By John Y. Brown III, on Fri Oct 17, 2014 at 12:00 PM ET  I just spoke to the guy who is helping us install a new shower in our hone and, after giving him the credit card number and paying, I thanked him for all his time and assistance.
He thanked me and said to keep him posted and let him know how the installation goes and if we are happy with everything.
I thanked him again and said, “When we get everything finished we’d love to have you come over to see it and take a shower in it yourself.”
I love being an over-friendly Southerner –and joking around with people.
By John Y. Brown III, on Thu Oct 16, 2014 at 12:00 PM ET  When you lie down with dogs… Is it better to be a deep or shallow person?
I used to be shallow for a deep person
But as I have matured I feel like I have become deep for a shallow person
And I think I like the deep part of the shallow end of the pool better. You don’t have to tread water…and you get to take off the water wings.
By John Y. Brown III, on Wed Oct 15, 2014 at 12:00 PM ET
 Driving home from a conference in Nashville, TN I noticed the public restroom graffitti is notably higher brow here than I typically find in other states.
Part of me, upon reading this, wanted to grab a pen and scrawl in big letters, “I guess Finding Nemo is just an ‘OK’ Disney Pixar film, too, right? Wrong!”
My inner graffiti-loving self (that I thought was tamped down so deep it would never again see the light of day) almost got the best of me tonight.
What can I say? I love Pixar and Disney.
Fortunately I didn’t have a pen with me. And after counting to 10 I was able to even see that the author of this piece of graffiti had a point and that I, too, considered Toy Story 3 to be just “OK” on a lot of different levels.
So I maturely let the graffiti comment go.
Even though he was from TN.
By Lauren Mayer, on Wed Oct 15, 2014 at 8:30 AM ET It has become a disturbing trend lately for politicians to defer expressing an opinion by explaining that they aren’t an expert in whatever area is under discussion. (I’m old enough to remember when the most common use of this phrase was commercial actors saying, “I’m not a doctor – but I play one on TV!”) I’m not a scientist either, but I know enough to figure that when 97% of climate change studies attribute it directly to human activity, that’s a pretty good argument.
In fact, I’ve heard that phrase used so often lately that it has become an ‘earworm’ (a disturbingly evocative description of those songs or soundbites that get stuck in one’s head). So here’s my musical response to this over-used excuse . . .
By John Y. Brown III, on Tue Oct 14, 2014 at 12:00 PM ET
The evolution of customer service in American business.
1960’s “Take a ticket, take a seat”
1970-1999 “The customer is always right.”
2000 – “Take a virtual ticket, take a virtual seat
By John Y. Brown III, on Mon Oct 13, 2014 at 12:00 PM ET
Well world…here I come today!
One more sucker…running onto the field. And today I am going big! And starting early to get a head start on the rest of the world. Willing to totally humiliate myself in every way possible —and doing so loudly and proudly.
I will either achieve greatly or fail spectacularly. Or (most likely) do something in between.
But I am ready and willing to outfail anyone who gets in my way. And that is what matters most!
Let’s do this thing!
By Jonathan Miller, on Sun Oct 12, 2014 at 8:19 AM ET
By John Y. Brown III, on Fri Oct 10, 2014 at 12:00 PM ET
I wish there were leadership wall hangings like this –with a sense of humor.
Do not walk in front of me, I may not follow.
Do not walk behind me, I may not lead.
And do not walk beside me because I don’t feel like talking to you right now.
Maybe you can try me later today to see if I feel differently.
Until then you are going to have to find someone else to walk with.
Sorry.
By John Y. Brown III, on Thu Oct 9, 2014 at 12:00 PM ET My iPhone 6 doesn’t work!! I am so disappointed.
No, no. I don’t mean that it doesn’t work in the “doesn’t function properly” sense. Or that it is bendable or has some sort of software bug.
I mean the iPhone 6 doesn’t work in the larger sense that it failed to make my life feel utterly happy and complete –and to make me more organized, hip and successful than I was without an iPhone 6.
I tested my theory by not telling several people close to me that I now own a iPhone 6 to see if they would comment about the “new me.”
For example, I expected to start getting invited to certain chic parties I hadn’t been invited to before –or having these friends struggle to identify what exactly was different about me now (since they didn’t know about the new phone). Perhaps they would ask me questions like, “Did you get a new haircut recently?” Or “Did you lose even more weight?” Or “Did you just do or buy something that has made you irresistibly fabulous over night?”
Well, none of that happened. In fact, one friend even told me I was irritating because I kept talking about smart phone upgrades hoping he would ask me if I had upgraded recently.
I am thinking of returning my iPhone 6 for being outright defective for not delivering to me that elusive “x factor” or “Je ne sais quois” the iPhone 6 ads seemed to be promising.
On the other hand, maybe I simply got the wrong color and need to exchange my white iPhone 6 for the gold of black models. That has to be what the real problem is.
Right?
Otherwise it would mean something is wrong with me. Or that I am going to have to wait for the iPhone 7 to be released.
By John Y. Brown III, on Wed Oct 8, 2014 at 12:00 PM ET How can you tell you are doing well on your diet and also behaving in a more mature and self-confident manner?
When, after getting dressed in the morning, you really want to take a selfie and post it on Facebook — but you don’t.
And only write about it in a Facebook post instead.
===
Sometimes at the end of a long, exhausting and frustrating day, the only thing that really helps me relax is to let out a long stream of cuss words as loudly as I can and to just say ’em in whatever order they pop into my head and to keep saying ’em until I’m out of breath from cussing so hard.
Then I’m ready for a light and pleasant evening.
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