Bell Ringing We are only two weeks away from starting the official holiday season. I know I have discussed how much the season gets pushed forward on us by commercial interests and that’s all fine since we can each choose to ignore it if it offends us. But during Thanksgiving week, there is no avoiding the advent of Advent. We have our favorite holiday movies, which do not count the countless Hallmark movies that Kim…
A Precious Gift In 2014, someone decided to make yet another movie about the biblical apocalypse of the great flood. They gathered Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly, Anthony Hopkins and Emma Watson to play out the story of Noah. First interesting choice made by Director Darren Arofonsky, perhaps due to the presence on set of the fabled Sir Anthony Hopkins, the classical Shakespearean actor who trained under Sir Laurence Olivier and was guided by the craft…
Oh What a Night! I know what you’re thinking and you are wrong. This story is NOT about the election that was held across the country yesterday. While many pundits are saying that Democrats are thrilled to have held off the infamous red wave, I feel that there is simply too much to not be proud of in our national state of political play to crow about too much this morning. The only comment I…
From the Depths I came back to my hilltop last week with a cold. It wasn’t COVID, it was a cold. I tested for COVID on Tuesday morning and again (COVID can be a tricky bastard) yesterday…Monday…since we had guests coming and I felt I owed it to them to be sure of my infectiousness. I had also heard from friend Gary in West Hollywood that what he had thought was a cold upon returning…
Worlds Colliding We have an interesting week ahead. Some of it was of our doing, some of it is due to the state of the world. And some of it is just random happenstance. But it all comes together to create a week that we feel the need to rest up this weekend for. So tomorrow is the calm before the storm…but not really entirely. I have another one of those expert witness cases that…
Deflated Balloons I have this digital picture frame on my desk that was given to me three years ago by my daughter as a clear message that I not forget her or her children as Kim and I moved away to our West Coast hilltop. The only people that upload pictures to the digital file that cycles through the digital device, called a Nixplay, are Carolyn and myself. It sits in the alcove where my…
Corruption There are certain themes that dredge up lots of memories and sentiments. The sad state of affairs in life in general is that the word corruption is one such theme. Corruption is most often used to describe fraudulent or dishonest conduct and is most often associated with that act being undertaken by someone in a powerful or otherwise trusted position. I have always considered myself a trusting person. I like to think that I…
The Failure of Power I had a real epiphany this morning and this story is the output from that. I awoke at 6am after a decent night’s sleep and as I went into our shared closet I flipped on the light as I always do, only to find that all but one of the track lights failed and did not go on. I did the usual of flicking the switch back and forth (as though…
As the Ball Bounces This is the first morning since my return from New York City that I am feeling more or less normal and over my bout with a cold. Yesterday, Mike asked me if I was still on to go with him to his ballgame over in Carlsbad. To be honest, I hadn’t remembered that I had committed to a Thursday outing, but I do recall bugging him about when I was going…
Uber Chapter Two Tonight in my ethics course I happen to be doing the session I call “Truth & Lies” and it is meant to focus on issues like whether “Fake It Till You Make It” is ever an acceptable strategy in business. We use the Theranos case study with Elizabeth Holmes and Sunny Balwani as the poster children of the issue. It’s an interesting case for many reasons, not the least of which is…