December 31, 2009 – 3:28 pm
Each year if in New York for New Year’s Eve, my wife and I “run away from home”. We live on 56th, just off Park Avenue in New York. So to escape the bedlam of midtown Manhattan and to ensure we aren’t even tempted to go tromping through the winter slush in the direction of [...]
December 27, 2009 – 9:54 am
A man attempted to set ablaze if not blow up a flight headed from Amsterdam to Detroit. The flight originated in Nigeria, and the alleged perpetrator (not so “alleged” as he put himself on fire!) was on a terrorist watch list.
Why was he allowed to get on a plane, particularly one headed to the US? [...]
December 20, 2009 – 6:37 pm
Frank Rich wrote in The New York Times that Tiger Woods should be nominated “person of the year”. Why? Because the chasm between his public persona and his frenzied personal antics and peccadilloes seems emblematic of a rather tawdry decade, book-ended by Enron and Woods, with Iraq war fictions and sub-prime meltdowns in between.
We have [...]
December 13, 2009 – 5:07 pm
Superlatives tend to be gushed too readily. “The best ever,” “amazing”, “world class”, etc. But what can you say about the annual event at Hotel Beau Rivage in Geneve, where each year, a highly bespoke wine event, manages to outdo rational expectations?
Last year, we tasted all the Bordeaux First Growths in the extraordinary 1947 [...]
November 28, 2009 – 6:12 pm
Relationships matter now more than ever.
This is sometimes assumed to be a tropism, a natural or innate tendency.
It’s not. It’s a cultivated skill, propensity and reflex. To relate to someone is to first understand them and connect with them on their own terms. It is secondarily to understand how to be [...]
October 27, 2009 – 2:53 pm
Why do we feel we have to strike a haughty tone when dealing with people?
Years ago the researchers behind Transactional Analysis (TA) warned us of the dangers of Parent-Child conversations. Being chided, either the child in us pouts and huffs off — or erupts, or our own Paternal counter-judgement is invoked — [...]
October 16, 2009 – 10:54 pm
Test your intelligence by challenging it, flexing it, extending it, giving it a novel work-out, or deploying it in an uncertain situation to create new and unanticipated value. The more you ask of your intelligence, the more it will give back.
Give the best possible information you can to others. Be clear, complete, [...]
October 10, 2009 – 4:45 pm
David Mamet, playwright and screenwriter extraordinaire is at it again. His electrifying play Oleanna is back in New York. When it was last here, at a time when political correctness was far more charged as a topic, couples left the theater polarized, some people even came to blows! The subtitle of the play warns you [...]
October 3, 2009 – 9:56 am
Having just returned from a three week working tour of Dubai, Singapore, Hong Kong, Mumbai, London and Marseille (with extra pit stops in Singapore and Dubai in between), the genius of places almost shouts at me.
Dubai’s genius is to offer a modern example of what a flourishing Middle East can look like. Albeit currently in [...]
September 16, 2009 – 3:06 pm
Business Traveller Magazine announced that a famed hotel in Hong Kong was hosting a spectacular event. A group called “Premium Families of Wine” was doing a set of dinners, pairing top Estate wines from some of the world’s top wine families, with the cuisine of a Michelin-starred Chef.
I had our hotel call for details. After [...]