to add to national deficit and debt.

There was no chance that the U.S. would adroitly address this gaping vulnerability at last week's summit. None. They may not have made matters worse, but let their be no doubt that Xi will not hesitate to hold his Sword of Damocles over America's head as he pressures Washington on the Taiwan question. Many sleepless nights ahead in Taipei, for sure.

Courtesy of Big Tech and AI Substack

Roll It All Back!

noreply@blogger.com (Jessica C. McWade) — Sun, 12 Apr 2026 16:48:00 -0400

Mendocino, CA -

Our troubled world is better today with the decisive defeat of Hungary’s Victor Orban, a patron saint of fascism, hatred, and ineptitude. Hungary’s performance by most economic, social, cultural, and diplomatic measures has been abysmal over Orban’s 16-year reign.

At least Orban graciously conceded defeat and congratulated his opponents. Brazil’s fascist Bolosonaro refused to admit his defeat in 2022, attempted a coup, and received a 27-year sentence for his effort. Orban and Bolosonaro’s buddy in the United States - already a convicted felon - refused to concede defeat in 2020, attempted a coup, and is once again President of the United States.

It’s time to start rolling back what the ignorant, corrupt, fascist-stained broligarchy is doing to our world. Orban and Bolsonaro are good starts.

Now That’s A Leader #62: Chaplain William Green, Jr.

noreply@blogger.com (Jessica C. McWade) — Fri, 3 Apr 2026 14:13:00 -0400

Washington DC -

He just fired three more good generals, summarily and without legitimate cause. The U.S. Defense Secretary fired three more top Army Generals yesterday. Their transgressions? They dare put country, the Constitution, and the needs of our men and women in uniform ahead of the feckless political and pseudo-religious impulses of the Pentagon’s “leader.”

One of the terminated generals - in addition to the Army Chief of Staff himself - was an actual religious leader, a real man of the cloth named Major General William Green, Jr., the Army’s Chief of Chaplains - until yesterday. General Green (image below) served in the Iraq War and over a distinguished, worldwide career earned the Legion of Merit, Bronze Star, Meritorious Service Medal, and the Army Commendation Medal.

As with all good chaplains, General Green is ecumenical and open to the needs of all faiths as well as people of no faith. He is reputed to be a great listener and marvelous therapist, which is a key role now negated by a Defense Secretary who wants chaplains preaching the word of God and not tending to the very human needs of their flock.

And therein lies the problem. The Defense Secretary is a zealot who believes there’s only one true religion - Christianity. Furthermore, he has no problem glorifying war in the name of God, even its most vile, murderous, and Geneva Convention-defying practices.

It is going to take a very long time to pick up the pieces and return our military to some sense of normalcy governed by law, morality, ethics, and professionalism.

Anatomy of a Movie #21: The Wilhelm Scream

noreply@blogger.com (Jessica C. McWade) — Thu, 2 Apr 2026 06:40:00 -0400

Washington DC -

Yes, it has a name. The stock sound of a man screaming in deadly fashion was a Warner Brothers’ staple used in movies by sound guys for decades - and still.

The original scream was captured in “Distant Drums” (1951) and subsequently proven via audio forensics to be the voice-actor Sheb Wooley. The scream got branded, however, after a character named Private Wilhelm was shot in the thigh with an arrow in the western “The Charge at Feather River” (1953).

The Wilhelm Scream became a thing among sound professionals for many decades. It was an inside joke as these guys jockeyed to insert it into movies even when studios said, “Enough, already.”

The scream is in films ranging from “Them” (1954) and “The Wild Bunch” (1969) to all the “Star Wars” and “Indiana Jones” movies. TV’s “Family Guy” loved to use it, too. Of course.

Hunger Is Not Inevitable

noreply@blogger.com (Jessica C. McWade) — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 14:44:00 -0400

We must "bend the arc of history toward nourishment and dignity for all," said Mashal Husain, president of the World Food Prize Foundation, because "hunger is not inevitable." Husain was in New York City this morning as part of a delegation presenting the annual World Food Prize to this year's laureate.

Let's face it. There is plenty of food in the world to feed everyone. Hunger has not been a supply problem in the modern era. It's always been a question of distribution, economics, and politics. Food insecurity is especially acute these days, however, because of wars of choice, climate change, and the politics of brutality inflicted on people, in part, by a cabal of authoritarians momentarily in power.

Humankind has never been very good at long-term, systemic thinking. That is one among many reasons why some people refuse to understand the very obvious and scientifically proven causal relationships that lead from climate change to hunger and famine to migration to otherization and victimization and, ultimately to war. "This link is as old as humanity itself," Sharon Burke of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center told us this morning. And yet as Husain soberly reminded us, “We gather at a moment that tests us, where supply chains fracture under pressure and millions of families are searching for their next meal.” What a crying shame.

The richest nation in the world is a horrifying case in point. The United States suffers massive food insecurity. It chooses, however, to cut funding for hunger-relief programs that cost a very small fraction of the billions of dollars it squanders on a poorly conceived war of choice that has killed thousands of people and put in place a far worse and angrier regime in Iran.

And without a willingness or ability to think systemically and long term, dumb-ass politicians from one U.S. political party fail to understand that hunger reduces educational and employment attainment. In doing so, hunger leads directly to poverty, homelessness, and crime. That is why taxpayers pay a much bigger price over time when federal initiatives such as SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) are reduced or abolished.

Mashal Husain added this morning that “those who feed the world should be seen, honored, and never stand alone." Thus the annual World Food Prize and its 57th laureate honored today, Huub Leliveld of the Netherlands. Leliveld is a food safety expert who for six decades has created and applied scientific evidence to inform modern regulation, legislation, and standards-setting across 113 nations. Hunger certainly kills, but unsafe food takes 420,000 lives every year.

