Articles from 2022
900 articles · browse by month or scroll through the year.
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A Word to the Wise
indite
To indite is to write, especially a literary or artistic work. As used in “Marginalia,” an essay by Edgar Allan Poe: “It is certain that the mere act of inditing tends, in a great degree, to the logicalisation…
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Readers Write
Society's Troubling Obsession With Others' Suffering
Re the P.S. in the Mar. 7 issue: “I have followed your writings from back when you started ETR. Your latest YouTube link to videos of people in embarrassing situations really turned me off. I grew up through…
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Postscript
Gun Safety In The Home: A Reconsideration
I’ve never believed that having a gun in my house would be a good idea. Studies show that all sorts of bad events result from it, including killing or injuring family members. But this account made me wonder.
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Notes From My Journal
Meeting Mr. Lewin
The Art Issue Meeting Mr. Lewin On a recent podcast, I was asked to name some people that were influential in “shaping my life.” The usual suspects came to mind: my parents, my teachers, and several business…
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Fun and/or Interesting
Bernard Lewin's Hidden Mexican Art Masterpiece Collection
About Bernard Lewin The Lewins (on the left) with Rufino Tamayo Bernard Lewin was born in Germany in 1906. In 1938, he fled the Nazis with his wife Edith, immigrated to the United States, and became a US…
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Building Wealth
Buying Art as a Financial Strategy
One of the most important things to know about the supply and demand dynamic of art is very basic: When an artist dies, the supply of his work becomes fixed. Demand is determined by a host of factors that boil…
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Recommended Places
La Casa Azul: The Frida Kahlo Museum
Mexico City is a wonderful place to visit. It’s replete with beautiful parks, colorful neighborhoods, great shopping, and lots of art and culture. A must-see for anyone interested in art is La Casa Azul (The…
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Worth Quoting
Michael Masterson On Art As Historical Investment
“The wise art investor will think of art as an historical artifact, not as an aesthetic object.” – Michael Masterson
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A Word to the Wise
Vernissage
– from the French for “varnishing” – is a term used for a preview or private showing of an art exhibition before the formal opening. The word has its roots in the old practice of setting aside a day for…
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Postscript
Picasso at Work
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Notes From My Journal
Why?
I was on my way to Tokyo to meet with the CEO of a large Japanese book publisher. The topic: a possible joint venture. “Bring a present,” a friend that had done business in Japan before advised me. “Something…
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News & Views
About Race-Based College Admissions
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Harvard University are being sued for their race-based admissions policies, which hold Asian and White students to higher standards because of their skin…
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Fun and/or Interesting
About Race and Income
The average income for White households in the US is $72,000 a year. That is 35% higher than American households that identify as Latino, and 70% higher than African American households. But White households…
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Notes From My Journal
What I Believe: About Affirmative Action
I feel about affirmative action the same way that I feel about charity. I am personally inclined to practice it, but I’m suspicious when it becomes corporate or governmental policy. As an institutional…
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Business & Marketing
Sexy Titles
Killer Profits Newsletter… The Mega-Millionaire Review… I cringe when I see such titles appearing on our product list. “Couldn’t you have come up with something a little less cheesy?” I’ll ask the publisher…
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Recommended Places
Why Kyoto Deserves Your Next Japan Trip
Kyoto Next time you are in Japan, take an extra couple of days to visit Kyoto. It’s just a few hours from Tokyo by high-speed train, but you’ll feel like you are in a different country. Kyoto is famous for its…
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Arts & Letters
Surrealism is coming back!
“Tailleur pour dames” (1957) by Remedios Varo After a decades-long fascination with abstract geometrics, the art world is, once again, warming up to Surrealism. Last week, for example, two important museums…
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Worth Quoting
Japanese Proverb on Action Over Contemplation
“It’s easier to give birth than to think about it.” (Japanese proverb)
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A Word to the Wise
a word to the wise
As a noun, advert, is, of course, an abbreviated word for “advertisement.” But when used as a verb – as in, “to advert to” something – it means turning attention to. (And, yes, there must be some connection…
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Readers Write
My Answer
Re my Mar. 9 essay “Becoming a Writer… in Spite of Myself”: “My son wants to improve his writing skills. He asked what books would you recommend?” – AS My Answer: Three that come quickly to mind are The…
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Postscript
Another vintage gem…
I’ve become a fan of Allison Young after randomly discovering her on YouTube a few weeks ago. Here, she sings Olivia Rodrigo’s “Happier” in the style of the The Ronettes and The Shangri-Las. (With Stephanie…
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Notes From My Journal
A “New” Cold War?
When I was born in 1950, the US and the Soviet Union had already begun its first proxy contest: the Korean War. In grammar school, our teachers regularly herded us into the school basement, a futile attempt to…
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Fun and/or Interesting
Crazy! — March 11, 2022
It’s estimated that more than 11 million people were killed throughout the many proxy wars fought by the US and the Soviet Union. This includes the Algerian War (1954 to 1962), the Taiwan Strait Crisis (1958)…
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Notes From My Journal
What I Believe: About the Cold War
The “Cold War” is a term that describes several attenuated competitions between the USSR and the US. One competition was strategic and military: an effort on the part of the US to “contain” the spread of…
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Worth Watching
Cold War
Cold War Released in the US Dec. 21, 2018 Directed by Pawel Pawlikowski Starring Joanna Kulig, Tomasz Kot, Borys Szyc, Agata Kulesza, Cédric Kahn, and Jeanne Balibar Streaming on Netflix and Amazon Prime I…
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Worth Reading
A Cry From the Far Middle
A Cry From the Far Middle By P.J. O’Rourke 320 pages Published Sept. 15, 2020 by Atlantic Monthly Press Several years ago, I met P.J. O’Rourke at a small event at a private, lodge somewhere. We were speaking…
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Worth Quoting
Jimmy Carter On Nuclear Weapons And Cold War Peace
“When I was in the White House, I was confronted with the challenge of the Cold War. Both the Soviet Union and I had 30,000 nuclear weapons that could destroy the entire earth and I had to maintain the peace.”…
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A Word to the Wise
Détente
Détente – from the Latin for “loosen” or “release” – is a political term. It’s usually used to describe the easing of hostility or strained relations between countries.
