Articles from 2022
900 articles · browse by month or scroll through the year.
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Notes From My Journal
I got my ass whooped. And it wasn’t fun
I got my ass whooped. And it wasn’t fun. The Pan Am IBJJF is one of the three most important Jiu Jitsu competitions in the world. Each year, thousands of competitors from Brazil, the US, Canada, and the rest…
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News & Views
COVID Update: DeSantis Did It Right
The most comprehensive comparative study of the effects of COVID regulations was published by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) earlier this month. One of the conclusions: Governor DeSantis did…
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Fun and/or Interesting
Want to Work for Walmart? How’s Your Driving?
Want to Work for Walmart? How’s Your Driving? Walmart has a reputation for being very tough with its suppliers. If you want your tools or toys or treats to be sold in its stores, you are going to have to sell…
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Building Wealth
Save like a pessimist. Invest like an optimist
I read that somewhere recently. It stuck because it is so simply true. (Sorry, you who said it. I didn’t make note of your name.) Until I began writing about wealth building, I don’t think I ever considered…
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Recommended Places
Hollywood Memorial Cemetery's Legendary Residents And Events
Hollywood Memorial Cemetery I’ve never been there. But, as a big fan of cemeteries, I will go the next time I’m visiting the grandkids in LA. Hollywood Memorial Cemetery is the final resting place for such…
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A Word to the Wise
Brazilian Jiu Jitsu
is a martial art and combat sport based on ground fighting and submission holds. It focuses on the skill of taking your opponent to the ground, controlling him, gaining a dominant position, and using a number…
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Worth Quoting
Boonaa Mohammed On Procrastination And Self-Change
“The cemetery is full of people who thought they could change themselves tomorrow.” – Boonaa Mohammed
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Readers Write
My response — April 13, 2022
“Dear Mr. Ford (or Mark, if you prefer), I am a two-time author and have been a professional biographer-ghostwriter of over 30 clients’ books since 1999. I also write the occasional event speech. I’m ready to…
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Postscript
Young Musician Electrifies Classical Guitar
Check out this young woman playing classic music on an electric guitar…
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Notes From My Journal
Life Cycles of Big, Whacky Ideas
In a recent issue of his blog, Peter Diamandis tells the story of Tony Spear, a NASA jet propulsion expert, who, in 1997, was given the impossible job of engineering the successful landing of a probe on Mars…
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News & Views
Hillary Clinton Fined
Click here. Biden’s Billionaire Tax Proposal Warren Buffett has famously said that he pays, in percentage terms, less taxes than his secretary. And on Mar. 28, the Biden administration attempted to do…
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Notes From My Journal
What I Believe: About Taxation
Taxation is a necessary evil. The logic is this: Societies cannot exist without law and order. Law and order cannot exist without government. Government cannot exist without income to support its work. Since…
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Fun and/or Interesting
Some interesting numbers
* $53 billion – the amount of money commercial casinos collected in 2021, their best year on record. * 10.19 ounces – the weight of the world’s heaviest strawberry (grown in Israel). * 161,692 – the estimated…
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Recommended Places
Tallinn, Estonia
K and I spent almost a week in Tallinn years ago, visiting a friend who worked for USAID. It was (still is) a beautiful, interesting, and culturally rich city. It offers the visitor well-preserved medieval…
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Arts & Letters
Benjamin Cañas's Japanese-Inspired Surrealist Masterpiece Joins Collection
We just purchased this 20x24 painting by the surrealist Salvadoran artist Benjamin Cañas (1933-1987). “The War Lord” was commissioned by clients for their Japanese style home. It spurred Cañas to study…
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A Word to the Wise
Chimerical
Chimerical (kye-MEER-uh-kl) – from the Ancient Greek for “she-goat” – means fantastic; wildly fanciful. In Greek mythology, the chimera (kye-MEER-uh) was a three-headed, fire-breathing monster. It had the body…
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Worth Quoting
Burt Rutan On Breakthrough Ideas And Productive Nonsense
“Revolutionary ideas come from nonsense. If an idea is truly a breakthrough, then the day before it was discovered, it must have been considered crazy or nonsense or both – otherwise it wouldn’t be a…
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Readers Write
Why I do what I do
“Following your advice to rise early. Almost done with the first draft of my second book. Wishing you a wonderful day. And thank you so much for all the great insights, wisdom and experience you share. Your…
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Postscript
Woman or Madness: Which Explains Her?