Husain positioned the challenge very well when she said that feeding people while also providing them with safe food "is not just a technological challenge; it's a moral calling."

“Stop Hiring Humans”

noreply@blogger.com (Jessica C. McWade) — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 16:17:00 -0400

Yes, that was the headline in a recent advertising campaign by the San Francisco AI firm, Artisan. "Stop Hiring Humans," it read. The tech-bros thought it would be cute. They believed the snarky, clueless provocation would substantially monetize Ava, their AI-powered sales assistant tool. This coming at a painful time economically and when people are already losing jobs because of AI. Regrettably, the campaign was a huge success promotionally and monetarily. It failed morally, ethically, and professionally, however, and illustrates an indifference tech titans can have to living and working in a civilized society.

The Artisan CEO bragged about the results of the outdoor campaign and the attention it brought to their brand. Levitating high above the real world, Artisan Co-Founder & CEO Jaspar Carmichael-Jack wrote on the company's blog in December that the campaign "generated millions of impressions, sparked heated debate, and drove (two million dollars) in new (revenue)." He continued, "We knew we needed something different. Something that would stand out. Something … provocative. What we didn't know was that our controversial approach would lead to 10s of millions of impressions, 1000s of death threats, 100s of articles and our biggest growth months ever. Was it worth it? Yes." By whose measure, Brute, by whose measure?

The young CEO wrote of needing to break through the clutter and separate the brand from the pack. This is completely understandable in every business, but especially in the dynamic, ever-changing world of artificial intelligence. It's fine to be creative and even quite edgy. But when does it cross the line? A firm can draw all manner of attention to itself, in a world apparently wherein bad press is good and no press is bad, with all manner of vulgarities or oblivious takes on social, political, and economic conditions.

I wouldn't want to work at, partner with, or buy from an organization with this kind of callousness or these kind of values disguised as attention-getting pizzazz. Oh wait, that's when the cliched reaction to my saying that is always, "Well, you're not our target market for employment or sales" or "You're old and you don't get it." Later in his blog piece, of course, Carmichael-Jack wrote that his admitted rage-baiting worked because ... drum roll, please ... "Luckily, the people who were mad aren’t our target audience."

You might be inspired by Warren Oates in the movie "Stripes" (1981) to say, "Lighten up, Francis." No, I don't think so. Moral, ethical, and professional standards are being breached daily and we continue to dredge new lows. I support AI. I mean, what choice do we have anyway? AI will provide enormous opportunities and advantages across all aspects of society. At the same time, however, it is very dangerous when left in the wrong hands.

Just witness the different path Anthropic has taken against its competitor OpenAI on fully autonomous weapons and mass domestic surveillance. In rejecting the radically dangerous demands of an out-of-control Secretary of Defense, Anthropic has chosen to stand for something greater than themselves and to behave as a reasonable corporate citizen. Unlike OpenAI, they see the bigger picture; they're playing a longer-term game, and they actually seem to care. DOD using AI to reduce or remove human beings from weapons engagement or to spy on U.S. citizens are wholly unacceptable propositions. Of course, it's a much more egregious if not catastrophic problem than a mere advertising campaign. Sadly, however, it reflects a similar mindset.

Anatomy of a Movie #20: “Cover Up” and “Breakdown: 1975”

noreply@blogger.com (Jessica C. McWade) — Sat, 14 Mar 2026 16:00:00 -0400

The Laura Poitras-Mark Obenhaus documentary “Cover Up” (2025) features the work of renown investigative reporter Sy Hersh. Boy, could we use him now.

Hersh is a legend. His work exposing the My Lai Massacre and its cover-up, Watergate, secret bombings of Cambodia, CIA domestic spying, Abu Ghraib torture, and other horrifying betrayals of the public trust earned him a Pulitzer Prize and countless other awards. Let’s put it this way. You did not want to be on the receiving end of a phone call from Sy Hersh back in those days. He was tenacious. He was indefatigable. He spoke truth to power. As such, bad actors in high places doing bad things often paid the price. And yes, no doubt, he made some mistakes, too.

Hersh’s heyday was proximate to 1975, the year highlighted in Morgan Neville’s documentary “Breakdown: 1975” (2025). One can argue that 1975 ranks very high with 1968, 1979, and 2001 among the worst years in U.S. history. After all, the unforgivable war in Vietnam, the Nixon-Kissinger mendacity, Watergate, and the severe economic consequences of all of it flowed liked manure across Old Glory back in 1975.

One can also argue, however, that 2026 might be worse than all of them. The criminality, corruption, cruelty, indecency, incompetence, stupidity, abject inhumanity, and foolishness about war at the highest levels of the U.S. government are undeniably worse today than in previous chapters of U.S. history. The current Administration makes the Nixon Administration look like a picnic.

One major difference between now and then, however, is that investigative journalism really mattered back then. Media were far more independent than today; not small cogs in greedy conglomerates’ wheels of monetization. Media actually thought of themselves as the Fourth Estate. Their accountability journalism played a key checks-and-balances role. Another stark difference was that a majority of Americans were authentically horrified when politicians were outed for abusing the public trust, no matter their political loyalties. By comparison today, it’s all blue-red nonsense with truth mediated by what side you’re on. Ultimately, of course, the criminal and corrupt president in 1974 was forced to resign by leaders of his own party. No such condition exists today for putting country over party - and personal profit.

Senator Frank Church (D-ID) said it well in 1975 as the U.S. grappled with efforts to reform what had been a runaway government working expressly against the peoples’ interests. “If this government ever became a tyranny, if a dictator ever took charge in this country, the tech capacity the intel community has given to government, could enable it to impose total tyranny. And there would be no way to fight back.” That was more than 50 years ago. It’s happening right now, and it's terrifying. What will the documentary "2026: Breakdown" tell us 50 years from now? Stay tuned.

