PicoBlog

It’s fitting that Good Will Hunting is a Boston movie, because it has longevity that even Tom Brady would be jealous of. Released in 1997 after an arduous process from page to screen — Matt Damon first started writing it as an assignment for a playwriting class, Ben Affleck helped him turn it into a thriller, Rob Reiner convinced the pair to ditch the thriller and focus more on the patient-doctor relationship, Terrence Malickgave them their ending, and finally, years later, Miramax (we don’t need to get into the Harvey Weinstein stuff, because it’s the worst part of the movie) put the film into motion — the movie still resonates as strongly as it did two-plus decades ago.

The puritans had a lot of great ideas — putting a belt on your hat, trendy bowl cuts, going to America, etc. — but they also had some pretty bad ones, like predestination and how to name children. In regards to this latter failing, the definitive text is a little book called Curiosities of Puritan Nomenclature, published in 1880 by Charles W. Bardsley, who combed through dozens of church records to unearth a wealth of what he called “Puritan Eccentricities” and give historical context to a few widely circulated stories of the time about the absurdities of Puritan naming conventions.

Very helpful and hopeful new ideas! Is it OK to offer another new idea and practice for an evolved leadership call Ed We the Leader in capsulates in a book of that title published by McGraw-Hill? This unique and proven process evolves leadership with these 3 new ideas and proven practices. 1. Contrary to prevailing leadership dogma, it is impossible to lead others, yet together, we can lead teams, projects, and organizations into consistent collective flow, that 'WOW!

Last week I magically had a spare afternoon, all to myself…so I spent it at IKEA. This is not unusual for me. Well, being alone is. But not spending a few hours at IKEA. I find my local branch in Brooklyn undeniably soothing. Especially during off-hours, when you can mosey the trademark arrowed path at your own pace and don’t feel like you’re competing to get to the enamel colanders that are finally back in stock.

This is a quick post for posterity’s sake. I have been traveling every couple of weeks since July to promote my book in some sort of event: academic talks, public speeches, panel appearances — you get the picture. It’s in the nature of book promotion that I give roughly the same presentation each time. I pull some numbers and tell some stories about how polls work, how they’ve changed over time, how accurate they are, what the industry’s future looks like, and what this all means not just for election prediction, but democracy too.

In August 1982, a few months after the plane crash that took Randy Rhoads’s life, I was gathering interviews for a Randy Rhoads cover story for Guitar Player magazine. After speaking to Randy’s mother, brother, and bassist Rudy Sarzo, I received a phone call from Sharon Arden, publicist for Jet Records. The future Mrs. Osbourne asked if Ozzy could say a few brief words to me about Randy. A few moments later, a familiar and slightly confused-sounding voice said, “Ah, um, this is Ozzy.

“This might be so good, we can’t screw it up.” — NBC Sports Executive Producer Terry O’Neil, on the eve of the Magic-vs.-Michael 1991 NBA Finals Rumors of David Stern’s Machiavellian maneuvers came just five months into his tenure as NBA commissioner — and from the NBA’s soon-to-be MVP and Finals MVP, no less. “Stern told a fan that the NBA needed a seven-game series, that the league needed the money,” Larry Bird said after Boston’s Game 6 loss to the Lakers in the 1984 NBA Finals.

📰 This is the Rubesletter from Matt Ruby (comedian, writer, and the creator of Vooza). Sign up to get it in your inbox weekly. Here it is, my annual list of fave paragraphs I read in the past year (click here for last year’s edition). Clarity caveat: These weren’t all written in the past year, that’s just when I read them. So don’t come at me with a “Yo, Ralph Waldo Emerson dropped some new content this year!

Draymond Green: B In the aftermath of the Warriors’ season-ending loss to the Memphis Grizzlies in the 2021 play-in tournament, Draymond Green was a frequent target of Twitter vitriol. On the Warriors’ last offensive possession of the game, the Grizzlies trapped Steph Curry near halfcourt, Draymond Green got the ball on the short roll and then bricked a floater with less than two seconds left in the game. Here’s one such representative Tweet: