Jane Genova: Speechwriter - Ghostwriter

AmazonFresh: Can it disrupt food-shopping industry?

TECH CRUNCH chronicles how much AmazonFresh, which delivers groceries to homes, has learned from the failed WebVan.  For example, right now the location is restricted to dense urban areas.  That makes the low-margin business more cost efficient.  And it has robots working in the warehouse, which further keeps costs in line.  Since few of us busy professionals enjoy shopping for food and more of us have returned to urban areas, AmazonFresh could disrupt this whole niche.

The gain for Amazon could be that this service becomes the platform for distribution of higher-margin goods and services.  Those could be brought to your apartment, along with the lettuce.

In Jane Austen's Time, Gala Event Was the Big Ball: Now, it's whatever for networking

In my doctoral studies at the University of Michigan I would deconstruct the world of Jane Austin's novels.  The event was the big ball.  Mothers talked about them endlessly, hoping their daughters would meet their future husbands. What young females in the village hoped for was that their dance card would be full.

Today, as a hustling ghostwriter/speechwriter the big event is being invited to a whatever where there will be brandname players to network with.  I lucked out.  Because I'm on the invite list for a gala birthday party, already those with plenty more influence, power, and wealth are checking my LinkedIn profile, reading my blogs, and even emailing me.  The outcome I'm hoping for is that my assignment sheet will be full. 

I have to wonder if special events in a society were ever purely social and meant to enjoy.  Were humans ever allowed to be without an agenda?

Lunch Break Dance Parties: No-tech disruption for tech overload, obesity

With a bit of complimentary Absolut vodka office workers start shaking their booty at lunch time dance parties instead of staying by their computer screens gobbling down a sandwich.

That's the new trend THE NEW YORK TIMES reports.  And this no-tech introduction could disrupt the tech overload among professionals and deep six obesity.  So huge could be its implications that organizations could start creating incentives for employees to get out of the office and onto the dance floor at clubs which provide this time-out.

Before the company gym was introduced, we Baby Boomers remember how restorative it had been to grab our coat and flee the cube for a walk for a few blocks.  Along the way we peeked at store windows and even got fresh ideas for our work.  Instead of consuming a 700-calorie lunch, we might have just sipped a can of those diet meal drinks which were in vogue then.  And, all was right with the world.  We were in control again.

BigPharma such as Johnson & Johnson which is so concerned with obesity and emotional health might partner with the sponsors of these lunch break dance parties.

Social Weight Loss: Maybe peer pressure could work, as in 12-step programs

Male porkers, reports NEW YORK Magazine, are responding well to peer pressure. Their Withings Scale publicly reports their weight to other male dieters.  The guys are slimming down.

Can this work for females such as myself or is weight too much of a taboo for us? From what I know about the power of peer pressure I would give it a shot. 

It was through peer pressure in a 12-step program that I stopped doing stupid things and it was the peer pressure of SmokeEnders how I ended a 30-year habit of cigarettes.

Sorry, Millennials: You didn't invent over-the-top boozing

Back in the 1890s, kids as young as 12 were being hauled off to detox centers to get off the booze.  Around that time, about 10 percent of folks going into alcohol rehabs were between ages 15 and 20.

A wonderful book "Alcohol: Its History, Pharmacology, and Treatment" provides this kind of information and insight about the recreational drug which about 18.2 million Americans can't handle.  It's by Mark Edmund Rose and Cheryl Cherpitel. 

Before reading it I assumed that the founders of Alcoholics Anonymous Dr. Bob and Bill W invented the concept of extreme boozing as a medical disease. Actually it was that famous American physician Benjamin Rush.

Zen Master Has Sweet Tooth at the New Haven Center

Toll House Chocolate Chips.  They were not supposed to be on the altar of Buddha at the New Haven Zen Center.  But there they were tonight.  I couldn't help peeking at them out of the corner of my eye as I sat on my cushion and tried to meditate on the mantra: Clear Thinking - Don't Know. 

What added complexity to this mystery was that on the altar there were also strawberries, pears, bananas, and apples.  What was the connecting link, I pondered. 

After the meditation session ended I asked the guiding teacher Paul what was the symbolism of, well, the fruit. I wanted to slide into the matter of real concern.  He explained that in Korea that was how they celebrated the new moon.  Nice, I thought.  Then I brought up the chocolate chips.  Oh, he explained, the zen master in charge of the altar has a sweet tooth.

Since I don't follow the moon, I framed what was on Buddha's altar as a rite of spring.  During the fall and winter there had been Sandy and Nemo.  Just before Christmas not far from the New Haven Center had been the killing of children at Newtown.  We needed every strawberry we could find to get on the other side of all that.

For those in the Connecticut area wanting to be introduced to zen, every Wednesday at 6:30 P.M., at 193 Mansfield Street, New Haven, a guiding teacher explains the basics.  If you want to try it out, then there is chanting, followed by meditation.  No cost, although donations are welcome.  On Sundays, from 9:00 A.M. until 11:00 A.M. there is also meditation. No cost, donations welcome.

You can get on the email list and receive regular information about what's going on, inspirational videos, and nuggets of thought by contacting the Center at info@newhavenzen.org.

Meditation Clears Mind Like Modafinil: April Schedule of Events at New Haven Zen Center

The performance-enhancing substance for The Achiever Class is Modafinil, reports NEW YORK Magazine.  That has made Walter White's Meth on "Breaking Bad" seem so 20th century.  The hitch with Modafinil, as with most additives for the human psyche, is that it can become addictive.  Then we all knows what can happen.