Nothing Surprising About Iran’s Response

noreply@blogger.com (Jessica C. McWade) — Wed, 11 Mar 2026 16:20:00 -0400

“There’s nothing surprising about anything Iran is doing” in response to the U.S.-Israeli attacks, Ray Takeyh told us today. Takeyh is a Middle East scholar and participant in a Council on Foreign Relations panel on Iran this afternoon. “They’re doing exactly what they said they’d do,” he added.

Not surprisingly, of course, the U.S. Administration has been completely caught off guard by Iran’s response. In yet another chapter in the “bozos will be bozos” saga, the Administration is often befuddled, without any strategic framework, unable to state and sustain war objectives, constantly lying, insulting our service men and women with pseudo-macho bravado and by equating war with video games and sporting events, creating enmity with allies, destabilizing the global economy, and currently launching a new regime in Tehran worse than the previous one and with revenge on its mind.

There has been little by way of interagency process critical to coordinate political, economic, and military strategy, no advance preparation to evacuate U.S. citizens from the region, no timely notification of embassy staffs, a refusal to take Ukraine’s advice on how to eliminate the same Iranian drones they are facing, and a colossal intelligence failure that resulted in the U.S. killing 175 school children and teachers. And as oil prices increase, the illegal choice to attack the rotten Iranian regime is now filling oil-rich Russia’s war chest as it continues its own illegal war against Ukraine. All this for $1 billion per day!

In keeping with its stellar operational and tactical record, however, the U.S. military has been performing well. The U.S. military is very good at initial offensive attacks. We’re quite adept at blowing things up, but that immense power needs to be preserved for imminent, verifiable threats, which was certainly not the case here. Our problem here is not military in nature. We can always count on the professionalism of our warfighters. Our problem is one of extreme strategic incompetence.

At some point, and no matter the actual facts, the U.S. Administration will declare complete and total success in Iran. Takeyh says Iran may be able to declare victory, too, however, in surviving the attacks and exerting real costs on the international community.

Panelists today including moderator Deborah Amos (upper left), veteran Middle East correspondent and currently Princeton journalism professor.

Lake Monster

noreply@blogger.com (Jessica C. McWade) — Sun, 8 Mar 2026 09:35:00 -0400

Anybody who knows anything, and that eliminates the current U.S. Administration, understands the extraordinary value of Voice of America, Radio Free Europe, and Radio Liberty - generally but especially at a time of war.

This is an unpopular and illegal war-of-choice with devastating consequences. Nonetheless, sheer amateurism dripping in vengefulness is crippling these broadcast services and, in doing so, the U.S. capacity to make its case for war and, yes, report about it fairly in the Middle East and around the globe in scores of languages.

Kari Lake does not get much attention given the likes of Hegseth, Miller, Noem, Mullin, Lewandowski, Bondi and, well, the list is endless. She’s a dangerous, breathtaking lightweight, however, and her destruction of these valuable U.S. assets is treasonous. Her work provides yet another example of clearing the playing field for China and, in this case, Beijing’s beefed-up global broadcast services. Hopefully, this judicial rebuke can slow her down until adults eventually exert some control here.

Shutter to Think #21: Posthumous Fame of Maier and de Sinéty

noreply@blogger.com (Jessica C. McWade) — Sat, 7 Mar 2026 13:07:00 -0500

Vivian Maier and Madeleine de Sinéty share at least one thing in common, photographically. Their prodigious work was largely unknown until near or after their deaths.

As with many professions and pursuits, of course, women were discouraged from working as photographers until recent decades. That didn’t deny well-deserved, artistic acclaim for Diane Arbus and Arbus’ teacher Lisette Model in the mid-20th Century. Their work was that good, and they were the exceptions. Helen Levitt was every bit in their league, too, but fame eluded her until more recent vintage. David Levi Strauss has said that Levitt was one of “the least known photographers of her time.” So too with Maier and de Sinéty who were absolutely unknown as premier photographers. Their work was only to be discovered posthumously in 2009 in Maier’s case and 2011 in de Sinéty’s circumstance.

Maier is said to have taken over 150,000 images, largely with a Rolleiflex, though most of the negatives were never developed. Having reviewed about 50 of her images shot in New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, rural France and, eventually around the world, it's clear that the work is filled with narrative appeal. She was exceptional compositionally, which aided greatly in the storytelling. Joel Meyerowitz said in the 2013 John Maloof, Oscar-nominated documentary, ”Finding Vivian Maier,” that she had an “authentic eye” and “a good sense of framing.” Notably, he added that she was able to achieve “instant alertness” on the streets, as well, when a possible image presented itself only to vanish seconds later. Notably, her use of a Rolleiflex meant she held the camera lower and less obtrusively, enabling her to capture more candid imagery without people gawking at her.

Maier was an eccentric. Yes, women photographers faced great obstacles back then, but it’s also clear that Maier had little interest in sharing her work with the world anyway. It’s only thanks to Maloof that we know much about her photography at all. He dabbled in buying unclaimed storage units, acquired vast amounts of her photographs, negatives, and Super-8 films in doing so, and made it his life’s work to bring her photography to the public. See her images and learn more about her work at https://www.vivianmaier.com/

The relatively unknown French photographer Madeleine de Sinéty was also expert at shooting daily life from Paris streets and rural France to New York City and the far reaches of northern Maine. She was expert at conveying tightly knit communities. Everyone has a good eye among the top ranks of photographers and photojournalists, which was certainly the case with de Sinéty. Her eye caught details in the images that convey everyday life and encourage the viewer to relate to the circumstance being depicted. It was her family - especially her son Peter - who cohered her vast collection of work and presented it to the world upon her death. Interestingly, people thought Maier was from France, and she let them believe it. She was not. She was a New Yorker. That said, both Maier and de Sinéty shared a love of shooting in rural France. See her images and learn more about her work at https://madeleinedesinety.com/en/about/

de Sinéty in 1950s' Paris.

