by Mark O'Brien | Jul 30, 2015
One of my older sister’s favorite expressions is this: “No guts, no air medals.” While it does seem harder and harder to find people with guts these days — people with the courage to stand up, stand out, and tell difficult truths — there are still...
by Mark O'Brien | Jul 28, 2015
In the course of our research for a book we once created as a specialty publishing project — Origin/Destination: 75 Years of the New England Water Environment Association — we learned that it took the residents of Uxbridge, Massachusetts, 50 years to figure out the...
by Mark O'Brien | Jul 27, 2015
Wow! Sometimes I just can’t believe how coincident (but not coincidental) life can be and, in my case (forgive me for personalizing), how charmed my life can be. Just as I was thinking I was on the verge of a mid-life crisis or some kind of long-term malaise,...
by Mark O'Brien | Jul 24, 2015
I don’t know that LeAnne Brinkies is familiar with Hamlet, let alone Queen Gertrude. As the Bard might say, ’tis a pity. Had she been so familiar, she might have gone about “Native advertising – the editorial vs advertorial debate” in a...
by Mark O'Brien | Jul 22, 2015
Every once in a while, you happen onto something that makes you appreciate just how hard life can be. On those occasions, you realize how much more sympathetic you can be, how much more helpful you can be, and how much better you can make other people feel as they...
by Mark O'Brien | Jul 21, 2015
I came across a book review in The Financial Times over the past weekend in which the author, Julian Baggini, finding a common thread running through the three books he reviewed, wrote something arresting — something that directly contradicts the popular and...
