I’m a longtime fan of Michael Josephson. He’s the founder of the Josephson Institute of Ethics, and provides the “Character Counts” segments to which I listen on KNX radio here in Los Angeles. (He’s also the uncle of a close friend of mine, but I didn’t know that until long after I became a devoted…
As my mom likes to say, “there are pros and cons on both sides” to Twitter’s new RT function (at this writing, still being rolled out in Beta). Here are what I perceive them to be at this point. First, the good. It makes the process of retweeting much easier. Just click a button. No…
Everyone’s all atwitter (forgive the pun) over the service’s new Lists feature. It is, if you will, a glamorized, organized version of the site’s ubiquitous “Follow Friday” meme, in which users recommend people for other users to follow. Some seem to regard the Lists function with a combination of fear and contempt: that it will…
This is my friend Cliff’s pug, Hiccup. I want to hug him.
The brilliant poster, designed by LeAnne Wagner, for a Bard College program held earlier this year. It examined ‘the manifesto as a context in contemporary art.”
The five generally agreed-upon human tastes are bitter, salty, sour, sweet and umami. I propose a sixth: Context. Dodger Dogs don’t taste the same at home as they do at Dodger Stadium, even if it’s the same dog, bun and relish. Guinness tastes different at the brewery than it does from the tap at your…
We spent the weekend with our friends Steve and Sims at their lovely ranch in the Upper Ojai Valley. A good portion of Saturday was taken up by the preparation of an amazing eggplant parmesan for dinner that evening. Steve is a master gardener, and Sims a master chef, so we knew we were in…
Twitter is on the verge of implementing a new feature: the ability to automatically append your location (via latitude and longitude) to your tweets. This feature will be affirmatively opt-in. In other words, the default is that the functionality will be turned OFF, and you must request it to be turned on in your settings….
Tom and I just returned from a splendiferous weekend in Las Vegas, which we undertook in a slightly early celebration of our 21st wedding anniversary. (The actual date is October 1.) Since we head to Sin City more often than many of our friends, we’re usually asked for recommendations, so I figured I’d just write…
An irresistible combination: three of pop culture’s greatest performers, as depicted by one of pop culture’s greatest artists, SHAG. If you’re unfamiliar with SHAG’s work (SHAG being the moniker of Orange County’s Josh Agle), he’s well-known for his stylized images of mid-Century Los Angeles, of all things Tiki, and of several anniversary artwork creations for…
Our son just started his first year at Bard College. (I digress here to note that Bard’s illustrious musical alumni include The Sherman Brothers, Steely Dan, and our friend Nelson Bragg of the Brian Wilson Band. Spectacular connections right there, but that’s not my subject for today.) Rhinebeck, NY is a lovely town about 8 miles…
The haze from the Station Fire north of Los Angeles causes the sun to cast an orange glow as it sets. Taken in Sherman Oaks, CA on September 1.
You know the songs by heart. “A Spoonful of Sugar” “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” “The Tiki, Tiki, Tiki Room” “Let’s Go Fly A Kite” “It’s a Small World (After All)” “You’re Sixteen” “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” “I Wan’na Be Like You” And there are hundreds more, many of which you also know. But do you know who wrote…
Hope I’m not the only one who thinks these Throwboy pillows are clever as well as cute. In addtition to the “Icon” collection, pictured here, Throwboy offers “Chat” and “RSS” pillows. They’re 100% fleece, polyester filled, and go for $29 each or $149 for the set of six. They seem rather perfect for dorm rooms and…
What a clever idea – a compact cookery set for four that collapses into a tidy, portable pot. This MSR Flex 4 System Cookset makes my minimalist heart very nearly want to go camping, just so I would have a reason to get one.
A quick search of the NFL site and of the web has yielded this list of those having sponsorship deals with the NFL. This is by no means a complete list, nor does it take into account the endorsement deals of individual players or teams. Bridgestone Coors Gatorade General Motors IHOP JC Penney Mars Snackfood…
Until fairly recently, if you followed a Twitter account, you were fed every tweet that account made, whether it was a general/broadcast comment, or a response to another tweet (even if you didn’t follow the other person). Many of us, especially in the earlier days of our Twitter membership, used this as a way to…
The joy of having a mailing list with a few hundred recipients is that when I send out news, I get responses. Sometimes, a few hundred of them. That happened most recently when I sent out my “good news to share” missive explaining that I am cancer-free after my surgery. The only problem is that…
It’s been fascinating and heart-warming to engage with so many people in the middle of the year. I’m used to it at holiday time, this sharing of news and good cheer, but not in July-August. I’m actually having trouble keeping up with all the emails. It’s been fascinating to HAVE to sit back and accept…
Dr. Friedman’s office called and asked to move up my post-op to this afternoon. So Tom raced home from work and accompanied me to what turned out to be a very good meeting. The good doctor very happily reported that the cancer was entirely contained within my now-departed uterus. Everything else they sampled turned up…
I walked two laps around Fashion Square today. Oh, all right, with a wee rest in between. But still.
We arrived home from the hospital a bit ago. Surgery went as well as could be expected. They didn’t have to take my aortic lymph nodes, and the flash freeze of my now-departed pelvic lymph nodes showed no cancer. The full pathology report will come back next week, but we have every reason to be…
We arrived at the hospital at 5:30am as instructed, and are currently in the surgery waiting room. They won’t take me to be prepped until about 6am. I’m finaly feeling a bit nervous – not so much for the surgey itself, bit for what comes immediately after. My stomach is rumbling, an astounding feat considering…