The Little Words Mean the Most

I love my ...

 

... FOCUS feature under the VIEW menu in the new Microsoft Word for the Mac.

I used to get the same effect with PRINT PREVIEW. It was like your document was suddenly in a gated community. No issues. No threats. Just you, at the center of the universe.

Print preview is gone from my version, alas. MS engineers in their collective lack of user intelligence, disposed of it? Truck came, took it away?

Dunno. Never talked to me.

Far as I know, MS never spoke with ANY quotidian professional copywriter who makes a living selling words ("Come on! They must have ... you're too pessimistic!") how the heck do you use our software?

MS Word?

I use it cautiously, reluctantly, suspiciously. It's a workhorse waiting to nip you. It's the schoolyard bully you work out a compromise with. But it is, in my view, with decades of experience, a second-rate tool.

I hate it. I love it when it doesn't crash (too often for my tastes).

It's all things for all people (especially law firms). OK, there you go: final judgment. Law firms LIKE it. They're in the business of selling expertise at ever-increasing rates. The more impenetrable the law is, the higher the rates. Specialists make more than generalists. Long live legislation!

MS Word "bad?"

Nope. It's essential.

I'm on the No Easy Alternative (NEA) plan. So, I go along. Life's less intrusive that way.

Are Insiders Dangerous? Talking frankly to a client under duress

Just to reassure: DON'T listen to insider opinions on stuff like "silhouettes of pregnant women." WTF? Seriously?

This is where professionalism meets the road.

A. Unless they're major donors to this campaign, who cares what insiders think?

B. Who cares what insiders think? Wait: did I say that already?

Insider quibbles are how you LOSE money, not how you RAISE money. I wish they knew that ... and hung their heads in tribal shame, for the dreadful mistake they repeatedly make ... and the real danger they put the organization in ... by emitting these uninformed, uneducated opinions. Do you take gardening advice from your Lawn Gnome?

That goes for boards, too, of course. There are only two states of board being: ignorant or informed. Only failure-oriented nonprofit boards honor idiots. "Help! Is there another way to say this?"

Board members. Fundraisers. Choose.

Show us your values. Show us who you are.

Unless someone happened to make a real point with an insider opinion? PLEASE report in!!!

And that DOES happen.

tom

tho: fundraising isn't a job for the idle

FOR SALE: Our house in France can be your house in France

 

Acheter cette maison. [Buy this house.]

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Create a family experience — establish a family legacy — of profound depth and wonder. (I.e., it will change your lives.)

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How would YOU like YOUR very own 15th-century house in France ... where you can go any time you want ... and weekly vacation rentals pay the mortgage and most of the repairs?

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... in the medieval old-quarter of a small wine-making village in a fabulous southern location (the Languedoc, one of the oldest settled areas of France). The area includes world-class cave paintings, then came the Phoenicians ....

... with an inexhaustible amount to do and see and savor and explore? Start an artists' colony? Rent it out when you're not there? (We do. That's how we paid off the mortgage and upgrades.)

Pézenas Saturday market, our restored village tower, the Bambouseraie (day trip), the Canal du Midi

Outdoor markets, vineyards, art, culture, history (you're rarely more than a few minutes from your next castle) ... mountains (vertiginous canyons, even) ... breathtaking caves, soaring cathedrals, a 17th-century canal nearby that stretches for pleasure-boating across 150 miles of countryside ... white-water kayaking, a sovereign nation where biking is the national sport (one year, the Tour de France went through our little town), the Mediterranean (and many-an-oyster-farming village) is 20 minutes away (Piquepoul grows locally) ... the town next door is one of Europe's chief antiquing destinations and artisanal hubs, with lines of cafés begging your indulgence (waiters' moods vary)... Michelin-starred restaurants invite your custom at every hand ... Provence and iconic world sites such as the Roman Pont du Gard are an easy car ride away ... Montpellier, a mini-Paris for fashion, is 45 minutes away (we fly in there) ... the Pyrenees and the Catalan culture are just two hours away ...

 

... that's your backyard basically.

 

We OWN that house ... and we are SELLING that house by the end of 2016 ... a house we've enjoyed and worked on for more than 15 years.

BTW: Simone and I are NOT leaving France. We're not even leaving this particular French town. We're moving UP and DOWN: up the street ... and down-sizing. We'll be your neighbors! Drop by. Say hi. We'll tell you everything we've learned.

Downstairs deck, top-floor terrace, our bedroom, the ceiling in the kitchen (we roofed the old alley)

We just don't need five bedrooms, three baths, and two outdoor sunning decks for the two of us and the occasional other couple. So we've purchased another, smaller, more "modern" (1890's) house up the hill (the town and its vineyards were built on a worn, prehistoric volcano) ... in the very same village.

If you are interested in discussing a potential purchase, call Tom Ahern at 401-397-8104 in the US. We intend to be out by the end of 2016. Talk is fine. Commitment comes later. It took us two years to figure out and acquire our "new" (1890's) house.

Why heavy frequency is so important

 

 

Well, the truth's in there somewhere.

[ from an internal case in progress ]

I think we can all agree, though, that there isn't enough money being raised. Populations rise. Problems multiply. Financial systems collapse. Climate has violent mood swings. Local problems like homelessness. Distant problems like Syria's refugees. Governments won't carry the load. The US government, to name the one I know best, has reduced its "problem solving" funding in every area, from medical research to the arts. So what's left?

            Philanthropy. Philanthropists.

            "Tell me, my sweet darling Emma, what do you want to be when you grow up?"

            "Mommy, I want to be a philanthropist," said Emma in her determined way. "I want to be a philanthropist, too!" Liam chimed in. He was no copycat, either. You could see he meant it. His precious little chin was lifted straight out, as if pointing the way.

            Mother smiled, knowing they'd raised good people. "Nothing would make us prouder, my dears!"