Monthly Archives: January 2010

The Art of Losing Things Isn’t Hard to Master

I am very careless with my belongings. This past week, when I flew to NYC for Digital Book World, I left my purse and coat in the plane overhead bin. I walked right out ...

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Why People Stay at (or Leave) Their Jobs

No talented person stays at a company for a paycheck or a sense of security. Talented people stay because they feel happy, challenged, and—most importantly—valued by their superiors. The #1 important factor ...

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How I Lost My Vegetarian Life

My family likes to tease me that when I was very young, I would order T-bone steaks, clean my plate, then help finish someone else's ribeye while also enjoying a baked potato topped with ...

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Reading Notebook #5: Life Patterns & Something Out There

From "The Secret Cycle" by Nick Paumgarten, in The New Yorker (October 12, 2009) And yet patterns exist, and we slowly discover them. Seasons, migrations, moons: the template is there. Consciously or unconsciously, most people accept certain components of cycle theory. We ...

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What Does a Brand Manager (or Community Leader) Do?

I'm often asked what my job at Writer's Digest encompasses, or what my typical day is like. My official title is Publisher & Editorial Director of the ...

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Bog Myrtle Beer & Irish Coffee Recipes

Upon arrival at the Irish farm in Kilgarvan, a bottle of homemade bog myrtle beer was waiting in the kitchen, as a welcoming gift. Apparently, bog myrtle leaves were used to flavor beer before hops became popular in Britain, and ...

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12 Self-Creating Actions and 12 Preoccupational Diversions

[Click here for full-size image.] On the last page of my 2009 Museum of Lost Wonder calendar, I found the following. Find out more about Museum of Lost Wonder by Jeff Hoke. 12 Self-Creating ...

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Reading Notebook #4: Not to Endure Even an Attractive Cage

From the New Yorker article on Amelia Earhart by Judith Thurman (September 14, 2009) [From Earhart's letter to her husband on her wedding day] You must know again my reluctance to marry, my feeling that I shatter thereby chances in work which mean ...

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Ireland 2009: All Experience Is an Arch

I returned home Monday night from a 3-week holiday in Ireland. (Read previous entries on this trip here and here.) A quick index of the trip: Canceled flights: 2 Delayed flights: 3 Re-routed itineraries: 1 Airport shutdowns: 1 Hotel shutdowns: 1 Road shutdowns: 1 Occurrences ...

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Reading Notebook #3: I Distrust My Thoughts

Snippets from "The Life and Essays of Michel de Montaigne" by Jane Kramer, in the September 7, 2009, issue of The New Yorker. Montaigne … often warned his readers that nothing he wrote about himself was likely to ...

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