Insanity. Only a slim slice of the population pie is drawn to the typical health club. It’s a small slice and not growing. Yet a new line of clubs, Curves, has become the fastest growing in the industry. Rather than competing within the confines of the existing industry or trying to steal customers from rivals,…

Poking fun. An Orthodox rabbi asks a Reformed rabbi: “One of my congregants says his son wants a Harley for his bar mitzvah. What’s a Harley?” Reformed rabbi to Orthodox rabbi: “A Harley is a motorcycle. What’s a bar mitzvah?” An important legacy of the Judeo-Christian faith is seeing the virtue of poking fun at…

Staring at us. Benedictine monks never imagined that their new technology, designed to help workers unwind, would eventually wrap workers around the axle. William Farish never imagined that his technological innovation would make his profession meaningless. New technologies are wonderful in what they promise to do, yet we are often “incapable of imagining what they…

In the pits. Mentoring is making a comeback in business circles. The results, however, are uneven. For thousands of years, mentors transformed protégés (butchers, bankers and candlestick makers) into professionals. In the nineteenth century, a “modern” view of business reduced mentoring to a pit stop. And therein lies the problem… and the opportunity for people…

Say What??? During halftime of the NCAA lacrosse finals, two Duke players were describing the key to successful passing and shot making. “Me and him have to have eye contact.” Me and him?

A pointless exercise? The ongoing debate about the efficacy of abstinence-education programs underscores one point: we love sex. Duh. It’s important to remember this intense pleasure as we read yet another study – conducted by the Mathematica Policy Research Institute – reporting that abstinence-education programs do not delay the age when teens first have sex….

What do you love? Neil Postman says students enter school as question marks and graduate as periods. This means America’s 1.3 million graduating college seniors are lightweights when it comes to raising the weightiest question as they look for work. They’re not alone. Human resource directors also overlook it. Engaged couples rarely resolve this question…

Teeth kicked in. “Why do reason, logic and truth seem to play a sharply diminished role in the way America now makes important decisions?” Al Gore poses this central question in his new book Assault on Reason, released this week. “Faith in the power of reason – the belief that free citizens can govern themselves…

Post-it Notes don’t work as well as most folks imagine.

Sanctuary seekers In 2005, Emily Brooker was hauled before a Missouri State University faculty panel on a charge of discriminating against homosexuals.1 An evangelical Christian, Brooker refused to sign a letter that one of her professors required, urging state legislators to support adoptions by same-sex couples. This incident reflects a burgeoning bias against evangelicals at…