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September 2012
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Romney and Big Bird, Geekiest License Plates, Beware of newbie presidents, Dan Grobstein File

October 20, 2012
The geekiest license plates of all time.

Daniel Dern found the Romney vs. Big Bird ad.

Sherry Grobstein notes a Boston Globe column by James Carroll that begins "Newly elected presidents can be dangerous. Untested and inexperienced, they can act in the name of national security to soothe a personal insecurity. Appearing tough, they think, can make them tough." It ends up being an endorsement of Obama. But then the only state as blue as California is Massachusetts.
   
Dan Grobstein File

Posted at 08:05 PM in Letters |

Positivity Ratio

October 08, 2012
You've probably heard the concept that a healthy relationship has more positive interactions than negative ones. There are all kinds of proposed ratios based on all kinds of research, but the one that comes out near the top of the Google search is 3 to 1. There's another, longer-term way of expressing the idea that I heard once from Garrison Keillor on his radio show. A relationship is like a bank account. Positive experiences are deposits, negative experiences are withdrawals. You always want to keep a healthy balance in the account. About the only modification I would make (and Keillor was not having a deep philosophical discussion, of course) is that this account has negative interest. That is, the older an experience, the less value it has. Fortunately, I have a positive balance with all the people I love, and I intend to keep it that way

Posted at 06:01 AM in Personal |

Taken 2

October 08, 2012
3.5 stars out of  5
Liam Neeson. Gratuitous plot. Lovely Istanbul scenery. The maddest movie car chase ever, so far. Gratuitous martial arts. "Honey, just grab the hard grenades out of my suitcase," and enough dead Albanians to fill a... large room full of dead Albanians. Perfectly evil villains. The perfect screen time ratio of good guys winning to good guys losing: about 3 to 1. And best of all: only 90 minutes!

Posted at 05:58 AM in Film |

Dern on Big Bird, Engineering The Internet, Peterman on Defrocking, 100 Twitter Tips, Dan Grobstein File

October 08, 2012
Daniel Dern was tipped to the presence of opinining on Big Bird. And then, let loose the photoshops of war -- Dern particularly like the last one.

I knew all of this, but do you know How the Internet Works?

Kent Peterman ran across an old George Carlin question, "If lawyers are disbarred and clergymen defrocked, then doesn't it follow that electricians can be delighted, musicians denoted, cowboys deranged, models deposed, tree surgeons debarked, and dry cleaners depressed?"  I found a site that continues the discussion in an amusing way. Kent also found this: "I’ll believe corporations are people as soon as Texas executes one of them."

Oedb.org recently published an article, 100 Indispensable Twitter Tips for Journalism Students. Looks to me like these are good tips for anyone (and, alas, that means everyone) for whom social media will be a part of their professional life in the future. Well, shall we say everyone under 60 (which is how old I am, and, conveniently therefore, excludes me)

Dan Grobstein File

Posted at 05:55 AM in Letters |