By John Y. Brown III, on Fri Sep 5, 2014 at 12:00 PM ET  Favorite things….
At dinner tonight, No, we weren’t discussing Julie Andrews but were brainstorming for our “Top three” favorite lists in a bunch of different categories.
It’s fun to play along. Here are some of mine.
Comedy Series (Cable) — 1) Ali G , 2) Chapelle Show, 3) Curb Your Enthusiasm.
Drama (Cable) — 1) Sopranos , 2) Six Feet Under (never got the credit it deserved, IMHO , 3 ) Breaking Bad and House of Cards (tie) I know that is cheating by having a “tie.”
TV Series– 1) Columbo 2) Twilight Zone 3) Beverly Hillbillies
Musical Groups — 1) Steely Dan, 2) Traffic, 3) R.E.M./Pearl Jam/RHCP ( 3-way tie). Honorable mention to Black Crows (Totally cheated on this one. I struggle to be succinct.)
Movies — 1) The Twilight Saga (Not really, of course. I joke. But mostly because my favorites don’t seem very congruent. I just like them a lot) Real favorites: 1) Annie Hall, 2) ‘O Lucky Man, 3) About a 10- way tie but am unsure which 10 movies but might include Pulp Fiction, My Dinner with Andre, Little Miss Sunshine, Raging Bull, The “Up” Documentaries, Magnolia, Goodfellas, American Beauty, Casino, and Gandhi. And had an honorable mention category that included Forest Gump and Owning Mahoney. Drugstore Cowboy and American Hustle. (OK. I really, really cheated on that one. But I love movies.)
Classic books: 1) Inferno, Dante. 2) Odyssey, Homer, 3) Huckleberry Finn, Twain. Honorable mention to Candide, Voltaire and Gulliver’s Travels, Swift. (Didn’t cheat very much on that one.)
Modern books: 1) Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell; 2) A New Kind of Mind, Pink 3) World is Flat, Friedman (With not to self to start reading more recent books.)
Honorable Mention: Musings from the Middle I and II. (I mean, c’mon. Whaddaya expect?)
Best kitchen investments: 1) Nespresso 2) Vitamix, 3) Panini Press,
Worst Kitchen investments; 1) Doughnut maker, 2) Fondue, 3) Snow Cone machine.
By Julie Rath, on Fri Sep 5, 2014 at 8:30 AM ET  For most of my clients, Summer means t-shirt time. How does yours fit? Don’t laugh — even though it’s just a t-shirt, it should fit you as well as all of the other items in your wardrobe. Below are 4 key points to watch for when determining whether to buy that next beefy-t:
 1) The shoulder seam should hit directly on the edge of your shoulder. When a t-shirt is too big, these seams hang off your shoulder and make you look sloppy. But wearing a shirt with the seam right on the edge of your shoulder will make you look fit and trim.
Read the rest of…
Julie Rath: How Your T-Shirt Should Fit
By John Y. Brown III, on Thu Sep 4, 2014 at 12:00 PM ET  Exciting new product!
If you have an easily distractible husband who has difficulty keeping up with you and the family when shopping, finally there is the perfect solution!
The “Husband Travel Tether.”
Like the lightweight harnesses and leashes for children but sturdier for a more secure hold.
–Made of a leather to keep dads from breaking away.
–Reduces fear of dads being separated from their families when traveling.
–Patented adjustable buckle to pull closer in crowded areas.
–Credit cards never more than 4 feet away.
–Shoulder straps optional.
By Beth Gamulka, on Thu Sep 4, 2014 at 10:00 AM ET  Before I went to medical school, I spent 4 wonderful years at college studying the history of science and medicine. I especially loved the books on my reading lists that captured a story about a past medical discovery or epidemic. While I had no medical expertise at the time and simply wanted to do passably well on the MCAT so some medical school would accept me, the stories of the flu epidemic of 1918, the discovery of penicillin, the Wexner report and the development of formal medical education captivated me. They gave me context and allowed me to understand the path the practice of medicine had taken prior to my interest in the profession.
Medical school, residency, medical practice and parenthood do not leave much free time for pleasure reading. While it is still wonderful to escape with a novel, I still gravitate to non-fiction works that focus on medicine. A few years ago, I gave a lecture to my colleagues about books that every doctor should read. While it is still prudent to keep updated on new research to help our patients, these books are designed to help physicians (and non-physicians) maintain perspective. Here are a few of them:
History of Medicine:
- The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot is a well-researched account of the history of HeLa cancer cell line and the woman whose cancer launched a medical revolution.
