"Paris to the Moon" by Adam Gopnik

Just finished reading “Paris to the Moon” by Adam Gopnik and didn’t love, but did enjoy it.



It's a compilation of essays Gopnik wrote for The New Yorker and his personal journals from his time living in Paris (where he, his wife and young song spent five years leading up to the millennium). The book itself is a personal and funny view of Gopnik’s experiences as an expatriate from New York raising a child in in the City of Lights.


Two things from the opening chapter that struck me were Gopnik’s description of Paris and what he hoped to accomplish there...

In describing the attraction to the city, the phrase Gopnik wrote of he and his wife was that they “love Paris not of ‘nostalgia’, but because we love the look of light on things, as opposed to the look of light from things.” This struck me as a very nuanced and interesting way to describe something of natural (even if it involves man-made structures) surroundings.

To further describe why they moved to Paris, Gopnik wrote of “two kinds of travelers. The kind who goes to see what there is to see and sees it, and the kind who has an image in his head and then going out to accomplish it.” Very cool stuff.


I also liked the parts of the book that were about some of the more mundane things around his son (which I suppose makes them not mundane at all). In his chapter “The Rookie” (about making up a long-form narrative baseball bedtime story) and that on swimming at The Ritz pool (with his son spending time with a first crush), Gopnik provides some touching and well written stories.


I suppose the parts of the book I didn’t care for as much were those that dug more deeply into Paris itself (but, I think I would have liked them more had I been more than once) and those on cooking. That being said, the chapter on Alice Waters did make me interested in her Berkeley restaurant Chez Panisse.

All in all, a good book and it reminded me of two other books I enjoyed quite a bit also with significant content around being an American living with young children in France. In "Home Game: An Accidental Guide to Fatherhood" (which I reviewed here), Michael Lewis wrote (in part) of living with his wife and young child in Paris and and S.L. Price's excellent book "Far Afield: A Sportswriting Odyssey" was about his experiences living and working in small-town France.

California Profile from Time Magazine

Interesting cover story on California from the latest Time Magazine.



I've heard before the notion of California as an indicator of the rest of the country (sort of an "if it succeeds in California, it can succeed everywhere), and this piece perpetuates that idea. Written by Michael Grunwald, "Despite Its Woes, California's Dream Still Lives" focuses not on the state's budget problems, but rather on the positives going for it.

Innovative companies, diverse demographics and environmental efforts... with Grunwald citing some statistics around the first and third area:

- Clean-tech: California now attracts $3 out of every $5 invested in the area.
- Utilities (which don't have a generally positive environmental reputation): PG&E has 40% of the nation's solar roofs in its territory.
- Energy usage: While per capital usage has increased 50% nationwide, the California amount has remained constant.

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A couple of other interesting things from Time to mention here...

- Jennifer Beals (yep, the one from Flashdance) mentioning the university lecture replaying site Academic Earth.

- A review of Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner's new book "Superfreakonomics"... a follow up to their (very interesting) hit "Freakonomics".

- Joel Stein's last page column "Rogue Journalist: Writing My Memoir Palin-Style"... available here as a 49 page pdf file.

Basketball & Joe Pa Sports Illustrated Writing

Several good pieces in the latest Sports Illustrated about topics I didn't expect to be that drawn into.



The cover image has Lebron and Shaq and the most compelling writing within is about... a 38 year old trainer who never played nor coached basketball at a high level. Idan Ravin is profiled by Chris Ballard as being the go-to physical trainer for star players from Chris Paul and Carmelo Anthony to Lebron James.

The piece titled "The Hoops Whisperer" is excerpted from Ballard's book "The Art of a Beautiful Game: The Thinking Fan's Tour of the NBA" and provides a really interesting look at an inner working aspect (and guy in that) of the game.

One thing to note is this continues in the line of great book excerpts I've posted on from SI... with the first being that from "Heart of the Game" by S.L. Price and the second an excerpt from "The Machine: A Hot Team, a Legendary Season, and a Heart-stopping World Series: The Story of the 1975 Cincinnati Reds" by Joe Posnanski.

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Also of interest as a sports fan was "The Rich Get Richer" about how stacked the top teams in the league are for this upcoming NBA season. Between the Lakers and Spurs in the West and Celtics and Cavs in the East, there's potential for some great Conference Finals matchups.

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Finally, it's not basketball related, but compelling was Joe Posnanski's "Joe Paterno Top Of The World, Pa!." About the longtime Penn State football coach, it's written as a piece to Paterno's (presumably very proud) late father and is just really solid writing.

Customer Experience Pieces from BusinessWeek

Some interesting articles from the September 26 BusinessWeek around how companies are trying to bring in and then keep customers.



The cover graphic is titled "The Hard Sell", but the point wasn't that consumers are being pressured. Rather, it's that companies are having to provide a great purchasing experience and not just great products.

Probably the best example of this the piece titled "Amazon: Turning Consumer Opinions into Gold." The main thing detailed is the "customer review" area for products on the Amazon website. As opposed to worrying about any negative reviews hurting sales, Amazon has focused on the idea of being an information source that also happens to sell the products it provides information on. Solid concept...


Two other pieces from this BW report looked at this same idea of how people buy things.

While more in it's infancy than Amazon, the Facebook Connect program is fascinating in it's potential to change how people make purchasing decisions. "Facebook Banks on a Little Help from Its Friends" details how the social networking company is looking at and instituting features that could at a large level help guide people towards products and services recommended by those they trust.

Finally, "Retailers Are Learning to Love Smartphones" details the move from "e" to "m commerce" whereby smartphones are being used to access smart-phone optimized company websites that people buy stuff from. As someone with an iPhone, I find it incredibly annoying going to a website that isn't formatted to come across well on a phone and imagine that's where things are headed.

Noreena Hertz & Hulu Pieces from Fast Company

Two very good (and very different from one another) feature pieces in the November issue of Fast Company Magazine.



The first was a fairly long profile on economist Noreena Hertz titled "How an Economist's Cry for Ethical Capitalism was Heard." A well-written piece by Danielle Sacks, it delves into Hertz's work and writings around capitalism at both a government and corporate level. She first came to prominence with her 2001 book "The Silent Takeover" and followed that up with "The Debt Threat" in 2004.

