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The curious case of Comme d’habitude
Those of us who practice the ancient Greek philosophy of Stoicism have a saying: “the obstacle is the way.” In life, we encounter hardships, loss, disappointments, and failures, and they seem to block our path. Seeing them as “blessings” is more than just trying to put a positive spin on them. I look at it…
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Kintsugi
We live in a culture that is far too quick to discard that which is broken. I think that comes from cheap goods readily available. Growing up, we lived across the street from Mr. And Mrs. Marcus who owned a repair shop called Marcus Electric. A repair shop was a place you took broken household…
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Friendship
I have lunch plans today. I’ll be meeting a friend, and his husband, at Billy Reed’s, a famous Palm Springs eatery not a quarter mile from my residence; I wrote about Billy Reed’s last December on the occasion of their 50th anniversary. It is one of four restaurants in my neighborhood close enough I can…
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The good old days
I like music. Everything except country. And the really hardcore rap about da bitches and da hos. I have an extensive iTunes library with 557 songs in it, and I love putting it on “shuffle” where one minute I’m listening to Earth Wind & Fire’s “September” and it segues into “Smells Like Teen Spirit” from…
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Foundations of Poodlism – Mirth
Mirth is one of those words that sounds like it ought to be wearing a waistcoat. It has a polite little lilt to it, like it might tip its hat as it passes you on the street. “Good day! I am Mirth. I brought a chuckle and perhaps a mildly undignified snort.” It’s not quite…
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Where’s my flying car?
The 1960s were an amazing time to be born, if only for the television programs. And growing up in the 70s meant those programs found their way into syndication and were a kindof “life primer” for a young boy like me in the suburbs of Los Angeles. Flipping between channel 11 (KTTV) and channel 13…
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People are stupid
When I was growing up in Los Angeles in the 70s, every car had two things inside: the Fleetwood Mac album Rumours on 8-track tape, and a copy of the Thomas Guide. The Thomas Guide was a paperback, spiral-bound atlas featuring detailed street maps of the city; it was such a fixture of life in…
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Poodle Lent
Poodle Lent is my adaptation of the traditional Christian season of Lent, reframed for people who are not religious but still value intentional periods of reflection, discipline, and renewal. While its structure mirrors the roughly 40-day observance practiced in many Christian traditions, especially the Catholic Church, Poodle Lent removes the theological framework and focuses instead…
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TaxPoodle’s guide to the sick day call/text
To begin, I think we need to agree on the term. We are describing the act of communicating with your boss, supervisor, manager, whatever-he-or-she-calls-him/herself that you cannot (or will not) perform the agreed upon labor you are employed to accomplish in return for financial remuneration for a period of time, which is usually unspecified but…
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Poodlism
The 19th century philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer, an influence on Nietzsche and a contemporary of Hegel, was known for his philosophical Pessimism. I should explain. To a student of Philosophy, pessimism does not mean negativity or expecting the worse; rather, it is an outlook that views the world as aimless and our existence as one of…
Your mileage may vary.