” If I had two heads, one would have rolled away, outside the gate of Pier 5 on the day before the Fall of Saigon.” (my Sliding Doors/when it’s worst) At times, on reflection, I wonder what would have become of me, of that other abandoned head – like our abandoned car – grafted on…

The Eclipse, Y2K, Powerball, 777, flat lining. Those are events. Infrequent ones. But randomly, there exist “perfect storm” scenarios. Black swan. In short, it’s the category of One. Can’t compare them with “peers”, can’t “clone” them, can’t be reproduced. Unlike in the East, past or present. People still explain the unknown world with the cycle…

An on-screen giant – Donald Sutherland – has just lied down. Age 88. Watching M*A*S*H* the movie with him in a leading role, one finds ample instances of disregard for human frailty, but not for human life, more camaraderie than canon, laughter than profanity. Post-60’s era was a time of “Je ne sais quoi”; what…

Neither Hippies nor Yuppies, I just wanted to skip some Maslow Hierarchy steps and get to the meat (self-actualizing) of things. Thanks to student-loan deferred years, I volunteered in Asia and Africa – front-ending my giving – energy, time and com-passion (as opposed to wait and accumulate spare change and spare time to donate “stale”…

Whatever the problem was e.g. spiritual, emotional, physical or social, the answer has been to buy more stuff. From design and style change to new drug for newly uncovered “disease”. Scale, scale and scale. From supply side, the faster the machine, the more profit. On demand side, people do not want to be reminded that…

It’s everywhere. Yet we are behavior-modified to put weight on the scale, to measure and quantify in nano second urgency. McKinsey and Morgan, Central Bank and the FED. The interest rates and rewards (FICO) of lower loan rates. On this 80th D-Day commemoration, we salute the courage (manifested quality) of those who jumped out of…

Per Almanac readers’ feedback, it’s those lists that hit the spot (similar to US News and World Report college ranking or Forbes billionaires list). Here is my list:

If the Sun were warrior male, then Moon, nurturing female: soft, strong and enduring. On this side of World War II, we celebrate women who stepped up to the plate (” You Can Do It”) only to take bandannas off, put aprons back on once victory was secured. Voila, the baby boomer generation. In our…

With every invention we hope it’s the Next Big Thing, often times, it turns out we arrive in full circle – back to Eden e.g. timeshare vs Cloud. Every generation sees newborn speculators and suckers, those who are in early, then in-time divesting. Cryptically crypto. Generative AI, even immortality online, if not on Earth. From…