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2006 LETTERS
-new-
A
Votre Sante
(December 27, 2006)
“Health
is when you are still in the driver’s seat.” To read more, click here.
The Quiet Man (December 20,
2006)
“In
statecraft, too, it is possible that solid accomplishment comes from
those who can hide their light under a bushel.” To read more, click here.
Wal-Mart
on the Rack (December 13,
2006)
“Wal-Mart has
remade the world, but now the world has to remake Wal-Mart.” To read more, click here.
Literary
Notions (December 6,
2006)
“At the moment, the ‘madness of crowds’ is in
its ascendancy, not ‘wisdom.’” To read more, click here.
The
Good Society (November 29,
2006)
“Again,
the question is whether we can stop some of the huge stuff, and migrate
to some of the right stuff.” To read more, click here.
Easy Shopping for Christmas and Other
Celebrations (November 22,
2006)
“We are going
to give you some recommendations on which you can rely, sight unseen.” To read more, click here.
The
Devil Really Is in the Details (November 15,
2006)
“Media
is about connectedness, but most of the media-ites are very disconnected.” To read more, click here.
The
Eighth Wonder of the World (November 1,
2006)
“[T]here are many mile-high towers
around waiting to be pulverized.” To read more, click here.
Washington’s
Marginalia
(October 25,
2006)
“Apple,
we think, had the shrewd thought: one wants to move around the various
establish-
ments, cherry picking an item here and an item there. No one
place has got it all.” To read more, click here.
Sticks and
Stones (October
18, 2006)
“[W]e need
patrons, not collectors of sticks and stones. Commissioners of
greatness.” To read more, click here.
Never Say Never (October 11,
2006)
“There
is quite a need to know what’s well over the horizon. And to
forget about tomorrow and the day after tomorrow.” To read more, click here.
Le
Déjeuner sur l’herb (October 4, 2006)
“Now,
for our health, we have to break free of the mindless mechanism in
which we are caught that seems to have us running fast the wrong ways.” To read more, click here.
Dr.
Johnson's Stone (September 27,
2006)
“Put
bluntly, the paradox is that the best players on the globe may not
survive in a world of comparative advantage. The marketplace
works rather imperfectly.” To read more, click here.
The
Color of Money (September 20,
2006)
“When
you do things wrong, sooner or later you cease to exist.” To read more, click here.
Can
You Forgive Her? (September 13,
2006)
“It is
possible that culture can put a mark on a company’s product and
services that give it a leg up in the marketplace. Culture, in
fact, is part of our economic infrastructure.” To read more, click here.
The Big Sleep (September 6,
2006)
“[T]here’s no
education without leisure. And there’s no leisure without sleep.” To read more, click here.
Terroir (August
30, 2006)
“It’s
not enough to be a brand anymore. The product must come from a
time and place—Hawaii, Iwo Jima, Chambertin.” To read more, click here.
I Can't Believe I Ate
the Whole Thing (August 23, 2006)
“We
have advised our clientele that social messaging can be compared to
humorous advertising. Only certain types of products and services
can bear the freight of social messages.” To read more, click here.
The Power of Attention Deficit Magnified (August 16, 2006)
“It’s an
interesting thing about entrepreneurs: they sort of succeed because
they cannot stay focused and so they find time to go up alleys the rest
of us are content to ignore.” To read more,
click here.
Summer
Reading: Elegant Getaways (August 9, 2006)
“We want to
know about uncommonality.” To read more,
click here.
Rum
and the Fancy Food Show (August 2, 2006)
“Truly special
niches have to be uncovered where special craft and intimacy between
makers and users are the key drivers of individuality.” To read more, click here.
Good Morning, Heartache (July 26, 2006)
“With
our medical system so awry, we need physicians who consciously swim
upstream, fight the tendency to churn our procedures and pills, and
understand thoroughly the humanistic dimensions of their art.” To read more, click here.
Two
Women Expatriates (July 19, 2006)
“Across
the world the men in power are making a hash of things, having risen
too easily to comfortable levels of incompetence where they can muck it
up for the rest of us....” To read more, click here.
The
Torquay Phenomenon: Bureaucracy Unbounded (July 12, 2006)
“Bureaucrats
do what they do, not because it’s leading anywhere, but because it’s
what they know how to do and it’s what they have always done.” To read more, click here.
Fish
House Punch (July 5, 2006)
“We haul out
the usual array of delights for the Fourth—corn on the cob and hot
dogs, a dip in a cool stream, a timid patch of fireworks, and
remembered moments of the Tall Ships on the Hudson, the Statute of
Liberty, and the Empire State Building festooned with bright lights
during the Bicentennial back in 1976.” To
read more, click here.
