Media literacy, children and mindful marketing have been on my mind lately. My nine-year-old daughter has recently become interested in knowing how things work in the world. For example, she’s questioning the existence of the Tooth Fairy (“It’s really you and Dad, right?), confused over the number of different religions (“But which one is right?”), [...]
I know face to face communication with coworkers and clients matters, yet Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer’s announcement that all employees now need to work in the office surprised me. Given Mayer’s appointment to the role at only 37 years old and pregnant with her first child, one might assume she would be an advocate for the flexible work/life balance for which so many parents of young children strive. This edict struck me as a significant step back in making the business world more hospitable for working parents.
A good friend and neighbor just happens to be an applied mathematician interested in modeling a variety of physical, biological, and social phenomenon (he’s a super smart guy). Much of his work with numbers and data is way over my head but a recent study grabbed my attention. Chris Danforth and his students at the [...]
Thanksgiving is, and always has been, by far my favorite holiday. Growing up as the youngest of nine children, Thanksgiving was always epic. My memories are vivid: My dad would start his ritual of roasting the turkey at 5am, once the rest of the house awakened, various duties would be assigned: silverware polished, white bread [...]
As an avid cyclist, I have been diligently following the flurry of recent press about the doping in the sport of cycling. I’d say I’m fully immersed in the subject—I’m also reading The Secret Race by Taylor Hamilton, who details his experience as a pro using performance-enhancing drugs during the dope-infused 90s and 2000s. The [...]
In my former life, I was studying to be an Improv actor. Along the way, I had the fortunate opportunity of meeting and learning from some of the best improvisers. At Second City, Improv Olympic and the Upright Citizens Brigade theaters, I studied the craft of Long-Form Improv. Long Form Improv is when players create [...]
Having tried, and failed, to explain any of the Olympic opening ceremonies to my children (admittedly I had a hard time following myself), I had an equally challenging time explaining the commercials. The Challenge We aren’t exactly a TV family. We aren’t an anit-TV family, but we don’t have it on regularly. It’s mostly an [...]
