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2006 LETTERS

-new- A Votre Sante (December 27, 2006)
Health is when you are still in the driver’s seat.”  To read more, click here.

The Quiet Man (December 20, 2006)
In statecraft, too, it is possible that solid accomplishment comes from those who can hide their light under a bushel.”  To read more, click here.

Wal-Mart on the Rack (December 13, 2006)
“Wal-Mart has remade the world, but now the world has to remake Wal-Mart.”  To read more, click here.

Literary Notions (December 6, 2006)
At the moment, the ‘madness of crowds’ is in its ascendancy, not ‘wisdom.’  To read more, click here.

The Good Society (November 29, 2006)
Again, the question is whether we can stop some of the huge stuff, and migrate to some of the right stuff.”  To read more, click here.

Easy Shopping for Christmas and Other Celebrations (November 22, 2006)
“We are going to give you some recommendations on which you can rely, sight unseen.”  To read more, click here.

The Devil Really Is in the Details (November 15, 2006)
Media is about connectedness, but most of the media-ites are very disconnected.”  To read more, click here.

The Eighth Wonder of the World (November 1, 2006)
[T]here are many mile-high towers around waiting to be pulverized.”  To read more, click here.

Washington’s Marginalia (October 25, 2006)
Apple, we think, had the shrewd thought: one wants to move around the various establish-
ments, cherry picking an item here and an item there.  No one place has got it all.”  To read more, click here.

Sticks and Stones (October 18, 2006)
“[W]e need patrons, not collectors of sticks and stones. Commissioners of greatness.”  To read more, click here.

Never Say Never (October 11, 2006)
There is quite a need to know what’s well over the horizon.  And to forget about tomorrow and the day after tomorrow.”  To read more, click here.

Le Déjeuner sur l’herb (October 4, 2006)
Now, for our health, we have to break free of the mindless mechanism in which we are caught that seems to have us running fast the wrong ways.”  To read more, click here.

Dr. Johnson's Stone (September 27, 2006)
Put bluntly, the paradox is that the best players on the globe may not survive in a world of comparative advantage.  The marketplace works rather imperfectly.”  To read more, click here.

The Color of Money (September 20, 2006)
When you do things wrong, sooner or later you cease to exist.”  To read more, click here.

Can You Forgive Her? (September 13, 2006)
It is possible that culture can put a mark on a company’s product and services that give it a leg up in the marketplace.  Culture, in fact, is part of our economic infrastructure.”  To read more, click here.

The Big Sleep (September 6, 2006)
“[T]here’s no education without leisure.  And there’s no leisure without sleep.”  To read more, click here.

Terroir (August 30, 2006)
It’s not enough to be a brand anymore.  The product must come from a time and place—Hawaii, Iwo Jima, Chambertin.”  To read more, click here.

I Can't Believe I Ate the Whole Thing (August 23, 2006)
We have advised our clientele that social messaging can be compared to humorous advertising.  Only certain types of products and services can bear the freight of social messages.”  To read more, click here.

The Power of Attention Deficit Magnified (August 16, 2006)
“It’s an interesting thing about entrepreneurs: they sort of succeed because they cannot stay focused and so they find time to go up alleys the rest of us are content to ignore.”  To read more, click here.

Summer Reading: Elegant Getaways (August 9, 2006)
“We want to know about uncommonality.”  To read more, click here.

Rum and the Fancy Food Show (August 2, 2006)
“Truly special niches have to be uncovered where special craft and intimacy between makers and users are the key drivers of individuality.”  To read more, click here.

Good Morning, Heartache (July 26, 2006)
With our medical system so awry, we need physicians who consciously swim upstream, fight the tendency to churn our procedures and pills, and understand thoroughly the humanistic dimensions of their art.”  To read more, click here.

Two Women Expatriates (July 19, 2006)
Across the world the men in power are making a hash of things, having risen too easily to comfortable levels of incompetence where they can muck it up for the rest of us....”  To read more, click here.

The Torquay Phenomenon: Bureaucracy Unbounded (July 12, 2006)
“Bureaucrats do what they do, not because it’s leading anywhere, but because it’s what they know how to do and it’s what they have always done.”  To read more, click here.

Fish House Punch (July 5, 2006)
“We haul out the usual array of delights for the Fourth—corn on the cob and hot dogs, a dip in a cool stream, a timid patch of fireworks, and remembered moments of the Tall Ships on the Hudson, the Statute of Liberty, and the Empire State Building festooned with bright lights during the Bicentennial back in 1976.”  To read more, click here.

