Wednesday, March 18, 2009

I Loved Lucy

She was one of twelve littermates when we chose her fifteen years ago and believe me, twelve Dalmatian puppies can seem like “a hundred and one” when they come tumbling into a room. They were six weeks old and (remember the movie…) their spots were just beginning to appear. The chubby female leading the pack promptly climbed into my wife’s lap and the selection process was over. It was as if she said, “I’m the one you came for. Quit looking at these other guys. Come on, come on, lets...

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Thursday, March 12, 2009

A Request for Help

Interviews are a necessary, sometimes torturous part of what I do for a living. Unless you have experienced it (and I know some of you have) nothing can be as mind-numbingly uncomfortable as talking about yourself. In fact, the only thing worse than talking about yourself would be doing it repeatedly.

Some interviewers make it worse by asking questions that clue you in to the fact that they are not even remotely prepared. “Today we have with us Andy Anderson! Andy, tell me about yourself.”

Or they...

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Wednesday, March 4, 2009

The Longest I've Worked For A Compliment

About twenty years. That is, the best I can figure, the longest I have worked for a compliment. I received it just the other day and it came from a woman I don't really know. The remark containing the compliment was made in the grocery store to Polly, my wife. But to understand why it means so much to me, we have to go back twenty years ...

Jerry Anderson, one of my best and longest tenured friends happened to be working in a swimming pool supply store that doubled as a package shipping service. I went in one day and filled out the paperwork necessary...