|
2000 Letters •
2001 Letters •
2002 Letters •
2003 Letters •
2004 Letters •
2005 Letters •
2006 Letters •
2007 Letters •
2008 Letters •
2009 Letters •
2010 Letters •
2011 Letters •
2012 Letters •
2013 Letters •
2014 Letters •
2015 Letters •
2016 Letters •
2017 Letters •
2018 Letters •
2019 Letters •
2008 LETTERS
Gizmos
and Curiosities (December 17, 2008)
“We’re
Luddites who, nonetheless, constantly find ourselves exploring and
fiddling with the most advanced technologies.”
To read more, click here.
Can We Get Over the Barackades?
(November 19, 2008)
“Ever
since Donald Regan, we have had the bizarre habit of taking roulette
players out of Wall Street and making them Treasury Secretaries.” To read more, click here.
Familiar Journeys around the Sun (November
5, 2008)
“Such
rituals will probably become more important now in this century as we
work our way through unfamiliar territory when all the familiar sights
in our economy, our government, our religions, in just about everything
are destined to disappear.” To read more,
click here.
Experts Who Matter (October 22,
2008)
“Discovering
answers requires patience, an ability to reach around the world for
bright ideas, and a nose that discriminates between real beef and
bovine elimination.” To read more, click here.
Second City (October 8, 2008)
“It
is ripe for re-invention.” To read more,
click here.
Riding Out the Storm (September
24, 2008)
“We
are now in the last torturous act of a transition in our national life
that began in the late 1970s.” To read
more, click here.
Can We Be Equal and Excellent Too? (September
10, 2008)
“Crass, we submit, is not an option for America if it
wants to survive.” To read more,
click here.
Obsessive-Compulsive
Disorder (OCD): Chasing the Scent (August 27, 2008)
“We do not find that the progress made by conventional
researchers is promising enough to stick to the narrow highways they
are traversing.” To read more, click
here.
Writers in Disguise; Knights of Civility
(August 6, 2008)
“The
task is to find thinking people who know how to shout softly.” To read more, click here.
Cookie-Cutter, Carbon Copies
(July 30, 2008)
“We
suddenly value our power to come up with good, practical ideas, well
after impotence and inertia have set in.”
To read more, click here.
Six Fine Fellows (July 23, 2008)
“The
people who can or have made a difference on energy, global warming,
terrorism, or political reform just don’t titillate the scribblers who
write the news.” To read more, click here.
America the Beautiful (July 16,
2008)
“The
lack of large unifying beliefs would appear to impose terrible costs on
us.” To read more, click here.
WhenYou’re Smilin’ (July 9, 2008)
“Summer
gives one a chance to practice a little Buddhism and not let anything
drag one down.” To read more, click here.
Charleston’s Better at Fiction Than Fact (July
2, 2008)
“Political
inertia fostered by an intransigent oligarchy keeps the South from
truly flourishing.” To read more, click here.
Impolitic Thoughts (June 25,
2008)
“[I]t
takes more than the passage of time for new theories to thrive.
The old structures have to be toppling around us.”
To read more, click here.
Free: Heard It on the Grapevine
(June 18, 2008)
“Quite
often the mouths and the scribblers are peddling ideas and information
that have no connection with reality.” To
read more, click here.
Two Steps Forward; One Step Backwards
(June 11, 2008)
“We
have experienced twenty years of inertia, always looking backwards.” To read more, click here.
Houston: The Last Picture Show
(June 4, 2008)
“The
mindset here is not exactly the firmament in which the future will
happen.” To read more, click here.
Tipping Points VI: It Takes All Kinds
(May 14, 2008)
“At
times like these we are even tempted to celebrate the rather fun,
conspicuously corrupt chaps who offer good theater but who often make
no bones about the fact that they are rogues.”
To read more, click here.
Mile 9: The Journey of the Long Distance
Runner (April 30, 2008)
“Our
leaders have not caught up to our runners.”
To read more, click here.
Tipping Points V: Toilets, Trees, and
Taste Treats
(April 23, 2008)
“A glut of pig
will add girth to your belly and fingerlickin’ stories to your
memories.” To read more, click here.
The Natural Aristocrat (April 16, 2008)
“We have been
exalting shoddy products and half-baked services ever since. This
has put us on the path to nowhere.” To read
more, click here.
Tipping Points IV: Plain Speaking (April 9, 2008)
“Because we
don’t talk to the issues in a simple way, we even lose the ability to
think straight about things.” To read more,
click here.
Homo Sapiens in a Barnum and Bailey World (April 2, 2008)
“We’re a a
time when unusual people are heroic, and our institutions knaves.” To read more, click here.
Tipping Points III: The Kitchen Sink
Chronicles
(March 19, 2008)
“As the
American economy craters and our financial system teeters, we can only
wonder whether kitchen sink politics will assert itself here, as in
Japan....” To read more, click here.
Humpty Dumpties: Chindia Rising (March 12, 2008)
“The Beltway
Bandits have emptied out the federal larder.”
To read more, click here.
Tipping Points II (March 5, 2008)
“The
turnaround of America’s economy is much more dependent on global
agility than wonkish mini-moves on the domestic front.” To read more, click here.
Well-Seasoned Food (February 27, 2008)
“It takes a
huge amount of time and ingestion to get inside another culture and
gain a genuine feel for it.” To read more,
click here.
Tipping Points I (February 20, 2008)
“To further
contribute to your uneasiness, we intend to bring you little bulletins
in today’s letter of odds and ends that might be worth knowing about
for one reason or another.” To read more,
click here.
Death Be Not Proud: The Grey Market (February 13, 2008)
“What we can
most discover in better obituaries is that people of interest have
several lives and multiple personalities.”
To read more, click here.
Losers and Winners: Pirates of America (January 30, 2008)
“It’s clear
that crises abound which only the unusual can surmount.” To read more, click here.
The Swedish Uncertainty (January 23, 2008)
“For many
visitors the soul of the Swede is elusive.”
To read more, click here.
Gimme Shelter: Companies You Love to Hate (January 16, 2008)
“The
vituperation bait-and-switch companies arouse leads to a tainted
atmosphere.” To read more, click here.
One Nation Indivisible: All Fired Up (January 9, 2008)
“Only when we
rethink our politics will business get going again.” To read more, click here.
Getting Your Hands Dirty (January 2, 2008)
“One is well
advised to pick one’s experts carefully.”
To read more, click here.
|