By John Y. Brown III, on Wed Apr 25, 2012 at 12:00 PM ET
Some guys are into souped up, pimped out cars. Others are into collecting sophisticated or rare guns. Me? I’m into bad a** tooth brushes.
I just picket up a new tooth brush with—get this (forgive me for geeking out)
Sonic technology, slimmer than Sonicare Essence. It creates Sonic vibrations and a dynamic bristle cleaning action that removes more plaque than a regular manual toothbrushes.
Two Brushing Modes and two Oral-B replacement heads (Pulsonic and Precision Tip) meet my unique teeth cleaning needs. And will leave me with a radiant smile.
I asked the store clerk if this was essentially the AK-47 of toothbrushes. She wasn’t sure what I was talking about. But I clarified that I didn’t want to hear about another –even more powerful toothbrush being available—if I bought this. She assured me that would not happen.
I asked her if any of the toothbrushes were Taser-capable.
She again acted confused.
But I think she was secretly very impressed and was merely trying to conceal it.
If I pull up to a Ferrari I’ll look over as if to say to the driver “Nice car” while holding up my toothbrush for the driver to see and reciprocate with a look back of “Nice toothbrush.”
By Jonathan Miller, on Tue Apr 24, 2012 at 9:15 AM ET
The RP’s proudest display — the front pages of the Lexington Herald-Leader from each day after the University of Kentucky Wildcat basketball team secured an NCAA Championship in his lifetime — just got supplemented.
At a moving ceremony, featuring the woman who sits in the desk across from the RP’s office, the lawyer in his office next door, and former U.N. Secretary General Boutros Boutros Ghali, the RP unveiled a frame of the Herald-Leader front page from April 3, 2o12, the day after the Cats’ 8th national championship, and 4th in the RP’s lifetime.
The assembled crowd broke into sustained applause at the remarks of keynote speaker Boutros Boutros Ghali, who concluded: “Yo Yo Ma, what a team!”
By John Y. Brown III, on Mon Apr 23, 2012 at 12:00 PM ET
Leave trail of bread crumbs
I used to love the message of this song as a young man. It seemed inspired.
I thought I even tried admirably to break on through to the other side. But after awhile I quit trying. And even forgot I ever tried.
Then one day I woke up on the “other side” and have no idea how I got there. It just happened. And now all I want to do is get back to where I started from.
Even if I have to break through something to get there. But I don’t know how to get back.
And Jim Morrison isn’t around to tell us how “get back to the other side.”
By John Y. Brown III, on Fri Apr 20, 2012 at 12:00 PM ET
Want to know how honest you really are?
Do you pride yourself as being someone who would never cheat?
Someone who when a game is being played doesn’t blur the rules in order to do better?
And tell yourself you would never make an exception?
And are proud of the example you’ve set for your children in this area?
Me, too.
But last night I backslid. I made that exception and did cheat and tried to conceal it.
I was playing Marco Polo in the pool last night with my daughter and her friend. And squinted to see where they were (several times) after going over 5 minutes as “IT” and hearing non-stop giggling and scraping my elbow and later knee on the side of the pool.
I have no regrets about how I handled this and am calling this the “Marco Polo Exception.”
By John Y. Brown III, on Thu Apr 19, 2012 at 10:30 AM ET
Spy Parents
It’s not a movie. That’s Spy Kids. Spy parents is when a parent puts monitoring software on their child’s computer to monitor the websites visited.
I did this to my son when he was about 12 years old. As I looked over the first weeks batch of websites visited, I was pleased to see there were no “inappropriate” websites visited.
Just a lot of kid stuff with an unusually high number of political websites visited. However, upon closer examination, I noticed almost all the political websites were republican-leaning.
I didn’t know what to do.
Was my son a “Closet Republican?”
Was this the kind of thing I should talk to my child about alone or shouldI involve a counselor?
Was 7 conservative-leaning websites visited (coupled with a Google search for Glenn Beck) in a two weeks period grounds for an intervention?
Should I explain that some of my closest friends are republican and that this is nothing to be ashamed of?
In fact, there were groups and fundraising activities for people who eventually make conservativism a “life choice” —even though many Democrats don’t believe it is really a “choice?”
Read the rest of… John Y. Brown, III: Honoring My Son’s Choices
By John Y. Brown III, on Wed Apr 18, 2012 at 12:00 PM ET
10 hard facts about late night infomercials (Brace yourself):
1) No book, program or technology will “transform your life” in 14 days. Or even 30 days.
2) Operators are always “standing by” –even if they act like it’s only for a few more minutes.
3) Remember, you don’t really want to be like Anthony
Robbins. Just look like him. But he’s not telling you how to do that.
4) Ronco knives work well but you never use them as much as you think you will.
5) If you are over 40 what it takes to get “Six pack abs” isn’t worth all the effort required.
6) The 1-900 Psychic lines where a stranger predicts your future, is a pretty good deal. They are right about 50% of the time with predictions that you will have something good or bad happen in the near future.
7) It’s hard to “re-gift” products purchased through Infomercials because people know that’s where they came from.
8) There’s nothing you need at 2:30am that you couldn’t get by without at 1am. You are just tireder and more vulnerable to persuasion.
9) I have never heard any male brag that they grew a new head of hair after purchasing a late night infomercial spray.
10) Nothing changes until you are ready and willing to change.
Perception matters. Sometimes more than we want to admit to ourselves.
