James Drogan

Earlier I had a brief blog entry regarding Dubai Posts World seeking to buy into American port operations.  Today's New York Times brings an article on a similar initiative by the Ontario Teachers' Pension Fund.

It will be interesting to watch the politicians at work again, particularly now that the Democrats are in power in Congress. 

The title of this post are the words that attracted me to an outrageously funny, very well written piece in the November 21, 2006 New York Times, p A4, Book Lovers See Lovers, Buttered or Plain.  If you like intelligently phrased irony, the sort frequently associated with the Brits, have a peek.

I'm also drawn to this, I suppose, by the discussions I'm having with my friends at the Schwartz Communication Institute, regarding styles of communication.

On the evening of November 21 I participated in a conversation with Baruch graduate students in Prof. Karl Lang's class on Globalization and Technology.  It was a wonderful experience for me, and I hope for them.  I always like interesting discussion with interesting people on interesting topics.

My preparatory notes for this discussion may be found here. 

While I'm not widely read, there are a hardy few that  tune in from time to time for the mutterings and musings of a meandering mind.

October was taken over by my family and deep emergence in institutional matters.

The nauseous run-up to the first Tuesday in November has dominated the news and has provided little stimulus for comment.  However, in retrospect, I wish I had kept all the campaign literature that had arrived at the house.  My sense is that it represented unhealthy values and behavior that,  sad to say, we citizens seems tolerate.  And, oh yes, there are those automated, soul-less telephone calls; "Hello, I am calling with information on..."  Why, oh why do we put up with this crap?

The real motivation for this post is to call attention to US Presidential Speeches Tag Cloud, brought to my attention by Boing Boing.  Speeches from John Adams to W have been analyzed to indicate word usage.  It strikes me that that there is a fantastic history/culture/values lesson lying in wait.