Tennessee
Gone Missing (June 28, 2006)
“Tennessee
seems to have turned its back on beauty and its Volunteer tradition and
become something else, something elusive.”
To read more, click here.
Looking Backwards in Greensboro (June 14, 2006)
“If Greensboro
can get reignited, so can North Carolina....”
To read more, click here.
Tinker's Dam
and Other Errata (June 7,
2006)
“This is only
one of several examples of mucking about with the scientific process,
all brought about because the short-sighted have been promoting their
political agenda.” To read more, click here.
Lament
for Mexico: Destiny Thwarted (May 31,
2006)
“[T]he
best of Mexico is unknown amid a system that cannot be amended, but
must be totally redone.” To read more, click here.
The Real Right Stuff (May 24,
2006)
“Clearly
management understood that it’s people with heart who make things
right—not rulemakers.” To read more, click here.
What
Do They Know of Cricket Who Only Cricket Know? (May 17,
2006)
"To know one
thing, no matter how well, is not to know very much." To read more, click here.
More
Is Less (May 10,
2006)
"America’s
largest corporations are today much like the Spanish Armada—big and
unwieldy." To read more, click here.
Imus:
Almost Walking Wounded (May 3, 2006)
"We simply think
America—and all the developed countries—are growing old, reaching the
stage where one complains about things instead of doing something about
them. It gets easy to be cantankerous and churlish." To read more, click here.
UnCanny
Tom Canning (April 26,
2006)
"[Canning's] offspring are just out with a book of his
prose and poetry, sadly in a limited edition that most of the world
will not see. You would find it a far better missal for modern
life than those slim-pickins-self-help books that dot the bestseller
lists." To read more, click here.
Resurrections (April 19,
2006)
"Still
miraculous ... are the institutions and people who have come back onto
the stage, cats with nine lives." To read
more, click here.
The
Czeching Rangers (April 12,
2006)
"[I]t is no longer
certain the migrants should remain forever in their new land and that a
fluid model where people move more than once may be the best for all
concerned." To read more, click here.
Fire and Darkness (April 5,
2006)
"For every scenario, you have to
prepare for its opposite." To read more, click here.
Lost Treasures (March 29,
2006)
"There is a real
question as to where the public health establishment is helping, and
where it is hurting." To read more, click here.
Climb Another Mountain (March 22,
2006)
"Our own thought
is that high-order creativity in America is, above all, the result of
successful importation from abroad." To
read more, click here.
Our Favorite Dirty, Rotten
Scoundrels (March 15, 2006)
"There’s always
plenty of lust and avarice to go around. In politics we call it
corruption." To read more, click here.
Patria
Nostra and Genuine Fakes (March 8,
2006)
"When the
prophets of doom are crying the loudest, then we are well instructed to
give the patient another look. Recovery is probably right around
the corner." To read more, click here.
Vapor Brands (March
1, 2006)
"If you ever decide to become a seer
during times of great change, we recommend that you read the daily
papers, see what they insist is most happening, then take a look behind
the screen where you will discover that the flipside is actually true." To read more, click here.
Our Intrepid Cohorts (February
22, 2006)
"The auto industry in the West is
simply undergoing painful consolidation." To read more, click here.
Museums: Is There a Muse in the House (February
15, 2006)
"Museums can own the culture market,
because colleges, schools, theaters, and others that have traditionally
been media for dispensing culture have lost that capacity, as the
nature of the experiences there become more production-like and less
imbued with a love of learning." To read more, click here.
Boundary Jumpers (February 8,
2006)
"The world over,
financial markets are sending us signals that are causing us to put our
bucks in the wrong buckets." To read more,
click here.
Autos:
The Thrill Is Gone (February 1,
2006)
"We can have one-of-a-kind autos,
rather one of our neighbor’s kind." To read more,
click here.
Brush with Death (January 25,
2006)
"One swats the carrion-sniffing
flies aside and savors the moment." To read more, click here.
Getting out of Limbo (January 18,
2006)
"[O]ur top level
managers also are stumbling around in Limbo, not energized by a belief
in tomorrow and a devotion to greatness."
To read more, click here.
Up
the Down Staircase (January 11,
2006)
"It is still possible to be a growth
business or a growth institution. But intelligence has to triumph
over oafish greed." To read more, click here.
Domestic Bliss (January
4, 2006)
"The decline of mass audiences
embracing all the variety and all the age groups that make up America
and the rise of private homefare for many entertainments is an
earthshaking economic event for the
media-entertainment-cultural-institution industry." To read more, click here.
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