Happy Easter

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I know the difference . . .

http://www.takeavirtualhike.com/images/sip/mexwarst.jpg

When I was in my early 30's I lived in the Mexican War Streets.  A national historic district located on Pittsburgh's North Side, it was one of the city's urban renewal areas.  Each September there was a "house tour" to show off the work that had been done to restore this quarter to its former glory.  

I remember one year a house that was on tour had a number of unusual freehand drawings on the walls of the dining room.  This same dwelling also had a garden full of equally unusual statues.  The owner of the house was on hand and very proud of her accomplishments which bordered on the crude and inappropriate.   I thought that she was nuts but was assured that she was an artist.  Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, an artist.  Well, I guess that explains everything . . .

I have since learned that there are very acceptable lables for very unacceptable behaviors and people. 

Although I may not say it, please don't think that I don't know the difference.  I do . . .

April 22 - Earth Day

Think globally, act locally.
Let's do all we can to help Japan recover.
Happy Earth Day.

Happy Passover

hahahahaha

Groupthink, Groupthink, and more Groupthink

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I took a kazillion psyche classes over the years.  The teachers that I had ran the gamut from the seemingly normal (I've since learned that ya just never know) to the mildly strange to the bizarre. Some of them were university instructors, some of them were practicing psychologists.  Still, I learned a lot.  One of the concepts I studied was "groupthink".

According to Wikipedia, "Groupthink is a type of thought within a deeply cohesive in-group whose members try to minimize conflict and reach consensus without critically testing, analyzing, and evaluating ideas. It is a second potential negative consequence of group cohesion."   Wow - that says a lot right there.


Groupthink is a phrase that was coined by Irvin Janis, a forefather in the study of group dynamics. Some prime examples of groupthink are:  the Bay of Pigs fiasco, the Challenger disaster, World War II, the failure to anticipate the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and the escalation of the Vietnam War. While at Miami I wrote a convincing paper for a history class that purported that The Spanish Armada set sail under the flag of groupthink.   More recently it has been suggested that the current economic crisis and the invasion of both Afghanistan and Iraq were driven by groupthink. Although I agree that the war was started by a bunch of alpha-males in uniforms who have a lot of weapons that they were just dyin' to try out and led each other on until they put a lot of 18 and 19 year olds (both male and female because "We've come a long way baby!") on airplanes and shipped them half-way around the globe away from all that they know and all the while assuring them that they are saving the world, I think the economic crisis was influenced by another prime motivator - GREED.  


To combat groupthink Oregon State University offers advice here: http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/theory/grpthink.html

I have a better idea.  When someone asks you what you think, muster up the courage to speak your mind.  I try to do this and while I can say that it is NOT usually well received (I have recently been told that I am negative and can find something wrong in every situation), I can sleep at night. . .


Articles and Blog Posts for further scrutiny.
How Group Think Rules What We Like:  http://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/12/st_clive_thompson/
Egypt: The Groupthink Problem: http://thenakedtruthinaconfusedworld.blogspot.com/2011/02/egypt-groupthink-problem-analysis-by-dr.html
Does Social Media Produce Groupthink: http://inventorspot.com/articles/does_social_media_produce_groupthink_30660

Cartoons to smirk at: http://www.cartoonstock.com/directory/g/groupthink.asp

Oldest Man Dies

Walter Breuning in seventh grade, second from left, top row with blue "x", October 1907

On Thursday, April 14 the oldest man in the world, Walter Breuning,  died.  He was 114 years old. WoW!

He was born in 1896 and lived a very long and full life. He was born into a world that had no electricity and no running water and died in a completely different world.

In an earlier interview, Mr. Breuning (see I called him Mr. Breuning, not Walt) offered the following advice:

• Embrace change, even when the change slaps you in the face. ("Every change is good.")
• Eat two meals a day ("That's all you need.")
• Work as long as you can ("That money's going to come in handy.")
• Help others ("The more you do for others, the better shape you're in.") 

Then there's the hardest part. It's a lesson Breuning said he learned from his grandfather: Accept death.    "We're going to die. Some people are scared of dying. Never be afraid to die. Because you're born to die," he said.

Sound advice indeed.

To read the whole article: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110415/ap_on_re_us/us_obit_world_s_oldest_man.

Gonna rise up . . .

One of my Year 11 students introduced me to Eddie Vedder and Rise -



Such is the way of the world
You can never know
Just where to put all your faith
And how will it grow

Gonna rise up
Burning back holes in dark memories
Gonna rise up
Turning mistakes into gold

Such is the passage of time
Too fast to fold
And suddenly swallowed by signs
Low and behold

Gonna rise up
Find my direction magnetically
Gonna rise up
Throw down my ace in the hole

Changes in latitudes, changes in attitudes

                        Restaurante Srª Tasca,                        
Graça Peixoto

I thoroughly enjoyed my lunch at Restaurante Srª Tasca this afternoon.  Luis' cousin and his wife introduced us to this very cute out of the way restaurante outside of Lisbon near Alenquer.  We missed our exit and got lost on the backroads but as everything was in bloom, it didn't seem to matter. 

The restaurant is housed in a quaint 1879 building (in Labrugeira) and is owned and operated by Graça Peixoto.  It's pretty much a one-woman show.  The restaurant is small and as soon as you enter you feel that you have stepped into another era -  one in which hospitality and attention to detail still mattered.  The menu was limited to 4 choices and delivered orally by Ms. Peixoto.  She mentioned off-hand that the recipe for one of her entrees that day had been her grandmother's.  Yes, it's that kind of place. The atmosphere was welcoming, the room and decor charming, the service was attentive, the food was delicious, and the company was convivial. It goes to show that you don't have to travel very far to get away from it all.  Just what I needed.

Restaurante Srª Tasca,                          (closed Sunday for dinner and all day Monday)
R. Comendador António Máximo
Lopes de Carvalho, 25
Labrugeira
2580-405 Ventosa
Alenquer
Tel. 351 - 263 779 205