Everything and Nothing
If somebody asks you what you are, here is one way to answer.
Philosophy, Physics, Humor, Life and Death
Humor
And what is funny Phaedrus, and what is not funny — need we ask anyone to tell us these things?
Humor, French
Belle Piece
What do you do when you find yourself a sort of captive audience next to your big boss for a couple of minutes? Be careful about the comments you make as smalltalk!
Humor, Email Flotsam
A Crazy Language
Here is a piece about the weirdness of the English language that I found on the web some twenty years ago.
A Parker Pen from Singapore
About a fifty-year old Parker pen that held an important lesson for me. A lesson in how to be a good father. What it takes is infinite patience.
A Chess Game
About a couple of chess games, and about why somebody’s loss can be as satisfying as your win.
My First Car and My First Ticket
Of my first car and my first encounter with the American legal system
Columns, Humor, The Today Paper
An Office Survival Guide
Pointers in surviving the corporate jungle. Newspaper column in Today on 14 June 2008.
[…] In the unforgiving, dog-eat-dog corporate jungle, you need to be sure of the welcome. More importantly, you need to prove yourself worthy of it. Fear not, I am here to help you through it. And I will gladly accept all credit for your survival, if you care to make it public. But I regret that we (this newspaper, me, our family members, dogs, lawyers and so on) cannot be held responsible for any untoward consequence of applying my suggestions. Come on, you should know better than to base your career on a newspaper column! […]
Sophistication
How to market sophistication, a la francaise! Newspaper column in Today on 5 Jan 2008.
Sophistication is a French invention. The French are masters when it comes to nurturing, and more importantly, selling sophistication.
Money — Love it or Hate it
This concluding part of the philosophy of money (to appear as a column in the May issue of the Wilmott Magazine) shares my private disappointment that whatever I wrote up may not have been as original as I expected it to be. But the concept of money has been around for a long time now, so I should not dwell on it too much.