Category: 21st Century Sideshow

Yes, This Is Probably the Greatest Job Candidate Cover Letter of All Time

REMEMBER THE OLD military concept of “shock and awe“? It got a lot of attention during the Iraq War, and is defined as rapidly dominating an opponent “by the initial imposition of overwhelming force and firepower.” But “shock and awe” isn’t just for the military; it’s useful whenever you want to overwhelm someone quickly and

Continue reading

Here’s More Proof That in Life, It’s Never Too Late to Make An Apology

JUST WHEN I’M ABOUT ready to finally give up on human nature, something happens that helps to give me a little hope again. And believe it or not, this new hope comes courtesy of controversial radio personality and “King of All Media” Howard Stern. I’ve watched or listened to Howard for many years, and although I don’t

Continue reading

Starbucks Training Day Was More About Changing Culture Than Anything Else

HERE’S THE BOTTON LINE on the recent anti-racial bias training at Starbucks, and it was captured perfectly in the headline on The New York Times story about the big event. It said: Starbucks’s Tall Order: Tackle Systemic Racism in 4 Hours Yup, the NYT is right; it’s unlikely that Starbucks, or any other company, is going to make much

Continue reading

Queen Elizabeth Should Be Proud: Her TV Counterpart Is Finally Getting Paid Properly

LIKE SO MANY PEOPLE, one of my very favorite shows on TV today is the Netflix original The Crown. I love it for the same reason’s I loved Mad Men — it brought me up to speed on an era I was too young to fully appreciate but just old enough to vaguely remember. But,

Continue reading

It’s Finally Time to Kiss the Office Christmas Party Goodbye

THE HEADLINE ON A STORY in The Wall Street Journal pretty much said it all: Welcome to the Post-Weinstein Holiday Party. What followed was 1,400 depressing words that basically said, without actually saying it, something that you probably already know — the company Christmas/holiday party as we know it is officially dead and gone. As The Boston Globe dryly noted,

Continue reading

Fake News or Pure BS? Why You Should Be Skeptical of Generation-Bashing Surveys

WHY ARE SO MANY people today so into generation bashing? For years, I’ve heard people gripe about the shortcomings of the Millennial generation, as if Gen X and the Baby Boomers (of which I am one) are somehow perfect and didn’t have their own challenges. I’ve written this before, but I’m sick and tired of

Continue reading

Kicking Him When He’s Down: The Complicated Legacy of Hugh Hefner

NO MATTER HOW you felt about him, the death of Playboy magazine founder Hugh Hefner, who died last week at his famous mansion in the Holmby Hills section of Los Angeles, was one of those passings that got a lot of people worked up. Since Hefner passed away at the ripe old age of 91, a

Continue reading

Here For the Wedding? Well, Make Sure You Make Time to Dodge the Protests

I WAS IN OUR NATION’S CAPITAL this past weekend to attend the wedding of a good friend and former colleague who got married for the first time at the ripe old age of 48. Just that one little fact is fodder for a good blog post, but no, I won’t be going there. It was a

Continue reading

Hurricane or Earthquake, One Big Disaster Is as Bad as Another

FIRST IT WAS Harvey battering Houston and southeast Texas, and now you can add Hurricane Irma to the list of natural disasters as it bears down on Miami and the Florida peninsula. Hurricanes are terribly destructive things, but for most Californians, they’re something we never experience because the ocean off our coast is simply too cold.

Continue reading

I Was Fed Up With United Airlines’ Culture Even Before They Started Dragging People Off Planes

BELIEVE ME when I tell you this: I soured on the customer service practices of United Airlines long before they decided that dragging people off planes would enhance the flying experience. You’ve probably seen the video by now. You know the one — where the customer on the last flight of the night from Chicago to Louisville

Continue reading