Thought we'd get serious about terrorism, energy and the return of inflation in 2006? After all, we got so consumed in celebrity gossip (Martha's downward spiral, William Shatner as Denny Crane, Jenna's antics) in 2005. Haven't we had enoughenoughenough.
For eight weeks I sat in on the landmark Rhode Island (RI) lead paint trial and blogged my observations, reflections and predictions. After about a week, I predicted the defense would win or there would be a mistrial. Although I learned something about law when I attended Harvard Law School but didn't stay on to earn a degree, this prediction wasn't based on the strength of evidence or if the law seemed to be on the side of the defense.
Harvard, which was officially chartered in 1650, probably existed as a real institution of higher education for centuries. That reality is no longer.
The Harvard that everyone -- be it Harvard president Larry Summers, SLATE's Daniel Gross or "Harvard Rules" author Richard Bradley -- is arguing about is a myth, brand, fantasy, investment strategy, symbol to be loved/hated.
Bree, the conniving housewife-become-widow played by Marcia Cross on "Desperate Housewives," is scripted to begin a "descent into alcoholism," reports SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER. Given that portraying the overdone issue of boozing is a toughie, does this mean that perhaps "Desperate Housewives" has jumped the shark, TV lingo for losing its juice and ratings?
Okay, juries in corporate cases such as the landmark Rhode Island (RI) lead paint trial have been instructed not to follow media about those particular cases. But, unless they're sequestered, they are certainly following media about what THE ECONOMIST.COM today declares "will be the more closely watched than even the biggest cases of 2005." That, of course, is the Enron trial.
Last Tuesday night on "Boston Legal," Alan Shore (James Spader) made a passionate plea to the jury in the Black Widow murder trial to not give in to schadenfreude. The German term "schadenfreude" has morphed into the mainstream way of describing the delight we take when the rich, beautiful, smug or pedigreed get to suffer. The case was a tough one and The Schadenfreude Factor was, well, a Hail Mary Pass and it worked. Black Widow walked.
Thanks to award-winning "Boston Legal" most of us have become very dissatisfied with our particular attorneys and law in general.
I, for example, wonder why my lawyer can't be both manipulative and ethical like Shirley Schmidt (Candice Bergen) or ultra cool like Denny Crane (William Shatner). And why can't legal matters move along at the pace of the narrative of "Boston Legal." For instance, last Tuesday's Black Widow murder trial, along with the Nancy Grace-type media coverage, galloped. That wasn't my experience blogging the Rhode Island lead paint trial (which resumes next Tuesday).
Reality isn't popular in Corporate America, at least not at the top tiers.
Both THE WALL STREET JOURNAL columnists Alan Murray and Jared Sandberg recently discussed how difficult it is for what-is to filter upwards in organizations. As a result, Chief Executive Officers such as Carly Fiorina and Maurice "Hank" Greenberg didn't seem to get a whiff of the discontent brewing about their performance. So, they were "stunned" when they were ousted.
Professional women who sport diamonds, particularly big ones, get more respect, money, and breaks than those who aren't lucky enough to be given diamonds or clever enough to buy diamonds for themselves.
If you're one of those Only-By-The-Book career women who only take personal branding advice from THE WALL STREET JOURNAL's CareerJournal.com, then read no further. This is straight from the gut, a golden gut, but nonetheless not blessed by Career Inc. It has, though, been passed along aggressively in the blogopshere and successful integrated into many female brand identities.
If genius political consultant Dick Morris could get over his resentment towards the Clintons, he could become the cosmic James Boswell-type biographer for Hillary. Morris is no slouch when it comes to the limelight and history has shown that it is James Boswell who is remembered, not his then-famous subject of the biography Samuel (who?) Johnson. And like Boswell, Morris has been derided and underestimated in his early career.