Is this woman stupid or just crazy?
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Notes From My Journal
Spielberg's West Side Story Converted Me Into A Believer
I was skeptical. Doubly skeptical. I’ve never liked the idea of modernizing Shakespeare. Much less converting one of his plays – a tragedy – into a movie musical. But Leonard Bernstein, Jerome Robbins, Arthur…
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Worth Watching
West Side Story
West Side Story Release date: Dec. 10, 2021 Directed by Steven Spielberg Starring Ansel Elgort, Ariana DeBose, David Alvarez, Mike Faist, Rita Moreno, Rachel Zegler Currently available on Disney+ and HBO Max…
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Worth Reading
Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet By William Shakespeare Probably written between 1591 and 1596 Both film versions of West Side Story (1961 and 1921) are very good in so many ways. But watching them, I was constantly reminded…
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Fun and/or Interesting
About Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet
Shakespeare took the plot from The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet, a long, narrative poem written in 1562 by the English poet Arthur Brooke. The poem, in turn, was based on a French translation of a…
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Arts & Letters
Frank Dicksee's Romeo And Juliet Crowned Britain's Most Romantic Artwork
This painting of a stolen kiss between the most famous star-crossed lovers of them all was voted the “most romantic artwork in Britain” by readers of London’s The Daily Mail. It was painted in oil by Frank…
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Worth Quoting
William Shakespeare On The Dangers Of Haste
From Romeo and Juliet: * “[Go] wisely and slow; they stumble who run fast.” (Act 2, Scene 3) * “You can’t lose a game if you don’t play the game.” (Act 1, Scene 4) * “Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow.”…
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A Word to the Wise
wherefore
When Juliet famously says “O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou, Romeo…” it sounds like she’s asking “Where are you?” But wherefore actually means “why,” the reason behind something. So, she’s not wondering…
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Readers Write
Re the Mar. 14 issue in which I talked about one of my experiences in Japan
MS sent in an amusing short video about some Japanese rules of social etiquette. Click here to watch it. Re Ready, Fire, Aim “Ready, Fire, Aim is the best book I’ve ever read on how to build a profitable…
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Postscript
Taylor Swift's Romeo and Juliet Love Song
Taylor Swift sings a Romeo and Juliet love song… Watch it here.
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Notes From My Journal
Causes of The Great Depression Reconsidered
On Mar. 28, I reported that conventional wisdom has it that there were five causes of The Great Depression. Credit-fueled Consumption: Consumers buying things they can’t afford with borrowed money. Financial…
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News & Views
CDC Removes Thousands Of COVID Deaths From Official Count
Are COVID deaths coming down? Or were they always higher than they should have been? * A county in Northern California opted to revise its COVID-19 death totals in July 2021 after refining its data-reporting…
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Recommended Places
Dubrovnik, Croatia
In 2019, K and I held our biennial “cousin camp” (extended family reunion) in Croatia. Croatia has an amazing coast. And one of the most beautiful seaside cities, Dubrovnik, is on it. The city’s old town is…
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Arts & Letters
Who was Dorothea Lange?
The famous photo at the top of this issue – “Migrant Mother” – was taken by Dorothea Lange during The Great Depression. She began her career by doing photographic portraits. After the stock market crash of…
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Worth Quoting
Moliere On The Hidden Cost Of Debt
“Debts are like children – begot with pleasure, but brought forth with pain.” – Moliere
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A Word to the Wise
margin call
A margin call is a demand for additional capital or securities to bring a margin account up to the minimum maintenance level. Brokers may force traders to sell assets, regardless of the market price, to meet…
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Readers Write
Re the Mar. 28 issue on stress
“I thought your piece on the ‘upside of stress’ was a good one. It makes sense to me that it’s not the stress that hurts you, but how you react to it.” – JP “I feel the same way when I’m preparing for my…
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Postscript
Millennial Stereotypes Get Hilariously Skewered Again
What’s with those millennials? You may have seen this before. I have. But I enjoyed watching it a second time.