Sacks describes the first book as being "about the unsustainability-environmentally, socially and economically-of laissez-faire capitalism and the idea that markets are stable." This tying into Hertz's notion that corporations simply acting in the sole interest of shareholders eventually leads down a path detrimental to all. Her second book focuses on the idea of 3rd World debt forgiveness and the idea (often trumpeted by Bono) of 1st World countries wiping out the debt obligations from less developed nations.

It's interesting stuff from Hertz... in part due to the credence in her idea held by capitalist firms such as ING, McDonald's and Salesforce.com. It makes one take note when statements are paid attention to by the very people you'd think would reject them. The idea that Hertz is now espousing is one of co-op capitalism... a model in which companies, NGOs and governments work together.

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I also found interesting from this issue the piece titled "Can Hulu Save Traditional TV?" This fairly long profile on the network-owned video sharing site examines the growth of the company and how it both has and could impact television in the future.

It's not as important as the topics Hertz talks about, but Hulu as a medium is intriguing.

"The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work" by Alain de Botton

I came across Alain de Botton’s “The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work” from this BusinessWeek review and just finished reading this interesting book.

As the BW review details, de Botton is a fascinating guy as an heir to a financial asset management fortune who then renounced his trust fund in order to live off his writing. Even if you assume he always had family money to fall back on, it's still admirable.

Looking at de Botton's website it appears that he's done well for himself with a number of books in print that take a philosophical bent on daily activities... with his latest tackling the notion of work. The approach taken in this book was for de Botton to immerse himself for a period of time in multiple occupations and then write at length about them. The chapters and topics covered are below:

Chapter 1 – Cargo Ship Spotting
Chapter 2 – Logistics
Chapter 3 – Biscuit Manufacture
Chapter 4 – Career Counseling
Chapter 5 – Rocket Science
Chapter 6 – Painting
Chapter 7- Transmission Engineering
Chapter 8 – Accountancy
Chapter 9 – Entrepreneurship
Chapter 10 – Aviation

de Botton's book for me was one of those reads that covered a lot of ground... with some pretty mundane sections, but also some incredibly interesting concepts...

CREATING SOMETHING – The chapter on painting delved into what for me is the extremely meaningful idea of working at something that provides an output of someone’s efforts… even if not always for great monetary gain.

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HAVING A THING – Cargo Ship Spotting was an interesting chapter because it wasn’t even about a money making enterprise. Rather, it described a group of people who as an avocation immerse themselves in a specific and fairly obscure enterprise.

What’s appealing about this is that even if they didn’t do it as their vocation, these people had "a thing” they immersed themselves in. For some people, their “thing” is their work (which is great for them), for other’s it’s not their work (which can still be ok) and for others, they don’t really have a “thing”… which for lack of a better word, sucks.

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HOW THE WORLD WORKS – The concept in two of the chapters seem like it could jointly be described as “how the world works.” Logistics takes an interesting look at how a tuna steak goes from line capture in the Maldives to a family in England... basically a look at the world you live in and how it functions.

Entrepreneurship as a chapter meanders around quite a bit, but has some fascinating stuff around the most financially successful entrepreneur mentioned. This person’s statements showed a view of the working world different than many might have. Rather than seeing a haphazard collection of objects and services mystically provided, he appeared to view the world as a place built for profit by people with intent.

While it’s still very true that someone taking this view of the world isn’t necessarily going to be successful or happy (as this entrepreneur didn’t seem to be so), it probably could be said that taking this big picture view of things and figuring out how you can function in them is likely a key ingredient to the success held by many.

Taking it a step further... for someone to figure out their function in that chain (and make money) combined with it being “a thing of theirs” (and be happy)… that’s the good stuff there.

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COG IN THE MACHINE – The chapters on Biscuit Manufacture, Accountancy and Aviation could I think be described as the more depressing chapters in the book. While it’s certainly possible that the people featured in these sections do have interesting avocations where they spend time on their “things” (whether those be family, hobbies, or whatever else interests them), they certainly didn’t seem to be getting much out of work.

Instead of great fulfillment, their non-monetary take-aways from jobs appeared to be the not so inspiring concepts of work as a way to pass the time. As de Botton describes it, their jobs winds up making life “no longer mysterious, sad, haunting, touching, confusing or melancholy; it is a practical stage for clear-eyed action."

I think the thing out of these sections of the book is about how one views work. Jobs in and of themselves are not bad, in fact they can be necessary to make money in order to finance a life. Where jobs can be bad, though, is if you view them as either a distraction from things more important or as something that negatively impacts the person.

Having a vocation that provides money, fulfillment and everything someone would want in an avocation is great, but not always practical or available to all. If it’s not, there’s still a lot to be said for the idea of work that may not provide you everything you want, but lets one make a living… while still making a life outside of work.

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Interesting read with some interesting ideas contained within...

401K Pieces from Time & BusinessWeek

Interesting story on the concept of a 401K retirement plan in the latest Time Magazine.

In his piece "Why It's Time to Retire the 401(k)" Stephen Gandel examines the heavily trumpeted retirement plan... and looks at it's shortcomings and what to do about it.

The basic statement Gandel makes is that 401K programs were never designed to be a replacement for company pension programs, but rather a supplement to them. However, the present-day corporate climate has one company after another eliminating pensions and relying on 401K plans... leaving the retirement income solely up to (A) house equity, (B) 401K and other investment income and (C) Social Security.

401K plans in and of themselves are not a bad thing as they encourage employees to save money and often feature some form of company matching of funds (as a replacement for pension programs), but in current form they can fall victim to the vagaries of the stock market. For those who hoped to retire last year, this year or in the next 5-10 years, the plummeting of 401K values in many cases put those plans on hold. As to the idea of house equity as a source of retirement income... see aforementioned 401K value plunge.

The alternative in Gandel's piece is an idea that combines aspects of a pension program and 401K. There's a plan that still gets employee contributions, but rather than those contributions then going towards investments, they go towards a guaranteed monthly check from retirement until death... in short, a pension. Difference is that in this case it's funded not by the company (and to be fair to corporations, the US auto industry is an exhibit of how pension programs can cripple a business), but by the individual.