Maier in 1950s' New York City.

Learning is Humbling

noreply@blogger.com (Jessica C. McWade) — Mon, 2 Mar 2026 16:16:00 -0500

I know little about Haruki Murakami’s work, though his best-selling novels have been translated into 50 languages over many decades. I saw an exhibit this morning at Tufts University’s Tisch Library on his 1994-95 novel, “The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle,” which some consider his masterpiece.

The exhibit was on doctoral work by Tufts’ MFA student John Lehman entitled “In the Well of the Wind-Up Bird: Uncovering the Reader's Vision in Haruki Murakami's The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.” Lehman analyzed all 607 pages to help translate the novel’s mystical, surreal, and even chaotic narrative into visual imagery. I’m not sure this attracts me to or repels me from the work, but it sure is interesting.

As always, the more we learn the more we realize how little we know. Learning is humbling, as it should be.

Deep Dive #2: AI and the Game of Go

noreply@blogger.com (Jessica C. McWade) — Thu, 26 Feb 2026 08:40:00 -0500

It’s the world’s oldest, continuously played board game. The ancient Chinese game of Go is featured in Oliver Roeder’s 2022 book, “Seven Games: A Human History,” which I’m soon to finish.

Go seems simple on the surface, but it’s actually mind-numbingly complex. Chess has 10-to-the-120th power number of possible board configurations. This measure of game tree complexity is called a Shannon Number after the poly-mathematician and information theory pioneer Claude Shannon. By comparison, Go measures a whopping 10-to-the-360th power possible configurations. It is said that this is greater than the sum of atoms in the observable universe.

Go clearly takes genius to win at the highest levels. It’s a game that has long relied on intellect but also on intuition, creativity, and even quirkiness. When asked why they made a particular move, top-rung Go competitors have been known to say something like, “I don’t know; it just felt right." Maybe that's one reason why the ancient Chinese considered Go to be among the four noble arts including calligraphy, painting, and the zither.

IBM’s Deep Blue beat world chess champion Gary Kasparov in a shocking 1997 match, an early milestone in AI history. That event is referenced in Roeder’s book and featured in the 2003 Vikram Jayanti documentary “Game Over: Kasparov and the Machine” available on YouTube. Given its infinite complexity and intuitive orientation, however, most observers thought it could take an another 30-40 years for AI to best a top Go player. Nope! The 2017 Greg Kohs “AlphaGo” documentary, also on YouTube, showcases the 2016 defeat of 18-time world champion Lee Sedol at the hands of Google DeepMind’s AlphaGo. Sedol said at the time, “I thought AlphaGo was based on probability calculation and that it was merely a machine. But when I saw (a particular, very human) move, I changed my mind. Surely, AlphaGo is creative.”

AlphaGo’s deep neural networks learned and adjusted throughout the five-game match, making Deep Blue’s AI prowess almost 20 years earlier seem primitive by comparison. Frightening stuff, then and now as AI capabilities increase exponentially. And that’s among AI’s greatest challenges. Actually, it’s among society’s greatest challenges. The core concern is that the immense responsibility for AI rests in the hands of tech bros and finance bros. (Not many women to be found in either the Deep Blue or AlphaGo documentaries, though one hopes that situation has improved since then.)

The tech and finance tribes are obviously needed to develop and grow AI. Just as many of these guys surged ahead developing and monetizing social media without reckoning with its dreadful consequences, however, they’ll certainly do likewise with AI. It’ll be all muscular IQ without much deliberative EQ, and we will all pay the price accordingly. That’s why these tech titans need the perspectives of sociologists, psychologists, behavioral economists, and even artists to place their work in context and understand its vast implications. The politicians certainly have no understanding of any of this. Plus, too many of them are owned by the broligarchy anyway.

It’s one thing to appreciate the history of AI in beating humans in Go, chess, and whatever comes next. It’s one thing to be generally supportive of AI advancement buoyed, we hope, by wisdom and common sense. In the 10 years since AlphaGo beat Lee Sedol, however, we now find AI in every facet of our lives.

Go is a game of intellect infused with vast wisdom. AI is a game of intellect that will likely lack the wisdom needed to develop and utilize it properly. Go figure!

Image courtesy of The Conversation

"What Are You Doing To Yourselves?"

noreply@blogger.com (Jessica C. McWade) — Sun, 8 Feb 2026 12:29:00 -0500

If Klaatu returned to Washington DC today, his warning to the United State would be, "What are you doing to yourselves? Isn't it time to remove your heads from your collective asses? You've handed power to a malevolence, and he embodies the seeds of your own demise. If your goal is to hand the future to China, congratulations, for you are most certainly surrendering your own future."

Image from "The Day The Earth Stood Still" (1951). That's Klaatu and his robot friend, Gort.)

Employees. You Mean The People Actually Doing the Work?

noreply@blogger.com (Jessica C. McWade) — Sun, 8 Feb 2026 12:03:00 -0500

Employees. Remember them? Maybe not, since it’s stunning how many employers routinely demonstrate the indifference - if not the hostility - they have for their own people. You know, the folks actually getting the work done.

The dying Washington Post just fired one-third of its staff with the grace and nimbleness of a blind, drunken hippopotamus. Owner Jeff Bezos and now-departed Publisher/CEO Will Lewis lacked the class, dignity, and common sense to have announced the firings themselves, choosing to hide and in the latter’s case to attend Super Bowl parties. Yes, it’s true that how you undertake firings of some employees communicates volumes to the rest of them. These creeps don’t understand this point, however, and what’s worse; they don’t care. Proof? The Post has stranded their fired employees in far-flung locations around the world including war zones without seeing to their safety and paying their way back home.

