Month: December 2011
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On cat days
When I dance, I dance; when I sleep, I sleep; and when I am walking alone in a beautiful orchard, if my thoughts are sometimes elsewhere, for most of the time I bring them back to the walk, to the orchard, to the sweetness of this solitude, and to me. –Montaigne, Essays 1 Watch the…
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‘Leisure is a school of wisdom’
Procellous \proh-SEL-uhs\, adjective: Stormy, as the sea. The plan traced on our chart will lead us through oceans procellous and perilous straits, amid regions where the atmosphere is cheerless and the sun’s rays are pale, and the spring blossoms no sooner unfold their petals than they droop and languish. — C.C.C.P. Silva, M.D., The Western Medical Reporter, Vol. 10 *…
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On love, death, and um’s
Imagine, if you will, a fully lived life. Having what you need and loving what you should. No more, no less, no other. * I read the last lines of George Whitman’s life and thus fell in love with a dead man. Whitman, 98, was a famous bookseller whose three floor shop was set down…
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What is civil society and why does this matter?
I’m currently finishing a personal essay entitled “In Search of a Middle Style for a Convivial Civil Society.” In it, I’m trying to make sense of how civil society is changing and of how I’m able to make a decent living as a result. I’ve included a small part below on the concept of civil…
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Brand naming: Thinking differently
The inner circle of brand doyens at Lexicon (I almost wrote Lexipro, then almost quipped about Lexi-con) is exploring car names that could become impactful brands in a twenty-first century green economy. In “Famous Names: Does it Matter What a Product is Called?” (The New Yorker, October 3, 2011), the writer John Colapinto listens in:…
Andrew Taggart, Ph.D. 