The Big Sleep is a classic noir detective novel written by Raymond Chandler, first published in 1939. I read the novel in 1974 when taking a literature course to hang out with a girl I was dating. It was the first novel to feature Chandler’s iconic private detective character Philip Marlowe. The story follows Marlowe as he’s hired by the elderly General Sternwood to deal with a blackmailer named Arthur Geiger who’s targeting the general’s…
Every morning, our routine is that Kim and I sit across from each other in the living room between 6:30 – 8:30am. The time is never exactly the same, but the venue is consistent and the activity is pretty much the same. Everybody has their morning time and this is ours. It is a very pleasant time for both of us. Kim spends her time reading the news on her iPhone and doing her full…
The bagel has a rich and complex history that spans centuries and multiple countries. While its exact origins are debated, bagels are believed to have emerged in Jewish communities in Poland, though they have connections to earlier ring-shaped breads from other cultures. Some food historians trace the bagel’s ancestry back to the Arabic world. The earliest known mention of a boiled-then-baked ring-shaped bread can be found in a 13th-century Syrian cookbook, where they were referred…
When did DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) enter our common parlance? The term “DEI” as an acronym for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion appears to have entered common parlance relatively recently, though the concepts themselves have deeper historical roots. The concepts of diversity, equity, and inclusion predate the DEI terminology, with their foundations traced back to the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. In 1964, the Civil Rights Act was passed, prohibiting discrimination based on race,…
Who could be more American than Andy Williams? He sang the theme song from Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Moon River, in 1962 and then never looked back until it was eventual put into the Librsry of Congress a few years ago as a hallmark of Americana. At the height of his success, in 1966, Williams wrote the theme song for another great movie that I’ve written about, Doctor Zhivago. That song was called Somewhere My Love…
There is an old expression about the perfect and the good that states that “Perfect is the enemy of good” or in its original French form, “Le mieux est l’ennemi du bien.” This is attributed to Voltaire and his famous quote has an interesting origin and meaning. He actually attributed this saying to “a wise Italian” in his moral poem “La Bégueule” (1772), where he wrote: “Dans ses écrits, un sage Italien Dit que le…
For some reason, we engaged in a conversation today about religion. And during the course of that discussion, we determined (with the help of Google) that Catholicism constitutes about 20% of American Christianity, which represents about 46% in total of the religious affiliation of the American population. At the end of WWII, about 80% of Americans identified as members of a Christian faith and only 13% of Americans were unaffiliated with one religion or another.…
Ablutions are ritual washing or cleansing practices, typically performed as part of religious ceremonies or personal hygiene routines. The term comes from the Latin word “ablutio,” meaning “a washing away.” The purpose of ablutions generally relates to spiritual purification, preparing oneself for prayer or worship, or marking transitions between states of ritual purity and impurity. In modern usage, “ablutions” can also refer more generally to the act of washing oneself, particularly in British English. When…
I ran the Global Private Banking business of Bankers Trust for most of the 1990’s. At the time, I was quite dogmatic about NOT using my own operation as my money manager. It just seemed too close for comfort given that my personal financial information would be in a system that was accessible by many of the people that worked for me. But when I left that job at the end of the Millennium, I…
I have often felt that one of my weaknesses was that I care too much. That sounds like someone in a job interview saying their biggest weakness is that they work too hard. There is no room for humility in the statement, and yet I’m not so sure that people admire caring people so very much. The people who seem to be most liked are those that are happy-go-lucky and always have a cheery disposition.…