Tennessee Gone Missing (June 28, 2006)
“Tennessee seems to have turned its back on beauty and its Volunteer tradition and become something else, something elusive.”  To read more, click here.

Looking Backwards in Greensboro (June 14, 2006)
“If Greensboro can get reignited, so can North Carolina....”  To read more, click here.

Tinker's Dam and Other Errata (June 7, 2006)
“This is only one of several examples of mucking about with the scientific process, all brought about because the short-sighted have been promoting their political agenda.”  To read more, click here.

Lament for Mexico: Destiny Thwarted (May 31, 2006)
[T]he best of Mexico is unknown amid a system that cannot be amended, but must be totally redone.”  To read more, click here.

The Real Right Stuff (May 24, 2006)
“Clearly management understood that it’s people with heart who make things right—not rulemakers.”  To read more, click here.

What Do They Know of Cricket Who Only Cricket Know? (May 17, 2006)
"To know one thing, no matter how well, is not to know very much."  To read more, click here.

More Is Less (May 10, 2006)
"America’s largest corporations are today much like the Spanish Armada—big and unwieldy."  To read more, click here.

Imus: Almost Walking Wounded (May 3, 2006)
"We simply think America—and all the developed countries—are growing old, reaching the stage where one complains about things instead of doing something about them.  It gets easy to be cantankerous and churlish."  To read more, click here.

UnCanny Tom Canning (April 26, 2006)
"[Canning's] offspring are just out with a book of his prose and poetry, sadly in a limited edition that most of the world will not see.  You would find it a far better missal for modern life than those slim-pickins-self-help books that dot the bestseller lists."  To read more, click here.

Resurrections (April 19, 2006)
"Still miraculous ... are the institutions and people who have come back onto the stage, cats with nine lives."  To read more, click here.

The Czeching Rangers (April 12, 2006)
"[I]t is no longer certain the migrants should remain forever in their new land and that a fluid model where people move more than once may be the best for all concerned."  To read more, click here.

Fire and Darkness (April 5, 2006)
"For every scenario, you have to prepare for its opposite."  To read more, click here.

Lost Treasures (March 29, 2006)
"There is a real question as to where the public health establishment is helping, and where it is hurting."  To read more, click here.

Climb Another Mountain (March 22, 2006)
"Our own thought is that high-order creativity in America is, above all, the result of successful importation from abroad."  To read more, click here.

Our Favorite Dirty, Rotten Scoundrels (March 15, 2006)
"There’s always plenty of lust and avarice to go around.  In politics we call it corruption."  To read more, click here.

Patria Nostra and Genuine Fakes (March 8, 2006)
"When the prophets of doom are crying the loudest, then we are well instructed to give the patient another look.  Recovery is probably right around the corner."  To read more, click here.

Vapor Brands (March 1, 2006)
"If you ever decide to become a seer during times of great change, we recommend that you read the daily papers, see what they insist is most happening, then take a look behind the screen where you will discover that the flipside is actually true."  To read more, click here.

Our Intrepid Cohorts (February 22, 2006)
"The auto industry in the West is simply undergoing painful consolidation."  To read more, click here.

Museums: Is There a Muse in the House (February 15, 2006)
"Museums can own the culture market, because colleges, schools, theaters, and others that have traditionally been media for dispensing culture have lost that capacity, as the nature of the experiences there become more production-like and less imbued with a love of learning."  To read more, click here.

Boundary Jumpers (February 8, 2006)
"The world over, financial markets are sending us signals that are causing us to put our bucks in the wrong buckets."  To read more, click here.

Autos: The Thrill Is Gone (February 1, 2006)
"We can have one-of-a-kind autos, rather one of our neighbor’s kind."  To read more, click here.

Brush with Death (January 25, 2006)
"One swats the carrion-sniffing flies aside and savors the moment."  To read more, click here.

Getting out of Limbo (January 18, 2006)
"[O]ur top level managers also are stumbling around in Limbo, not energized by a belief in tomorrow and a devotion to greatness."  To read more, click here.

Up the Down Staircase (January 11, 2006)
"It is still possible to be a growth business or a growth institution.  But intelligence has to triumph over oafish greed."  To read more, click here.

Domestic Bliss (January 4, 2006)
"The decline of mass audiences embracing all the variety and all the age groups that make up America and the rise of private homefare for many entertainments is an earthshaking economic event for the media-entertainment-cultural-institution industry."  To read more, click here.