I Believe... [Valid Feelings/Invalid Response]
...that your feelings are always valid but your reaction may not be an appropriate response. Your anger is valid; your follow-up tantrum combined with destroying property is not. Your desire for attention is valid; your follow-up shit-tweeting to get it is not.
Flowers from the Faucet at Midnight - A Poem
I’m nobody and you’re the anybody you’ve always
wanted to be. As long as we’re warm silhouettes in this
picture we have a piece of everything all to ourselves.
The Subjectivity of Historical Revisionism
The issue at hand with much of the faddish push to classify certain artists and historical figures as unassailably evil and worthy of complete erasure is that the most strident either have nothing with which to substitute for the thing they deem canceled or they have replacement art that is not up to the challenge.
Notes from the Post-it Wall | Week of April 4, 2021
Former pig police officer turned murder defendant Derek Chauvin has been taking a lot of notes throughout the murder trial of George Floyd. I bet it’s just the N-word over and over and over again.
RNC Guidelines for Choosing Your Republican Bride
If she’s attractive enough, your constituents will respect her.
The Art of Having a Job and Making a Life at the Same Time
The idea of the side hustle is not part of the new normal we've been predicting at the tail of this bizarre yet completely expected pandemic. The side hustle has always been with us. For all the hand-wringing about the evils of capitalism and greed and discriminating practices in the workplace, none of it is new.
I Believe... [The Bacon of Journalism]
...that the internet is the bacon of journalism if journalism was vegan and temptation to cut corners and justify bullshit got them a taste of that delicious pig.
The Partnership
9:30 am. It was already 95 degrees with a 1000% humidity. And it was only mid-June.
When I moved to St. Louis from Chicago in 1990 to take my first CEO job at The Jewish Hospital of St. Louis, I traded a lousy winter for an unbearable summer. 3 dress shirts a day to go with my suit. One more when I had an evening function to attend.
Notes from the Post-it Wall | Week of March 28, 2021
Easter has been cancelled. They found the body.
Why We Gave Our Son Away
Parenthood requires sacrifice. Lots of it. A more optimistic person might say it’s not sacrifice but compromise, and to that I say they don’t know what they’re talking about. Over the last several years, my wife and I have been parents to a wonderful little human named Harrison. He’s intelligent, strong, funny, helpful, and kind. Most of the time anyway. He’s also a three-year-old toddler so he is also erratic, neurotic, sullen, mercurial, and violent. Why, just yesterday, he slapped me across the face after telling him I loved him. In a very tiny nutshell, that right there is parenthood. You give love, you get smacked in the face.
I’m Not Anti-Vax. I’m Anti-THIS-Vax!
I asked to speak to a manager and was rudely told to move along.
The Nine Circles of Offense
Offense is hell. It’s angering and frustrating and confusing and sometimes it feels eternal. Like the actual Hell, which is real because people who trust the Zombie God say so (happy Easter, by the way), there are a variety of meeting places for those who have been offended. And so, I present to you the Nine Circles of Offense. And if you’ve ever been offended, you’ll understandably recognize a few having visited that circle or circles before.
Advice Unsolicited | Ignore Your Social Circle
In this current McCarthyist state we’re playing around in, when met with your self-determined opinion (as opposed to following some strident party line) your social circle will likely turn to hyperbole and scorched earth rhetoric to both shame you into falling in line or paint the podcaster you listen to as evil.
I Believe... [It's the Guns, Morons]
...that the “needs of the many” are answered in bans on automatic, semi-automatic and pump-action shotguns.
Happy Birthday to Me. I'm 53. I Feel Old.
This past year, the year of the pandemic, is the year I grew old.
Authority is Always Wrong
Ten Things Harder to Acquire Than an Assault Weapon in America
I went to Walmart. No lawn darts. I went to a few sporting goods stores. Not a single fucking lawn dart to be had. Not even one that I could get stabby with or re-use thirty or forty times.
A guy at the counter of the Home Depot told me that they were called "Jarts" and they were illegal for purchase. Turns out a couple of kids got injured by lawn darts and they were banned for sale.
What the H, E, double hockey sticks!?
Notes from the Post-it Wall | Week of March 21, 2021
If equity, equality, diversity, and inclusion infringe on your religious beliefs, you and your religion are wrong. Or, you’re an asshole.
Before You Go All-in on Antifa, Try Becoming Antifra First
The term fragile is very popular in 2021 but I'm not certain the people who use it as a political label have an understanding of what it means. The redefinition seems to be a synonym for defensive but that isn't even close to the original so it doesn't play. Considering how loaded the term has become politically, I'd suggest we take a look at the pre-DiAngelo meaning and embrace it some before we continue forcing the evolution.
Zoom! Pow! Splash! How I Became More Productive Working at Home During a Deadly Pandemic!
I am doing number two while talking to my number one client.
The first chapter of an in-progress novel.
“The voice began on a Tuesday morning while Monte Walsh was standing in his kitchen, holding an unopened package of bacon over the garbage can.”