New Year's song remains ingrained in public mind

Auld Lang Syne

The first published version of the lyrics were written by Scottish poet Robert Burns in the 1700s. It wasn't until the 20th century that the song gained popularity as an anthem to the new year.

The song recalls the days gone by and says we will always remember them. "Should auld acquaintance be forgot?'' it asks. No, the chorus replies: "For auld lang syne (for times gone by), we'll tak (drink) a cup o' kindness yet.''

"It's a song about loss, but also about love -- a hope that you'll see the same people you love next year.''

Really?

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (Movie)

Even Captain Jack and his rotten grin can't keep 'Pirates' sequel from sinking

This second film is pretty much all thrills, special effects and nonstop action -- but with virtually no cohesive or compelling story line. Epics don't come about through sheer willpower, by someone deciding to make an epic and then stuffing a weak story with a lot of junk.

It's an amalgam of many of the modern cinema's worst tendencies and modern filmmaking's most unfortunate misconceptions. The film has an epic scale without an epic story, epic characters, epic ideas or epic emotions. The conversations are without wit and often without purpose. Much of the acting consists of mugging and empty gestures. Scenes are stretched out for no reason but to give the illusion of importance, so that the story is buried under rubble.

It is a major disappointment, a bloated, flabby, overwritten noisemaker that takes all the goodwill generated by the jaunty, inventive first installment and squanders it by throwing swash and buckle to the wind and cranking the volume up.

Business Should Spread the Love

Employers need to work harder at inspiring their workers’ loyalty, thus promoting continuity and reducing turnover. Pro or con?

Pro: Valuable Human Resources

Managers today often complain about a lack of employee loyalty, wondering why employees just don’t want to commit to staying in one workplace instead of always looking for their next gig.

But the fact is, many companies do little to inspire anyone to stay for longer than a few years. Between expecting workers to finish projects in their off hours, cutting benefits and perks solely to meet numbers, giving tiny salary increases, and using layoffs as a budgetary tool, companies are demanding more and more from their workers while giving them back less and less. Employees are feeling overwhelmed, alienated, and disposable.

Do you, as a company, really want a workforce living in fear—and your most experienced and accomplished employees leaving with a wealth of knowledge that will take years to replace?

Con: New Employment Model

Once upon a time, a model employee was someone who stayed with the same company for decades, climbing through the ranks and building an entire career with just one or two employers.

But that was then. Today’s economy requires people with a wide array of skills, and the only way to get those skills is to work in many companies. Employers aren’t mentors and caretakers anymore. They’re trainers and launch pads for ambitious and talented individuals. Rather than boasting about how many people spent their entire careers with you, you should boast about how many successful managers and executives started out in your offices.

Whether we like it or not, the world has changed and with it, the relationship between employers and employees. To get the most out of their chosen professions, workers need the freedom to roam, experiment, and acquire new skills. And to get the most out of its employees, companies need to hire people with a diverse background. Trying to hold on to your workers for 10 or 20 years today actually does them a disservice.

The Greatest Game Ever Played (Movie)

Francis Ouimet--Father of Golf in America

American amateur Francis Ouimet (Shia LaBeouf) takes on a 1913 U.S. Open field that includes the formidable British golfer Harry Vardon.

I am not a golf fan but found "The Greatest Game Ever Played" absorbing all the same, partly because of the human element, partly because Paxton and his technicians have used every trick in the book to dramatize the flight and destination of the golf balls.

In the main role (played by Shia LaBeouf) nailed it wonderfully, bringing the audience into his heart and dreams. The cute little side-kick caddy(played by Joshua Flitter) added the comic relief and catalyst that makes the whole movie really come together.

Nice clean entertainment.

Arranged (Movie)

Teachers United

In "Arranged" two devout Brooklyn schoolteachers clutch hands across the religious divide as their respective families prepare to marry them off.

