Jane Genova: Speechwriter - Ghostwriter

Their Obits were written way back in 2000 - NYT, GM, Hillary, Bill Lerach

"This is an obituary for business as usual."  That's what Thomas Petzinger, Jr. wrote in the Foreword  of "The Cluetrain Manifesto."  And that was the year 2000.  The business as usual that Petzinger was referring to was how organizations and professionals connect - or rather did everything possible to avoid connecting - with clients, customers, patients, voters, employees, shareholders, vendors, government and the community.  Some organizations and people got away with business as usual.  Think THE NEW YORK TIMES, GM, Hillary, Bill Lerach, et al.  Now their number seems to be up.

WASP Establishment - Still Monied, Still Mannered, No Longer Influencers

They called them The WASP Establishment.  Many members weren't real WASPS, that is, white Anglo Saxon and protestant.  But they wormed their way in through money, marriage or enough protective coloring.  Why anyone wanted in was because that's where the connections were for good jobs, good business for the law firm, and good schools for the next gen.  Some still want in simply because it is, with all its reserve, code of honor and quaint ways, well, a certain way to live.  And some need a certain way to live.

Horace Mann - Caricature of "Lord of the Flies"

In the NEW YORK Magazine article by Gabriel Sheman on Horace Mann we get a caricature of "Lord of the Flies."  The kids aren't just playing out the usual primitive dark behaviors of young people without the constraints of civilization. Their meanness towards each other and everyone else, be it a superior or "inferior" [god help the help in their homes], is strategically calculated.  They intend to wound and accomplish just that.

That 2003 Ford Escort, 2-door, 76,000 Miles - All Mine

The first of April I make the last payment on my trusty 2003 Ford Escort.  It's a 2-door job, with 76,000 miles.  It's the first thing I've owned since I took my vow of poverty that same year.  Had I not purchased the car before renouncing excess materialism, I probably would have just rented compact cars to take the cats to the vet, call on clients, and load up on liters and liters of Diet Coke.  How do I feel about having this possession?

Gender as Binary - Obsolete?

The possible end of gender as a perceptual category and part of our language has finally migrated to the mainstream include influential media - in fact, the THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE.  Today, Alissa Quart discusses in her TIMES article "When Girls Will Be Boys" the blurring of gender everything among some leading-edge young.  Those on the front lines of this movement are human beings who felt downright oppressed in biology's or society's assigned gender roles.  Some took the hormone route out.  Some took the hormone + surgery route.  Some just opted to ignore gender and live their lives outside the binary-gender prison. 

The Long Day of the Shorts - Have Nothin', Worry about Nothin'

With the global meltdown in financial markets, tomorrow when our own stock markets open it will be the long day of the shorts.  My clients know they will lose money, probably lots of it.  They contacted me today, tentative about future assignments which seemed to have been in the bag.  But that panic whizzed right over me, my finances and my optimism.  On November 6, 2003, I took my vow of poverty, renouncing excess materialism.  So, the macro movements in the global economy don't concern me.

Very Ungreen - Those 2nd Homes

Those 2nd homes have gone from showy status symbol - you must visit our vacation house - to being classified as Very Ungreen.  Eco-warriors will be invading these Edens, pointing to the homes many many sins against the gospel of green.

Post Nancy Grace, Gawker.com, Demeaning Reality Shows

Styles change.  There will be a day, maybe soon, when the breathless rant of Nancy Grace gets annoying.  When the bile of the Gawker.com generation, described so well by Vanessa Grigoriadis in the NEW YORK Magazine article "Everybody Sucks," no longer is fun.  And when the humiliating public experiences of those on TV reality shows cause us to flame the sponsors as well as the producers. 

Then what?

My Vow Of Poverty - 4 Years Later

On November 6, 2003, I took a vow of poverty, renouncing all material and emotional excess.  Getting, growing and protecting my earnings, investments and possessions had driven me to a bottom at the age of 58.  Today I have no excess - unless 2 terry robes are to be considered 1 too many - and have achieved success in all the intangibles, ranging from writing ability to inner peace.

School for Scandal - Oprah's no philanthropy virgin

School for Scandal should have been fully expected by Oprah.  Anything connected with education is not only a sitting duck for allegations of abuse and neglect but also for lawsuits.  No philanthropy virgin, Oprah should have stated at the onset of this venture, "Education is full of problems.  I expect to inherit lots of them.  And, of course, no good deed goes unpunished.  However, this particular cause - young women of color - is so important to me and to the world, that I am moving ahead."