ONE OF MY TOP 5 FAVORITE BOOKS,  Benjamin Hoff’s classic,  THE TAO OF POOH, and the companion text, THE TE OF PIGLET, illuminates the key concepts of Taoism through the Winnie the Pooh characters.  His relaxed, conversational style fits one of the main principles of Taoism, we wei wu wei, or “effortless doing”, and pu, the concept of being open...

CAN PEOPLE CHANGE?  That’s the question.  If we have any hope for the future, we need to believe that people, individually or as families, societies, nations or a global species, can change. Here’s a TED conference presentation that touches on that topic.  Worth a watch.  As a cultural anthropologist, these ideas are not new, but the current brain...

TIME FOR A WEBSITE REVIEW!  When I see an email from artfinder.com, a cool UK site to buy original art, I can’t wait to open it and see what piece they’ve picked to riff on today.  I often glean some new insight or bit of trivia about the artist or their work from the short blurb that accompanies each featured work. They’re a business, but a...

CONSIDER THE CROW.  What do we know about them? Not much.  Poe’s The Raven. Harbingers of Evil.  Witches’ familiars.  Noisy.  Unbeautiful.  Thieves. We think of them so negatively, that a group of crows is called a murder.  How did they get such a bad reputation? In reality, crows are highly intelligent. They not only make tools like humans and...

DUBBED THE MOST HONEST 3 MINUTES IN TELEVISION HISTORY, this video clip from HBO’s The Newsroom will give your Saturday Salon guests a great point to start the conversation! Don’t be afraid to ask these kinds of questions. Try it at your next Saturday Salon and see where it leads… Click here to watch the most honest 3 1/2 minutes…. Companion...

MMMMMMM…..GOOD!  Looking for a smooth, rich wine to serve with a good, grilled steak?  Look no more!  Amici has a great Cabernet Sauvignon!  We normally stick with $10-$20 wines for everyday.  This one is a bit more and would be a treat to offer your Saturday Salon guests next month. There are no more strict rules for wines–no matter what they bring...