Restaurant Rhetoric
Some lighter fare for today: Have you noticed the idiotic phrases entering the restaurant business over the past couple of years? It’s as if they’ve all been exposed to bad fish. “Are you still enjoying your meal?” staring at an empty plate.
Cognitive Dissonance
Cognitive dissonance is usually meant to describe an individual holding two conflicting beliefs at the same time, often manifest in behaviors inconsistent with statements. For example, a leader who states "customers are our most important asset" but refuses to talk
I’m Been Sitting on the Railroad
How does a long-distance/overnight train account for the change to and from Daylight Savings Time? Well: "Amtrak operates according to prevailing local time, either standard time or daylight saving time. At the spring time change (second Sunday in March), Amtrak trains
Only You Can Be You, Not Me, Unless There’s an “I” in “Team”
Just when did Linkedin become the universal repository of mindless platitudes, many of which directly contradict each other, posted by people with 42 initials after their names (some of them, embarrassingly, well known), and make "Why did the chicken cross
The State of “Journalism”
Here's a verbatim quote from the Boston Globe reporting on the vice presidential debate last night: "Pence won, but it doesn't matter." The sound you hear is Edward R. Murrow rolling in his grave.
Reading Between the Lines
When I'm the lector in church, I practice the readings once or twice at home, and then at church before the services start. Some readings are quite tricky. One day a woman saw me practicing at church. "No wonder you're so
Everyone’s an Expert
The saying is that "no one can tell you're a dog on the internet." Fear enough. But they can tell you're idiotic. A guy on Linkedin this morning says that articulation is more important than fluency in English. And then he
Small Business Minds
We've stopped going to one restaurant we've supported from its launch, weekly, because the hostesses give us a hard time with reservations these days. They aren't just inefficient, they are rude and uncaring. We were sitting in one of the scores
Honk If You Believe in Protecting Our Youth
Canadian Geese, with are protected in the US under the Migratory Aquatic Wildlife Law, or some crazy legislation, are not migratory. Most stay in the US, so they have the visa thing figured out. They tend to return to raise
It’s Only Been Ten Years, How Are You?
An interesting and disappointing recent phenomenon: I've had people who left my coaching communities long ago—they received what they needed and never felt a compunction to remain and contribute to others—suddenly show up again asking me for free help. They