In the Foreword to restaurateur Will Guidara’s 2022 book “Unreasonable Hospitality,” leadership guru Simon Senek writes, “If he (Guidara) wants his frontline teams to obsess about how they made their customers feel, he has to obsess about how he made his employees feel.” Guidara and Chef Daniel Humm’s Eleven Madison Park earned recognition as the “World’s Best Restaurant” in 2017, based in part on an authentic commitment to employees. It has to be an authentic, tangible commitment, too, since all employees see through the bullshit, another point not understood by the Bezos bros.

Costco gets the idea. As Bezos and his ilk embrace the slimy side of political expedience, Costco remains deeply committed to values-based, ethical capitalism. This includes real, operational support for employee well-being. Costco pays and treats its people well. The company stands for something and their employees know it. Costco does not cave in to political expediency by being bullied into changing its values, policies, and practices as some law firms and universities have done. In this spirit, a sidebar salute on this Super Bowl Sunday to New England Patriots' owner Robert Kraft who, like Bezos, has weather-vaned his way back into the arms of a blatant racist. This from a man whose talented football employees are comprised mostly of Black men. How should these employees interpret their boss's embrace of a racist?

The result for Costco in choosing to do the right thing? Its annual turnover rate of eight percent compares to a staggering 60 percent for the retail sector generally. Can you imagine the millions of dollars Costco saves as a result? The company's high employee-satisfaction rates coupled with enviable performance on platforms such as Glassdoor and Indeed act as magnets for attracting and retaining great people and sustaining good morale.

Yes, the Washington Post finds itself in the middle of wrenching changes plaguing journalism in what has become a challenging business with all kinds of margin pressures. Well, Costco’s mass-market retail sector and even Eleven Madison Park’s high-end, fine-dining market can be just as fickle, tumultuous, and financially pressed. It always a question of whether you have the right leaders to meet the moment, which must start by treating employees with respect and communicating with them forthrightly.

Walt and I at New York's Eleven Madison Park in 2019 with Chef de Cuisine Brian Lockwood.

EQ Eats IQ For Lunch ... and Dinner

noreply@blogger.com (Jessica C. McWade) — Wed, 28 Jan 2026 15:16:00 -0500

Peter Drucker is credited with saying, "Culture eats strategy for breakfast." So true, although the late Mr. Drucker's people have repeatedly said he never uttered those words.

Here's a bigger and better one. EQ eats IQ for both lunch and dinner.

I was reminded of this in reading about the extraordinary "godfather of artificial intelligence" Yann LeCun. He was asked in a recent Financial Times interview with Melissa Heikkila what he wants his legacy to be. The extraordinary Turing Award winner and longtime Chief AI Scientist at Meta said he wants to increase the amount of intelligence in the world. "Intelligence is really the thing that we should have more of," he said, "adding that with more intelligence, there's less human suffering, more rational decisions, and more understanding of the world and the universe. We suffer from stupidity."

Dr. LeCun is right, of course, at least as far as he went in the interview. That said, his observations may be a tad too Mr. Spock-like. Suffering from stupidity and enjoying the benefits of brilliance are dual aspects of the human condition. What too often goes missing in these conversations, however, is the distinction between intellectual intelligence (IQ) and emotional intelligence (EQ) and that a leader is enormously handicapped without the latter.

Look, the world is momentarily dominated by a broligarchy that generally thinks EQ is for sissies and boasts, bloviates, and bullies accordingly. Too bad because without self-awareness, self-regulation, social awareness, social regulation, and the interpersonal skills that come with these tenets of emotional intelligence, their arrogance and arrested development too often destroy people, careers, organizations, opportunities, and even countries. Without a willingness to understand if not embrace the importance of so-called "people skills," those in leadership positions too often fail. What's worse is that these folks bring everyone else down with them. No matter how intelligent these characters are or, in the spirit of Dunning-Kruger, think they are, they suffer from monstrous stupidity. Emotional stupidity. And we all suffer as a result because, in reversing LeCun's terms, they increase human suffering, produce less rational decisions, and diminish our understanding of the world.

"New Atlanticism:" We Sure Could Use It Now.

noreply@blogger.com (Jessica C. McWade) — Mon, 26 Jan 2026 11:41:00 -0500

My longtime friend Jim Barron had quite a vision in the 1990s for what became the Atlantic Rim Network (later Atlantic Rim Institute). He was dogged in developing an extraordinary idea, philosophy, entity, and network based on the belief that the Atlantic Rim is “a body of water surrounded by a state of mind.”

This "New Atlanticism" emphasized the role of dynamic metropolitan regions engaged in cooperative problem-solving at the sub-national level. It moved well beyond old-fashioned models anchored in the United States and Western Europe to include, as well, Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, Eastern Europe, and the Arctic. This "New Atlanticism" came in response to the endless rhetoric at the time about the burgeoning Pacific Rim and ... it was way ahead of its time.

I partnered with Jim in helping to realize this vision. Let there be no mistake, however, that he labored mightily and often as an undeterred solo pilot in landing this big idea and, over time, engaging hundreds of people and organizations across four continents. Now more than 30 years later, it's clear how much we could benefit right now from this kind of people-to-people civic diplomacy as issues rage from Greenland to Canada to Venezuela to Ukraine.

The abstract pictured here is from a 2003 article Jim and I authored about this "New Atlanticism" for the first issue of Suffolk University's Parallax: Journal of International Perspectives. We're happy to share the full article with anyone requesting it.

Kalaallit Nunaat. In Other Words, Greenland.

noreply@blogger.com (Jessica C. McWade) — Mon, 19 Jan 2026 10:25:00 -0500

Providence -

He hadn't thought of the idea himself. The New York Times' David Sanger among others credits Estee Lauder heir and Republican megadonor Ron Lauder with putting the thought of annexing Greenland in the U.S. president's mind. The idea is so preposterous, of course, that it makes sane people blush and many people angry. It's working in one sense, however, as the Epstein Files recede into the wilderness.

