Live like the cameras are on you

If this was a weekly installment of NCIS – the CBS hit series combining cop-drama, military decorum and a Washington, DC venue – I could hear special agent Anthony DiNozzo pop up with an outtake from I Saw What You Did.

Tony (played well by Michael Weatherly, in the top-rated weekly) is known for a few quirks; one of them is his incessant reference of old movies to draw parallels with current events. He hits those cinema classics with a batting average approaching 1.000…

You’d have to be a certified MB (movie buff) to archive an impression from I Saw What You Did. Made in 1965 by Universal Pictures, it was panned by critics as lackluster. Saturday Review said, Unfortunately, there is little for the eye, ear, or mind in [the film] …”

It is Thanksgiving

November 22, 2010

A few weeks ago, Cheri and I were in London on a week-long multi-focus trip (in large part, a Sabbath break to renew, but also a “working trip:” to sow seeds for a possible Master’s Program entry into England). It included the opportunity to introduce friends to friends: two American couples, living as “ex-pats” in London.
A few days ago, I was copied in an e-mail exchange between the two couples: they’re getting together on Thursday this week, for dinner; not in a restaurant, but in one of their homes. Agenda: it’s Thanksgiving.

The Greatest Indicator of One’s Influence

November 15, 2010

Dear Marketplace Friend,

Talk about stark contrast: if you’re in the magazine business – competing for the newsstand shopper who is visually stimulated – you’re pretty careful about whom you put on the front cover. Blonde starlets are Choice #1, it seems. Wait: what’s the big guy with the big open mouth doing on that cover?
On the cover of Newsweek, it’s Rush Limbaugh. The cover story is “The Power 50.” The exposé inside explores the question of America’s most influential players on the political field.
They used a strange criterion to form a list that begins with Limbaugh and ends with #50, David Axelrod. In between the top and bottom are names like Glenn Beck (#2) and Sarah Palin (#6); Bill Clinton (#8) and George W. Bush (#18); Karl Rove (#35) and Dick Cheney (#32). The measuring stick, oddly enough, was their most recent annual earnings. Rush pegged $58.7 to be first; Sarah Palin is slotted at $14 million, while President Obama occupies #20 with $4 million (book sales, not salary).
It causes me to step back and ask an unpopular question: is influence really measured in income? Have we come to

We lost because…

It may never end! Innocent me: I thought that I’d take my own advice, and vote. They’d count the ballots, winners would be declared, and the newly elected would go home and pack…

No way, pal. The leaders may be packing, but the losers are doing interviews trying to explain why the voters veered the other direction. Talk about spin! “We lost because we didn’t tell them how well we were doing?” The last two years has been a 24/7 campaign speech…

One of the best stories of the election of 2010 is in today’s Newsweek; it features Tim Scott, the newly elected congressman from South Carolina’s First Congressional District. Tim Scott’s bullet points:

Getting ready for Election Day

We should be used to it; they are the signs of the season. Football – at all levels – fills the weekends. We gain an hour’s sleep next Saturday night… and then we’ll curse the darkness on the way home from work. Strange creatures came around, looking for a handout while we asked ourselves, “Who do they think they are?” They don’t scare us, because we knew they were coming.

Trick-or-treaters on Halloween? Nope; I’m talking about candidates, getting ready for Election Day! The “what do you want to be when you grow up?” question has turned ugly. Mothers won’t admit that their baby grew up to be in Congress…

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