P.S. A Column On Things

Start of April 25 Column

Winning the Genetic Lottery

Did I win the genetic lottery, or the sperm/egg dance? I am not sure which, but I am eternally grateful for what I got and didn’t get at the instant of my conception. I got wit, intelligence and charm―mostly from my mother’s Irish side, and from the Celts who almost certainly bred with the Schindlers of St. Galen. I did NOT get alcoholism and depression―mostly from my dad’s Swiss side. I did get the dicky ticker that sent my mom’s dad to his grave at 54, but lucked out from having been born a half-century later, so that I can be protected by my pacemaker/defibrillator. I apparently dodged my maternal grandmother’s glaucoma; “You’re almost 70. If you don’t have it by now, you’re not likely to develop it,” my optometrist said this week.

Talk about being born on third base! And I, for one, never mistook that for hitting a triple.

Feminism Quotes

A guy posted feminism quotes on LinkedIn, without credit. It was easy to find the source at Goodreads: Feminism Quotes (5488 quotes). My favorite:

“Why do people say ‘grow some balls’? Balls are weak and sensitive. If you wanna be tough, grow a vagina. Those things can take a pounding.”
―Sheng Wang

Whitney Wolfe Herd

I don’t know how I missed this. According to Wikipedia, “In February 2021, Wolfe Herd became the world's youngest, current, female, self-made billionaire when she took Bumble public. She is the youngest woman to have taken a company public, at age 31.” Sort of the anti-Elizabeth Holmes.

I don’t know if this has happened to you, but periodically I get neat messages on Linked In that disappear before I can copy them or forward them to myself. So, I can’t find the great 100-word bio of her someone sent me. Here is my précis of the bio Time Magazine ran in March 2001.

She founded Bumble, the dating app where women “make the first move,” after co-founding (and naming) Tinder. She left Tinder and won her suit claiming she was driven out by sexual harassment. An amazing and triumphant story, about which you can find more detail in multiple places if you want to dive down that Google hole. Thank God Holmes did not actually screw things up for female entrepreneurs, appearances to the contrary notwithstanding.

Paul’s Poetry Corner: Gratitude

Link to: Gratitude
Which begins:
Gratitude
Not just an attitude
But a way of life.
Free of strife,
Doing whatever you think is best for them

Right Column Redux: Paul on TV

The column to the right on this blog contains permanent content, most of which has appeared at one time or another in the main body. I’ve decided to include a reminder.

Paul Schindler on TV
Starting with an appearance on a WBZ public access program in 1972, I've been on local and national TV numerous times, mostly as a game show contestant (I appeared on the game shows Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy, Scrabble , Win Ben Stein's Money and Merv Griffin's Crosswords) and as an author. I was also on the Computer Chronicles for years. Here are my journal entries for three of my game show appearances: Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy, Merv Griffin's Crosswords

Know the Difference

End of April 25 Column (No. 822)

Start of April 18 Column

Take Your Vacation

(from April 12, 1999)

“No one ever complained on their death bed that they wish they'd spent more time in the office.” As truisms go, this is one of the truest. As a boy, I knew many men (and now as an adult, I even know some women) who don't take their vacation, who never take it. In some companies, you get cash for that. In most, including the one I work(ed) for, when you have accumulated the maximum number of vacation days, you stop accumulating until you take some. You can't cash them out.

I have always striven to be the opposite. Not a person who says, "I've never taken a vacation day," but rather, a person who says, "I've never let a vacation day expire." So far, in the 25 years since I graduated from college, that's a true statement. In fact, I left UPI still owing some days to Peter Brown (Hi Peter!), and while I admittedly had vacation days left when I departed Bank of America, it was only because I'd just been there a year. Honestly, if I'd stayed longer, I would have taken more vacation. Actually, I took about a month's vacation just before I left, but I spent it sitting in my office, staring into space, moping (that's another story...).

My feeling is that people who don't take vacation, whether they are single, married, or family people, are cheating both themselves and their company. Yes, it is true that you lose all the relaxation benefits of vacation about 20 seconds after you step back into the office, but 'tis better to have vacated and lost than never to have vacated at all.

Take your vacation. Do it for your company, your family... and yourself.

[Ed. Note: My father rarely took vacations. You’ve heard of cafeteria Catholics? I am a cafeteria son. I emulate the great attributes of my dad: his honesty, sobriety, and fidelity. I do NOT emulate things like working long hours and weekends, seldom hugging my kids, rarely taking vacations.]