Sanger joined Greenland/Arctic experts on a Council on Foreign Relations panel last Friday focused on the insanity and inanity (my words) of swiping Greenland and, in the process, conjuring images of NATO Article 5 enactment. This would make the U.S. both attacker and legally bound defender of the Danish territory of Greenland.

Here's the rub. The 1951 Defense of Greenland Agreement between the U.S. and Denmark continues to give the former vast military and economic rights in the territory. The U.S. once operated as many as 15 bases in Greenland during the Cold War. It now maintains two bases including Pituffik Space Base, the former Thule Air Force base in northwest Greenland where I once spent two weeks on Navy duty. The treaty heavily favors U.S. prerogative since Denmark, as an original NATO member and loyal U.S. ally, hitched its national-security wagon to the United States a long time ago. The U.S. can reopen those bases and make substantial infrastructure investments and adjustments in Greenland at any time.

When advised of this, the U.S. president told Sanger in a recent interview, "You know, psychologically, I just need to own it." Notice the "I" in this statement. It has never been about we the people and never will be. Sanger added that the president sounded like a New York real estate guy who understands the difference between buying and leasing. Oh, great! There's a top-drawer foreign policy credential and instinct. Sanger said that Denmark believes this is the greatest crisis it has faced since World War II, and it could soon be NATO's biggest-ever problem, initiated by a convicted-felon real-estate guy with a trail of bankruptcies and broken businesses and an heir to a make-up kingdom.

Greenland and the entire Arctic sphere have returned to prominence for many reasons, starting with the fact that the U.S. is once again in a Cold War with Russia:

National Security Value: The Arctic has vast national security value because of the shorter distances for undersea cables, missiles, and transits. Climate change is ensuring that Arctic ice is melting and creating open-water passages for military and commercial vessels. Don't think climate change is real? Well, just ask anyone involved in Arctic military, shipping, energy, and telecommunications realms.
Cold-Weather Warfighting: Heather Conley of the American Enterprise Institute reminded us that U.S. cold-weather warfighting capabilities have greatly deteriorated. This is ironic as this new Cold War finds Russia remilitarizing and reopening its Arctic bases. Conley said, "We just let our cold-weather combat skills atrophy."
Critical Minerals: The U.S. president says he wants Greenland because of its critical minerals. Oh, so they're just America's to take? Is that the idea? Yes, the U.S. must reduce its dependence on China for critical minerals. Illegally and immorally seizing Greenland, however, is not the way to do it. Instead, the U.S. already has options for the private-sector to invest billions into Greenland infrastructure, a territory with only 100 miles of paved road, for the purpose of mineral extraction over a decades-long timeline. It hasn't happened yet, and it's not going to happen. Businesses are not likely to invest vast resources into such speculative, long-term potential with eye-watering, front-end costs - even with U.S. Government backing. For example, who's going to build and operate a needed deep-water port in Greenland? Let's instead stay focused on the United States' first deep-water Arctic port in Nome, Alaska. which is needed both for strategic and commercial purposes.
Golden Dome: The Oval Office occupant throws out that Greenland is essential for realization of his Golden Dome missile defense system. Tactical and theater missile defense works well; overarching strategic shields such as this one remain a flight of fancy. Anyone remember Reagan's "Star Wars" notion and the countless billions invested in the scheme? Analysts report that the U.S. spent $60 billion on Star Wars and failed to develop let alone deploy what remains science fiction. Golden Dome would be colossally expensive with daunting technical hurdles at every step. And it's not likely to work. Maybe in 50 years. Rebecca Pincus of the Foreign Policy Research Institute added that, "Besides, there is no clear articulation of need." What else is new?

The perverse irony in all of this, however, is that the U.S. is alienating a superb ally who Washington will need for any purposes in Greenland and the Arctic. Geoffrey Pyatt, former Assistant Secretary of State for Energy, told us that "If you take a wrecking ball to Europe, you reduce our ability to get these things done." He added that, "We risk destroying the possibilities with what looks like a hostile takeover."

Let's keep in mind, as well, that the more the United States deposes leaders in other countries, such as Maduro in Venezuela, and the more it sets its sights on consuming territories belonging to other nations, such as with Greenland, the greener the light becomes for Russia in Ukraine and China in Taiwan.

Fusion Is No Illusion

noreply@blogger.com (Jessica C. McWade) — Sun, 18 Jan 2026 11:55:00 -0500

Commonwealth Fusion Systems is the world’s leading commercial fusion-energy company. I toured their headquarters and production facilities in Devens, MA on Friday as part of a Council on Foreign Relations delegation.

The visit was off-the-record so I refer here to their website, which says the company seeks to “deliver the urgent transition to fusion energy” in order to “unlock humanity’s boundless potential.” I never thought I’d see large-scale fusion as part of our energy mix in my lifetime, but we are on that doorstep right now. Fusion may well be the future and that future is found right here on the old Fort Devens site.

The key technological breakthrough making this possible was CFS’ development of the world’s strongest, high-temperature superconducting magnet. With plasma temperatures of 160 million degrees inside a fusion chamber - equal to the heat found at the core of a star - no physical material can possibly contain it. Only a giant electromagnetic field can do so.

The old line that "fusion is 20 years away and always will be" could soon be retired.

(From CFS Press Release with Photo, November 18, 2024 - Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) announced today it successfully built and tested a record-breaking electromagnet called the Central Solenoid Model Coil (CSMC), a major step on the company’s path to bring clean, abundant fusion power to the grid.)

The Best and Worst U.S. Foreign Policy Decisions

noreply@blogger.com (Jessica C. McWade) — Thu, 15 Jan 2026 12:13:00 -0500

Yes, it's the Marshall Plan. Inevitably and undoubtedly, President Truman's 1945 Marshall Plan was the best foreign policy decision the United States ever made. The Council on Foreign Relations briefed members yesterday on the outcome of its partnership with the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations (SHAFR) to identify the Top 10 Best and Worst U.S. foreign policy decisions.

