Posted on December 17, 2012 by Robert Ringer
So here we are again, trying to make sense out of senseless tragedy, tragedy made even more horrific by the fact that most of the victims were small children. And the news media, doing what they’re paid to do, have been analyzing the Newtown, Connecticut massacre from every conceivable point of view — mental illness, […]
Posted on November 26, 2012 by Robert Ringer
College football rivalries such as Army-Navy, Texas-Oklahoma, and Ohio State-Michigan involve much more than just games. They are bigger-than-life spectacles. So it was a big deal for my teenage son when I took him to what is arguably the greatest rivalry in college football, the Ohio State-Michigan game. Usually when I take my son to […]
Posted on September 22, 2012 by Robert Ringer
If you’re on the young side, you probably don’t remember the days when Hewlett-Packard was a quality company. I swore by their products … wouldn’t have thought of switching to a lesser brand. Then, along came the Age of Sloth — with equipment that is almost guaranteed to break down within a reasonably short period […]
Posted on May 11, 2012 by Robert Ringer
Sadly, my longtime friend, Vidal Sassoon, died Wednesday at the age of eighty-four. Vidal, who grew up in poverty in London, changed the entire beauty-salon industry with his ultra-short and easy to manage hairstyles. He later became a business mogul when he developed a line of shampoos and hairstyling products, and also built a chain […]
Posted on January 30, 2012 by Robert Ringer
Most men speak of their mothers as angels, and in that regard I guess I’m not unique. Some would probably argue that my mother was not unique either, that she was merely one of millions of moms from the greatest generation. Modern-day feminists would have been horrified by Mom’s lifestyle. Her day-to-day world consisted primarily […]
Posted on December 28, 2011 by Robert Ringer
As I was enjoying the Christmas weekend, I was struck by the onslaught of tragedies that flashed across my television screen. A helicopter carrying a heart surgeon and procurement technician crashed in Florida, killing both men and the pilot of the aircraft. An Afghanistan war veteran was shot in the neck during a welcome-home party […]
Posted on October 10, 2011 by Robert Ringer
Whenever someone famous died, my dad used to say, “The Grim Reaper just keeps mowing ‘em down, one by one.” Simply put, but accurate. And this past week, the Grim Reaper was working overtime. In a harsh one-two combination, he took the lives of two living legends, Steve Jobs and Al Davis. What was eerie […]
Posted on January 4, 2009 by Robert Ringer
My approach to life is to plan carefully, then relentlessly focus on execution. I don’t mean to sound stuffy, but to me impulsiveness is a sign of irresponsible behavior. That’s why those who know me best would lay 100-to-1 odds that I would never make a spur-of-the-moment decision to hop on a train and head […]
Posted on April 30, 2008 by Robert Ringer
Too bad it wasn’t mandatory for every American to watch the segment 60 Minutes recently did on David Walker, Comptroller General of the United States. Walker heads up the Government Accountability Office, or GAO, which acts on behalf of taxpayers to assure a nonpartisan, honest assessment of government operations — especially government spending. Walker bluntly […]
Posted on April 12, 2008 by Robert Ringer
I’ve often referred to the airlines as “hiccup businesses.” Meaning that if an airline has a cash-flow dip (read, “hiccup”) for one or two months, it’s in serious trouble. And if it’s a big hiccup and drags on for three or four months, the airline may find itself in bankruptcy. What makes a company qualify […]
