Saluting the Sarge

I just got off the phone with the Sarge.
I called to salute Sgt. Arnold Rist on Memorial Day. Bless, him, even though he couldn't sound Taps anymore, he was out there in the wind yesterday, honoring his buddies in arms. If you don't know the Sarge, here's my tribute:

Salute to a Liberator
and a postscript: At Ease

The most important thing I learned from David Ogilvy

I never met David Ogilvy. But he had a great impact on my career.

Kenneth Roman reveals the most important thing we can all learn from David Ogilvy:

Being edited by Ogilvy was like being operated on by a great surgeon who could put his hand on the only tender organ in your body. You could feel him put his finger on the wrong word, the soft phrase, the incomplete thought. But he had no pride of authorship, and he could be quite self-critical. Someone found a personally annotated copy of one of his books in which he had written cross comments about his own writing: “Rubbish. Rot! Nonsense.” He would send his major documents around for comment, with a note: “Please improve.”

Guy Kawasaki Goes APE on How to Publish a Book

Why would a celebrity author, at a major publisher, choose to jump ship and self publish his next book?

If you didn't hear of Guy Kawasaki, you heard of Apple. And if you heard of Apple, it is probably because of Guy Kawasaki.

Guy (disclosure: I'm not buddies with Mr. Kawasaki. But there are some people who it's more natural to call by their first name. It's also easier to spell. So please allow me the familiarity).... As I was saying before I interrupted myself, Guy might be called the High Priest of Evangelical marketing. That's somewhere between word of mouth marketing and word of soul marketing. It tends to happen to Apple employees and customers. You don't just buy a Mac or an iPad. You "convert" to it.

Guy was the guy who made it happen. He is the poster child for this new kind of marketing. His previous books Art of the Start and Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions tell the story and tell how you can become an evangelist.

Always tuned in to his followers (they're not just "readers"), Guy was horrified when his megapublisher could not perform the seemingly simple task of providing 500 free ebooks for a high-tech company. In response, Guy decided to self publish his next book. Veteran writer and computer geek that he is, he thought it would be snap. It wasn't.

The adventure--and more important--the secret handshake--is given over in the new book Guy co-authored with Shawn Welch: APE: Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur | How to Publish a Book

If you've ever thought about writing a book--especially an ebook--do yourself a favor and get a copy. You will be enlightened.

Salute to a hero on Veterans Day.
God bless all those who keep us free!

Here is a replay of my post about one of those heros, from JewishWorldReview.com


AT EASE
By Mordechai Schiller

Last November, JWR ran a profile of Dr. Arnold Rist, 65th Armored Infantry Battalion, 20th Armored Division, one of the liberators of the Dachau concentration camp. The article received an unprecedented amount of reader response. And if you didn't read it then, you should now by clicking HERE. (Letters for this living hero still encouraged).
Today, we offer a follow-up to the original article.


AT EASE by Mordechai Schiller

The Lewis Carroll guide to political debate

....There's glory for you!'
`I don't know what you mean by "glory,"' Alice said.
Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously. `Of course you don't -- till I tell you. I meant "there's a nice knock-down argument for you!"'
`But "glory" doesn't mean "a nice knock-down argument,"' Alice objected.
`When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, `it means just what I choose it to mean -- neither more nor less.'
`The question is,' said Alice, `whether you can make words mean so many different things.'
`The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, `which is to be master - - that's all.'
Alice was too much puzzled to say anything, so after a minute Humpty Dumpty began again. `They've a temper, some of them -- particularly verbs, they're the proudest -- adjectives you can do anything with, but not verbs -- however, I can manage the whole of them! Impenetrability! That's what I say!'
`Would you tell me, please,' said Alice `what that means?`
`Now you talk like a reasonable child,' said Humpty Dumpty, looking very much pleased. `I meant by "impenetrability" that we've had enough of that subject, and it would be just as well if you'd mention what you mean to do next, as I suppose you don't mean to stop here all the rest of your life.'
`That's a great deal to make one word mean,' Alice said in a thoughtful tone.
`When I make a word do a lot of work like that,' said Humpty Dumpty, `I always pay it extra.'
`Oh!' said Alice. She was too much puzzled to make any other remark.
`Ah, you should see `em come round me of a Saturday night,' Humpty Dumpty went on, wagging his head gravely from side to side: `for to get their wages, you know.'
(Alice didn't venture to ask what he paid them with; and so you see I can't tell you.)

The Whistler on Yom Kippur

In case you missed this before--or even if you didn't. The best stories are meant to be told over and over. You learn that from your children. We can learn a lot from children.

As we go into Yom Kippur, let me wish you a sweet year of health, happiness, peace, prosperity, and nachas.

Jewish or not, New Yorkers know about Yom Kippur, or as Mickey Mantle once called it, "Yom Koufax." Public schools are closed. The centers of commerce and finance wind down to a halt. There's a sense of new hopes and beginnings.... and even a certain gritty spirituality in the New York air. Some 250 years ago, a little boy in Medzhibozh, Ukraine learned about Yom Kippur in a most unusual way.

To read the story, see Whistling at N'eila.

Happy New Year

Here's wishing you and yours a year of peace, health, joy, and prosperity.

High Holidays (1991) - the Dry Bones Blog