Howdy Rowdy In the last year, as I have mentioned several times, ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) as a corporate issue has become very mainstream and much debated. Some of this debate is based on philosophical differences between groups that believe it is critical for companies to help society get to the “right” place on important issues in those realms versus others that are simply not used to this sort of extension of the corporate mission…
Up and At ‘Em Being an early riser has done as much to define my life as anything else about me. I expect that it goes hand in hand with some of my flaws like overthinking things and being in my head more than I should be. But if those are the prices I have to pay for being an early riser, I accept that. I feel so incredibly much more productive first thing in…
Planes Trains and Automobiles I miss John Candy. He died 28 years ago at an age that was way too young (43). He was a wonderful comedic actor who I, as a big man my whole life, found it easy to relate to. Other, less than svelte actors who died way too young included John Belushi (age 33) and Chris Farley (also age 33). The other big male actor I can relate to is John…
Pea Soup As part of my “Getting Busy” program, we have managed to squeeze in a short mini-break before we head off to the Pyrenees for a motorcycle trip in five days. That’s a little more tight than we might have wanted, but the occasion should be well worth the rushing about. We are spending this weekend in the mid-coastal region of California, that area between Santa Barbara and Monterrey which is some of the…
An Ethical Don Quixote My connection to the University of San Diego is strong enough to cause me to travel forty miles back and forth twice a week this semester to get to my two classes. Those classes start at 7pm so I go a bit early and grab a bite before my two and three hour classes. Last semester I was in the habit of going to a noodle cafe near the University, but…
Mapping the Trip The future is coming up on us fast. I am feeling it in several important ways. The first place this is happening is with our travel plans. Next week we will be heading off to Spain to suit up for a motorcycle ride through the Pyrenees and along the northern coast of Spain along the popularly significant Camino de Santiago. That ride will start in Barcelona, go up into Andorra, wind its…
One Not-So-Angry Man With a Metascore of 96, one of the top ten movies (number five to be exact on the IMDb listings of all-time greats) is Sidney Lumet’s 12 Angry Men, about a jury sequestered in a murder case. The story revolves around twelve men on the jury, already a gender-biased and racially-biased statement about the changing times, since this movie’s 1957 release. These are literally twelve white men, serving on a NYC criminal…
Changing Your Stars One of my favorite movies is A Knight’s Tale, staring Heath Ledger. In it he plays William Thatcher, the son of a thatcher (as in, a maker of thatched roofs) who is told by his caring father to go forth and change his stars as he hands him over to a knight to apprentice the boy and give him opportunity he might not otherwise get in Cheapside, where he is from. I…
Of Fathers and Sons My daughter, Carolyn, has her mother/daughter posse that she always wanted. I’m very happy to see her so happy as a mother, but especially as a mother of two lovely daughters. Based on her blonde/blue-eyed genetics combined with her husband, John’s Norwegian heritage, this has caused her to have two blonde/blue-eyed beauties that share a bedroom and are the best and closest of sisters. Carolyn is an energetic mother (she is…
So, after my class Wednesday, the student who gave me the four “CBD Patches” corrected me and said that I had misunderstood and that they were, indeed THC Patches. Hmmmm….. That makes me need to stop and think about it before using the patches. I had a gathering with several neighbors last night and asked the question of them. Should that change my instinct to try to help my shoulder pain and sleep patterns by…