When that does happen, some users/abusers discover that plain-vanilla meditation can have the same effects.  The person can focus without distraction and think clearly about anything for hours on end.

After reading this in NEW YORK some may be connecting the dots and deciding that it might be smart to skip the Modafinil and go straight to meditation.  So, here is a schedule of the April activities at the New Haven Zen Center, on Mansfield Street, not far from Yale.  Stop by and join the rest of us blissed-out souls who manage awesome feats of concentration.

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April 3 - (Free) Interviews with Guiding Teacher Ken Kessel, JDPSN.  From 7:00 P.M. until about 8:30 P.M. Ken sits on his cushion off the main meditation area to listen to us and somehow that forces us to listen to ourselves.  The few words he does say tend to resonate for weeks.

April 5 to 7 - Buddha's Birthday, Providence Zen Center, Providence, Rhode Island.  Buddha's birthday has a pull force for the Kwan Um School of Zen.  There are rites and rituals, along with lots of food (forget mindful eating), games, and getting to know the delightful human being inside the robes monks and nuns wear.  For more information on taking the journey to Providence you can please call 203-787-0912.

April 8, 7:00 P.M. - Zen at Yale's Battell Chapel (where College/Elm Intersect) Ryushin Sensei, the Abbott of Zen Mountain Monastery, will deliver a free Dharma talk.  You don't have to be a member of the Yale community to attend.

April 21, 9:00 A.M. to 11:00 A.M.,  (Free) Interviews with Guiding Teacher Ken Kessel, JDPSN.  After the one-on-one sessions are over, then there is a Dharma talk, followed by a light lunch (guess that means mindful eating.)

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For those who may be shy or simply wary and just want to slip in and try out zen without the fanfare of an event are welcome to:

Meditation - Every Sunday, 9:00 A.M. to 11 A.M.

Meditation + Chanting - Every Wednesday, 7 P.M. to 8:30 P.M. Arrive around 6:30 P.M. and a zen master will introduce you to the fundamentals of practice.

All this comes free but donations are welcome.  As they say, "The Dharma costs nothing but the heat and electricity do."

P.S. The scientific term for what occurs during meditation is "neuroplasticity."

 

Free French Fries: Was it a game or store policy to prevent disruption?

We customers stood spellbound. 

A not-thin somewhat disheveled middle-aged man bellied up to the counter at McDonald's in Manhattan.  He screwed his face into a pleading expression.  Then out came the words, "Can I taste just a few french fries?"  The young man who was dressed like a manager smiled and said, "No."  There was more pleading, more nos.  Then the manager asked the man if he would go if he was given a few french fries.  The man said, "yes."  The few fries came.  The man took them, didn't eat them, and was back asking for a few more fries.

Was this a game that both sides enjoyed?  Or was the manager following company policy to avoid having to call the police? 

New Haven Zen Center Retreat: Washing windows for enlightenment

The zen master handed me and another seeker of enlightenment bottles of window-cleaner and paper towels.  Our work detail during the one-day retreat at the New Haven Zen Center this Saturday was to make all the windows on the second floor sparkle.  The task was to be performed in complete silence.

My co-cleaner, I have a hunch, had been a manager of some type or maybe an engineer.  He immediately came up with a system, elegant in its simplicity. Since he was tall, he would do the top of the windows, and since I was short, I would do the bottom.  We finished up a few minutes before the 45-minute deadline.  This experience could be something we present at TED. 

Other work projects for those who also took part in this retreat included polishing the wood, bleeding the radiators, cleaning up after the lunch, and sweeping the front and the back of the house.  Those too were to be done in silence. The abbot of the center was assigned by one of the program planners to dust the altar of the Buddha. 

The objective of the worker-bee period was to approach work with "mindfulness."  That is, we were to be one with the task, with ourselves, with our co-workers, and with the now.  The awesome thing is that, once work was framed along those lines, it wasn't work.  It was just what we on retreat were doing as part of acquiring the mindset and tools of zen.  In that, it was no different than the sitting and walking meditations, chanting, and sharing a meal in a ritualistic manner. 

The trick, of course, is to be able to transfer that spirit of seamlessness or wholeness I was introduced to on the retreat today to making a living on Monday.  I will keep you posted.

Titanic II - Infinite possibilities for PR folks to leverage this symbol

Given the wild success of period soap "Downton Abbey," the odds are excellent that Titanic II will make money for its creator Clive Palmer.

As MARKET WATCH reports, Palmer has been building an exact replica of the original Titanic in China.  It should be ready to sail by 2016.  One of the brilliant public relations gimmicks is that passengers on the cruise ship will be able to wear period attire.  Another is that they will have no access to post-Titanic mediums such as television and digital gadgets.

Any alert PR person sees the infinite possibilities of leveraging the plan for Titanic II as a symbol for whatever.  Restoring the reputation of a fallen hero like former McKinsey head Rajat Gupta could be "along the lines of putting the Titanic back in the water and getting it right this time." PR can advise their spa clients to, like Palmer, ban all modern mediums.  A real attention grabber could be no telephone, even the landline kind.  Also, guests at the spa could spend their time dressed in the attire from any period which is healing to them.  Some might opt for the coarse robes of the apostles who followed Jesus.  Others might enjoy the opulence of Florence during the Renaissance.

Since my executive communications boutique is navigating yet another comeback since I started a prototype of it in the late 1980s, I can refer to this professional journey in terms of the optimism associated with Titanic II. For my daily mindfulness meditation I would love a micro model of Titantic II next to the candles.  Palmer could make a bundle selling them.