A judge last week sentenced former pharmaceutical executive Andrew G. Bodnar to write a book about his misdeeds. “We do see the possibility of justice in this sentence — if Dr. Bodnar hates to write. But it feels like an invitation to insincerity. In fact, it feels a little like asking an adolescent boy to explain, in front of his friends, why telling a lie is bad, bad, bad.” And there’s no sidestepping the issue of vanity.
Tag: 06.16.09
Listening To, And Silencing, The Critic Within
“Psychologists say many of their patients are plagued by a harsh Inner Critic — including some extremely successful people who think it’s the secret to their success. An Inner Critic can indeed roust you out of bed in the morning, get you on the treadmill (literally and figuratively) and spur you to finish that book or symphony or invention. But the desire to achieve can get hijacked by harsh judgment and unrelenting fear.”
Jazz Students Get White House Lessons, And A Concert
“Parts of the White House became an elaborate rehearsal room, where students from 8 to 18 absorbed the feeling of jazz and the blues from those who know it best. The entire Marsalis family — father Ellis and sons Branford, Wynton, Delfeayo and Jason — participated…. The Obama administration plans to continue its hands-on program in arts education in the future, but it was jazz, America’s indigenous art form, that got the first turn in the spotlight.”
A Book By Any Other Name Wouldn’t Sell As Sweet
The title of the new book “Womenomics” rather blatantly plays on the best-selling “Freakonomics,” but it’s an old trick. “Capitalizing on popular titles has a long pedigree in the publishing industry. A well-turned phrase can give birth to dozens of offspring. Edward Gibbon’s monumental ‘History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,’ first published in 1776, has inspired variants for more than two centuries.”