The worst? Well, there's no shortage of deserving candidates that SHAFR members analyzed and voted on. The spectacular American failure in Vietnam - both the decision to go to war and the manner in which we fought it - registered two places in the ignominious Top Ten: President Johnson's 1964 Gulf of Tonkin Resolution as well as his massive troop deployments in 1965, which earned the second worst designation. Still, Johnson and later President Nixon's deadly foolishness and duplicity in Vietnam could not compete with President Bush Jr.'s astonishingly stupid 2003 invasion and occupation of Iraq.

The SHARF historians also listed among the five best U.S. decisions the creation of the United Nations in 1945, Treaty of Alliance with France in 1778, Louisiana Purchase in 1803, and Lend-Lease Act of 1941. I might not rate the United Nations creation that high, and I would move higher on the list President Kennedy's nimble handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. The historians placed that event at #10.

The other three worst decisions among their top five were the heinous Indian Removal Act of 1830, President Eisenhower's overthrow of Iran's democratically elected Mossadegh in 1957 led by the Dulles brothers at State and CIA, and the 1919 Senate rejection of the Treaty of Versailles. The U.S. excels at overthrowing national leaders, generally in violation of U.S. and international law, so Guatemala's Guzmán in 1954 and Chile's Allende in 1973 would not be too far down the list. We'll see what now happens in the aftermath of Maduro's ouster in Venezuela this month. No matter how many times we invoke Santayana's 1905 injunction, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it," we keep repeating it.

My favorite Kennedy School course many decades ago was "Uses of History in Decision-Making" taught by an amazing quad of luminaries: the late Richard Neustadt and former SHARF President Ernie May as well as Greg Treverton and Bob Blackwill. The Kennedy School Dean at the time was Graham Allison and his #2 was Al Carnesale. Treverton (USC), Blackwill (Council on Foreign Relations), Allison (Kennedy School), and Carnesale (UCLA) were all on the Zoom yesterday. That itself was rather historic.

Paying the Price for Incompetence

noreply@blogger.com (Jessica C. McWade) — Sat, 10 Jan 2026 11:26:00 -0500

My son Zack with Coach Jon Gruden after a 2017 Monday Night game in Kansas City. Gruden is one of four former head coaches being paid by the incompetent Las Vegas Raiders.

There are many varieties of incompetence, none of them good. There's the perilous mix of evil and buffoonery we find in today's White House, which is crippling our country. Then there's just plain stupidity. Witness the Las Vegas Raiders.

With the recent firing of Head Coach Pete Carroll, a seemingly good guy and once-great coach many of us knew Las Vegas should not hire, the Raiders are paying tens of millions of dollars to four fired head coaches - Carroll, Josh McDaniels, Antonio Pierce, and the very capable Jon Gruden. They'll actually be paying five head coaches once they name their new leader in coming weeks. It's as astonishing as it is ridiculous.

This problem starts with Raiders owner Mark Davis, who inherited the team from his legendary father Al Davis. Davis is a hands-on guy, which is too bad since he always seems to be in over his head. This is also the case with Woody Johnson, owner of the completely inept New York Jets, as well as Jerry Jones the megalomaniac-owner of the Dallas Cowboys who have hardly been a winning franchise in 30 years. These owners are imprisoned by their own egos while their teams and fans continue to pay the price. They won't let go of the reins and, as a result, constantly make blunder after blunder in their decisions about executive, coaching, and football talent.

In Davis' case, will paying tens of millions in dead money to former coaches help the Raiders step back and find wisdom? Don't count on it, even with Tom Brady's help. Incompetency ingrains itself throughout an organization when the big boss is among its chief perpetrators.

On Being Scared

noreply@blogger.com (Jessica C. McWade) — Fri, 2 Jan 2026 11:30:00 -0500

Portland, ME -

“It’s important to be scared,” said Indhu Rubasingham. “If I wasn’t scared, I wouldn’t be doing my job,” the new Artistic Director of the British National Theater added in a recent FT Weekend interview.

Rubasingham was speaking about bringing new, diverse voices into the Theater’s repertoire. Some people will support the Theater and visit it for the first time because they’ll actually see faces, cultures, and perspectives like their own. Among the scary parts, however, is that other folks will resist change and, in some cases, even succumb to their own racism, misogyny, or homophobia in bitterly opposing material from people unlike them. In doing so, of course, they fail any understanding of the shared human experience.

A reporter once asked Meryl Streep whether she still gets nervous before a theater production. Yes she does, Streep said, adding that the day she loses a manageable case of stage fright is the day she fails to deliver her best work. Managing nervousness - and accepting that a small case of it can be a good thing - is part of being a true professional whether as an actor, ball player, public speaker, or leader. It helps ensure that you won't just mail it in.

The ones to worry about, of course, are the know-it-all bros in leadership positions who believe that showing any sign of fear, doubt, or uncertainty is a weakness. Their arrogant pretensions are a massive weakness, of course, and often imperil organizations and careers.

Are you a bit fearful in making a major decision or communicating an important message? Good. You should be. That’s normal. Another word for it is thoughtfulness. Too much fear can cripple you, for sure, but a modest does of it keeps you sharp. It makes you more situationally aware. Leadership works best when it combines that kind of humility with confidence.

Shutter to Think #20: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

noreply@blogger.com (Jessica C. McWade) — Tue, 23 Dec 2025 14:56:00 -0500

(Gabrielle Goliath and Diane Arbus images.)

New York City -

Two terrific photography exhibits at NYC’s Museum of Modern Art demonstrate that the future of photography - or of anything, really - combines lessons, losses, and inspirations from both yesterday and today. The future always builds on the shoulders of giants, right?