It remains to be seen how effective 401K programs are for many as they simply haven't been around long enough. Perhaps over another 20 years they'll prove wildly successful if the market continues on an upward path, but I get completely the idea of there being an alternative with less risk. Perhaps that alternative sacrifices the possibility of high returns in the market, but would do so while providing more of a guarantee for retirement... and reduce the number of people worried about their money running out before they die.

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Within the same topic, but taking a different approach, BusinessWeek featured an article in it's July 13 issue titled "IBM Reinvents the 401(k)". The idea implemented there works on the idea of there being a 401K rather than pension program and then attempts to get the best 401K program possible. That involves a generous company match, but also access to both online financial planning tools and no-cost sessions with financial advisers.

I don't agree with the IBM consideration of using the 401K and other benefits on a tiered scale rewarding highly ranked employees more than others (as I feel that's what salary and bonuses are for), but do appreciate the concept of trying to set employees up as much as possible to succeed without actually having the expense of a traditional pension program.

Gotta have some sort of balance between the bottom line of the company on one hand and the long-term financial success of it's employees on the other.

Earthquake Preparedness Section from Mercury News

It's not necessarily good writing related stuff, but some excellent information in the San Jose Mercury News Special Section on the Loma Prieta Earthquake Anniversary on how to prepare for and react to a quake.

Two things that stood out where a graphic checklist how to prepare your house and this piece on the house preparations done by a Los Gatos resident.

Below are some of the key steps taken from the linked checklist that can be taken to prepare for or in case of an earthquake.

Items to have:

- water - a gallon per person, per day

- water purifying tablets

- non perishable food high in calories... dehydrated food, granola bars, canned goods

- can opener

- baby supplies

- flashlights

- batteries

- shoes and change of clothing

- blankets or sleeping bags

Things to do prior to an earthquake:

- know how to turn off gas, water and electricity

- secure appliances and tall furniture

- place bed away from window (also good to have blinds closed)

- secure cabinet doors

- confirm water heater secured by strap

- be aware of mirrors and pictures that could fall

Things to do in an earthquake:

- drop under a desk or table if inside

- stay away from windows

- stay inside if already there

- stay in bed if already there... cover with blanket/pillow

- if you're outside, get clear of buildings, trees, streetlights and power lines... then drop to the ground

- if you're driving, pull to the side trying to stay clear of things that could fall and stay there with your seatbelt on

Fast Company Magazine - Oct 2009 Issue

Some interesting stuff (for various reasons) from the latest issue of Fast Company Magazine...



The NextTech feature "OnLive Goes Online--And It Could Kill the Game Console" chronicles serial tech entrepreneur Steve Perlman and his latest venture... OnLive. The company itself is about streaming video games over the Internet, but I was struck by the piece not so much because of OnLive, but because of Perlman himself.

After hitting big by co founding and then selling WebTV, he created the business incubator Rearden (which I think was originally named Rearden Steel). Yep, he named it after the main guy in Ayn Rand's manifesto/book "Atlas Shrugged". Onlive is actually the third venture to come out of Rearden, with the first two being a set-top box maker and motion capture company that provided technology to help make "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"... a most excellent film with stellar effects.

I suppose my only data point is that he named his company after an Ayn Rand character, but out of that, I'll say he's an interesting guy... whose companies definitely work on interesting stuff.

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I also found of note the cover story on Coca-Cola VP of Design David Butler. While I have to admit personal envy of Butler's cool (at 43) look and job, I also appreciated his interest in and ideas around systems and platforms.

Additionally, I found interesting Butler's commentary around the role of design not just for the sake of design itself, but to put things in place to sell more stuff. As evidence of this, Butler's big step forward after arriving at Coke was his three page memo "designing on purpose" about the overarching role of design within the company.

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The other design piece I really liked this this issue was that on information architect Lisa Strausfeld. The whole idea behind her area of interest is information and how it tells a story to the people who interact with it.

I also found interesting her mention of her late mentor Muriel Cooper and how she "wanted to do hard-core information design rather than entertainment-oriented work." I love things that entertain, but even more so completely get what Strausfeld finds appealing about this concept of working on something lasting with teeth.

Domestic Terrorism Piece from David Von Drehle

Some solid writing from the October 12 issue of Time Magazine.

Most noteworthy was "An Enemy Within: The Making of Najibullah Zazi" about the investigation and arrest of a suspected domestic terrorism plotter. The piece was pretty compelling reading and makes one wonder what might have been the eventual intention of Zazi. What would have been interesting to read more of, though, is the purported tip off of Zazi as a result of NYPD inquiries... and to know what could or should have been done differently in the investigation.

That said, it's excellent writing that mirrors past work from Time Senior Writer David Von Drehle, including his book "Triangle" The Fire that Changed America", which was reviewed in this blog post.

Also from this issue was the Joel Stein back-page column titled "The Tough-Love Dictator of My Dreams." Someone could try to assign point of view or message to the piece, but it's probably easier to just appreciate it for what it is... very funny writing.

Finally, I found interesting the short memoriam piece by Peggy Noonan on fellow speechwriter (and columnist) William Safire. I particularly like the quotes about writing attributed to Safire...

"Write what you see because what history needs more of is first-person testimony" and "never feel guilty about reading; it's what you do to do what you do." Solid stuff.

Mariano Rivera & Chris Andersen Sports Illustrated Profiles

Two really good profile pieces in the Oct 5 Sports Illustrated.



The first is by Tom Verducci and titled "Mariano Saves" about the exploits of the Yankee pitcher. Throughout the piece is detailed Rivera's unflappable cool and incredible success closing games. Perhaps even more amazing than what Rivera has accomplished is the manner in which he's done it... with 92% of his pitches thrown being the cut-fastball.

The second is about someone who certainly hasn't had the longevity or success of Rivera, but perhaps is just as popular in the town he plays. Denver Nuggets forward Chris Andersen is profiled in the L. Jon Wertheim story "Flight of the Birdman" and his is quite the ride. After serving a 2 year drug-related suspension from the NBA, Andersen is now a fan favorite due to both his approachable every-guy attitude and reckless abandon style of play.