- Bad Blood by James H. Jones is history of the Tuskeegee Syphilis experiment that the Public Health Service ran from 1932 until 1972. African-American men with syphilis were studied over decades to learn about the natural course of the disease. However, they were never treated with penicillin even after the antibiotic’s availability increased in the 1940s.
- The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee is a biography of cancer. It is long and detailed and clearly shows how recently many advances in cancer treatment have developed and how little oncologists really knew even 50 years ago.
Meditations on the Profession:
- Complications by Atul Gawande, a surgeon and prolific writer, is a collection of honest essays written during and after surgical training.
- The Youngest Science: Notes of a Medicine-Watcher by Lewis Thomas was his third collection of well-written and thoughtful essays reflecting back on his career as a successful academic and physician. I remember reading this in high school and deciding to become a physician.
- The Real Life of a Pediatrician, edited by Perri Klass is a collection of candid stories following the path from student to veteran doctor. While I love every book that Perri Klass has ever written (and can admit that her memoir A Not Entirely benign Procedure allowed me to survive the summer of 1988, also known as the summer of med school applications and MCATs), the many voices in this collection are honest and engaging. Let’s face it: pediatricians are generally nice people and I like reading about them.
Books that can influence the way we practice:
- Forgive and Remember: Managing Medical Failure by Charles Bosk, follows fictional surgical teams in a teaching hospital and is one of the first books ever written on medical error.
- The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande, provides a 21st century approach to patient safety using the expertise of the aviation industry.
- How Doctors Think by Jerome Groopman is an extremely honest and thoughtful look at medical error and cognitive error. It explores why doctors succeed and why they err, how they can embrace uncertainty and how patients can help doctors avoid error. I tell every trainee that I teach to read this book in the hopes that s/he will incorporate these learning points in the practice of medicine.
Happy reading!
By Josh Bowen, on Thu Sep 4, 2014 at 8:30 AM ET  The title of the blog may seem confusing and even appalling to most. It may lead you to question my sanity after 11 years as a personal trainer. “How does he not know what his job is?” Just hold on for a minute. For years I have had this approach when it came to clients, focus on more than fitness and nutrition.
See I believe fitness is a vehicle that we use to improve people. People HATE exercise, for the most part. For one reason or another most people disdain the process of trying to get into shape. They have goals but most of the time those goals are deeper than fitness. They impact every aspect of their lives. So, if it deeper than fitness why do we not concentrate on more than fitness? This approach may actually help you jump start your fitness and go on a quest to better yourself.
In my mind exercise/fitness and good nutrition affect every aspect of my life. Therefore, not only do I affect the physical part of me and they way I look but I also affect several other aspects of my life; relationships, better sleep, energy, confidence etc. So if you knew that working out would help boost your confidence and help you have the courage to ask a pretty girl on a date or make a great speech in front of the CEO of you company, would you be more aped to do it? Of course you would. Here are 5 of the most impacted areas of our lives that fitness increases more than anything else.
1. Confidence
The picture on the left is from my high school graduation in 2000 and the picture on the right is from last year. On the left I weigh an astounding 140lbs on the right 200lbs. Forget the numbers and the obvious physical difference, the number one benefit that fitness has provided me is confidence. Without it, I would not have been able to speak in front of hundreds of people, write a book, go on a bootcamp tour for 14 days across the US or be a personal trainer. Physically I am different but the most effect has been in my confidence.
So many of my clients will list confidence as their number one benefit from working with a trainer and starting an exercise program. The proof is in the pudding.
2. Relationships
As a continuation from confidence, I find that increased relationships with others is a direct reflection from being fit. Often times clients will meet new people and friendships are born or their existing relationships improve because of heightened self confidence.
3. Diligence
A direct reflection of being fit is increasing one’s diligence and determination. Get tasks completed because they have more energy or confidence is common place.
4. Clarity
The hormonal effect of exercise is documented but what you often forget is the increased ability to think clearer. This aspect comes in handy in todays fast moving world. I always have told people I never make decisions until I have worked out that day. Working out will give me the extra time and mental clearness to think about making a decision.
5. Self Esteem
Confidence and self esteem are different. Self esteem is how you view yourself and how you feel about it. Fitness supplies the increased self esteem that one feels like they can conquer anything. Feeling better about the way you look is the best feeling in the world.
All in all, I do not concentrate on fitness. I concentrate on the effects of fitness and how it effects and impacts our lives. Anyone who has started an exercise program an continued with it can tell you that there are more than just five aspects that help better their lives. Focus on the effects working will give you, instead of thinking about whether you can do it or not.
By John Y. Brown III, on Wed Sep 3, 2014 at 12:00 PM ET Nothing has revolutionized and expanded human intelligence more than the Internet.
