Jane Genova: Speechwriter - Ghostwriter

Darien, CT - Will it become a slum?

It could just be that outlying affluent communities with their McMansions - like Darien, Connecticut - could become slums.  That's right: Slums.  Given the escalating cost of transportation fuel and energy for heating and cooling, those places which house families of the men, and increasingly the women, who journey into the city for high-paying jobs could become land and buildings no one wants to pay for any more. Like those scenes from the Russian Revolution, the riff-raff could be taking over the McMansions.

That 4-day workweek - Lousy Plan

Some government entities and community colleges are probably patting themselves on the back for switching their employees to a four-day, 10-hour a day workweek.  The reason is to help cut their commuting costs.  And today in THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, Josee Valcourt and Justin Scheck describe how this is in-place in-place here and there across the nation.  Unfortunately Valcourt and Scheck don't drill down to the downside of the 10-hour day.

Gas at $4.01 - The New Apartheid

As the morning slid into afternoon, I-95 N here in New Haven, Connecticut started to form a four-mile gridlock.  The financially comfortable could afford to leave work early and could also afford to burn $4.01 a gallon gas stuck in traffic.  By 6:00 PM that four miles increased exponentially, all the way south to Norwalk.  Is the new way the haves and the have-nots get segregated is by not being able to get out of town on a holiday weekend?

Like the Old Days - We're All Poor

No one I know, including my clients, are rolling in dough.  In fact, we all seem poor.  And that seems so much like the days in the 1950s when I was growing up in downtown Jersey City, New Jersey.  To us "rich" was a medical doctor's daughter.  But come to think of it, since she attended public school with us she probably wasn't all that well off. 

Camilla On Short Time

No wonder Queenie will never let Prince Charles become King: He is the Goldilocks Royal.  This wife is too soft, this wife is too hard.  Maybe the third time will be a charm for Charles but too late for his reputation to recover.

The latest is that he not only wants to find a way to annul his marriage to Camilla.  He now is pining that it was a mistake to divorce Diana.

Camilla's Bodyguard Shot To Death - Is Camilla Next

Was Camilla's trusted bodyguard Police Sargent Richard Fuller the man who knew too much?  And will what he knew wind up being responsible for Camilla's death also?

Geezer Guidebook to Keep Working

The wonderful development that happens in geezerhood is that the worst of ambition drops away - that is, the extreme envy of those we think are doing better than we are.  We've matured.  We know we can't compare ourselves with someone's outsides.  Also, we're remarkably grateful to still be alive and to be shrewd enough to find and hold onto work in a country that doesn't like geezers.

Diana's Revenge - Boozy Camilla, Fat Hasnat

Diana, who had plenty of power in her life, might have even more in her death.  Those who hurt her are withering.

Should Brad Keep Riding His Ducati Motorcyle, Far Away From Angelina?

This week's cover story for IN TOUCH is all about Brad riding his Ducati motorcyle to Berlin, Germany - and away from moody Angelina in Prague.  The question on most of his fans' minds might be: Should Brad just keep riding, putting distance between this fling which went on too long?  When Brad left Jen, we figured this was just another Eddie Fisher-Liz Taylor kind of hookup that wasn't supposed to last.  The only difference was that Brad, unlike Fisher, is multi-talented, and probably has more career-runway than the famous woman he hungered for.  But the union has led to a family.  Not so easy for Brad to unpluck from this, is it.

Keep Ruthlessly Dumping Folks From Our Networks

Networks have a shorter life span now.  We all know that.  Tom Peters first told us how we would be working together on projects, not careers, and those projects would have a beginning, middle and end.  At the end, we players would be hooking up with new colleagues, bosses, clients, allies, obstructionists, and enemies.  Yale professor Yochai Benkler confirms that in his 2006 "The Wealth of Networks."  Work in a digital age, emphasizes Benkler, is one intensive short-term project after another.  And it's adios to the gang and hello to a new cast of characters.