Back to the Nineties

Back to the Nineties

Last week I spoke to members of the Better Business Bureau. I don’t know if anything I said made an impression, but I do know that something someone else wrote did. Back in the nineties, a newspaper writer included many sad and disturbing items about what was...
When People Trash Your Best

When People Trash Your Best

Many years ago, a lady wrote in Readers’ Digest about an act she did to demonstrate her gratitude. She lived in Chicago, and her city was suffering from a heat wave. Newspapers wrote that Chicago’s workers were in danger of dehydration. This woman decided...
How Will This Sound Tomorrow?

How Will This Sound Tomorrow?

I have long been interested in courtroom trials. That’s why I enjoyed an article I read several years ago about humor in the courtroom. The following is the dialogue from various trials preserved in the courtroom by court reporters. They are found in the...
The Joyful Janitor

The Joyful Janitor

Dick Schapp was a great journalist during the 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s. He was based in New York City and was in heavy demand as a speaker. One night in the 1960s, he gave a speech at Syracuse, New York, which lay north of New York City. Afterward, he took a 12 AM bus...
How to Be Happy

How to Be Happy

What determines happiness? Who is happy? In his book Thinking, Fast and Slow, the Nobel Prize winner for economics, Daniel Kahneman, answered these two questions. His findings were fascinating. For example, researchers measured the happiness of people who had lived in...
Consider Taking the Risk

Consider Taking the Risk

Lewis Mumford and Neil Postman have written about time, the clock, time management, and our lives. I have an old colleague who was traveling with his family in another country. Let’s call my friend Rick. Rick and his family were at the airport waiting to board a...