“Time Travelers” from the Gayle Greenhill Collection presents an impressive array of images that thoughtfully captures the history of photography. The works are classics from legends William Henry Fox Talbot and Civil War’s Matthew Brady to street photography and let’s call it photography vérité practitioners such as Diane Arbus, Margaret Bourke-White, Harry Callahan (no, not that one), Imogen Cunningham, Robert Frank, Irving Penn, Man Ray, and Alfred Stieglitz. It was thrilling to see these mostly black-and-white images in one gallery.

The celebrated landscape photographer Emmit Gowan, inspired as he was by Callahan, Frank, and Stieglitz, once said that “For me, pictures provide a means of holding, intensely, a moment of communication between one human and another” and, I would add, across time. View these images at the MOMA and you come to understand the communication among subjects in an image or between subjects and photographer. More so, you also intuit the communication between photographer and viewer, perhaps somebody decades removed. Or how about the communication among all the photographers in the gallery through their works?

“The New Photography 2025: Lines of Belonging” exhibit two floors below “Time Travelers” certainly picks up that generational dialogue among photographers and viewers alike. I was familiar with just about all the “Time Travelers” photographers but knew only one of the “New Photography” artists. Isn’t the whole idea not to get locked into just what you know and studied but to use that foundation to explore new ideas and approaches? I think so. Without this mindset, you can get old and stodgy pretty quickly.

This exhibit integrates 13 contemporary photographers and collectives from four cities - Johannesburg, Kathmandu, Mexico City, and New Orleans - in common themes from intergenerational dialogue to human interconnectedness itself.

Gabrielle Goliath’s 2022 images of Johannesburg women were extraordinary, set off as they are against a stark white backdrop. The women’s eyes are penetrating and their overall countenance formidable. So too is Tania Franco Klein’s 2022 subject studies in Mexico City.

Wait, is that a little Diane Arbus I see in Goliath’s and Klein’s work? Of course it is. That’s all part of the intergenerational dialogue.

Just The Facts, Ma'am

noreply@blogger.com (Jessica C. McWade) — Sun, 21 Dec 2025 06:59:00 -0500

New York -

Image of the Dragnet's LAPD Sergeant Joe Friday (played by Jack Webb on radio and TV) is courtesy of Medium. Here's a fact. He never actually said those words in the series.

Far too many of our fellow citizens believe in fact-free nonsense. They’re adherents to - and propagators of - lies, conspiracy theories, and debunked claims. They refute science, facts, reality, and common sense, much to our collective peril.

This predilection for belief in inanities and insanities exists for many reasons and, in part, explains why we’re in trouble as a society. This tendency has long existed, of course. What amplifies the problem these days is that constant lying has become the hallmark of one of our political parties and its leader, everything one disagrees with is branded "fake news," and the speed of technology has outpaced our ability to cope with it all. The overhyped dawn of AI portends even greater challenges in this context.

Plus, we don’t have a national media or digital literacy curriculum as part of the teaching of civics. It’s desperately needed so that Uncle Harry doesn’t spew nonsense that he may have seen from disreputable sources online. Actually, media and digital literacy curriculum or not, there’s no stopping Uncle Harry anyway.

The University of Washington researcher Mike Caulfield has devised a straightforward digital literacy tool that empowers news and information consumers to separate truth from fiction. His SIFT Method is a fairly simple evaluative framework to help discern whether online content can be trusted or not. SIFT stands for 1. Stop 2. Investigate the Source 3. Find Better Coverage and 4. Trace Claims and Quotes to the Original Context. Simple common sense, right? Hah! This excellent method assumes rational thinking and an open-minded desire to know the truth. The problem is that Uncle Harry doesn’t really want to know the truth. For him, the cognitive dissonance of truth is too hard to take.

There have long been media pretending to be “news” outlets that lie and obfuscate on a full-time basis. There are the likes of once-respected media such as CBS and CNN that are now more willing to embrace “alternative facts" and normalize aberrant behavior. And there are too many media failing to invest in fact checking as they once did. Except one.

Did you watch the excellent documentary, “The New Yorker at 100.” It’s well worth it. The New Yorker magazine employs scores of fact-checkers whose procedures are excruciatingly rigorous. As Zach Helfand wrote in the August 25th issue this year, fact-checkers are “in the harm-reduction business.” It’s a business more media should reenter if we stand any chance of winning the battle against prevarication. The harm to this nation will otherwise continue to be incalculable.

Drinking and Thinking: The Algonquin Round Table

noreply@blogger.com (Jessica C. McWade) — Sat, 20 Dec 2025 07:25:00 -0500

New York -

Image courtesy of PBS.

Memories abound here at the Algonquin Hotel, especially jazz sets at the old Oak Room. I obviously have no memories of the fabled Algonquin Round Table, however, since those lunches of creative luminaries occurred here in the 1920s. Too bad. Imagine being the proverbial fly on the wall for that drunken ribaldry?

The Algonquin opened in 1902 and quickly became a hang-out for the literary and theatrical sets. Drawn from that crowd, Round Table members spoke, argued, smoked, and drank to excess. Dorothy Parker, a Round Table regular, vividly underscored the liquid nature of their lunches with her quip, “I’d rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy.” One of our great wordsmiths, Parker could out-drink and out-think most of the boys.

And what a Round Table roster it was. They met almost daily for lunch and actually referred to themselves as the Vicious Circle. Parker was joined by Robert Benchley, Heywood Broun, Edna Ferber, Jane Grant, George Kaufman, Herman J. Mankiewicz, Harpo Marx, and Harold Ross. Ross and Grant founded The New Yorker in 1925 during the Round Table years.

Many places in this great city speak to such rich history. The Algonquin Hotel is one them. Color me old-fashioned, but I believe it’s our responsibility to know the history. It certainly makes life interesting.