Friday Donuts

Friends, Have you tried turning-off the sound during our governor's daily updates? --or, as I like to call them Polis' Pandemic Presentations (PPP). Better yet, pour yourself a drink, play the Macarenaa   and watch the highly expressive sign language interpreter move! I don't know what she's saying --clearly something more lively than a Colorado Covid Communication (CCC), but boy does she earn her keep. Don't get me wrong here, I'm not downplaying the crisis. My family is following the guidelines, but obsessing over every detail of something I don't control is not my thing. So, when my wife's Judge Judy hour is interrupted, I pop some corn, pull-up a chair and play Los del Rio 's one hit. Of course, for Friday's edition I may mix it up a bit. Maybe play the electric slide and enjoy a donut instead. Happy Friday!

Friends, People can be trusted to make decisions that further their self-interest --provided the construct is simple, the rules are familiar and the consequences are immediate. Add complexity, "change" the rules or delay gratification/pain and common sense becomes a rare commodity. Name a global problem today and there is likely one or more of these three factors at play (and probably all three). Whether we're electing bad leaders, destroying habitat, adding greenhouse gases, exposing ourselves to disease or buying into conspiracy theories, it's because the system is complex, we don't understand all the rules, and the outcomes are long-term. Like the proverbial frog in the gradually heating pot, by the time we realize we're in trouble, it may be too late. Unfortunately, the "adults"  who help us shine a light through troubling times are also, well, people! One hopes they're people whose deep expertise can help them (and us) navigate these murk

Friends, In this era of digital communication, the growing cast of available emoji seems a convenient and fun way to enrich your message. The plethora of colorful options lends your communication a palette unavailable to classic writers. Use them to reduce your keystrokes (a lion image instead of the word "lion"), add emphasis (balloons, streamers and a cake after "happy birthday" ), or convey emotion (choose a happy face among the dozens of options ). Lately I've been pondering the hidden pitfalls behind these seemingly harmless characters. I loften use humor when communicating and tend to be liberal with the range of meanings I ascribe to any given icon. I assume people will get my drift and, if they don't, no harm done. Right? Maybe. Maybe my lack of guile and hipness blinds me to inadvertent double entendre (or, worse, insult). What if there is a secret thesaurus people use to decrypt the hidden meaning in these pictures? Is one smiley face more app

Friends, A color's designation as primary or secondary depends on whether you're mixing light (aka additive color) or paint (aka subtractive color). Interestingly, the primary additive colors are secondary subtractive colors, and vice versa --tertiaty colors are the same for both. Additive primary colors (red, green and blue) are all monosyllabic --fitting for the direct approach characterizing the tech crowd that uses them. Subtractive primaries, on the other hand, take longer to say, which is also appropriate for the artistic crowd that uses these pigments. Although yellow and cyan are a mouthful, magenta takes the prize as the boldest. This youngest of primary colors (coined in 1859) is a true rebel. Named after after a napoleonic battle in northern Italy, this bold trisyllabic hue won't be ignored. Of course, with this week's completion of the Sprint acquisition by T-Mobile, if I took a shot every time I heard the color named, I would have permanent liver d