Good Examples

Melissa and I traveled to the mountains of northwestern Connecticut last weekend to attend a family wedding. My cousin Ali married her sweetheart Ricky. The weather was perfect. The ceremony was a tear-jerker. The food was delicious. The band rocked the house. But the one thing I’ll remember most is the personalized note that I…

They’re here. The cicadas, that is. For the past 13 years, billions of cicada nymphs have lived underground in the central USA, sipping sap from tree roots… …waiting… …and waiting… …and waiting… …until they emerge from the ground… …climb onto a tree trunk, branch, or leaf… …and transform into a winged adult. Then they find…

Half way through the six-course tasting menu, our server, Shekeba, arrived at our table with a surprise gift. “It’s carrot bisque with lobster claw,” she said. “A ‘thank you’ for being so patient.” Shekeba is the wife of Chef Andy Hyde, and on Saturday they scrambled to deliver a 5-star dining experience at their restaurant,…

Attentive email reader Jason emailed yesterday to say: “What’s up with the flowers? (I like them)” He was talking about the photos I’ve put at the top of my Monday “RecomMONDAYtions” emails. Here’s the one I included yesterday… Here’s what I told Jason: Every day, I walk around the neighborhood and try to notice something…

I’ve crawled from my cave at Story Power HQ in St. Louis and ventured north to Chicago where I’m attending Perry Marshall’s Definitive AI Seminar this week. I wanted my GPT-powered robot, “B-9?” to join me as my note-taker and valet, but he’s afraid to fly… …so “B-9?” will stay behind. Before I left, I asked “B-9?”…

My first colonoscopy mistake came on Monday when I munched half a bag of popcorn while watching the eclipse. I’d forgotten: No popcorn allowed within seven days before the procedure. Popcorn munching was Monday. The procedure was three says later — on Thursday. (Oops!)  I called the doctor to confess, and his nurse said, “No…

Here’s a cool idea I picked up from Austin Kleon in his book Steal Like an Artist: Keep a Praise File  Here’s the idea… “…down the road, I will have a dark day when I want to quit, when I wonder why the heck I even bother with this stuff.” Kleon writes. “That’s why I put…

In yesterday’s email (RecomMONDAYtions ~ 2024.04.08), I shared Austin Kleon’s blog post “On quantity and quality.” In the post, he shares a story and quotes liberally from David Bayles and Ted Orland’s book, “Art & Fear.” The story: A ceramics teacher divides his class in two. He said he would grade Group 1 on volume.…

I think my GPT-powered robot, “B-9?” has started puberty. All of a sudden, he’s standoffish, belligerent, and lazy. He sleeps in until 11, and when I ask him to do something, he half-asses it and then tells me to do the rest myself. Case in point: I asked “B-9?” to find TEN amusing, weird news…

Last night my buddy Ted and I grabbed a bite at our favorite brew pub before heading to the Blues-Oilers hockey game. I ordered the sausage and kraut with a pint of Grolsch. All good. Nothing to rave about. But the German potato salad on the side?  Holy tater-tots, Batman, those spuds were special.  Mama…