Otto Berman was, by all accounts, a brilliant mathematician. His early work as an accountant catapulted him to unprecedented success when he took a job with an up-and-coming company run by New York businessman Arthur Flegenheimer. Dissatisfied with standard earnings, Flegenheimer challenged Berman to create a new profit formula, a task for which he was […]
Some salacious news hit my hometown a few days ago. Our relatively new and presumably high-performing public school superintendent abruptly resigned. For a skinny minute, he cited the ubiquitous “more time with the family” explanation, which put everyone on high alert. No way that was the whole story. And, it wasn’t. As it turns out, […]
I’ve been writing for some time about living in the “alternate universe–” meaning, life on the surface at work doesn’t match up with the values you carry deep down. It may be something innocuous, such as having to adjust to the reality of cultivating “alliances” rather than meaningful relationships. Or it could be one bad […]
I did it. I typed The End after I wrote the final sentence of my book a few weeks before I left Costa Rica. I think writer protocol says you are supposed to center a few hash marks in the middle of the page, but I really wanted to write The End, so I did. [Those who follow […]
I moved to Costa Rica to write the book that’s been roiling around in my head for nearly 15 years. I first thought of it in 1999 when, at the lowest depth of my despair, I decided to take a silent walk across the Sahara desert. I had come to realize that somehow in building […]
I was in Pickens, SC recently, ensconced in a charming artist’s retreat run by my artist friend Ellen Kochansky. It’s a beautiful expanse of land in the foothills of the Carolinas, carved out to encourage writers and artists to leave behind their cares and pursue their art. I spent the week resting, writing, visiting with Ellen […]
