This department is, of course, close to my heart, as I was a teacher over many years, across five states, and I currently serve on the local Board of Education. Still, I will strive to provide my readers a thorough, objective – but dramatically shortened – summary of this section, which occupies 43 pages of the original mandate. Following the summary, you'll find comments by two local experienced educators.
Read MoreThe “Mandate for Leadership” allocates 49 of its 920 pages to the Department of Health and Human Services, followed by five pages of endnotes. Surely we will find here a comprehensive, reasoned analysis of how this department and its agencies and services are advised to behave when the new, conservative administration takes over. So let’s dig in...
Read MoreI carefully studied Project 2025 simply because I wanted to understand what people were talking about; I had no idea what to expect. Halfway through the 920-page document, I realized how much I have to learn about the executive branch of our federal government, responsible for enforcing the laws of our country. By the time I came to the final page, though, I was crystal clear about one thing: Seething hatred and unbridled anger are lurking in those pages, suggesting an absolute dichotomy between “good” and “bad.” It seems I might have stumbled upon the nest where our nation’s bitter polarization thrives.
Read More… but who’s counting? After about a month of careful reading – and copying/pasting sentences and phrases I feel must be captured verbatim for full understanding – I have about 50 pages of notes and am 40% finished reading the document. Understand: I am not scanning or skimming. I’m seeking actual comprehension to the point that I can communicate to others the meaning supported by legitimately quoted passages. Call me a nerd – because that’s exactly what I am – but I find the process of careful reading and then explaining what I’ve read to be an actual learning experience. (And nerds like me would rather learn than do pretty much anything else.)
So, I’m taking a break from the project for a few hours now with the intention of offering to the public some background information; call it a bait, if you wish, thrown into the water to keep you circling my hook. (grin) I hope you find it a good start on an important learning experience.
Read MoreWhen I launched Tamarack Communication in 2015, I was laser focused on building a consulting business that could support me for just a few years. It worked. In 2018, I seriously considered retiring and closing the business – but why stop doing what I loved? So I reduced my client base year after year, and continued to enjoy the work, just serving fewer clients. I must admit, though, that I had a corollary interest: to write for a wider audience. Constant Contact, therefore, became very important to me to invite people here to the Speakeasy. It also allows me to answer the question: Who are the Speakeasy’s most faithful visitors?
Read MoreIt’s been just over 9 years since I opened the Speakeasy to guests, when Tamarack Communication was a young consulting firm based in Washington State. Every few years I look back to see what articles have been most popular over the past year or so. Today I’ve decided to look all the way back and see what’s been happening here in the Speakeasy since shortly after the doors were opened and the first conversation began. You’ve been part of those conversations, so you might be interested in what I found.
Read MoreNow, don’t get too excited. We’re just talking daydreams here – nothing terribly romantic but, still, life-changing. This is about a very “appropriate” and “mature” and “sensible” daydream. You’ll find the dream itself pretty tame; that it came true and was right there, under my nose, waiting for me with open arms – that’s the cool part.
Read MoreThe utilization of our English language has changed markedly just in the past decade. I hope you will utilize this little essay to reflect on your own utilization of English. You can utilize it to question your own choices, but you might also utilize it to reflect on the English you hear utilized daily by on-air personalities. Happy utilization!
Barf!
Do you see how we’ve gone off the rails? Or do you actually believe that “utilize” is the proper or formal version of “use” and we just never realized it until recent years?
Read MoreWritten by Siddhartha Mukherjee – abstracted by Lynn Gerlach
Published in 2010; given to me by a friend in 2015; abstracted in 2023
Note to my reader: The author, Siddhartha Mukherjee, calls cancer “a lethal shape-shifting entity… the defining plague of our generation.” He refers to his book as “an attempt to enter the mind of this immortal illness” which is, in its many forms, the abnormal growth of cells.
The book is a 4,000-year history of cancer and the “hypnotic, obsessive quest to launch a national ‘War on Cancer’” by two key individuals: Sydney Farber, “the father of modern chemotherapy,” and Mary Lasker, a Manhattan socialite. Mukherjee notes that the book is also “a personal journey of my coming of age as an oncologist.”
For me, the reader who hopes to cull for you an abbreviated but authentic version of this 400+ page history, it is also “a personal journey” that has allowed me to find my own cancer story within the context of the 4000-year war. This is a long book and a long abstract. My hope is that, when you’ve finished reading my abstract, you’ll go directly to Dr. Mukherjee’s book.
Read MoreA first-grade teacher shot in the abdomen and through the hand is now struggling for her life in a hospital – shot in her classroom by one of her own students – six years old! The shooting followed an “altercation” between teacher and student; police say it was “not accidental.” Does this school district have a problem? Or does this nation have a problem?
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