Nous allons en Paris le mardi prochain - for those who forgot their High school French or who wisely opted to learn Spanish instead, it means: “We leave for Paris next Tuesday.
I am excited about being in Paris for the first time in my life. I’m NOT looking forward to the airport scene and long flight on British Airways. In an article in yesterday’s WSJ I read that they (BOA) lost 550,000 pieces of luggage between Jan 1 and June 30. That's 35 out of 1,000, which is worse than the worst American carrier (Northwest).
Travel has become an impossible test of patience and sanity. I think most people who travel regularly need also to drink heavily and take prescription grade drugs to maintain their serenity in the face of the obstacles and foul-ups that have become familiar fodder for comics and blog ranters – Delays, long slow moving lines, security checkpoint inconveniences, cancellations, uncomfortable seats, homely cabin attendants, crappy food, movies that suck, annoying children, smelly fellow travelers, terrorist suicide bombers, and the like.
We keep telling ourselves that the destination is worth the price of getting there. I wonder…
Sometimes it seems everyone else* (tout le monde) has already been to Paris, France. If I mention my upcoming trip to anyone – waitress, doctor, homeless guy asking me for a quarter – they all tell me that I’m gonna love it. They give me their list of the places we should not miss. They review the old memories of their trip(s). I think I see a glint of envy in their eyes, considering the fact that I (a 65 year old virgin when it comes to the romance of foreign travel) am about to experience The City of Light for the very first time.
We will spend 4 days in Paris before joining our tour, which will travel Northwest to Rouen, Caen, Normandy. Then South to Mont St Michel through Brittany, southeast to Angers, Saumer and Blois which will be our base for excursions in Loire Valley and Chateaux Country. Then North to Chartes and back to Paris. Not counting Air travel days, we will spend 9 days seeing the various sights. I think that will be sufficient.
We will not take cellphones, laptop, ipod or anything else that would invite us to connect with the vast electronic communications network. We are on vacation from all of that, so you will have to get your blogfix somewhere else for the next few weeks.
Au Revior.
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* Except The Millers, who never go anywhere.
8/24/2007
8/08/2007
Luck vs Talent
The Accenture ad that ran in a recent issue of WSJ is a great example of marketer bullshit that actually has a grain of truth. There is a full color picture of Tiger Woods after just whacking a stupendous drive down the fairway. The copy says "We know what makes a Tiger. What separates high performers from lesser competitors isn’t just talent. It’s the way they fuse their capability and mindset." The implication is that Tiger-like success is comprised of "50% aptitude and 50% Attitude." One might might quibble with the proportions, but the significant thing here is the acknowledgement that success in Golf (and by implication all success) is a combination of stuff you were lucky enough to be born with (talent or aptitude) and the volition to apply effort in pursuit of a goal (attitude).
When we make a decision to do something, we are committing to an outcome. But it seems to me that the proclivity to make a decision that requires action on our part is native, rather than learned. We develop personalities and attributes that make us more or less unique, but we do not choose these characteristics. Rather, they happen to us.
Am I saying that everything is 100% Luck? Since I believe that aptitude is luck and attitude is luck, I guess I am saying exactly that!
This leads me to the recognition that successful people in this world should be thankful for their incredible luck. The majority of souls who have trod the dusty path of life were born into mean circumstances which virtually doomed them from their first breath.
I think the fundamental difference between Liberals and Conservatives lies in the perception of entitlement. Most conservatives consider themselves to have strong sense of morality and a high respect for fundamental values. They believe themselves to be successful, and ascribe their good fortune to a loyal adherence to "core" values. They seem to believe believe that life is like a game of Monopoly. Everyone gets the same bankroll at the start of the game. If you lose yours, that's too bad, you are out of the game. Hard cheese, old boy. Unfortunate rolls of the dice and all that. You should have bought Park Place when you landed on it.
The few lucky ones who constantly win the game - who achieve a high degree of wealth or status may acknowledge that they are lucky, but many of them seem to feel entitled to good luck, because they earned their positions through hard work, talent and perseverance. They give lip service sympathy to those that are less fortunate, perhaps they contribute to charity, but fundamentally they do not feel guilty about their luck.