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Notes From My Journal
A Beautiful Concept Called Transactive Memory
I found this on page 67 of Malcolm Gladwell’s The Bomber Mafia: “The psychologist Daniel Wagner has this beautiful concept called transactive memory, which is the observation that we don’t just store…
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News & Views
Hunter Biden’s Missing Laptop: It Wasn’t a Hoax
After three years of the New York Post and Fox News reporting on it, and the NYT and CNN (et al.) debunking it, the truth is out. On Mar. 17, the Times quietly acknowledged that it has been wrong. The story of…
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Business & Marketing
If You Want to Develop a Big, Sustainable Business…
You Must Become Knowledgeable in Two Ways In business, as, in life, there are two kinds of knowledge: specific and general. Specific knowledge pertains to the hundreds of particular things you need to…
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Fun and/or Interesting
About the Gumbo-Limbo Tree
This is a photo of a Gumbo-Limbo tree. It’s one of my favorite deciduous trees that we have at Paradise Palms. * It is a large semi-evergreen. The leaves are bright green and the flowers are creamy white. *…
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Recommended Places
San José, Costa Rica
Other than passing through on my way to Nicaragua, I’ve been to San José only once – on a short business trip. My impression was, “Boy, this is an interesting city. I’ve got to get back here with K one day.”…
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Worth Quoting
Michael Masterson On Dreams Versus Wanting Wealth
“Dreaming about being rich is fun. But the only thing you’ll get from it is the enjoyment of the dreaming. Wanting to be rich – that’s another thing entirely. Wanting, without doing, is a waste of time. So, if…
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A Word to the Wise
Ploce
(PLOH-chay), from the Ancient Greek for “weaving” or “braiding,” is a rhetorical device – the repetition or inversion of a word or phrase for emphasis. Examples: * “I am stuck on Band-Aid, and Band-Aid’s stuck…
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Postscript
Johann Hari On Addiction And Human Connection
Everything you thought you knew about addiction is wrong. That’s what Johann Hari says in this TED Talk. I don’t see his theory as the final word, but it does point out the flaws in conventional thinking on…
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Notes From My Journal
This week’s book?
Aha! It was sitting on my desk – a gift from a reader: Soonish, by Kelly and Zach Weinersmith. The gift card read, “From a top scientist and the creator of the hugely popular webcomic ‘Saturday Morning…
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Worth Reading
Soonish: Ten Emerging Technologies That’ll Improve and/or Ruin Everything
Soonish: Ten Emerging Technologies That’ll Improve and/or Ruin Everything By Kelly and Zack Weinersmith 368 pages Published Oct. 17, 2017 by Penguin Press Soonish is a fun and fascinating look at…
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Worth Watching
Licorice Pizza
Licorice Pizza Release date: Nov. 26, 2021 Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson Starring Alana Haim and Cooper Hoffman Currently available to rent or buy on various streaming services Licorice Pizza is another…
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Worth Quoting
Mark Twain On Love's Slow Growth Through Marriage
“Love seems the swiftest, but it is the slowest of all growths. No man or woman really knows what perfect love is until they have been married a quarter of a century.” – Mark Twain
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A Word to the Wise
spoonish
The title of today’s movie reminded me of a “new” slang word I came upon: spoonish. It supposedly describes a person or thing that acts silly or makes a silly mistake. But I googled it… and I can’t find any…
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Readers Write
Readers Weigh In On Carson, Interviews, And Film
Re the Mar. 23 issue on Ben Carson: “Good piece on Ben Carson. I thought he was the most composed of the candidates and stayed composed during his tenure as Secretary of Housing under Trump. It’s crazy that…
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