Y. Karp? Why Not!

Nevil Shute's "A Town Like Alice" is one of those rare books that hooked me from its first words and upset me simply because at the end, it was over. Among its many qualities (like excellent writing and a sense of humor) it has three distinctive attributes that made it difficult to put down: it's an excitingly heroic story, it's a three-act play, and that a large part of it has to do with Australia. Firstly, I'm a sucker for heroic stories, and this is certainly one. It's a story of leadership forged in the fire of desperation, anguish, and against impossible odds. This might seem like many other "hero" stories, but it isn't. In "A Town Like Alice" the author wraps the characters in an ever-tightening blanket of misery and only then gently peels back the folds. There is no moment when Jean, the hero, bursts forth in sudden acknowledgement of her purpose. It's a slow, organic process. It started when, in an attempt to deal wi...

The New Zealand duo, Flight of the Conchords, sing a hilarious song called " Business Time " about an awkward husband in the mood for love when his wife is more interested in sorting the recycling and going to sleep. You know when I'm down to my socks its time for business. That's why they're called business socks. But that's beside the point. Really, though, it's business time because for the last few months, my wife and I have been working on getting our new business up and running. Finally, last week, our website, www.stringbridgekids.com , went live and we are open for business. Yes, folks, it's business time. As you can probably imagine, the whole process has been a huge learning experience. We learned to revel in the small victories, like finding office space that is almost perfect, to bigger victories, like convincing suppliers to sell us stuff, to even bigger victories, like finally getting our website up and running. We do a lot of hi...

On 12 December 2015, the world celebrated what would have been Frank Sinatra's 100th birthday. The Chairman of the Board, The Voice, crooned his way through the second half of the 20th Century until he passed away in 1998. Frank Sinatra sold over 150 million records worldwide, and won an Academy Award for his performance in "From Here to Eternity". I know this because I Googled him, and then searched for some of his classic performances on YouTube. Once you start with Frank Sinatra, you cannot avoid meeting the great Dean Martin - a fellow member of the Rat Pack and a top-class entertainer in his own right. According to his "pally" and long-time stage partner, Jerry Lewis, Dean was not just a magnificent singer; Dean possessed a natural gift for comedy. His comic timing was impeccable and Jerry claims that even when he went completely off-script, Dean never skipped a beat. A hard drinker, he once quipped to an audience, "You know, I feel sorry for you ...

After over three years with my Samsung Galaxy Note 1 - or may I call it "TIM" ? - I have finally moved on to a new phone. The Note was a good phone, for the first year, before things started to go awry. Some of the problems were my fault (such as upgrading the operating system to various versions , none of which worked well on the hardware), some of the problems were Samsung's fault (such as low-quality hardware), and some of the problems were Android's fault (darn Google for releasing so many versions, leaving my Note in the dust!) Despite the good times I shared with the Note, it finally gave up the ghost when the charging port refused to accept the cable. I was going to send it for repair (again) but when I realized my 3-year-old daughter had learned the phrase "stupid phone" from me, I knew that enough was enough. The Note cost a pretty penny, and a pretty penny I don't have to replace it with something of equal standing in the current phone rank...

Miles looked up from his phone in just enough time to see the car that was going to kill him. He gripped the phone tightly—he was standing in the middle of the road and needed something to hold on to. Also, he paid a lot of money for that phone and wanted to protect it. It was a gift to himself from his annual bonus. He worked hard; he deserved it, but he couldn’t afford another one. If I die, then Emily can use my phone. Hers is so old. I’ve asked her a million times to get herself a new one but she hasn’t. She’s always so stubborn about it. If I can just protect the screen from shattering, then she can use it. Do you think she will? Probably not. It will remind her of me, and she’ll refuse to turn it on. She’s so sentimental. What a waste of a phone. I’ve only had it for a few weeks. The car’s fender inverted his knee and Miles doubled over. The three protective shields of the Buick logo plowed into his groin. At least it’s American. I’d hate to get run over by a Japanese...

I went to a sports store today to buy soccer shoes for my son. After about ten minutes of perusing the footwear, we decided to go to a different store to compare prices. Not once during that ten minutes did a store employee approach us - they were too busy talking in the corner about something obviously more important than making sales. As it turns out, the competition wasn't much better in terms of service, and their merchandise was more expensive. Upon returning to the first store, I hoped that the sales staff would notice that we had come back and help us choose the right pair of shoes. Instead, they continued to stand off to the side and chat among themselves. We asked for a pair of shoes to try on and it was my turn to stand off to the side and chat. I whispered to my wife that if I was the store manager, I wouldn't have been pleased with their apathetic attitude. She replied that they probably don't feel that they get paid enough to be helpful. It was then that ...

If you've ever used Google to search for something, odds are that you've been targeted. Web sites and services feed advertising to you based on your searches - and in some cases, based on the content of your email or social media messages. This sounds intrusive, but it could actually be a win-win situation. From your perspective, if you are searching for a romantic Parisian hotel for your second honeymoon, advertisements for holiday deals in the French capital might be interesting to you - as a consumer, you win! From another perspective, you are more likely to click on "Romantic hotels in Paris" than you would on "$200 diesel lawnmowers" - advertisers win! Shall we sit around the browser, hold hands, and sing Kumbaya? Not quite. This cozy consumer/advertiser arrangement does have a few flaws. For starters, targeted advertising is based on search history. Most often, the advertised products and services are those I have already considered. What I really w...