The Word Bird: Meaning and Myth in America

If You Don't Use Your Brain, You Might as Well Eat It: the Case for Risky Business

2009-07-09T12:44:00.010-04:00

How the lack of danger in your life can lead to the take over of your mind by the government, by corporations, or even by a sneaky neighbor.Author and engineer William Gurstelle, knows from risk. This is, after all, a guy who builds flamethrowers and makes gunpowder with items purchased at the Home Depot--and gives us step-by-step instructions on how to do the same.In his latest book, Absinthe &

Philadelphia Magazine Asks the Wrong Question About Smerconish

2009-05-17T17:19:00.004-04:00

Philadelphia Magazine wants to know,"Can a man succeed in the rabidly partisan world of talk radio by reaching out to moderates and channeling his inner Larry David?"Wrong question.Right question: Can Smerconish be exciting again by returning to his own center, and channeling his inner Michael Smerconish?Let's hope so.Next question: why does it matter?Moderate vs. mediocreFor over a year now, I

Waiting for Godot: When "Nothing" is Funny or Sad, or Is It?

2009-04-19T19:52:00.012-04:00

Perhaps one reason Samuel Beckett's play, Waiting for Godot, endures is that it is a play about nothing and therefore can serve as a commentary about anything.Is the Godot of the title meant as a play on the word God? Beckett once said it was not, but later admitted that it could be an unconscious allusion. There certainly is enough dickering by the play's main characters Vladimir, played by by

The Barrow Street Theatre's "Our Town": It Won't Be the Same Without You

2009-04-19T15:05:00.019-04:00

It goes so fast, this play about how life goes so fast; this play about how, despite the inevitability of death, life endures; this play about how puny is our participation in this life that is ending and beginning all at once.But that the show, The Barrow Street Theatre's production of Thornton Wilder's Our Town, seemed over nearly as soon as it began is a testament to the brilliance of director

Beautiful and Blessed Obama: What's in a Name?

2008-12-31T09:12:00.008-05:00

When fiction writers make this stuff up it's almost too precious to be read as anything other than allegorical satire...but when it happens in real life...well, it's almost too precious to be read as anything other than allegorical satire.The Washington Times is reporting on a movement within the RNC (Republican National Committee) to smack down anyone in the party who trends Socialist, beginning

Feeling a Bit Ayn Randy...

2008-11-23T20:49:00.017-05:00

This nibblet in New York magazine a couple of weeks ago caught my attention: "Free-Market Meat Market".Apparently, TheAtlasphere.com, a site dedicated to all things Ayn Rand, has an Internet dating service. Isn't that just the way lovers of Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead should become lovers?A Sample Fare:"lostpainting" of MD"Please note: If you're overweight, I won't date you. If you

Hey, Girl...where's your website? Ask the Quakers...

2008-11-19T16:01:00.018-05:00

What do Quakers have to do with anything?Hang on...let me first tell you the good news is that I have temporarily taken down my website (which is why if you were looking for it, you're here instead) because I have been so booked, I haven't had the time to re-write the content to update it. The bad news is, that could eventually mean when I am not so busy, no one will remember all the things I've

McCullough's John Adams: United and Apart is Best

2008-03-19T22:13:00.012-04:00

I. United--while Divided--We StandFortunately, in our home we share a love of American history--and a really, really good story--and so all have been positively glued to the HBO series based on David McCullough's Pulitzer Prize winning biography, John Adams. The script is true to McCullough's text--he was very involved in its treatment for the screen. As I watch, I am also aware of how much more

Good News for Right Brainers

2008-03-17T20:28:00.003-04:00

This just in from Booksquare:We are in fact raising a nation of readers, writers, and publishing prospects:http://www.booksquare.com/the-market-that-yours-to-lose/

Manga Management Redux

2008-03-16T14:49:00.014-04:00

Shortly after I pre-viewed it from mere gleanings, not actual readings, Riverhead/Penguin provided me with a copy of Daniel Pink's The Adventures of Johnny Bunko, illustrated by Manga artist, Rob Ten Pas. (Thanks.)Now I have some questions.But, first, some kudos and a critical note.Being over 40, I am old as dirt when compared to the early twenty-something audience Pink and Ten Pas intend to

If I were to Eat, Love, Pray on my publisher's dime, I would perform a spiritual epiphany, too

2008-03-02T08:23:00.016-05:00

After resisting it for two years, reluctant to spend time reading a book I predicted would be exactly what it is, I succumbed to the urgings of several friends, and I have just finished Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat, Love, Pray.I enjoyed it. But did I find it to be the de facto 21st Century spiritual journey it is marketed to be? Not so much. (As it has been on the NYT Bestseller list for scores of

Manga Management

2008-02-23T20:03:00.002-05:00

Dan Pink, author of "A Whole New Mind" and "Free Agent Nation", has entered the American office by way of Tokyo. His latest work is Manga-inspired The Adventures of Johnny Bunko, a graphic book of advice for the young careerist ("graphic" = "comic book", not violent and bloody, for non-publishing industry people).BusinessWeek offers the first Pink peek at Bunko, and its promise is fresh. For a

With half my brain tied behind my back...

2005-05-06T05:00:00.000-04:00

"Meaning is the new money."~Daniel H. Pink According to Daniel H. Pink, author of A Whole New Mind: Moving from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age (Riverhead Books 2005), it is now artists, creative writers, designers, and other so-called right-brain dominant thinkers who are winning in the market place.In his well-researched and highly-accessible book, Pink asserts that this era of

I may be clueless, but here's some advice.

2005-04-14T12:18:00.001-04:00

"How do I know what I think until I see what I say?" E.M. ForsterOne of the 20th Century's greatest observers and chroniclers of human nature, Forster refers to writing as a creative process that helps to focus the mind and cogently organize thoughts.And yet, as a professional communicator who, with this post officially births her own Blog Star, I have my doubts about this public mapping of my