Articles from 2019
882 articles · browse by month or scroll through the year.
-
Worth Quoting
Eric Hoffer On Hidden Hypocrisy And Self-Deception
“We usually strive to reveal in others the blemishes we hide in ourselves.” – Eric Hoffer
Read full post -
Worth Reading
The Vegetarian Myth: Food, Justice, and Sustainability
An impressively researched and cogent argument against vegetarianism by a former vegan. The book is broken into four parts, each representing four lines of argument: the healthfulness of a vegetarian diet, the…
Read full post -
Arts & Letters
Latin American Artists Showcase At Philadelphia Fine Art Fair
If you are in or around Philadelphia this weekend, check out the Philadelphia Fine Art Fair, where my Miami gallery (Rojas Ford) will be exhibiting some of our better Latin American artists. LINK.
Read full post -
Fun and/or Interesting
When Is a Vegan Not a Vegan? (Answer: When she has to eat crow.)
My tendency in reading health-related literature is to stay with authors and ideas that support my natural preferences. That’s why I was an early advocate of the Mediterranean diet and then jumped on the Paleo…
Read full post -
Notes From My Journal
Jefe
“My little old dog: A heart-beat at my feet.” – Edith Wharton When we entered the butterfly pavilion, the manager approached us and said, “I’m sorry, but we don’t allow dogs in here.” “He’s a service dog,”…
Read full post -
Notes From My Journal
Monday, April 1, 2019
Delray Beach, FL.- I’m happy to report that I’ve been contacted by a senior curator at the Smithsonian, who has informed me that they want to put all my published works into the institution, seal them in a…
Read full post -
Fun and/or Interesting
Memorable April Fool’s Day Pranks Pulled by the Media
* In the early 1950s, the BBC aired a “news” item about the spaghetti harvest in Switzerland. * In 1985, Sports Illustrated published a story by George Plimpton about a Mets pitching phenom named Sidd Finch…
Read full post -
A Word to the Wise
Cozen (verb)
Cozen (verb) – To cozen (KUH-zuhn) is to cheat, deceive, trick. As used by William Bolitho: “The shortest way out of Manchester is notoriously a bottle of Gordon’s gin; out of any businessman’s life there is…
Read full post -
Worth Quoting
Louis Nizer On Craftsmanship And Artistic Heart
“A man that works with his hands and brain is a craftsman. A man that works with his hands, and brain, and heart is an artist.” – Louis Nizer
Read full post -
Worth Reading
Killing Sacred Cows
Gunderson explodes 9 myths that keep people from achieving wealth. Since I agree and have written on most of these topics, I found the book generally useful and smart. The writing, though, is second rate. And…
Read full post -
Fun and/or Interesting
Finding Meaning Through Work That Matters
Man’s search for meaning. Most of the human population don’t search. And for a very good reason. Meaning for them is immediate, coming as it does from the struggle to survive. Of those for whom survival is not…
Read full post -
Notes From My Journal
How Many Laws Do We Really Need?
From Capitol Report: “Despite the slow start while new legislators learned their way around the capitol, over 3,400 bills have been filed by the 2019 deadline that could change state laws in the two months of…
Read full post -
A Word to the Wise
Vitiate (verb)
Vitiate (verb) – To vitiate (VISH-ee-ate) is to impair, debase, make ineffective. As used by George Orwell: “All political thinking for years past has been vitiated in the same way. People can foresee the…
Read full post -
Fun and/or Interesting
Lions Can Sprint Up To Sixty Miles Per Hour
Lions can run as fast as 60 miles an hour.
Read full post -
Worth Quoting
John Dos Passos on How Careers Consume Us
“People don’t choose careers. They are engulfed by them.” – John Dos Passos
Read full post -
Worth Reading
The Future of Higher Education: Apprenticeships vs. Business School” by Peter Diamandis
The university system in the USA is a huge business. It thrives on higher-than-inflation tuition increases and big donations from successful alumni. Some of the smartest people I know believe that college…
Read full post -
Fun and/or Interesting
Why This Video Will Make You Nervous
Watching this will make you nervous...
Read full post -
Notes From My Journal
Factfulness: Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About the World – and Why Things Are Better Than You Think
Answer these 4 questions: In all low-income countries in the world today, how many girls finish high school? a.- 20% b.- 40% c.- 60% In the last 20 years, the proportion of the world’s population living in…
Read full post -
A Word to the Wise
Inculpate (verb)
Inculpate (verb) – To inculpate (in-KUHL-pate) is to blame or accuse. As used by Germaine Greer: “Guilt is one side of a nasty triangle; the other two are shame and stigma. This grim coalition combines to…
Read full post -
Fun and/or Interesting
Most Beatles Autographs In Circulation Are Forgeries
Only 6% of the autographs in circulation from members of the Beatles are estimated to be real.
Read full post -
Worth Quoting
Confucius on the Limits of Knowledge
“Real knowledge is to know the extent of one’s ignorance.” - Confucius
Read full post -
Worth Watching
The Resistance Banker
The Resistance Banker (Netflix) .- Set in Amsterdam during the German occupation, this film follows the brave work of Wally van Hall in establishing and running a secret underground bank to fund the resistance…
Read full post -
Fun and/or Interesting
Seattle Is Dying
“Seattle Is Dying”.- When I was in my 20s, New York City was a shit hole. Except for a few uptown neighborhoods, you couldn’t walk for 10 minutes without stepping over a bum or being accosted by someone…
Read full post -
Notes From My Journal
What Do You Think? What Would You Do?
