Random Observations

Random Observations

• Terrific season openers of “The Good Wife,” “Homeland,” “Revenge,” “Blacklist.”

• Part of the inferiority complex in Rhode Island manifests itself with drivers who refuse to give you a break if you have to turn across their lane or merge into their lane. When someone allows me to do that at Dunkin Donuts in the mornings, I tell the cashier that I’ll pay for the order of the car that’s now behind me. Good deed forward.

• It’s in the high 70s and low 80s in early October in Rhode Island, and watching the trees’ riotous colors with the car’s top down is a great treat. There is something to be said for having four distinctive seasons.

• Why would anyone with talent and ambition run for public office, where you mainly have to beg for money, beg for votes, compromise your positions, and deal with intransigents who believe negotiation means solely getting their way? Once upon a time it was “lives, fortunes, and sacred honor” at stake. Today it’s “our way or the highway.”

• Every “reality” show I see appears to be heavily scripted and edited.

• I love “Dancing With the Stars”  but I’d need a private investigator to identify at least half of this year’s cast. We record it, watch only the dancing and judging, and cut two hours to about 40 minutes.

• Matt Lauer must have photographs of NBC executives. Nothing else explains his contract.

• Going Clear, a Pulitzer Prize-winner’s account of Scientology, is one of the most engrossing, frightening books I’ve read in a long time.

• The most influential person in a top hotel is the doorman. He is the first and last person you encounter. Who or what is the “doorman” for your business?

• My reaction to the reports that scientists are “95% certain about global warming” is that at one point scientists were 100% certain the Earth was flat.

• I provided an analogy in my Monday Morning Memo® about how Americans seem to love criminals and hate crime, and I mentioned Edward Snowden. One subscriber wrote a paean to “Snowden the patriot” and lambasted me for using him that way. Of course, he missed the point of my message, but that’s what happens when you view the world through a narrow agenda.

• A lawyer wrote to tell me he thought the “quality of writing” of two FREE  newsletters I publish had diminished, and if I didn’t improve my future credibility would take a tumble. So because of this one piece of feedback among tens of thousands of readers, I should change my style. Not only is that off-the-chart pretentious, but I mention it here as a warning to those who seriously consider unsolicited feedback. Stop it!

• Stand up for yourself. The greatest dividends come from the investment in yourself.

© Alan Weiss 2013