The Internet is solely responsible for raising the IQ of the average user by nearly 20 points simply by offering free online IQ tests that puts nearly everyone, by the third time they take the test, in the “very superior” or “genius” category. Including me.
Thank you Internet for making me so much smarter than I was before.
And giving me a online certificate to prove it.
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Facebook confession
I often look up words in the Urban Dictionary.
And sometimes rely on its accuracy more than even Wikipedia.
By Lauren Mayer, on Wed Sep 3, 2014 at 8:30 AM ET Labor Day has traditionally marked the start of the fall season, when we say goodbye to ‘those lazy hazy crazy days of summer,’ return to school (or work), and put away our white shoes until Memorial Day. Of course, most of those traditions have evaporated – style expert Tim Gunn says white is appropriate all year round, very few working adults get much time off in the summer, and many schools start mid-August or earlier. But we still usually think of summer as a more carefree time, when things are a little easier and workplaces are more casual. (I, for one, thoroughly appreciated the break from waking my son up for 4 years of zero period marching band – getting a sleep-deprived teenager out the door at 6:30 a.m., and living to tell the tale, has earned me at least some good karma!)
However, this past summer has been an endless stream of awful news, from war and conflict to corruption trials to racial unrest and protests, and there never seemed to be a lull. It made me nostalgic for last summer, when the big stories were outrage over ‘twerking’ (Miley Cyrus’ provocative dancing at an awards show), or the continuing revelations in the Anthony Weiner sexting scandal. Even the Kardashians were surprisingly low-key – I guess they’re waiting to reveal their next big shocker when the world isn’t so fixated on things that actually matter . . .
With that in mind, here’s a salute to the Summer of 2014 – and to how relieved we are that it’s over!
By John Y. Brown III, on Tue Sep 2, 2014 at 12:00 PM ET Sadly, leaving for home.
Loved Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium.
We get back home in about 14 1/2 hours.
Which is approximately 375 kilometergramhours –using the metric system. Or something like that. Mostly, I think that calculation just means I’m a thick-headed American.
Guten Tag! Which I hope means “Thank You!” But I think may mean “Hello” and I know, in the states, means something that you should try to avoid in your diet. But it’s the best I can do. And reinforces my thick-headed American status.
Thanks ya’ll!! We had a really great ol’ time. Even though we could tell we got on your nerves sometimes and you thought we were too loud and messy. We get that a lot. So you probably are right about that. Sorry. And thanks for everything!
And glad to see that whole thing with East Berlin and that big wall you knocked down is working out so well. It just made sense. If we have learned anything from our travels it’s that people are about the same everywhere. They just talk different, and like I said before, get irritated by us because we are too loud and messy.
Again, Guten Toten! Or something like that. We sure had a good tine and hope we get to come back!
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So glad to be home after our trip abroad.
“Home is the place where, when you go there, they have to take you in after you get your luggage, go through security, clear customs, re-check your luggage domestically, clear security again and make your connecting flight in Jersey.”
–Robert Frost (with my paraphrasing)
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We have yet to take a family trip that we could fully afford.
Or one that didn’t leave us more personally enriched.
Travel is like that.
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Waiting to merge into the morning traffic…Is when you know that your vacation is officially over.
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Sometimes… on a night like tonight, if you’ve ever had the privilege of visiting Amsterdam, you miss not being in Amsterdam and wish you could hop in your car and head back to Amsterdam and arrive there in about 15 minutes, provided traffic isn’t bad.
On other nights, I can’t really say what you feel like.
This is my first night home after visiting Amsterdam. And this is the only feeling I am having and it’s pretty unequivocal and strong. Heck, there may not even be another kind of reaction. Except wishing you’d stayed in Berlin so you don’t miss Amsterdam so much.
By Greg Harris, on Tue Sep 2, 2014 at 10:00 AM ET  Hillary Clinton raised eyebrows recently with her apparent dig at President Obama: “Don’t do stupid stuff is not an organizing principle.” Because she is a Clinton, it should be assumed this was not a slip. And because she is Hillary Clinton, it should not be forgotten that she voted in support of the 2002 resolution to go to war against Iraq.
The war in Iraq was a colossal tragedy for many reasons: the staggering loss of Iraqi civilian life; the mental and physical casualties ensured by American soldiers whose needs to this day go under-addressed; Post-911 mission creep when the American desire to strike back against terrorism was manipulated and misdirected by a President and his neo-con handlers.
This essay is not an attempt to re-litigate the Iraq war. That verdict has already been rendered. But the aftermath of this messy post-Iraq geo-political realignment has led me to begrudgingly veer towards Clinton’s assertion that a new set of organizing principles is needed to navigate this complicated world. There is a glaring need for muscular global strategy on which America must lead.