Liberals, on the other hand, often seem to feel that they are not worthy of the lucky breaks that they have had. They are more likely to believe that extraordinary abilities and brainpower are mere lucky gifts, not entitlements. They feel that same attitude about people who were born to unlucky circumstances. There but for the grace of god (ie, luck) go I. Liberals really believe that life is a crapgame.
They tend to be kinder to the losers.
Now, that Tiger Woods is one lucky sumbitch. I don’t play golf, nor do I watch it on TV, but I’m sure he is really good at it. I do know that I’ve seen naked pictures of his wife and he is one lucky sumbitch.
.............
Which may or may not lead us to the contemplation of how Luck and/or Talent explains the recent news that former Home Depot CEO Robert Nardelli is now the new Lee Iaccoca at Chrysler. (An honorable Japanese executive would have committed ritual seppuku if they were responsible for such a colossal failure, - wrecking Home Depot and making rival Lowes my personal number one hardware store. In China he would have been executed. But, Lucky Bob was born to run in America. He gets to keep his failure-reward money ($210 Million) and now has a chance to destroy yet another corporation!
I can see Ford and GM executives, gleeful at their incredible luck, slapping each other on the back and toasting Nardelli's appointment with expensive champagne - hoping that he will do the same thing for them that he did for Lowes.
When we make a decision to do something, we are committing to an outcome. But it seems to me that the proclivity to make a decision that requires action on our part is native, rather than learned. We develop personalities and attributes that make us more or less unique, but we do not choose these characteristics. Rather, they happen to us.
Am I saying that everything is 100% Luck? Since I believe that aptitude is luck and attitude is luck, I guess I am saying exactly that!
This leads me to the recognition that successful people in this world should be thankful for their incredible luck. The majority of souls who have trod the dusty path of life were born into mean circumstances which virtually doomed them from their first breath.
I think the fundamental difference between Liberals and Conservatives lies in the perception of entitlement. Most conservatives consider themselves to have strong sense of morality and a high respect for fundamental values. They believe themselves to be successful, and ascribe their good fortune to a loyal adherence to "core" values. They seem to believe believe that life is like a game of Monopoly. Everyone gets the same bankroll at the start of the game. If you lose yours, that's too bad, you are out of the game. Hard cheese, old boy. Unfortunate rolls of the dice and all that. You should have bought Park Place when you landed on it.
The few lucky ones who constantly win the game - who achieve a high degree of wealth or status may acknowledge that they are lucky, but many of them seem to feel entitled to good luck, because they earned their positions through hard work, talent and perseverance. They give lip service sympathy to those that are less fortunate, perhaps they contribute to charity, but fundamentally they do not feel guilty about their luck.
Liberals, on the other hand, often seem to feel that they are not worthy of the lucky breaks that they have had. They are more likely to believe that extraordinary abilities and brainpower are mere lucky gifts, not entitlements. They feel that same attitude about people who were born to unlucky circumstances. There but for the grace of god (ie, luck) go I. Liberals really believe that life is a crapgame.
They tend to be kinder to the losers.
Now, that Tiger Woods is one lucky sumbitch. I don’t play golf, nor do I watch it on TV, but I’m sure he is really good at it. I do know that I’ve seen naked pictures of his wife and he is one lucky sumbitch.
.............
Which may or may not lead us to the contemplation of how Luck and/or Talent explains the recent news that former Home Depot CEO Robert Nardelli is now the new Lee Iaccoca at Chrysler. (An honorable Japanese executive would have committed ritual seppuku if they were responsible for such a colossal failure, - wrecking Home Depot and making rival Lowes my personal number one hardware store. In China he would have been executed. But, Lucky Bob was born to run in America. He gets to keep his failure-reward money ($210 Million) and now has a chance to destroy yet another corporation!
I can see Ford and GM executives, gleeful at their incredible luck, slapping each other on the back and toasting Nardelli's appointment with expensive champagne - hoping that he will do the same thing for them that he did for Lowes.
8/07/2007
Tips on Refreshing Summer Beverages
Iced Tea
One of the things I have never been happy with is home made iced tea. Other people seem to know how to make tasty refreshing tea, but when I make it, the results are always bitter and cloudy. I cannot buy unsweetened/un-lemoned ice tea mix at my grocery store. The powdered stuff they sell makes a beverage that tastes remotely like metallic tea.
