Word Prisms

Macdonald – originally Scottish Gaelic meaning son of world ruler.   Macdonald’s - the world's largest chain of  hamburger fast food restaurants, serving around 68 million customers daily in 119 countries across more than 36,000 outlets. Wikipedia I’ve always hated Macdonald’s, it’s food, it’s plastic interior and its schleppy clientele.   And yet, when refuge is needed in the most mundane and perverse of circumstances, it’s always been there.   When our family was young and we were on the road and inclement weather prevented access to playgrounds and picnic areas, it was to Macdonald’s we’d often go for a break.   The kids would stuff pieces of fried food in their mouths before escaping to the Playplace .   It was then that my wife and I would finally get a break to share a coffee and discuss whatever heavy and depressing matter with which we were forced to cope.   There was the Sunday we started on our camping trip from Amsterdam an...

Disrupted: interrupt (an event, activity, or process) by causing a disturbance or problem. “Beached White Male.”   That was the cover story of a Newsweek article back in April 2011 subtitled “ He had a big job, big office, big bonus.   Now he’s all washed up and doesn’t have a freakin’ prayer.” Dan Lyons became one of these “white males” back in 2013 when Newsweek fired him as their technology editor.   His wife had recently quit her teaching job after a bout of debilitating migraine headaches.    Both she and their the eight-year-old twins were now dependent on him finding work.   Fortunately, he found it writing a blog about San Francisco start-ups.   The huge volume of cash being thrown at start-ups without promise of a profit margin made Dan believe that the market was on the verge of a melt-down.   In the meantime, he wanted in on the action   He applied to a number of start-ups and was hired by by Dharmesh Shah (CTO) and Br...