Cousin Camp, 2023

I’m writing this at Club Med in Cancun, Mexico, where our extended family of 46 (including spouses) has gathered for our latest once-every-two-years “Cousin Camp.”

Here’s a photo of some of us climbing a nearby ruin:

We’ve been holding these family reunions for 30 years. Our first Cousin Camp was in Martha’s Vineyard. We (K’s and my siblings) were in our late 30s/ early 40s and our children were quite young. Today, it is our children that are in their late 30s/ early 40s and our grandchildren that are the young ones.

The original idea of having periodic family reunions was suggested to me by my brother-in-law. I liked it immediately because I had always rued the fact that I never knew my cousins. They all lived in Colorado, and traveling to Colorado was very much out of my parents’ budget (with 10 mouths to feed on an income of $14,000). So, my hope was that our kids and their cousins could grow up knowing one another, even if they lived in different locations.

The usual time slot for Cousin Camp is the second week of August. Since the first one on Martha’s Vineyard, it’s been held at a Club Med in Colorado, on a cruise ship to Alaska, in one of the Disney villages in Orlando, on a boat in Croatia, and at Rancho Santana in Nicaragua (twice). We’ve also been on two adventure trips – one in Canada and another in the Rocky Mountains.

The trips themselves have been interesting and enjoyable. But the best thing about these reunions is the fulfillment of the original idea. Our children have close and comfortable relationships with 15 or so cousins. They have the kind of relaxed and intimate friendships that come only when people are able to grow up together.

I have done all sorts of things in my life. And I’ve accomplished all sorts of personal goals. But there is nothing I’ve done that gives me more satisfaction than watching the casual affection these young people have for one another.

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Remote Work Is Dead… at Zoom?

Most of the businesses I work with are making efforts to get employees back to work. Zoom meetings are useful and efficient, the CEOs say, but there is something missing when employees work remotely all the time.

I thought it was interesting that senior executives at Zoom are feeling the same way. Recently, the company announced that employees who live within 50 miles of one of their offices are expected to be there at least in person 2.5 days a week.

 

Bull in a China Shop

In May, Binance reportedly facilitated $90 billion of crypto trading in China, where the act was, uh, made illegal in 2021. Meanwhile, US regulators are weighing fraud charges against the exchange, but worry about the effect on consumers. Click here.

 

Beef

 

With a combined subscriber list of 289 million and total views of more than 45 billion, James Donaldson, a.k.a. MrBeast, is YouTube’s biggest creator.

He’s in the news because he’s suing ghost kitchen company Virtual Dining Concepts, alleging it served gross food at his MrBeast Burgers restaurants. VDC claims MrBeast is bullying them because he wanted more money out of the partnership.

That’s the “news.” But, having never heard of MrBeast or Jim Donaldson, I am fixated on learning how, at age 25, he created the biggest by far social media following.

This is about the lawsuit.

And this is about the man.

 

Keeping It Fresh

In a bid to eat up more of the $1.5 trillion US grocery market, Amazon is revamping its grocery plans, opening up fresh food delivery to non-Primers and refreshing its arsenal of brick-and-mortar Fresh grocery stores. Click here.

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Bring Up the Bodies 

By Hilary Mantel

432 pages

Published May 8, 2012

For the month of August, the Elder Mules selected Hilary Mantel’s Bring Up the Bodies.

Mantel’s name was familiar to me, but I knew nothing about her books. I worried that this one might be one of those novels that is better suited for the book clubs that our spouses belong to. So, I googled it. Turns out it’s a historical novel – and a good one. It’s the second book in a trilogy charting the rise and fall of Thomas Cromwell, the powerful minister in the court of King Henry VIII. The other two books in the trilogy are Wolf Hall (2009) and The Mirror and the Light(2020). Both Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies won the Man Booker Prize.

I’ve always been interested in the story of Henry VIII and his eight wives, one of whom, Anne Boleyn, was famously beheaded. What brought about her downfall? And what did Thomas Cromwell have to do with it? Bring Up the Bodies does a detailed and entertaining job of explaining all that.