For the tragedy of Iraq also plays out today in the emergence of ISIL – a well financed, well governed and military savvy operation that is establishing a base of operations from which to pursue a caliphate that unifies the Islamic world—albeit, a type of world that most Muslims reject.
An under-reported insight on the growing appreciation of this threat is that the Obama Administration started referring to this organization as “ISIL” instead of ISIS. This marks the Administration’s recognition that ISIL not only has ambitions beyond Iraq and Syria, but also the Levant (the “L” of ISIL), which includes Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon and most alarming, Israel.
America does not have the luxury of W’s division of good versus “evil-doers.” Unfortunately, we will have to choose among worse evils, and create the kinds of coalitions needed to keep extremist elements in check.
Aside from the aforementioned tragedies of the Iraq War is the need to understand that America and her allies were probably safer when the repugnant Saddam Hussein was in power in Iraq. Furthermore, we are probably safer with Assad in power in Syria. Just as in WWII we had to form unholy alliances with the likes of Stalin’s Russia—as brutal a dictator there ever was—in order to defeat the global designs of a genocidal Nazi dictator, we now must keep in check a global terrorist organization whose desire, and cruelty to match, is to purge the Middle East (and beyond) of the non-faithful.
New Organizing Principles
Under new organizing principles, our ability to halt the most dangerous global threat is to join forces with less seemly partners that are equally motivated to keep in check this threat, and that includes the likes of Egypt, Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Russia.
We also must reconsider American troop deployment. Today, of some 160,000 American troops deployed overseas, the good majorities are in Europe and East Asia. This geography of American deployment does not complement the geography of today’s emergent global threat. For example, we currently are downsizing our operations in Afghanistan, which likewise reduces American military capability near a nuclear Pakistan that has long been a safe haven for terrorists.
America must also unify our allies and enlist their strategic leverage over our gravest threats. We must first acknowledge the threat, and then plot global response. Publicly, at least, the effort seems haphazard, and insufficient to the cause of defeating the greatest terrorist threat to date—one that has an army, international recruits (who can travel in and out of the West), and vast real estate for a base of operations.
While the French take to the streets to protest Israel, or Russia focuses on Crimea, the larger looming danger that is ISIL takes a backseat to fragmented and parochial interests. This must change. And America must take the lead in rallying the world against an emergent terrorist state that poses a potential grave threat against our own safety and the safety of our currently unfocused allies.
By Erica and Matt Chua, on Tue Sep 2, 2014 at 8:30 AM ET “You’re so lucky!” is the worst phrase in the English language. It’s something we’re told by many people when they find out we’ve traveled for two years without working. Saying this belittles everyone’s ability to make their dreams come true, even their own, as it wasn’t luck that got us here, it was following the lesson below. Since this is the week we make resolutions to change, here’s how you can accomplish any goal, no matter how big, as we did when we set off to travel the world. You can use this guide not to make a resolution, but to make things happen.
Cute? Certainly, but don’t wait for this little guy to make your dreams come true….
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LUCK, LEPRECHAUNS AND LIGHTNING
Before going any further let’s once and for all end the myth of luck. Luck is like getting struck by lightning, it’s not random, it’s not chance. If you stand on your roof with a metal poll in a lightning storm, getting struck isn’t “dumb luck”.Not getting struck because you were in your home isn’t luck either. Lottery winners aren’t any more lucky, rarely has a person hit the jackpot on their first $1 ticket, rather they buy hundreds, if not thousands of dollars on tickets for years before winning. Getting struck by lightning (or not) and winning the lottery isn’t about luck, it’s about setting yourself up for it. The reality is luck is as real as the leprechauns who bring it.
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CHAMPIONS DON’T GET LUCKY
Michael Jordan, Michael Schumacher or Roger Federer aren’t lucky. We just weren’t watching them as they perfected their craft for hours every day, for years, before we knew their name. While we saw them do things in their sport that nobody had done before, we didn’t see the hours each day they worked behind-the-scenes. Others have had the physical talents of these champions, but only those that put in the work, dedicate themselves to perfection, and overcome obstacles (personal and physical) that become household names.
The same goes for when you watch a professional anything. What seems so effortless, so easy, is actually the result of years of practice. Think of something you do that there are professionals, anything from soccer to cooking: don’t professionals make hard things look easy? Their skills weren’t gained overnight or by a lightning strike, no, they’ve spent years perfecting their craft.
Ana Ivanovic didn’t become the world’s #1 women’s tennis player because she was lucky…
it was the hours on practice courts like this one.
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Read the rest of…
Erica and Matt Chua: Luck Didn’t Get Us Here
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