Both stories portray interesting people and do so through really solid writing... an excellent combination.

BusinessWeek Articles: Cover Story on Glock & "Change by Design"

Pretty intriguing article in the Sept 21 issue of BusinessWeek on the handgun manufacturer Glock.



I suppose it's not a shock given the industry it operates in, but as "Glock's Secret Path to Profits" details, lots of shady (but entertaining) things there. Contracted hits on the founder... tax-haven shell companies, good times all.

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On a very different note, there was an interesting piece in the Oct 5 BW issue from IDEO design shop founder Tim Brown. The book excerpt was taken from "Change by Design"... about how companies (such as Kaiser Permanente) can apply design thinking to internal and customer-facing processes.

Interesting stuff...

"Reset: How This Crisis Can Restore Our Values and Renew America" by Kurt Andersen

Just finished "Reset: How This Crisis Can Restore Our Values and Renew America" by Kurt Andersen and found it to be pretty good... not great, but pretty good.



I first heard of Andersen as his his work of historical fiction "Heyday" was on the bestseller list and then later came across two excellent pieces he wrote for Time Magazine.

The first was an Apr 2009 cover story "The End of Excess: Is This Crisis Good for America?" that I described in this blog post as "a compelling read that looks at America in each of the last few decades and how things led up to the economic collapse of the past six months."

The second was an essay titled "The Avenging Amateur" Andersen wrote for an Aug 2009 issue issue of Time and which served as the basis or jumping off point for "Reset". I linked to the article in this blog post and truth be told... probably enjoyed this essay a bit more than the book Andersen wrote out of it in that it was more focused.

That said, "Reset" is a mere 70 pages and an extremely quick and fairly interesting read.

The amateur spirit referenced in both the Time article and book is a hearkening back to the founding fathers of America... who helped create the country while at the same time running farms and businesses. Some of the other points Andersen makes are around getting control of health care costs and oil dependency, while at the same time using the economic crisis as a trigger to both control spending and foster innovation.

Good concepts all and more information on Andersen can be found on his website.

Detroit Writing from Time & Sports Illustrated

Interesting concept from Time, Inc. that’s already resulted in some compelling writing…

The idea is for Time Magazine and its affiliated publications including Fortune, Money, Sports Illustrated to continually report on the once thriving city of Detroit.

Both Sports Illustrated and Time had cover stories about Detroit this week and each issue featured pieces from the editor about why Time Inc. made this decision. Both that from Time Inc.’s Editor-in-Chief John Huey and the essay from Sports Illustrated’s Terry McDonell detail how far the city has fallen. The statistics referenced are 29% unemployment, 50% illiteracy and 70% unsolved murders… all from a place that used to be the epicenter of American manufacturing.

As Huey describes, the goal of Time Inc. in reporting so thoroughly on the city is to shine a spotlight and perhaps help Detroit “recover and find it’s way into the future.”

On to the first stories…

The Time Magazine cover piece is titled “Detroit: The Death — and Possible Life — of a Great City” and written by Daniel Okrent. It’s a broad overview of Detroit and it’s current struggles from someone who grew up there.



Solid writing from Okrent, but probably more compelling to me was the Sports Illustrated cover story by Lee Jenkins. The frequent baseball writer contributes “Tigertown” about the team and efforts led by owner Mike Ilitch, to help revitalize the city.



While the role a sports team can play in such a big task may seem insignificant, the franchise has worked hard to put a contending team on the field as well as make games affordable to its fans.

An additional anecdote from the Jenkins piece showed the team’s support of local industry. When General Motors found itself unable to continue sponsoring the popular "home run water fountain", Ilitch decided to not seek different sponsor dollars. Instead, he simply added Chrysler and Ford alongside the GM name in centerfield... at no cost to any of the beleaguered automakers. Not a bottom-line based decision, but a very cool one.

Joel Stein Vaccination Column & Neil Patrck Harris Profile

Two interesting short pieces from the Sept 28 issue of Time Magazine... both written by Joel Stein.

The first is "Neil Patrick Harris: Emmy Host with the Most" and written about the former "Doogie Howser, M.D." star who has since developed a solid career as an adult actor. Just an interesting piece about a guy who seems very comfortable in his own skin.

The second is Stein's last page column titled "To Vaccinate or Not To Vaccinate." It's a funny piece subtitled "My wife thinks I want to inject our infant son with cancer-causing toxins. So that's going well."

There's a good chance that the essay appealed to me because his approach of getting all vaccinations, but on a delayed basis, is exactly what we've done with our son. Ahhh... validation, sweet validation.

"Home Ice" by Jack Falla

Just finished reading "Home Ice" by Jack Falla and... found it a good book.



I've previously read two of Falla's books... his fictional hockey story "Saved" (which I reviewed here) and "Open Ice" (which I reviewed here).

I enjoyed this book just completed, but probably liked "Open Ice" more as it featured a wider range of hockey writing by Falla (in addition to the really interesting material from "Home Ice" around his backyard hockey rink). To the point of his rink, I believe this story on how to build one is how I first came across the author.

Falla was definitely a hockey guy, but just as much so a writing guy... who wrote for Sports Illustrated. One of the chapters in "Home Ice" is titled "On Rinks and Writing" and contains the below verbiage:

"I think it was now-retired Boston Globe columnist Tim Horgan who said "to be a sportswriter, it is necessary to love the writing as much as the sport." Like most writers I love the 'having written' a lot more than I love the writing. But I've already regarded sportswriting as worth and fulfilling in itself and not a synthetic substitute for playing. When I feel like playing I go out on my rink and play."


Just seemed like a really good guy (as this Facebook memorial page seems to indicate) and such a shame for him to have passed away last year at the young age of 62.

For anyone who loves hockey and good writing about it... I highly recommend "Open Ice" and then perhaps the other Falla books.

Joe Klein Piece on Obama & Time Arts Preview

Some good stuff in the latest issue of Time Magazine.



In his "In the Arena" column, Joe Klein wrote "Obama's Appeal: A Test of National Character" about the effort at health-care reform... and how interesting it will now be to see what public opinion does. Basically, it's a question of whether (A) reasoned debate or (B) doing whatever it takes to not let the other guy win will rule the day.