Critical Reception 

* “Bring Up the Bodies (the title refers to the four men executed for supposedly sleeping with Anne) isn’t nostalgic, exactly, but it’s astringent and purifying, stripping away the cobwebs and varnish of history, the antique formulations and brocaded sentimentality of costume-drama novels, so that the English past comes to seem like something vivid, strange, and brand new.” (Charles McGrath)

* “Historical fiction has many pitfalls, multiple characters and plausible underwear being only two of them. How should people talk?… How much detail – clothes, furnishings, appliances – to supply without clogging up the page and slowing down the story?… Mantel sometimes overshares, but literary invention does not fail her: She’s as deft and verbally adroit as ever.” (Margaret Atwood)

* “[The book’s] ironic ending will be no cliffhanger for anyone even remotely familiar with Henry VIII’s trail of carnage. But in Bring Up the Bodies it works as one. The wonder of Ms. Mantel’s retelling is that she makes these events fresh and terrifying all over again.” (Janet Maslin) 

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* Time’s list of the 100 best movies in the last century. Click here.

* From Vox: A good, succinct history of why cruise ships have gotten so big. Click here.

* Talk about luxury! Take a look at this posh public restroom in China.

* Who is the only living president whose ancestors were NOT slave holders? (Hint: It isn’t Obama.) Click here.

* How to restore a $3 pair of Air Jordans. Click here.

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Who’s Smarter? Liberals or Conservatives? 

From AS, re my August 4 piece on political ideology and intelligence:

“Interesting fact: I and other friends of yours, who shall remain nameless, have conversed over the years about your declining intelligence. Reading your article about liberals being more intelligent, I realized there is a direct correlation between your becoming a conservative and you heading quickly toward stupid.

“With that data confirmed, I plan to write it up and send it to JAMA. I think that’s enough research for it to be published, don’t you?”

My Response: JAMA will require a fair amount of support to be willing to publish such an observation. In addition to getting testimonials from our friends, you should get quotes from K and the kids, as they have been noting my senescence for decades!

 

 

So, You Want to Get Published? 

From PN, re my recommendations in the August 8 issue:

“Another option is a company like Inkshares.”

My Response: Thanks! I’ll check it out.

 

 

How to Come Up with Ideas – Day After Day 

From JW:

“I find that the hardest part of writing is coming up with what to write about. Do you have any suggestions for me? I’m curious if you’d be willing to offer a little glimpse ‘behind the scenes.’ How do you crank out so much great content so often? I would really appreciate any input you have on your idea generation and writing process.”

My Response: I don’t know how often you are publishing. But one of the surprising things I discovered about writing essays for a blog is that it’s much easier to come up with ideas when you are publishing on a daily basis. Easier than publishing weekly or biweekly. I think that’s because when you are publishing only once or twice a week, you demand more of each essay. And your readers also expect less because they understand that a daily publication is a bit like having a breakfast conversation with a smart friend. You expect an interesting conversation, but you don’t expect him/her to support all his/her thoughts with solid evidence and emotionally compelling stories.

That said, the best way to generate ideas worth your readers’ time is to do a good deal of reading yourself. Not stuff you find on Google, but essays and even books written by people that have expertise in the subject matter that interests you.

As a rule of thumb, for every 250 words you write, you should expect to prepare for it with an hour’s worth of intentional reading.

 

Step #1 in Building a Billion-Dollar Business 

From SS:

“Hello Mark Ford. I want to learn marketing and copywriting from you and really want to have you as my mentor. How can I learn from you? I want to build a billion-dollar company. Please. I really need your help.”

My Response: At this point in my life, I’m no longer doing one-on-one mentoring. The best way to learn from me right now is by reading my books. Since your goal is to build a billion-dollar company, I think you should start with Ready, Fire, Aim – and you can order a copy directly from us.

List price is $27.95. But for readers of this blog, the price is $15 (which includes free shipping). To order your copy:

* Send a check for $15.

* Make the check payable to Cap & Bells Press, LLC. (No cash, please.)

* Include your name and mailing address and mail it to:

Cap & Bells Press

Attn: GKoo

290 SE 2nd Avenue

Delray Beach, FL 33444

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