Packed with the stereotypes it aspires to challenge, director's well-meaning but oblivious film presents ostensibly modern young women who are nevertheless defined solely by their faith. Too seldom do we see characters so real and performances so sincere. Zoe Lister Jones and Francis Benhamou are enchanting -- they glow with life and beauty!

However, except for the two main characters, the movie stereotypes most of the adults within the religious communities, essentially portraying them as ignorant bigots. Certainly, each community contains its share of narrow minded individuals. However, in portraying entire communities in this manner, the movie was offensive to Orthodox Jews, Muslims, and anyone who intimately knows them.

September Songs (book by Maggie Scarf)

Longer lives have added "bonus years" to marriage.

A century ago, when brides and grooms vowed to stay together “till death do us part,” the average life span was just under 50 years. Today, couples walking down the aisle can look forward to a far longer future together.

These “bonus years,” as Maggie Scarf reassuringly calls them in September Songs, offer rewarding possibilities at a time when those in their mid-60s can expect to live another 20 years or more in retired togetherness.

Now, like all husbands and wives with children grown and careers winding down or finished, couples have arrived at a point where they must “refind” each other. That involves focusing on what and who really matters to them at this time of life.

No one pretends that the bonus years are perfect. Couples still disagree about retirement, the emptying nest, sex, and of course money, the prime source of marital tension. Some also face serious health issues.

With the highest divorce rate in the world, American couples need all the encouragement they can get to weather marital storms and hang on until the clouds break and the sun shines again.

Noting the pleasure he takes in this time of life, the once-frenzied David Sternberg says, “We are two people in an equal deal and not a man and a woman in an ongoing futile quarrel over who is in control of the relationship. Right now we’re basically trying to figure out how we can get the most out of each day.”

That could be a recipe for a satisfying relationship for couples at every stage, both those in their bonus years and those at the altar, solemnly promising to stay together “as long as we both shall live.”

Water (movie)

"Water" is set in 1938. Even then, laws existed in India that gave widows the freedom to marry, but as one character observes, "We do not always follow the law when it is inconvenient."

It sees poverty and deprivation as a condition of life, not an exception to it, and finds beauty in the souls of its characters. Their misfortune does not make them unattractive.

The unspoken subtext of "Water" is that an ancient religious law has been put to the service of family economy, greed and a general feeling that women can be thrown away. The widows in this film are treated as if they have no useful lives apart from their husbands. They are given life sentences. That a film like "Water" still has the power to offend in the year 2006 inspires the question: Who is still offended, and why, and what have they to gain, and what do they fear?

Holiday Greetings!

As we enter the holiday season, our customary hopes for happiness and prosperity are tempered by concern about violence in many parts of the world and its effects on those least able to protect themselves, about the fragility of peace and civic order in many nations, and about the global economic realities that have affected all of us. Our realm of interest and concern encompasses all members of our global community — certainly in this hemisphere but also elsewhere.

In times of uncertainty and apprehension, we can perhaps best understand that the creation and transmission of powerful knowledge remains our best hope for improving the human condition and ensuring freedom.

We are grateful. As the holidays commence, Wu-Liang and I send warm season's greetings to all who care about and love this planet and its people.

Humming Birds in my Front Yard

A day at Knott's Berry Farm Theme Park

It's been a great while since I last visited Knott's Berry Farm and it's my honey's first time. One thing we realized is that we already passed the age for roller coasters. You should see B.A.'s expression riding 'Sidewinder' with his eyes tensely closed all the way. Still, we did enjoy 'a Charlie Brown Christmas' and 25th anniversary of 'Snoopy's Cool Christmas on Ice'. It's a place for family fun.

The Recession is A Year Old

Yes, we have been in a recession for a year—even though real GDP is up. The current downturn began in December 2007, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Part of the reason why we are in this mess is that GDP and productivity growth looked reassuringly high in most of this decade. That helped convince banks to keep lending—even as real wages were falling—and reassured the Fed that everything was okay.

For the foreseeable future, globalization will distort real GDP growth so much that it is no longer a reliable guide for policy. If it feels like a bad slump, it is—even if GDP says differently