From the same issue was the Time Fall Arts Preview (starting with Dan Brown's "The Lost Symbol") featuring 50 different books/movies/plays/whatnot to look forward to in the coming months. Of most interest to me were the following:

- Ken Burns' 12 hour documentary on America's National Parks. Starting Sept 27 on PBS...

- "Jennifer's Body" opening Sept 18. No, it doesn't look amazing, but it's written by Diablo Cody.

- "Where the Wild Things Are" live-action film of Maurice Sendak's book. Opens Oct 16.

- "Eating Animals" by novelist Jonathan Safran Foer. A non-fiction look at the practice of vegetarianism. Releases Nov 2.

- Andre Agassi's biography "Open". Releases Nov 9.

- "New Moon"... the second "Twilight" movie adaption. Opens Nov 20.

Good stuff all.

LA Angels & Nick Adenhart Story from SI

Excellent story in the latest issue of Sports Illustrated on a team that experienced tragedy and has spent the season figuring out how to cope and move forward.

The Lee Jenkins piece "Touched By An Angel" looks at the LA Angels' season that began with such tragedy when Nick Adenhart was killed by an allegedly drunk driver in Southern California. The crash also took the lives of two Adenhart friends and as Jenkins details... left a third close to death and needing extraordinary efforts from doctors to help avoid paralysis.

I've posted links to stories by Jenkins a few times with the most recent story being his piece on Mark Buehrle's Perfect Game and find him to be a really solid writer. The Adenhart story is compelling stuff and paints a vivid picture of what the Angels have had to go through to reach their current point of what will be a playoff season.

BusinessWeek Best Places to Launch a Career / PCs vs Macs / Books

Excellent content from the Sept 14 BusinessWeek on the "Best Places to Launch a Career".




The annual special report gets into a lot of interesting concepts that companies can offer new hires... especially in the area of opportunities for growth and employee value to the corporation.

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Two other categories of writing that I found interesting in recent Business issues... and which I'll link to here for lack of them being truly compelling enough for their own post:

PC vs Mac & Windows 7 vs a slide rule: In it's Sept 7 issue, BusinessWeek technology columnist Stephen Wildstrom wrote "Snow Leopard: An Upgrade in Camouflage" about new the Mac operating system from Apple.

In the vein of "equal coverage to both sides"... from the Sept 14 issue, Peter Burrows wrote "Will Windows 7 Reboot PC Sales?" and Wildstrom penned "Windows 7: Upgrading Can Be Hard to Do". Releasing Oct 22, Win 7 replaces the much reviled Windows Vista and it will be interesting to see both how Microsoft prices it and how good it is.

Books of Interest: Two mentions of interesting books in the last few issues of BW. "Acting the Part of a Leader" is excerpted from "The Essential Bennis" by... Warren Bennis.

Probably of more interest to me is "Borrowing Brillance" by David Kord Murray... and reviewed here. The idea behind Murray's book is that great business ideas frequently come from cherry picking other ideas and simply adapting them.

Time Magazine - Ted Kennedy Pieces

Two excellent pieces on Ted Kennedy and his passing from the Sept 7 issue of Time Magazine.



The first is "Ted Kennedy, 1932-2009: The Brother Who Mattered Most" by Richard Lacayo and the second "Ted Kennedy: Bringing the Myth Down to Earth" from David Von Drehele.

I particularly enjoyed the Von Drehele piece as he's an excellent writer and the author of the non-fiction work "Triangle" about the Triange Shirtwaist Company fire of 1911 (which I reviewed here).

Both Von Drehle's and the piece by Lacayo examine the legacy of the Kennedy brothers and how Ted fits in. He's the least mythologized as a result of his long life, but perhaps the most impactful over his political career... with the youngest brother's Presidential ambitions having led into his highly successful run in the Senate.

As Von Drehle eloquently writes...

"Ted might have gone early. In 1964 he was dragged, critically injured, from the wreckage of a plane crash. Had he died that day, he too would have remained forever young and dashing. No Chappaquiddick, no divorce, no boozy indiscretions. But also no antiapartheid campaign, no Americans with Disabilities Act, no Family and Medical Leave Act."

Such a shame for him to pass away now before one of his battles... that for universal health coverage, could be realized (with his passing also taking away a perhaps needed vote in the Senate).

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On a different topic from the same issue, I also found interesting the Nancy Gibbs essay "Cash for Clunkers: The Bribery Stimulus" which details the enormous public response to a program that may not do much other than get people excited about a deal. As Gibbs writes about... if that gets people excited and optimistic about the economy, it's $3B well spent.

"'Tis" by Frank McCourt

Having really enjoyed "Angela's Ashes" by Frank McCourt, I decided to read his follow-up memoir "'Tis" and found it... ok.






In my review of "Angela's Ashes" I wrote of it's dual elements of an interesting story and descriptive language and unfortunately, didn't really find "'Tis" to have either of these things.

I often felt like I was simply reading a journal of "then I did this, after that I did that" and none of it was terribly interesting. McCourt's chronicle of his years as first a a newly arrived immigrant in New York and then a teacher, husband, father and sometimes caretaker of his mother at times seemed like a series of lists.

It may not have occurred to me had I not seen criticism of McCourt as a son in this Richard Harris interview, but I didn't find McCourt's actions and attitudes towards both his wife and mother to be that endearing. It's hard to form a well-versed opinion on simply what was written in "'Tis", but frankly, I felt bad about his mother's time in New York after the struggle she went through keeping McCourt and his siblings fed when they grew up poor in Limerick, Ireland.

Probably not going to read the third McCourt memoir, "Teacher Man".

Book Excerpt on the 1975 Cincinnati Reds

Very cool piece from the latest issue of Sports Illustrated.

Titled "Welcome to the Machine", it's an excerpt from the upcoming Joe Posnanski book "The Machine: A Hot Team, a Legendary Season, and a Heart-stopping World Series: The Story of the 1975 Cincinnati Reds".

