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Archive for the ‘clarity’ Category

rrythmia: the habit of stopping

Posted in clarity, rrythmia, textures on August 16, 2007| Leave a Comment »

    Concepción pastors a Pentecostal church down on the hot Pacific coast. The serious eyes behind his horn-rimmed glasses and his solid frame—somewhere on the way to portly without actually getting there—contrast with his name, which sounds like it ought to belong to a Venezuelan shortstop. His ‘to-do’ list includes looking after the denomination to which his church belongs. By the time you factor in his family—he once brought his eldest son to meet his prof—Octavio is not a man with a lot of free time. (more…)

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rrythmia: the habit of pulling weeds

Posted in clarity, denkschrift, rrythmia on August 15, 2007| Leave a Comment »

‘That’s monte’, the local Costa Rican grass guy says in answer to the offering my wife gingerly holds before his expert eye. ‘You’ve got to get rid of all of that.’ (more…)

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buzz often, buzz well: Sally J. Patterson, Generating Buzz. Strategic communications for nonprofit boards

Posted in clarity, reseña on August 15, 2007| Leave a Comment »

Widespread confusion marks the role and function of the governing board in the non-profit environment both in the United States and internationally. Indeed, the board figures as one of the top three the make-or-break entities in the more than one hundred educational institutions in sixty-odd countries with which the organization I direct finds itself in partnership. (more…)

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rrythmia: the habit of having a friend

Posted in clarity, denkschrift, rrythmia on August 14, 2007| Leave a Comment »

The time on my watch is two hours behind Charlotte’s languid late-morning minute hand. It’s ‘Going Home Day’, that passage of my journeys which begins far from the hearth, often with colleagues and friends, occasionally in the faux hominess of a hotel room, and ends—finally, it ends—amid familiar smells, domestic jokes, wagging tails, and loving arms. (more…)

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on being kind: John Bridges, How to Be a Gentleman: A Contemporary Guide to Common Courtesy

Posted in clarity, paterfamilias, reseña on August 14, 2007| Leave a Comment »

Full product information for this item, together with my review, my ranking of the product, and any reader comments, can be found at http://www.amazon.com.

This splendid little Rutledge Hill Press publication is best read as the first in the Press’ ‘Gentlemanners Books’ series. (more…)

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rrhythmia: the habit of finishing a thought

Posted in clarity, denkschrift, rrythmia on August 10, 2007| Leave a Comment »

An airplane seat is one of the loneliest places on earth. Tonight, in the dark skies that lead towards Central America, that’s a very good thing.
(more…)

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tries too hard: Kenneth Karpinski, Mistakes Men Make That Women Hate: 101 Style Tips for Men (Capital Lifestyles)

Posted in clarity, paterfamilias, reseña on August 10, 2007| Leave a Comment »

Full product information for this item, together with my review, my ranking of the product, and any reader comments, can be found at http://www.amazon.com.

Kenneth Karpinski’s little book is a quick read and has its better moments.

But his humor is sarcastic, his tips are very basic, and the project has little or nothing to do with what women hate. They’re simply matters of good taste and self-awareness. Men don’t learn well by being made fun of. We carry enough weight already. (more…)

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avoiding the fashion emergency: Bryan Curtis, A Gentleman Gets Dressed Up: What to Wear, When to Wear it, How to Wear it (Gentlemanners Book)

Posted in clarity, paterfamilias, reseña on August 10, 2007| Leave a Comment »

Full product information for this item, together with my review, my ranking of the product, and any reader comments, can be found at http://www.amazon.com.

The triumphant and unostentatious stroll of Rutledge Press’ ‘Gentlemanners’ series continues with this 2003 guide to a gentleman’s kit. (more…)

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rrhythmia: the habit of finding the common tongue

Posted in clarity, denkschrift, rrythmia on August 8, 2007| Leave a Comment »

The Spanish of Latin America’s madre patria—her distant motherland—is a dialect away from the daughter continent’s accent and cadence. The Spaniard beside me speaks it now, as we remove our pens, take off our belts, surrender our wallets, place our laptops flat on the belt and step through the metal detector, please. It is the first of a hundred micro-humiliations to be endured in what will be a long day of travel. (more…)

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a few words, well spoken: John Bridges and Bryan Curtis: A Gentleman Raises His Glass. A Concise, Contemporary Guide to the Noble Tradition of the Toast

Posted in clarity, paterfamilias, reseña on August 6, 2007| Leave a Comment »

Full product information for this item, together with my review, my ranking of the product, and any reader comments, can be found at http://www.amazon.com.

Two Nashville gentlemen who have mastered the task of teaching men to be gentlemen without coming across as stuffy wrote this splendid little volume on the art of the toast. As in the rest of the Gentlemanners books, John Bridges and Bryan Curtis set a tone that is not framed by rules but by consideration for others and deference to those who ought to be in the limelight of a special occasion. (more…)

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