Deep tissue massage
Small strong hands
Ooh oh ouch
Tears adrenaline electricity
Feels so good
When she stops

12.26.10 The Blizzard

12.04.10

Happy Hollowdays 12.3.10

Sanibel Sunset 11.27.10

Kansas City eats

New York City eats

Got Ink? (I)

No Good Deed ...

Always aim to do things the "right" way, with integrity. Look for a fair outcome for both parties. It's just business, nothing personal, but treat it as if it were personal and you had to look the other party in the eye every day. Not the Godfather interpretation.

Yesterday marked the conclusion of a negotiation that had started maybe eight months ago. Much effort, analysis, discussion, bargaining on the part of two worthy counterparties. Agreement to settle reached, approved, signed, done. Put this one in the "W" column, all agreed.

Been there done that ... except, for the first (maybe the last) time, the counterparty sent a note to Dear Me:

Thanks for guiding me through the process. You were both professional and courteous performing quite a unique job. If you ever need a professional reference, please ask.

Well blow me away. Mentioned it during a team meeting a few hours later. Guess?

Just keep such things to yourself. Mona Lisa smile.

Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree

Your average six-to-twelve foot tall Christmas tree or Hanukkah bush is typically grown on a tree farm and culled every few years and no big deal. Cut it down and stand it up. More where that came from. The 2010 Rockefeller Center Christmas tree, cut down in Mahopac, New York Thursday, arrived Friday at its new home in front of 30 Rock. A spectacularly beautiful Norway Spruce, over 70 feet tall. Came from a residential property. Have always wondered why one would offer up such a specimen ... the square footage this tree covered is larger than some suburban backyards ... will leave a hole in the memory. Here's the work-in-progress report:

What Would Barbara Ehrenreich Say?

Oh no moment. Discovered that a Facebook friend (one I adore) "likes" Walmart. Sigh. I can see "liking" "People of Walmart" http://www.peopleofwalmart.com/ where a boldly interpreted American dream is chronicled. Walmart? Ick.

You got to have friends ...

So sang Bette Midler, before the birth of Facebook.

Bette's looking for the kind of friends who support you when you need them most, not the ones who abandon you when you need them most. People whom you support, and who support you. Real friends.

Facebook friends, OTOH, may be those important people in your life, but just as likely are casual acquaintances from the past (high school or college classmates) or present (community-, hobby-, volunteer-, work-related), with whom you have a superficial relationship. They friend you on Facebook, you accept because why not what does it matter. Good to have lots of FB friends, the more the better.

And then you begin to know them better by reading their FB posts, and you find out that they have heinous ideas about hot-button issues re politics and immigration and entitlements and health care and gay rights and tax reform and all sorts of things (this goes both ways) that you support and would defend to the death. And further that they spend time on such mindless activities as Farmville and Mafia Wars.

What to do?

--Engage in a flame war in the comments section of a post and hear from them and their equally clueless FB friends (not yours ... or maybe yours) about how you are a loser and they are masters of the mean-spirited universe
--Go to your Friends list and delete them

(Let's assume you have better places to sell your stuff.) What is the purpose of patronizing Facebook, if not as a place to connect to people who mean something to you? Why grind your teeth and wonder whether to post a response or to let  crap go unanswered? Why waste time on assholes you've lost touch with  and now you know there *is* no accident in the universe and there *is* a reason they're out of your life? Why waste time on casual acquaintances who turn out to be assholes after you scratch the surface?

Kurt Vonnegut (I heart KV) wrote about the concept of granfalloon in "Cat's Cradle." A granfalloon is a group of people who have a superficial shared identity, but whose association is meaningless. Does this sound like Facebook?

Man up. Push the "X" to delete.

I love N.Y. 10.12.10

Every Vote Counts

Today is election day
I voted
A lifelong Democrat
Picked a Republican
Or two
It feels right
Tho I'm not
Dysfunction
Is voting the party line