Not a Reds fan necessarily, but I found interesting this very solid writing about a the pretty incredible batting lineup below:

1. Pete Rose, 3B
2. Ken Griffey, RF
3. Joe Morgan, 2B
4. Johnny Bench, C
5. Tony Perez, 1B
6. George Foster, LF
7. Davey Concepcion, SS
8. Cesar Geronimo, CF

"Say Everything: How Blogging Began, What It's Becoming, and Why It Matters" by Scott Rosenberg

I first heard about Scott Rosenberg's "Say Everything: How Blogging Began, What It's Becoming, and Why It Matters" from a BusinessWeek review of the book and found it to be an excellent book on a few different levels.

Book Content

The beginning of the book details some of the early blogging from people like Justin Hall... along with his "dark night" blogging sign-off video. From this point, Rosenberg goes into the "warblog" movement out of 9/11 and rise of political blogs. The influence of these has been significant ranging from the blog Little Green Footballs helping call into question the "60 Minutes" piece on George W Bush and his National Guard record to Josh Marshall's Talking Points Memo blog helping both fight off the Bush plan to kill social security & bringing to light the Alberto Gonzalez scandal around firing Justice Department lawyers.

Also featured in the book is the blog Dooce from Heather Armstrong. Sitting firmly in the "narrative life story" blog category, this blog author became famous for being fired from a job due to her blogging about it. From that point, she's written some very personal stuff that's at the same time very funny (and it's cool that "getting dooced" has since become the descriptive phrase for someone getting fired as a result of their blogging.

From this same influential blogger category, I found interesting mention of Robert Scoble and his video on how to scan through 600+ RSS Feeds daily.

Additionally, there's detail given by Rosenberg as to some mechanics that have helped blogging become so successful. The range from the “last in first out” (or "stacking") principle of blog postings to features such as Permalink, Trackback (or Backlinks in Google Blogger) and RSS Feeds (which were of course mentioned above).

Another area that's touched on towards the end of the book is around the introduction and subsequent popularization of Social Media sites such as MySpace, Facebook and Twitter. Rosenberg's theory (which seems sound to me) is that these sites don't signal the end of blogs as the intent and execution of them is so different than that of blogging. The new Social Media forms can almost be considering a telephone type communication in that they're about short form communication and contact with others. Blogging on the other hand is about a longer form publishing of thoughts. There is of course some blend between blogging and Social Media in each direction, but also differences.


What It Meant to Me

Everything above describes the book and it's contents... good things for sure to have in any review of a book. Below, though, I want to touch on some of the things that struck me while reading and I "may very well" carry forward.

The basic concept I took is that there's so much that could be done with a blog. There could be important political discourse, could be insightful and profound narrative, or could simply be thoughts and ideas about things of import that a blog author wants to pass on.

I particularly enjoyed mention from Rosenberg's book about the blog Boing Boing. The statement of the blog is "A Directory of Wonderful Things" and Rosenberg's discussion is around how the four blog authors really enjoy doing the site. At the end of the day, that should be the reason that someone writes a blog and whether it "becomes a hit" isn't as important (and especially isn't as controllable).

I also was fascinated by the personal narrative quality of Dooce. I'll have to see what direction my writing takes me, but am interested in spending time on and exploring this "personal narrative" writing. As long as it's done with the best quality I can muster (after all, a blog is a written record (or "resume" in work terms) and I'm enjoying writing it, things should work out just fine like.

Finally, back to the book... solid read and further details can be found on Rosenberg's blog and his "Say Everything..." book website.

Time Magazine - Organic Food & Republican Politicians

Couple of really good articles in the latest issue of Time Magazine.

The cover story is titled "Getting Real About the High Price of Cheap Food" and provides an excellent look at the food industry in America. Written by Bryan Walsh, the piece looks at the potential for problem throughout much of the food chain feeding us today. In order to keep down costs, pigs and cattle are typically raised in unhealthy conditions making them vulnerable to disease... which has to be combated with copious amounts of antibiotic drugs.

It's definitely acknowledged in the article to be more expensive (even in the title), but the basic premise is that local organic agriculture and sustainable farming is the way to go. Tough to bring around everyone, but the point made is that it's worth it to try.

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The second piece of note is the commentary by Joe Klein on Republican political opposition to President Obama's health care plan. Just ill-inspiring is the description of how otherwise level-headed Republicans feel compelled to let Sarah Palin prattle on about "death panels"... simply because to refute her would help their political opponent.

Titled "The GOP Has Become a Party of Nihilists", it's a balanced story that points out this is not the way to have political discourse around an important issue.

BusinessWeek Cover Story on Optimism

Interesting Special Report containing multiple pieces on Business/Economy optimism in the latest issue of BusinessWeek Magazine.

The lead story is "Why It's Smart To Be Optimistic" and contains lots of good points around reasons to practically be thankful for the recent economic problems... ranging from laid off people starting new ventures to the increase in education as people prepare for a different future. Really good points all contained within.

The final page essay (thankfully not written this week by Obama critics Jack & Suzy Welch) is also very interesting, and unfortunately, almost a counterpoint to the "cause for optimism" from the prior piece. "The Buyback Boondoggle" is penned by William Lazonick and details the lavish amounts of money spent by corporations on stock repurchases.

Lazonick brings up three excellent points about this practice.

- First is that the money is often spent at the expense of jobs... with companies buying back large of amounts of stock at the same time employees are being laid off.

- Second is that it can be done by a corporation for the sole intent of raising the stock price... which can lead to an interesting question as public companies are legally chartered with maximizing value to shareholders, but that often can wind up more short than long term.

- Third is that when companies buy back stock on a large scale, the largest beneficiaries can wind up being executives of the company with options to exercise.

Marc Buoniconti Sports Illustrated Cover Story

Great story in this week's issue of Sports Illustrated on quadriplegic Marc Buoniconti.



Written by S.L. Price, it's titled "Three Lives, Two Hits, One Happy Ending" and is about the impact that Bouniconti has had since his freak spinal-cord injury suffered on the football field some 24 years ago. In addition to his vast contribution to spinal cord injury research through The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, the ex-Citadel football player has individually helped both the person involved in the accident (through Buoniconti hitting him, not the other way around) and countless others.

