Top-10 List: Bad Words

While driving during our recent holiday travels, my wife read to me a great column by Washington Post magazine writer Gene Weingarten about words that get mispronounced or as I like to call them “Bad Words” – (shame on you for thinking I’d write a blog dedicated to a list of “Swear Words” – although that’s not a bad idea for the future).

Even though I’m paid to write and speak (I’m a corporate spokesperson for a butt-kickin’ biotech in the DC area), I make as many mistakes as the next person when I’m speaking and writing.

Regardless, here’s my personal list of irritatingly misspoken bad words….

Eliot Spitzer – a CNN Ratings Stunt or Hubris Run Amok?

Tomorrow is the debut of CNN’s latest attempt to resuscitate its flat-line ratings. This most recent programming attempt is heralded as a public-affairs style show that will feature the fallen former Governor of New York, Eliot Spitzer, discussing issues of the day with Washington Post columnist Kathleen Parker.

In a recent interview with Parade magazine Spitzer described the new show as, “…an opportunity to create persuasive arguments about the direction we should move in as a society.”

Huh? Persuasive arguments from him about the direction we should move in as a society…really?  As a refresher, Spitzer resigned from office after it became public that this former public prosecutor was paying high-price prostitutes for sex.

Despite that, I want help him out with some possible topics for his new show.

Here’s a suggestion for Spitzer to consider regarding one societal issue that should be addressed. Since two-thirds of marriages end in divorce, how about supporting the concept of families, marriage and honoring your own marriage vows?  That seems to be a pretty good direction for society in general.

Or how about, upholding anti-prostitution laws that still exist in most of the states in this country? That might be a good societal goal.

Should Police Break the Law to Uphold it?

I have a tremendous amount of respect for law enforcement officers at the local, state and federal levels. They put their lives on the line every day, facing the worst aspects of human nature in an effort to "Serve and Protect" civilians like me.

As a former reporter, I’ve made a lot of friends in law enforcement over the years and have a lot of admiration for that profession in general. Having said that, should police be allowed to break the law in an effort to uphold the law they've sworn to protect?

A recent story in the Washington Post by reporter Tom Jackman gives rise to the question. If you click on the link below you’ll read how officers in Fairfax County Virginia lost $300,000 to bring down an online gambling ring that had a few “associates” based in Fairfax.

http://tinyurl.com/29ue3nd

Science May Force Women into Flats - Heel No!!!

To any reader out there, just take a wild guess as to how many different pairs of shoes the significant woman in your life currently owns. My guess is that your guess is woefully low. In my case, I estimated that my wife would have racked shoes in the range of 18-22 pairs.  Not so.

After a rigorous hand count, it turned out that she has more than 45+ pairs of footwear – three of which are still in boxes with the respective receipts and have never been worn.

However, being the enlightened male that I am – I am not shocked and I’ll not curse Zappos.com (even though they’re a major contributor to this bi-pedal pandemic).

In fact, I gained keen perspective that I’d like to share from a senior female executive I used to work with as to the reasons why most women have this inherent need for bootery hoarding.

These were her three reasons why women are compelled to pump up their cobbler cache with pumps, platforms, peddle-pushers and such.

A Kinder Gentler NFL??? I Say Thee Nay!!!

You don't have to be a sports fan to appreciate the expectation of a new season of the National Football League (NFL), which is only a few weeks away.

In fact, training camp for most of the 32 teams began this week and ESPN has issued its annual Power Ranking of those teams.

In the interest of full disclosure, I "played" three years of high school football; however, "played" is subjective because I only logged three plays TOTAL during my football career.

In fact, the team mascot, freshman statistics compiler and coach's 6-year old son saw more game time minutes on the field that me (sigh).

Our War Dead Deserve Better

Image via Wikipedia

With the start of the summer vacation season and the FIFA World Cup, it’s possible that you may have missed a shocking story that came to light recently.

A series of investigations have revealed that as many as 200 grave sites at Arlington National Cemetery are mismarked or unmarked after a review of nearly a third of the sections that presumably contain remains of soldiers.

The full Washington Post story by reporter Christian Davenport can be accessed at this link http://tinyurl.com/2eytf6y

The majority of the impacted remains are those of veterans who served from World War I through the Vietnam War. One example of the military mix-up cited in the story found that the remains of a Tennessee woman’s sister who served in the Air Force were buried directly above the remains of another veteran.

Do Each of us Have a Role in the U.S. Recovery?

This past weekend, there was a very good story in the Washington Post that stated consumer confidence was increasing, but people were still not willing to spend their money – here’s the link.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/11/AR2010061106305.html?sub=AR

When I think of “consumer confidence” I think of a single word – TRUST. Generally speaking, we either trust that things are good, ok or bad, from an economic perspective but there are several factors impact that trust.