How a struggling American franchise deal became one of the most unlikely corporate turnarounds in retail history — and what long-term thinking actually looks like in practice.
I was at a sleepover for the first time, at Kerry Niesen’s house, decades ago. We’d picked a movie and were having dinner, me, Kerry, Jenny Niesen, and Kerry’s parents Jim and Rita. It was the first memory I have of seeing a family talking and having fun with each other at dinner. I didn’t […]
I saw a little kid, screaming at the top of their lungs today, “my best friend is an immigrant! You can’t take them away!” over and over again. I took a few pictures today, but not of little kids. Just this one because you can’t see their face. I just wish you could’ve seen it. […]
My last memory of Israel is from nearly 20 years ago. The intifada had ceased roughly six months before, and there was a weary, hopeful peace. That’s what I felt. I went to a few places, including places I probably shouldn’t have gone. But the memory that sticks out is a falafel place on the […]
As a child, I always wanted to go to art museums and see paintings on the walls at home. That stayed with me, quietly, my whole life. About 15 years ago I started to collect art. About 75% of it never made it up on my walls. And I didn’t think of it as a […]
I just learned that the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is being shutdown this year. This is my gut level reaction to it, peer to peer, human to human, unfiltered but hopefully at least spelled correctly. The world is a poorer place without the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. I grew up in a small rural town. […]
I think this is the last time I’ll post an essay to Facebook. During a period of my life where I was convinced I wasn’t writing, it turned out I’d poured hundreds of thousands of words here and on reddit. All of it practice, all of it scales, all of it worth it. Getting feedback […]
Chilseok is a holiday celebrated on the seventh day of the seventh month of the lunar new year. This year, that falls on August 29th. Mom would sometimes think of my birthday as lucky and would sometimes do a few Chilseok things today. And there’s a folk tale associated with it. Long ago when tigers […]
I just realized something. I think sometimes we mourn for ourselves. When you let go of past traumas, and finally deal with it all, you can experience grief. I know I did. And sometimes still do. For me, it’s loss that triggers grief. Losing a loved one because they’ve died. But also sometimes losing a […]
I’m stuck on two thoughts today. The first is about sharing. I see a lot of cultural narcissism, where social media feels designed for people who want to be seen and admired, and then teaches some of us to behave the same way. Like, in political and charitable sharing circles of social media there’s the […]
Some writers of the baby boom and gen-x cusp generation wrote some wonderful speculative fiction that moved people across generations, helping wounded and misunderstood kids and young adults feel seen. Men like Neil Gaiman and Joss Whedon seemed sensitive and likeable, and their audiences formed parasocial relationships with them without realizing these predators were the first introduction they had to wounded narcissts giving themselves over to sociopathic levels of selfishness.
I wrote a short-short story yesterday. As I understand it, flash fiction is a short story of less than 800 words, and a short-short is a story of about 800-2000 words. When I learned that, I realized I spent a good chunk of my teens and twenties writing both kinds. They often end with some […]