Things I learned on my summer vacation (2012)
Many, many things.
Bill Withers on wanting to be cool
“When you’re a kid, you want to be cool, and you want to be cool with the cool people. And that doesn’t always happen. So if you can learn to value the people who value you —”
Domestic aspirations
A plaintive line from Modern Family.
Linda Hunt on acting
“Acting gave me a sense of purpose, but it also gave me a sense that I would survive, that I would find my place.”
♥
Happy anniversary!
Roger Ebert’s fall
Roger Ebert, writing about diminishing mobility and a recent fall out of bed.
The self-help guru we deserve?
Rebecca Mead profiles Timothy Ferriss.
Infinity jest
From the Daily Dish: “I’ve never really had any problem with infinity. Why? Because if the universe is infinite, then I am by definition the center of the universe.”
Three suggestions
If you’re driving on a highway and the traffic suddenly slows or stops, and the vehicles behind you are at some distance: 1. Turn on your hazard lights. 2. Leave significant space between you and the vehicle in front of you. 3. Keep checking your rear-view mirror.
Stalwart workers
“Intelligent, protective of their time away from work, and not especially interested in power, money, or becoming the boss.”
Words from Steve Jobs
Good advice for life, from a 2005 commencement address.
Tyne Daly, miner
A metaphor for different kinds of work.
“Hope is better than fear”
“There are any number of American politicians who could learn something from Jack Layton.”
Dream jobs
Short-order cook, soda jerk, stationer, traffic cop.
“Where's that son?”
From My Dinner with André
Alice Notley on “non-careerist”
LEMONADE FIFTY ¢ ICE COLD
“For a moment, it might have been 1965.”
The news from Boro Park
Sorrowful news from my old neighborhood.
Red light, green light
Not setting a bad example.
Happy v. right
Jonathan Kaplan: “It’s better to be happy than to be right.”
Things I learned on my summer vacation (2011)
Many things
On where one belongs
Peter F. Drucker: “But most people, especially highly gifted people, do not really know where they belong until they are well past their mid-twenties. By that time, however, they should know the answers to the three questions: What are my strengths? How do I perform? and, What are my values?”
“The kids”
Another college graduate!
At the CPG Co.
On lockdown!
The decline of the omnivore
Growing up to be an omnivore.
JapanNYC
“If you think of every place where there’s wars going on, where there are terrible times, where people are suffering, they always look to music and culture. These are the things they look to for solace.”
Red Cross (help Japan)
Helping Japan
ShelterBox (help Japan)
ShelterBox, an international disaster-relief charity affiliated with Rotary, looks like a good choice if you want to do something for Japan.
Weather, continued
Insert imprecations here.
Weather
“Nobody does anything about the weather, but everybody talks about it. They talk behind its back, in terms unflattering and, I’m sorry to say, even coarse.”