Price gives a riveting tale that makes me both have tremendous respect for Bouniconti and wonder what the heck was going on at his school at the time he was injured. The article details how (incredibly) The Citadel didn't want to pay medical bills for or honor the scholarship of the athlete injured during a game... one in which there's question as to whether team doctors should have allowed him to play. It's a good postscript that the school and individual have since reconciled, but still... it just sounds to be bizarre behavior on the part of the military school.

Just a compelling read from an excellent author. Price has done several different SI stories I've linked to and is also the author of the excellent books "Heart of the Game: Life, Death, and Mercy in the Minor League America" (which I reviewed here) and "Far Afield: A Sportswriting Odyssey".

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Also from this issue is a memorial piece on Eunice Kennedy Shriver who passed away recently. Written by Jack McCallum, it remembers the tower of a woman who founded Special Olympics. Having volunteered at local Special Olympics events, I can say it's an amazing organization and the world is a better place for it.

From McCallum's piece, I love the anecdote he provides about Shriver prior to the founding Special Olympics...

"Everybody told my mother that mentally challenged kids would start crying if they lost," says Bobby Shriver, "to which my mother said, 'So what? That's what everyone does.' Her thought was, You compete, you exult if you win, you get sad if you lose, and you go back and try harder."

That's great stuff.

"Angela's Ashes" by Frank McCourt

Finished reading "Angela's Ashes" by Frank McCourt and... man, I'm glad I didn't grow up poor in Ireland 60 years ago. The below second paragraph of this memoir describes pretty well what's to come in the follow few hundred pages:

"When I look back on my childhood I wonder how I survived at all. It was, of course, a miserable childhood: the happy childhood is hardly worth your while. Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood, and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood."



What makes this such a compelling read is that it contains the two basic elements of great writing... a compelling topic that's described well. McCourt's phrasing and language used through the book is simply excellent writing and brings to life the day to day scratching for survival of he and his family.

One thing I found interesting after reading the book was to see what happened to the main characters of the book. McCourt himself passed away of cancer in July 2009 and his wikipedia page describes his three brothers now living in the US, two of them being published authors and one also having run against Eliot Spitzer for Governor of New York.

There's also some controversy around McCourt, not surprising given that he doesn't portray his hometown of Limerick, Ireland (or that Catholic Church there) as being terribly nice. A particularly incendiary attack was made by the late Irish actor, Richard Harris (who played Dumbledore in the first two Harry Potter movies) in this interview. It's certainly possible that some of what McCourt wrote of in "Angela's Ashes" isn't an exact retelling of events, but I still found it a fascinating story written really well.

I suppose it had the mark of a good book in that I'm now interested in reading McCourt's follow-up autobiographies "Tis" and "Teacher Man".

Time Magazine - Aug 24 Issue

Nothing I found enthralling in the latest issue of Time, but several different stories that had interesting enough stuff to be noted here for posterity.



The cover story by Joel Stein (he of the frequent back page commentary) is "Less Vegas: The Casino Town Bets on a Comeback" about the recession impact on Sin (& Eternal Optimism) City. Striking about this piece was it's vignette about successful estate agent Brooke Boemio... and her specialty of representing current home buyers who buy larger at reduced price, and then walk away from the old house.

Lovely, just lovely. Not that shady real estate agents and homeowners with no sense of responsibility to their debts are the only poor links in this poorly functioning chain (with Banks and mortgage brokers also deserving blame), but geesh... this doesn't help.

Also from this issue was a profile on Steven Chu, Obama's choice as head of the Department of Energy. Of interest here was both how Chu is perhaps the first truly qualified scientist in this role and his championing of white roofs and light-covered pavement. As remarkable as it sounds, Chu cites studies that the carbon savings of these two introductions (which would have to come over time) would be equivalent to taking all cars off the roads for 11 years.

Finally, two other articles of interest were "Building a Media Empire Around I Can Has Cheezburger" about Seattle-based funny website entrepreneur Ben Huh and the poignant commentary piece by Nancy Gibbs on the costs and benefits of raising a child.

Sept 2009 Fast Company Magazine - Open Content Ed & Other Stuff

Some interesting stuff from the September 2009 issue of Fast Company... including a feature story about a fascinating topic I've been hearing frequently about of late.



FC writer Anya Kamenetz penned "How Web-Savvy Edupunks Are Transforming American Higher Education"... a long title given for a piece about an important topic. The concept is "open content" education, basically making available online learning that previously had been held behind an (often extremely expensive) brick and mortar wall.

The leading force behind the movement seems to be BYU professor David Wiley... who is also heavily involved in both non-profit and for profit private enterprise around open-content (or open-source) education. The first I heard of the movement or concept was from a Nov 2008 Time Magazine article about Western Governors University and more recent mentions of YouTube EDU and Apple iTunes U.

Attached to the Kamenetz piece is Fast Company's "Five Startups to Watch"... with these and other companies being part of the inaugural Venture Capital in Education Summit held earlier this year. The field is growing and I'm terribly interested from both a macro and personal level.

Big picture, the concept in it's various forms and representations should make education more available to all and for myself, I'm thinking of it as a way to find resources and forums to improve my writing.

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In addition to that on open source education, there were two other pieces from this FC issue that stood out to me.

The first was "Heard of Allegiant Air? Why It's the Nation's Most Profitable Airline" about a carrier profitably serving mostly small markets (and doing it well I can say from personal experience).

The authors of "Made to Stick", Dan and Chip Heath, provide the second with "The Gripping Statistic: How to Make Your Data Matter"... about how to describe data and have it make sense. An example they give of something that could be worded better is "disposable diapers used could stretch to the moon and back 7 times". The Heath brothers point is that this doesn't tell you much, because if the trash generated was cut in half, "to the moon and back 3.5 times" still seems like a heck of a lot.

Chris Jones Esquire Piece on Photographs of Military Caskets

I've posted umpteen times writing from Chris Jones, but just came across yet another poignant work of his that I want to keep track of.

In the May 2008 issue of Esquire, Jones wrote "The Things That Carried Him" about Sgt. Joe Montgomery and process and care involved in transporting fallen servicemen and women back to the US for burial.

This story garnered a greatly deserved National Magazine Award and was the jumping off point for a short piece from Jones about the Pentagon lifting it's ban on news images of military caskets returning home.

