William Faulkner is one of the most celebrated American authors, having won the Nobel Prize in 1949. In 1998, the Modern Library ranked his 1929 novel The Sound and the Fury sixth on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. But it seems that if you had met him as a teenager, you would have never … Continue reading From Post Office Failure to Nobel Prize Winner
I first wrote about The Great American Read, an eight-part PBS series that explores and celebrates the power of reading, back in May. The show investigates how and why writers create their fictional worlds, how we as readers are affected by these stories, and what America’s 100 best-loved novels have to say about our diverse nation … Continue reading Cast Your Vote! Voting Ends Thursday (Oct. 18) at Midnight!
According to the website Marketing Blender, a "vision statement should be an audacious dream of a future reality based on the work you do. It should be bursting-at-the-seams with possibility. It’s where “begin with the end in mind” lives. It’s the heart and DNA construct of your organization. Your vision should be so big, it feels nearly … Continue reading Can You Guess the Company by Its Vision Statement?
The Village Voice ceased online operations last month, a year after ending its print edition. It was the end of the line for the laborious, gritty investigative reporting that was the heart and soul of the paper. The muckraking for which the Voice was known has become an endangered species. According to an article in the … Continue reading This Is Why We Need a Free Press
I think at this point the statute of limitations has expired. So it's time to come clean. When I was about 18 years old a friend and I went to Zern's Farmers Market in Gilbertsville, PA just for something to do one Saturday night. As we were walking past the record store, I caught a … Continue reading Returning to the Scene of My (One and Only) Crime
I'm not sure why, but last week a random thought about poetry popped into my head. It may have been triggered by hearing about a book that had been turned into a movie or was going to be turned into a movie. And I thought, 'I wonder if singers/composers/record companies ever buy the rights to poems with … Continue reading Some Thoughts about Poetry and Censorship
We were driving to a family reunion yesterday, and along the way we passed the building (shown above) where I used to work 37 years ago, Prudential Insurance. It was my first "real" job, working as a dividend analyst in the group insurance division. I was part of a management development program that would have … Continue reading What If???
This past week I read a couple of articles that talked about the potential impact of robotics and artificial intelligence on the future of work, and the articles noted that some jobs would likely be safe from being replaced by a robot. So I decided to look a bit more into it, and see if … Continue reading What Jobs Will Survive the Artificial Intelligence Revolution?
Printerinks, one of the largest printer ink, printer toners, and replacement ink cartridges companies in the UK,, has put together a great infographic comparing how long it has taken to write some of the world's best known novels, as well as how lengthy those novels are. Not only is the information itself fascinating, but I love … Continue reading It’s a Good Thing That Reading a Book Doesn’t Take as Long as Writing a Book
One of my favorite punctuation marks (I have several) is the ellipsis, also known as the three dots. Here's what it looks like: ... I was curious to see how often I use it in my blog posts, so I did a search of my site. It looks like I use it a lot more … Continue reading I’ve Got Something in Common with President Trump…
Borden's Blather 