The Most Truthful Part of a Newspaper
“The advertisement is the most truthful part of a newspaper.” Thomas Jefferson. Need more TJ to start your morning? He also said: “I do not take a single newspaper, nor read one a month, and I feel myself infinitely the happier for it.” With all respect for President Jefferson–in most matters not relating to slavery, anyway–I…
Read MoreSunday Inspiration:
From the Dalai Lama XIV: “There is a saying in Tibetan: ‘Tragedy should be utilized as a source of strength.’ No matter what sort of difficulties, how painful experience is, if we lose our hope, that’s our real disaster.” Our hearts are broken — again — by the tragedy in Boston, but it is heartening…
Read MoreThe Write Way: The Hornets or the Alligator?
Let me tell you a story. A devoted father takes his four children out for a pontoon boat cruise on one of Florida’s wild and scenic rivers. The oldest son is nearly twelve. The youngest is only 18 months. The trip is lovely, but somewhat uneventful, so he lets the oldest pilot the boat. Then…
Read MoreSunday Inspiration: “Living is so dear…”
Why should we live in such a hurry and waste of life? I wish to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life. I wish to learn what life has to teach, and not, when I come to die, discover that I have not lived. I do not wish to live what is…
Read MoreCreating Characters Over Thai Chicken Salad
Today was a “Ready, Set, Go” day. You know the kind. You jump out of bed and you start to run. As the day progresses, you run faster and farther, until by day’s end, you’re too tired to do anything except fall back into that same bed you jumped out of hours before. Tonight even…
Read MoreSunday Inspiration: Falling Down
Today is a new day. You will get out of it just what you put into it… If you have made mistakes, even serious mistakes, there is always another chance for you. And supposing you have tried and failed again and again, you may have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing…
Read MoreThe “Joys” of Technology
Mercury isn’t even in retrograde. I just checked, because despite my skepticism about all things astrological, I want to blame my techie failures in the past twenty-four hours on the alignment of the stars. No such luck, though. Even astrology has failed me. I’m stuck with my own mistakes, me and the increasingly complicated life…
Read MoreSunday Inspiration: “A Real Life”
So here’s what I wanted to tell you today: get a life. A real life, not a manic pursuit of the next promotion, the bigger paycheck, the larger house. Do you think you’d care so very much about those things if you blew an aneurysm one afternoon, or found a lump in your breast? Get…
Read MoreKickstarting Veronica Mars, or Who’s in Charge of What You Read or Watch?
What an exciting time to be an artist, writer, film maker. Not to mention all those other professions or hobbies where imagination reigns. This afternoon a friend and I regaled each other with stories about the way our beloved publishing profession has changed. Even though publishers don’t always acknowledge this, no longer do authors listen…
Read MoreSunday Inspiration: the Spring Equinox
This we know: the earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth. All things are connected like the blood that unites us all. Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself. I share these words…
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