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Readers Write
Readers Respond: Why Good Advice Falls Flat
Re my Mar. 2 essay on “Why Good Advice Usually Doesn’t Work”: “I so get your experience with getting your ideas accepted. I guess there’s no solution but to keep pushing.” – JR “Maybe the problem is that your…
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Postscript
Street Pianist Discovers Unexpected Musical Moment
Bike Boy finds street piano… Watch it here.
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Notes From My Journal
Becoming a Writer… in Spite of Myself
As long as I can remember, I’ve wanted be a writer. But I was always aware – perhaps because my father gave up his career as a writer for the steady income of teaching – that it was not going to be easy. I…
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News & Views
Problems With NFTs
NFTs are hot, especially in the art world. But it’s highly unlikely they will get to the next level, so long as there are reports of them being stolen. Such as this one. Click here. And this one. Click here.
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Business & Marketing
More on the Buyer Brain
After my Feb. 14 essay on the “Buyer Brain,” several readers wrote to ask me to elaborate and provide examples. To catch you up: In that essay, I pointed out that, with respect to buying decisions, it is…
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Fun and/or Interesting
Noteworthy: About the Stock Market
Since the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the average market drawdown from geopolitical shocks has been just 5%. And the market bottomed, on average, 22 days later and recovered within 47…
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Recommended Places
Chicago
I spent most of the summer of 2007 in Chicago, working on Ready, Fire, Aim. I needed to be away from home for several months to focus on finishing the book. That need dovetailed with a longstanding dream I had…
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Arts & Letters
Christie's Spring Auctions Reach Record $334 Million
Christie’s started off the spring auction season strongly with a three-part auction in London and Shanghai, racking up $334 million in works from the 20th and 21st centuries. Die Fucshe (“The Foxes”), a 1913…
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Worth Quoting
James Clear On Starting Without All The Answers
“Many situations in life are similar to going on a hike: the view changes once you start walking. You don’t need all the answers right now. New paths will reveal themselves if you have the courage to get…
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A Word to the Wise
Susurrus
(suh-SUR-us) – a word that sounds like what it means – is a low, soft whispering, murmuring, or rustling sound. (Plural is susurruses.) Example from The Journal of a Disappointed Man by W.N.P. Barbellion…
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Readers Write
Readers Share Gratitude And Personal Health Insights
Re the Feb. 23 issue on Depression: “Your article on Depression and the rating system that you’ve developed are extraordinarily accurate and helpful for readers. At this point in my life I believe it is a…
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Postscript
From The Innocence Project
Stop the Execution of Melissa Lucio in Texas On April 27, Melissa Lucio is scheduled to be executed by the State of Texas for a crime that never occurred. Melissa’s 2-year-old daughter, Mariah, died tragically…
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From My Work-in-Progress Basket
How to Be Good at Group Decision-Making…
and Why It Really Matters In making personal decisions, I’ve always followed a simple, two-step protocol. * Step One: Figure out what I want to do. * Step Two: Do it. That worked well and still works well for…
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News & Views
What’s Wrong With the Thinking Behind Intersectionality Theories?
One thing you can’t deny about Critical Race Theory and other intersectionality theories is that they share a seductively simple logic. You begin with a premise that sounds sort of correct. You are asked: Do…
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Notes From My Journal
What I Believe: About Group Decision-Making
Making good decisions is very difficult. And making good group decisions is even more difficult. That’s because it requires thinking. It requires moving the mind against the grain of conventionality. It…
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Fun and/or Interesting
Speaking of thinking…
Here is an interesting fact about the human brain: The brain does creative work better when it’s tired. If you’re tired, your brain is not as good at filtering out distractions and focusing on a particular…
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Recommended Places
Angor Wat, Cambodia
A highlight of a week K and I spent in Cambodia several years ago, Angor Wat is a breathtaking complex of temples built during the 12th century to honor the Hindu god Vishnu. Later, it became a Buddhist site…
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Arts & Letters
L’empire des lumieres
L’empire des lumieres (1961) One of René Magritte’s “Empire of Light” paintings fetched nearly $80 million, the second-most valuable painting ever sold at auction in Europe. Click here.
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Worth Quoting
Charles Darwin On The Value Of Correcting Mistakes
“To kill an error is as good a service as, and sometimes even better than, the establishing of a new truth or fact.” – Charles Darwin
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A Word to the Wise
A word that makes me wonder, “When was the last time I did this?”: disport
To disport is to amuse oneself in a playful way; to display ostentatiously. As used by Jules Verne in Five Weeks in a Balloon: “The soil was thickly studded with cocoa-nut, papaw, and cotton-wood trees, above…
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Readers Write
Reader Finds Clarity In Depression Coverage
From BH re the Feb. 23 issue on Depression: “I just wanted to let you know your piece on depression was the best I have read on depression since I was diagnosed last year. I have tried to make sense and…
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Postscript
Why We Love Watching People Get Hilariously Hurt
They should have a name for the act of enjoying this sort of video compilation. Schadenfreude doesn’t quite work because it usually applies to people you know or know of that you don’t like for some reason…
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