An NFL Photographer’s Tale
December 24, 2015
Mack Herron (42) and John Hanna (73)
The View from Here
May 30, 2015
Over the 15 years we’ve lived in our home here in the Berkeley Hills, we’ve been witness to a number of stunning views from our back deck.
I thought you might enjoy a look:
No dates, no times, just random scenes over the last few years.
Clouds make The City
The fog creeps in
Our Golden Gate
Summer sunset
A sky ablaze
Watching over us all
What I learned at Wisdom 2.0
March 3, 2015
In my last post I outlined my overall view of the recently concluded Wisdom 2.0 conference in San Francisco.
I have to admit that after three days there were some valuable take aways;
I learned:
Three great tips for Karaoke (from the CEO of LinkedIn Jeff Weiner).
How NOT to connect with tech company HR types.
Tibetan monks work on a sand sculpture at the Wisdom 2.0 conference in San Francisco
Even when they are off, cellphones, (or weapons of mass distraction), can disrupt a conversation.
Uni-tasking will be the next big trend. (Sherry Turkle, author)
There are still people (Pico Iyer) who do not own a cellphone and manage to navigate the world.
Conversations need at least 7 minutes before they really get down to anything substantive.
Empathy, is the real victim among young people who try to talk and text at the same time, because they never learn how to read facial expressions.
Nomophobia is the fear of being without your cellphone.
Alanis Morrisette, in addition to being a great singer, is very smart and has spent a lot of time in a therapist’s office.
Humans of New York – a website dedicated to telling the story of ordinary New Yorkers, is a fine continuation of individual story telling in the tradition of Studs Terkel.
A job may not be a career, but if you can combine them with a calling you may actually have something.
Getting rid of ‘Shoulds’ to create more room for ‘Musts’ may be the key to happiness and satisfaction.
Meditators, monks, and teaching masters have all learned that marketing is the key to spreading the word. It seems everyone now had a catch phrase to make it easier for public acceptance of their theology.
According to Mark Twain the two greatest days of your life are the day you were born and the day you discover why.
That’s really quite a bit to learn in a three day conference.
Would You Reprint Charlie Hebdo’s Cartoons?
January 13, 2015
Ever since the attack on Charlie Hebdo last week I’ve been wondering what I would have done if I were still an editor at a newspaper.
The day after the attack, I was consumed with embarrassment for my profession when so few papers, who reported the murders, printed any of the offending cartoons.
As part of their coverage some publications in Europe did print a cartoon, but except for the Washington Post, I’m not aware of any major US publications who printed an example.
Even the Post printed the cartoon on the editorial page leaving the news columns free to describe the artwork. They, like the New York Times and other publications, claimed the actual drawing ‘were not relevant’ and their message could be communicated in words.
Clearly the cartoons were relevant, and just as clearly, mere words could not describe why the cartoons led to the attack. In truth, after looking at a sampling of the cartoons, I found many childish, insulting and tasteless, but I would still defend their right to publish them.
Almost every religion came under attack, but according to some, only the Muslim faith specifically prohibits depictions of their prophet.
My outrage, was tempered by a good friend, recently ‘retired’ from a small local publication, who noted that if had been editor, he’s not sure if, as a married father, he could take the risk of publication, even in a small hometown weekly.
Would the emotions of any editor be any different. Presumably they could all be the mothers or fathers of young children, and publication would open them up to the same fate as Charlie Hebdo’s cartoonists.
I guess my anger was more rooted in the excuse that the cartoons “were not relevant” to the story. I just wish the editors would admit they were scared and, while they knew that failure to publish meant the jihadists had won, they would be honest about it.
I had the same thought this week when the new cover of Charlie Hebdo was released and the announcement in my email, only showed half the drawing.
I still don’t know what I would have done, were I still the editor of a newspaper or even if I should use a cartoon to illustrate this blog post?
But I hope I would at least be honest with my readers.
Maybe, if somehow everyone published the cartoons, there would be strength in numbers like the 1 million French citizens who marched in defiant solidarity in Paris last weekend.
BFF
August 4, 2011
Today’s Rose – plus
October 16, 2010
Weather has been warm in Northern CA and my roses have been enjoying a late flourish. As the weather cools and New Englanders can look at fall foliage we get to enjoy color in our own way.
Today’s rose: and two bonus orchids
Sexy Rexy
An orchid pas de deux
Moon over San Francisco
October 9, 2010
Ok, last night you looked at Yosemite. Tonight it’s San Francisco Bay at sunset, from my back porch. Those are the towers from the Golden Gate Bridge you’re looking at.
Moon over SF bay