There is a long piece on Elmore Leonard in The Grauniad :-
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/elmoreleonard?INTCMP=SRCH

Most relevant observation for a clothes forum is that Leonard often says his characters 'had on' rather than 'wore' a particular item of clothing.

His books were the first place I saw 'prolly' written for 'probably'. Also the first place I saw mention of a 'do rag' which I worked out was pirate-style headgear worn by blacks.

His earlier works are the best.

Thanks for the tip, FXH.

What you're not going to get in a comic book is in-depth analysis and that's not always a good thing. For an evocation of the sense of style, time and the sessions it may prove the perfect vehicle for setting ambience, especially if you have the music playing in the background.

Now I'm actually reading 'Office Kaizen: Transforming Office Operations Into A Strategic Competitive Advantage', it does have some interesting buzz words in after all, and a couple of sections may prove useful. Back at the chicken shack, I'm finishing off the book on Bill Evans and just waiting on some Joseph Moncure March poems to arrive by post.

Marcel Proust, "Remembrance of Things Past, Part One"

The Supreme Master Ching Hai - The Key of lmmediate Enlightenment (Questions & Answers, vol 2)

Last edited by The_Shooman (2012-03-03 08:19:31)

^An acquaintance of mine who is married to a Japanese lady and studied there, tells me the extreme discipline and respect for authority are now also the tools that are its downfall. The French are similar, they don't take kindly to underlings questioning their boss.

I think one of the biggest challenges that western companies face is how to ensure the organization is robust enough to be able to shrug off attacks and take overs from individuals who do not share the long term values and goals. Difficult to achieve if the organization is staffed by contractors whose mission is to extend their employment and whose allegiance is negligible. Places like Kazakhstan have seen shocking levels of fake engineering degrees from Brits, which has led to employment agencies being barred from the country. An organization populated by gentlemen dragged-off the street with fake credentials is not going to work now is it. But that's exactly what happened in Kazakhstan: a project hijacked by con-artists and the corrupt. Of course, a weak, dysfunctional organisation is to blame.

And its not only the oil industry, a friend of mine whose in banking tells me they had to get rid of a colleague because of a fake PhD. He still claims this qualification on his Linkedin profile.

These kind of frauds were unknown in the time of the staff man, but all too common now, I am afraid.

Amanda Bennett wrote "Death of the Organization Man" that explored this new phenomena of the floating worker/manager.

Even common bachelor degrees aren't required to be shown as proof of one's qualifications for many jobs anymore. Lots of people are claiming to have degrees they never earned.

lt's amazing how in the 60's and 70's, and even the early 80's, a bachelor degree was a highly respected qualification. Then in the 90's only a masters degree would do. Now it appears that only Ph D's will do. People are so fucken stupid. lt seems to be all about getting a certificate and living in an illusion, not learning real knowledge, the truth.

As soon as they shut down these places of learning, the better off people will be. How many highly qualified scholars that you know that still don't know shit from clay and have no understanding of what they learned in their coarse? l know heaps of dumb bastards.

We still have goons that think the Earth revolves around the sun and other goons that think our economic system works the way the professors teach it. As long as people have their head in their arse, they will always continue to be buffoons of the highest order.

Last edited by The_Shooman (2012-03-04 02:41:41)