So Mike Weirsky, divorced and for 15 years unemployed, wins the $273 million Mega Millions jackpot. And the first thing he does is buy a Ford Raptor. But how much is he going to pay the person that found his…
Read full post -
A Word to the Wise
Cupidity (noun)
Cupidity (noun) – Cupidity (kyoo-PID-ih-tee) is greed or avarice; eager or excessive desire. As used by Théodore Guérin: “[The Americans’] cupidity renders them daring and indifferent to everything else.”
Read full post -
Fun and/or Interesting
How Far You'd Run For One M&M
To burn off the calories in one M&M, you’d have to run the equivalent of a football field.
Read full post -
Worth Quoting
Benjamin Franklin On Doing Over Talking
“Well done is better than well said.” – Benjamin Franklin
Read full post -
Worth Reading
The 5 AM Club: Own
The 5 AM Club: OwnYour Morning/ Elevate Your Life by Robin Sharma.-Deserted gas station. Three in the morning. I said something about virtue to the clerk in the little glass box. She said, “You know what the…
Read full post -
Fun and/or Interesting
Entrepreneur vs. Employee: How to Make the Best of Both
“Entrepreneur vs. Employee: How to Make the Best of Both”.- A very smart discussion between James Altucher and Steve Cohen...
Read full post -
Notes From My Journal
10 Things I Would Like to Become…
A better teacher My strengths are insight and caring. I need to be better at giving examples. A more articulate arguer I like to argue. I’m always surprised that I’m not very good at it. The problem is that I…
Read full post -
A Word to the Wise
Demarcate (verb)
Demarcate (verb) – To demarcate (dih-MAR-kate) is to define the boundaries or limits of something. As used by Christopher Morley in Pipefuls: “Out at Hillside the stones that demarcate the territory of an…
Read full post -
Fun and/or Interesting
Star Trek's Groundbreaking First Interracial Television Kiss
The first interracial kiss on TV took place in a 1968 “Star Trek” episode when Captain Kirk kissed Lt. Uhura.
Read full post -
Worth Quoting
W.S. Merwin On Hope And Final Acts
“On the last day of the world, I would want to plant a tree.” – from W.S. Merwin’s poem Place.
Read full post -
Fun and/or Interesting
The creative power of misfits | WorkLife with Adam Grant from TED Talks Daily in Podcasts
The creative power of misfits | WorkLife with Adam Grant from TED Talks Daily in Podcasts.- One of the challenges of success is that the habits that got you there are hard to break. If it ain’t broke, why fix…
Read full post -
Fun and/or Interesting
How Progressive Taxation Actually Works In America
This probably won't change anyone's mind, but it's a true explanation of how progressive taxation works in the USA and it illustrates the disturbingly widespread level of ignorance about it.
Read full post -
From My Work-in-Progress Basket
When Making Tough Business Decisions, You Can’t Depend on the Facts
Years ago, a professor of philosophy introduced me to a concept that has helped me make business decisions time and again. We were discussing Nietzsche, the German philosopher and poet. I knew a little bit…
Read full post -
A Word to the Wise
Agglomeration (noun)
Agglomeration (noun) – An agglomeration (uh-glom-uh-RAY-shun) is a group of many (usually disparate) things that have been collected or brought together. As used by Voltaire: “This agglomeration which was…
Read full post -
Fun and/or Interesting
McDonald's Sells 75 Hamburgers Every Second
McDonald's sells 75 hamburgers every second.
Read full post -
Worth Quoting
Leonardo da Vinci on Lifelong Learning
“Learning never exhausts the mind.” – Leonardo da Vinci
Read full post -
Worth Reading
Competition Thrives on Unscrupulous Tactics
A blog entry from a friend of mine that tells an important truth about competition – even when it is unscrupulous…
Read full post -
Fun and/or Interesting
The Best Dance Video Ever Made
What can I say? This has to be the best dance video I've ever seen.
Read full post -
Notes From My Journal
Talking Business With Academics
CJ, my partner in the effort to free wrongly convicted felons, and I had a meeting today with a California college that has offered to help us by providing student interns from its Law and Criminal Justice…
Read full post -
A Word to the Wise
Celtic (adjective)
Celtic (adjective) – Did you ever wonder why Celtic is sometimes pronounced KEL-tik and sometimes SEL-tik? The answer is very interesting… at least it was to me.
Read full post -
Worth Quoting
Zig Ziglar On Sincerity And Praise
“If you are sincere, praise is effective. If you are insincere, it is manipulative.” – Zig Ziglar
Read full post -
Worth Reading
Talent Is Overrated
Talent Is Overrated by Geoff Colvin.- It is generally believed that people’s natural talents are what turn them into world-class performers. But, in fact, as this book shows, talent has virtually nothing to do…
Read full post -
Fun and/or Interesting
Do Men And Women Think Differently?
Is there a difference between how men and women think? Or is that a myth of the patriarchy? Watch this video of Mark Gungor and decide for yourself...
Read full post -
From My Work-in-Progress Basket
So You Want to Be Happy?
Start by doing this: Spend less time thinking. “Homo sapiens” means thinking human. But for the great majority of our species’ development, we did very little serious thinking. Most of our brain activity was…
Read full post -
A Word to the Wise
Bootstrap (noun, verb, adjective)
Bootstrap (noun, verb, adjective) – To bootstrap (BOOT-strap) is to rely entirely on your own efforts and resources, to help yourself succeed without the aid of others. As used by journalist David Sax: “Unlike…
Read full post -
Fun and/or Interesting
Eighteen Million Americans Struggle With Alcoholism
Nearly 18 million Americans are alcoholics.
Read full post -
Worth Quoting
Ernest Hemingway On Intelligence And Happiness
“Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.” – Ernest Hemingway
Read full post