by Mark O'Brien | Oct 21, 2015
Four days ago, the buzzkills at The Atlantic ran a glass-half-empty article intended to scare the bejesus out of us: “Hangovers: They’re Costing the U.S. Economy”. (The reason for its intent is neither stated nor clear.) It shared the results of a...
by Mark O'Brien | Oct 5, 2015
On October 4, 1994, guitarist Danny Gatton was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at his home in Newburg, Maryland. In early 1989, some friends and I had the privilege of seeing and hearing Danny Gatton play in Hartford, Connecticut. It was a cold, snowy...
by Mark O'Brien | Sep 25, 2015
I’ve been looking for some constructive recreational activities with which to fill my idle time, ideally one that also would land me in the news. I can’t believe this one got by me. A dude from Copemish earned his 15 minutes of fame the other day by...
by Mark O'Brien | Sep 11, 2015
In his book, The Life of Reason, the American philosopher, poet, novelist, and critic George Santayana (1863-1952) wrote, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to fulfill it.” Fourteen years after September 11, 2001, the matter is not whether...
by Mark O'Brien | Aug 31, 2015
We need to resurrect insult, kids. I don’t mean we should insult each other any more than we already do. I mean it’s time to be more cognizant of being insulted when we are. Exhibit A: “A Contrarian View on Innovation in Advertising & PR”:...
by Mark O'Brien | Aug 24, 2015
Bearing in mind that I write from the relatively affluent western part of the world — from the United States of America, in particular — I recognize the generalizations I express herein are limited to the socio-economic realities of geography. And I...
