What do these things have in common? Photo by Gratisography on Pexels.com They're all works in progress that are never quite finished. Anyway, neither am I and I just wanted to drop a note to update you on what's happening with me. I've completed a manuscript but I'm going through it after getting some suggestions... Continue Reading →
You Know When It’s Not Right
Sorry, if you think this is an empowerment piece about leaving bad relationships, it's not. It's kind of the opposite. Though it does seem to be profitable to write about such things these days. No, this is just about my relationship with art and a particular piece. So one thing I like to do, which... Continue Reading →
Fire
Last night, the sirens and horns of the fire engines reached into our neighborhood as I lay down trying to fall asleep. But instead of just fading away as they hurried to some accident on the highway or to help with a blaze somewhere else in the city, they just kept coming. Our dog howled... Continue Reading →
Still Learning Letters and Words
I've told this story before -- but then what stories are not retold. One of my first memories is sitting next to my mom while she read to my brother and me. I think I was about three at the time and this wasn't a picture book. It was a real book, I believe it... Continue Reading →
Snowfall in spring
"Lovely snow, it falls nowhere else." Photo by Gantas Vaiu010diulu0117nas on Pexels.com I think I derived this from two zen quotes -- Layman Pang's, "Beautiful snowflakes; they fall nowhere," and another saying or poem which I can't for the life of me track down. But it went something like this, "The rain does not know... Continue Reading →
Is This A Comedy I See Before Me
In 1999, I visited London and made a point of going to the Globe Theater, then open just two years. For those not familiar with it, it's Shakespeare's Globe Theatre rebuilt in Riverside London, near the original. It's a wonderful, open air theater and you can sit in gallery or stand with the Groundlings. I... Continue Reading →
Winning Wasn’t the Point
It's a lesson I didn't realize I'd even learned, that all those games with my friends, the touch football in the street, baseball in the cul de sac on Arrowhead, the basketball games at the park on Creek Crest, the hide-and-seek marathons on Folsom Drive, the Wiffle Ball home run derby's at Ben's house, none... Continue Reading →
The closing bell rang on Madoff but can we close out the things that made him?
I just posted something about Madoff and Ponzi schemes six days ago and then this morning I awoke to the news that Madoff had died at the age of 82. He spent the last 11 years in prison for operating a multi-decade $64 billion Ponzi scheme. His original sentence was for 150 years. The New... Continue Reading →
A Hyper-bad Idea at the Hyper Local Level
I'm not sure why I was thinking about this. Maybe it was because I was talking to some friends about how serious the world of kids baseball has gotten and maybe because I was just reading some news about the latest nonsense in corporate strategy in some publication, but this story popped into my head.... Continue Reading →
Miracle Men and Exclusivity: Key Elements of the Ponzi Scheme
Is it not odd the way people are lured into frauds with the simple bait of exclusivity and Miracle Men. This idea came from a conversation with a friend about marketing and how active you need to be on line. I remarked that it was interesting that some of the biggest frauds of the last... Continue Reading →
Robert Varnon -- R.D. Varnon 