The Five Finger Discount...

Admit it. You have, at one point, stolen something.  Be it too much change at the register, or recording songs from the radio (how could she say no to Roxette's Listen To Your Heart??). But for a publisher, thievery and piracy are assumed character flaws akin to stealing from the offering plate.

I offer now a different take on this.  Witness this article that captures the reason folks pirate books.
http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/why-do-people-pirate-ebooks_b55064

The summary is this...


7 Reasons People Pirate eBooks

1. “I’ve pirated electronic versions of books I already own physically.”

2. “I limit myself to pirating things that are out-of-print or otherwise unavailable through a legal digital outlet.”

3. “I’m poor and I like to read, but I can’t pirate food, so I pirate everything else.”

4. “The library rarely has the books I want to read.”

5. “I only pirate textbooks from school … They are ridiculously priced an I have a hard enough time paying tuition.”

6. “If the ebook is more expensive than the paper-version I sometimes pirate it out of annoyance.”

7. “pirating also lets me sample things i would not be willing to pay money for up front”


And I'm going to go out on a limb here.  A really thin, shaky limb.

I want you to pirate our books.  Please. Send them to everyone you know.  I beg you.
It costs us nothing. And it gets the word out. And who knows? Maybe someone will be exposed to our books and buy one who normally wouldn't. Either way, we are fulfilling our mantra of shining a spotlight on "place-based tastes".

In the South, where I was raised, there was an issue that threatened the peace of our small community many years ago.  No, it wasn't integration. It was the opening of a 24-hour laundromat. Yes, that heinous, rending act. But pastors railed from the pulpit about it.  And my grandmother, God love her, raised her logical voice to point out that folks who washed clothes there on Sunday, probably weren't that concerned with coming to church.

That's how I feel, at the end of the day.  If you feel the need to swipe an ebook from us, you probably wouldn't buy it anyway. So enjoy! And either way, let me know if you liked it.

Why You Will Never Succeed...

This world is tough. Because we make it so.  Our biggest challenges are those we create by our own indiffference. Every day, we lose the battle with ourselves, in little ways that become big ways.  I am as guilty as the next, to be sure.  Which is why I am posting these rules...as a public declaration and as an accountability tool.


1. Give a kind word when an angry outburst would feel more satisfying.
2. Take time each day to call (3) executives and just see how their day is going.
3. Spend time at the beginning of each week writing out your “must get done” tasks for the week.
4. Apologize when you make a mistake. Say it. You’ll feel it once you let your ego get out of the way.
5. Devote specific time each day to exercise, meditation, or therapy. Or all three.
6. Find (5) things you can be grateful for each day. Say “Thank You” early and often.
7. Find a way to solve the pain you see bothering someone else around you.
8. Write an encouraging hand-written note to someone you don’t want anything from right now.
9. Carve out time to read a biography and the business section of the Wall Street Journal.
10. Schedule follow-up and follow-though activity and make it the most important part of your daily religion.
11. Ask for help from those around you. Stop pretending like you aren’t desperate. You need to be.
12. Don’t go to sleep without putting in the effort required to be successful. Avoid excuses. Work harder.
13. Remember your manners.  Being polite and courteous doesn’t mean people will take advantage of you.
14. Make it pattern to invest in the physical, mental, and financial success of those around you.
15. Take notes in meetings. Assign responsibilities.  Be clear about the outcomes you expect and the deadlines.
16. Forgive fast.  Forget about fairness. Protest cruelty. Be strong enough to believe in you.
17. Sacrifice being misunderstood now for the truth coming out in the future.
18. Focus manically on making daily progress on each of your goals.  Do something every day to make tomorrow better.
19. Ignore the negativity you hear from your critics around you. Cover your ears. Get back to work.
20. Take it. Earn it. Prove to yourself that your dreams are important enough to pursue.

Men Simply Don't Think

Men Simply Don't Think

Some years ago, the late Nobel prize-winning Dr. Albert Schweitzer was asked by a reporter, "Doctor, what's wrong with men today?" The great doctor was silent a moment, and then he said, "Men simply don't think!"

Rollo May, the distinguished psychiatrist, wrote a wonderful book called Man's Search for Himself, and in this book he says: "The opposite of courage in our society is not cowardice ... it is conformity." And there you have the reason for so many failures. Conformity — people acting like everyone else, without knowing why or where they are going.

If you take 100 individuals who start even at the age of 25, do you have any idea what will happen to those men and women by the time they're 65? These 100 people believe they're going to be successful. But by the time they're 65, only one will be rich, four will be financially independent, five will still be working, and 54 will be broke — depending on others for life's necessities. Only five out of 100 make the grade!

And why is that? Because we become what we think about.

Marcus Aurelius, the great Roman Emperor, said: "A man's life is what his thoughts make of it."

Disraeli said this: "Everything comes if a man will only wait ... a human being with a settled purpose must accomplish it, and nothing can resist a will that will stake even existence for its fulfillment."

The above is abridged from the great Earl Nightingale. And with that, I take my hat off to NPR, for the following article: http://www.npr.org/2012/07/10/152827852/whats-the-big-idea-5-books-to-inspire-innovation . I have read two (Bell Labs and Thinking) and before the year is out, will have the others read as well.

Read a Book By it's Cover..

It is very important to consider many facets when picking the title of a new book.  I have struggled with this at times...it's amazing where one gets inspiration.

This stack o' books makes me question Steve Weston's title of In the Wild Chef...

Even Smart Asses Can Be Wrong

Those who have engaged me in even the most mundane of debates, know I value intelligence and truth. And wield them like a Big Ugly Cudgel. That being said, I love learning when I'm wrong...so without further embroidery, here are some new facts that I was wrong on. And the are fascinating.

• Napoleon was actually about 5'6" – taller than the average frenchman of the 1800s. The whole "little emperor" thing was actually just a term of endearment.
• Columbus, by the way, thought the Earth was pear-shaped, not round.
• JFK did not call himself a jelly doughnut in Berlin.
• George Washington didn't have wooden teeth.
• Chainmail is actually harder to move around in than plate armor.
• Iron Maidens were not medieval torture devices.
• Marco Polo didn't bring pasta to Italy from China. Arabs brought it from Libya in the seventh century.
• Irregardless is a word.
• 420 is not a police code.
• No one actually said "ye" instead of "the" – it's just that the character for Th used to look like Y.
• Hair and fingernails do not keep growing after you die. Your skin shrinks and makes it look like it.
• If she said it, Marie Antoinette only said "let them eat cake" when she was 10 – long before peasants where rioting over starvation.

Very cool indeed. All these and more are available in this fascinating book. Happy reading!

http://books.google.com/books?id=Q7CkHF7xTuYC&pg=PT116#v=onepage&q=napoleon&f=false.

Foam is something in a cooler, not on my dinner

I had stood this long enough.  What in the bloody hell is "foam" and why is it being served on my plate? It's like getting the last remnant of a can of Ready Whip, or not-quite-hardened meringue. And if is the pinnacle of culinary expertise, send me back to South Carolina, where I can get a meal to fill me up.  I think sometimes chefs have forgotten that the basic restaurant premise to please the customer, not showcase an obscure state-change skill.

The biggest challenge that Andrew Carnegie faced, by his own admission, was how to disburse his fortune without causing harm.  One solution he pioneered? Libraries. Across the nation.  He felt anyone could improve their life with learning from these institutions.

I am here to day that there is damn little excuse for someone not knowing how to do something.  In the space of 48 hours, I have completely redesigned our website. From scratch. Linked it to Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. And this blog as well.  And everything to do it was available at my fingertips. For free. Wow.