The Action Button

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Good ideas and solutions to problems are abundant. Everyone might be a critic, but often, criticism holds the kernel of a viable solution. The problem is that merely identifying a problem, or proposing a theoretical solution never results in fixing it.

There are reasons why. I’ve written before about how talking about an idea can actually run counter to implementing it. The age-old adage, “talk is cheap” is just that; talk requires nothing. It’s an idea, often poorly framed, without steps towards implementation. Continue reading →

Sauerkraut is Life

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My pedigree is one part German. As a German, I inherited a love of cabbage. My birth family, specifically my Opa, made sauerkraut. One of my treasured memories is being six or seven-years-old and watching Opa, my uncle Bob, and my father shave cabbage using a Krauthobel, or “Hobler,” adding salt, and waiting while it magically changed into sauerkraut. Continue reading →

Skating Away

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On Saturday morning, the thermometer near our mudroom entrance read minus 20. That’s cold! On Monday afternoon that same thermometer was reading 50 degrees, a remarkable shift of 70 degrees in two and a half days.

We are experiencing greater extremes and fluctuations in our weather. Both sides on the issue of climate change attempt to use this to score points in their favor. If inclined to trust in science, the data indicates that something’s up with our weather. Continue reading →

You Can’t Handle The Truth

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I had a post ready to go this morning. It was a post highlighting changes in the way we adapt to weather and events in our lives that are unexpected. Aspects of it dealt with something some call “learned helplessness.” There was an element of collapse involved. I guess I’ll leave that topic to others more qualified to write about it. This recent post referenced the idea that there was a time when “you could still talk about such things in public without being shouted down by true believers in perpetual progress and instant apocalypse, the Tweedledoom and Tweedledee of our collective non-conversation about the future.” That time is no more. Continue reading →

2013 Booklist

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Another year, another 32 books.

Another year, another 32 books.

There was a public service campaign using the acronym, RIF; Reading Is Fundamental. The purpose of that effort was to promote reading, especially among poor children. I remember seeing their public service announcements on television, most likely during the 1970s.

Reading was a central components of my own reinvention. It was reading, and books like Gregg LeVoy’s, Po Bronson’s, and Scott Peck’s that got me up and out of my corporate prison at Moscow Mutual. If I wasn’t a reader, I’d still be stuck, probably not there, but someplace just like it, if not worse. Continue reading →

Push-button People

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We all want life to be easy. After nearly 70 years of unbridled progress and the concept of convenience being considered an American birthright, it’s hard for anyone to adjust to events that vary from the perfect script.

How does a culture step back from snack foods packaged in single-serving containers, microwave ovens, and phone apps that do everything except shield us from natural disasters? No one wants to voluntarily go back to a time when life was hard and involved effort to survive. But does our learned helplessness bode well for the future? Continue reading →

Winter Is

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Winter, or winter solstice, arrived Saturday, at local noon. Winter means different things to different people, depending on their latitudinal positioning.

My own experience with winter has been molded and shaped by half a century of living in a northern climate, especially growing up prior to our current weather state of flux. Because of this, II tend to view winter through a prism of cold, snow, and ice. Continue reading →

Getting Hacked at Christmas

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Another retailer, another security breach. This one involving 40 million shoppers at Target stores in the U.S. For many, the stress of holiday shopping is now through the roof.

While many are choosing to direct their anger and frustration at Target, they shouldn’t; the 2nd largest retail discount chain is doing everything it can after the fact to address concerns from customers.

Getting targeted by hackers, at Target

Getting targeted by hackers, at Target

The Minneapolis company, which has 1,797 stores in the U.S. and 124 in Canada, said it immediately told authorities and financial institutions once it became aware of the breach on Dec. 15. The company is teaming with a third-party forensics firm to investigate and prevent future breaches.

Target advised customers on Thursday to check their statements carefully. Anyone noting a suspicious charges on a credit/debit card is told to report it to their credit card company and then to call Target at 866-852-8680. Cases of identity theft can also be reported to law enforcement or the Federal Trade Commission. Of course, this is after the fact.

What I found most interesting about this case is how often this actually happens and what appears to be the response in the retail world among so-called experts. Continue reading →

The Great Maine Winter of 2013-14

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Winter in the Northeast used to be a period of cold and snow that lasted from late November through most of March. Some of the snowiest winters were recorded during my youth, including the winter of 1971-72 (I turned 10 in January that year), the one that brought us 141.4 inches!

Chairs in the snow-winterIt’s nostalgic to talk about “the winters we used to have.” Using Portland as the baseline, the city on Casco Bay averages 71 inches of snow each year. There were several winters during my pre-teenage years when the average was well above that amount. Continue reading →