The title is "From Iraq to Grave, We Can Finally Remember the Fallen" and piece just plain powerful.

H1N1 Flu Article from Time... & Books of Note

Intriguing (and a bit pause-inducing) article titled "Inside the Fight Against a Flu Pandemic" from the Aug 17 Time Magazine.

Written by Michael Scherer, the piece looks at the flu formerly known as "swine" and steps private industry and the Federal Government are taking to prepare for the fall flu season.

As the story details, many are expecting a rash of cases as school starts as well as when the more traditional flu season hits in the fall. In anticipation of this, an H1N1 vaccine is being manufactured, but that likely won't be ready until the October time frame, and require two shots spaced four weeks apart... this on top of the standard flu shot already long recommended each year.

Scherer writes of the uncertainty about H1N1 because nobody knows if the virus will remain in it's fairly non-dangerous state, become even more mild or turn into something with a larger impact. While that works itself out and vaccines are prepared, the standard anti-illness remedies of washing hands frequently and keeping surfaces clean are very much recommended.

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Not from the same issue, but also from Time are a couple of different mentions of books that sound interesting:

The first is a recommendation of "The Waxman Report: How Congress Really Works" by Representative Henry Waxman (Democrat from California).

The second is Time's "Summer Reading List" featuring 15 different recommendations. Those that stood out for myself are listed below:

- Recommendation for "The Man Who Was Thursday" by G.K. Chesterton. I've heard of Chesterton's writings about religion and apparently this is a short read also available for less than $2 on the Kindle (and conversely the Kindle for iPhone app).

- Recommendation for "The Count of Monte Cristo" by Alexandre Dumas. Must be good as I keep hearing about it... plus, I already have it on my iPhone.

- Recommendation by Joe Klein for "The Increment" by David Ignatius. It's a spy novel from a prolific writer in the genre... and recommended by one of my favorite writers.

"Strokes of Genius" by L. Jon Wertheim

Recently finished reading "Strokes of Genius" by L. Jon Wertheim and found it... pretty good.



In it, the Sports Illustrated writer expands upon his original coverage of the 2008 Wimbledon Men's Final into a book subtitled "Federer, Nadal, and the Greatest Match Ever Played." At times I found my interest waning as the match itself was detailed, but always found interesting the descriptions of the players themselves.

What emerges throughout the book is a fascinating portrait of the two undisputed heavyweights in men's tennis who have many characteristics in opposition to one another, but also have much in common. That you can have such high level competition between combatants with so much respect for one another's abilities as well as each other is refreshing to read about.

All in all, an interesting book for either a hardcore tennis fan or sports fan interested in rivalries at the highest level of the game... whatever that game may be.

One thing I did find odd (though it doesn't reflect at all on the book itself) is in reading Wertheim's coverage of the one year later 2009 Wimbledon Final between Federer and Andy Roddick, I never came across any real comparison between the two matches. I would expect that the Federer-Nadal match had more gravitas in the broad scheme of things, but also would think a five set final that ended 16-14 in the 5th set deserves to be at least compared to "the greatest match ever played."

Sports Illustrated Pablo Sandoval and Mpho 'Gift' Ngoepe Pieces

Couple of very cool baseball profiles from the latest Sports Illustrated.

The first was written by the ever more frequent writer of great SI pieces, Lee Jenkins, and chronicles the San Francisco Giants fun-loving and from the heels swinging 3rd baseman. The profile on Pablo Sandoval reveals a guy who is easy to root for and becoming more and more the face of a franchise (at least the hitting face) whose visage was much more of a scowl in recent years.

The second story is very similar in showing someone who loves the game of baseball, but different in that it portrays a guy with a long way to go to equal Sandoval's success. Mpho 'Gift' Ngoepe is a 19 year old infield prospect in the Pittsburgh Pirates lower minors... and attempting to become the first MLB player from Africa. The profile on him is written by SI Senior Writer Gary Smith and combines excellent writing with a compelling story.

The overriding feeling I had from reading this is hope that Gift is able to make it. As the S.L. Price book "Heart of the Game: Life, Death, and Mercy in the Minor League America" (which I reviewed in this blog post) details, minor league baseball is a tough road to glory and riches.

Time Magazine - Judd Apatow Profile & Kurt Andersen Piece

Several interesting things from the August 10 issue of Time Magazine.



First was the back page essay from Kurt Andersen titled "The Avenging Amateur" about the amateur spirit of many Americans... and how that can help us come stronger out of the current financial crisis. The essay relates to Andersen's new book "Reset: How This Crisis Can Restore Our Values and Renew America". Interestingly (well, to myself), the book came out of a Time cover story that I linked to in a March 2009 blog post.

Andersen is an excellent writer and also penned "Heyday"... a work of historical fiction set in the mid-19th century which I've seen rave reviews for.

Also from this issue of Time was "Taking Judd Apatow Seriously" about the producer / director / writer. As his wikipedia entry shows, everything Apatow is involved with seems to succeed at the box office. For good reason, though... they're funny movies.

Finally, this issue also contained in the "Short List" section film director Werner Herzog's picks of things he's found interesting. Three books mentioned within are listed below:

- "All the Pretty Horses" by Cormac McCarthy

- "The Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway" (including Herzog's favorite "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber")

- "The Warren Commission Report: Report Of The President's Commission On The Assassination Of President John F. Kennedy" (which Herzog describes as the "best and most convincing detective work he's read")

MLB Perfect Game Article from Sports Illustrated

Really cool piece titled "Miracle On The South Side" from the the latest Sports Illustrated on Mark Buehrle's perfect game.

Written by Lee Jenkins, it chronicles the events around the White Sox pitcher throwing on July 30th only the 18th perfect game in major league history. Compared to this, mere no-hitters are practically a commonplace event with there having been 263 in the major leagues.

Just a really well written story about an amazing event. Also makes me feel bad for Jonathan Sanchez of the Giants (who lost his July 10 perfect game to an 8th inning Juan Uribe error) and all other "close but not close enough" pitchers detailed in this sidebar piece.

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Additionally of interest from this SI issue was this Kenny Moore written piece about the opening ceremonies of the 1984 Summer Olympics. Very short and very solid writing from a guy that I wrote about in this blog post.