So, I decided to Google the words "How to make Iced Tea." I got quite a few hits.
Believe it or not, there are a number of ways to make good old fashioned unsweetened iced tea. One of the things that most aficionados agree on is to warn us against making that Girl Scout favorite "Sun Tea." They say that you cannot find a better medium to grow bacteria than warm water and tea sitting out doors in the hot sun.
So to save you literally minutes of reading, I will let you in on the secret to making iced tea that has eluded me until the other day:
1) Make in small batches to be used today, or tomorrow at latest.
2) Boil 16 0z of cold water; turn off heat add 5 bags or equivalent loose tea.
3) Let steep exactly 5 minutes, pull tea bags (or strain leaves) and save in a cup for 2nd batch.
4) Pour tea into a pitcher that will hold at least a quart, add 8 to 12 oz cold (tap) water.
Letting the tea steep exactly 5 minutes avoids the bitterness of the tea I always made - thinking that the longer the teabags were in the better. That was dumb.
Also letting the tea cool to room temperature before refrigerating seems to avoid the cloudiness. Martha Stewart advises adding a little hot boiling water to clear up cloudy tea.
The key seems to be brewing the tea in small batches of 8-16 oz and then adding water to dilute, rather than brewing a quart of water with 5 or 6 teabags. I re-use the same teabags for a second batch, which I steep for 8 minutes and do not dilute.
5) Pour into an ice filled glass and add lemon juice.
================
Beer
1.Go down to the local store that sells beer.
2.Get you some St. Pauli Girl lager.
3. Pour it into one of them iced glasses that you keep in the freezer door.
4. Go out back, sit in the shade and enjoy the wonderment of fermented malt.
(If you like it a wee bit hoppier and darker, substitute Sierra Nevada Pale Ale for St Pauli Girl.)
Ok I am not turning this into a household tips blog. Back to the search for meaning in work and post working life tomorrow.
One of the things I have never been happy with is home made iced tea. Other people seem to know how to make tasty refreshing tea, but when I make it, the results are always bitter and cloudy. I cannot buy unsweetened/un-lemoned ice tea mix at my grocery store. The powdered stuff they sell makes a beverage that tastes remotely like metallic tea.
So, I decided to Google the words "How to make Iced Tea." I got quite a few hits.
Believe it or not, there are a number of ways to make good old fashioned unsweetened iced tea. One of the things that most aficionados agree on is to warn us against making that Girl Scout favorite "Sun Tea." They say that you cannot find a better medium to grow bacteria than warm water and tea sitting out doors in the hot sun.
So to save you literally minutes of reading, I will let you in on the secret to making iced tea that has eluded me until the other day:
1) Make in small batches to be used today, or tomorrow at latest.
2) Boil 16 0z of cold water; turn off heat add 5 bags or equivalent loose tea.
3) Let steep exactly 5 minutes, pull tea bags (or strain leaves) and save in a cup for 2nd batch.
4) Pour tea into a pitcher that will hold at least a quart, add 8 to 12 oz cold (tap) water.
Letting the tea steep exactly 5 minutes avoids the bitterness of the tea I always made - thinking that the longer the teabags were in the better. That was dumb.
Also letting the tea cool to room temperature before refrigerating seems to avoid the cloudiness. Martha Stewart advises adding a little hot boiling water to clear up cloudy tea.
The key seems to be brewing the tea in small batches of 8-16 oz and then adding water to dilute, rather than brewing a quart of water with 5 or 6 teabags. I re-use the same teabags for a second batch, which I steep for 8 minutes and do not dilute.
5) Pour into an ice filled glass and add lemon juice.
================
Beer
1.Go down to the local store that sells beer.
2.Get you some St. Pauli Girl lager.
3. Pour it into one of them iced glasses that you keep in the freezer door.
4. Go out back, sit in the shade and enjoy the wonderment of fermented malt.
(If you like it a wee bit hoppier and darker, substitute Sierra Nevada Pale Ale for St Pauli Girl.)
Ok I am not turning this into a household tips blog. Back to the search for meaning in work and post working life tomorrow.
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