Between 1994 and 2002, while living in Studio City, California, I commuted every weekday to Santa Monica, a drive of about 20 miles. I had not yet discovered audiobooks and the countless hours of these commutes were spent listening to various local radio stations. I frequently listened to KNX-1070, a news radio station. This was…
I’ve spoke often here about my efforts to do the right thing, be it returning money that I found, correcting someone when they give me too much change, etc. It seems only fair that I report my ethical missteps as well. Yesterday’s dinner was a prime example. Before the movie, we went to Panera Bread…
This has probably been going on for quite some time, right under my nose, but my attention was drawn to it by this Yahoo!Tech article I saw this morning. Apparently, cheating at video games has been steadily on the rise and has become enough of a problem that cheaters are being punished. Set aside the…
I leave my house at 4:55 AM each morning and head to the metro station to take the train into work. Yesterday morning, in the space of 2 minutes, I saw three people blatantly break the law. First, the car in front of me never even stopped at the stop sign at Riverdale Road. I’m…
This comes from the weekly Character Counts newsletter that I receive. The newsletter is a consolidation of Michael Josephson’s 5 radio essays on L.A.’s KNX1070 each week. Anyway, I liked this one a lot. It was originally written by a 19-year-old sophomore at Harvard and he called it the “Paradoxical Commandments”: People are illogical, unreasonable,…
When I arrived at work this morning, the entrance to the mall via the metro was closed due to some construction. I had to use the main building entrance. At 5:30 AM, you have to “badge-in” to the building. In other words, you can’t get in without using your electronic badge. I did this and…
I was thinking about elections earlier and that led me to think about ethics (something which always seems to come up when discussing politics). It made me think in turn about a quote I once read on ethics and ethical behavior. I couldn’t remember the quote word for word, but I did some digging and…
I ran over to Rite Aid this morning because I needed more milk and was too lazy to go all the way to the grocery store for it. I picked up my milk and made my way back to the cashier, and right there, in the middle of the greeting cards aisle was a $100…
I’m a big fan of Michael Josephson’s “Character Counts” essays on KNX 1070 in Los Angeles. The daily essays on ethics and character are a breath of fresh air compared to most news programming out there. Recently, these essays have reached their 10th anniversary. Tomorrow, at 11 AM Pacific (2 PM Eastern), there will be…
I came across this great verse while reading the lastest Character Counts commentaries that I receive each Thursday in email. The verse is by Dale Wimbrow, and was written in 1934. (For more info, see his website.) When you get what you want in your struggle for self, And the world makes you King for…
I have a theory: I think you can tell a lot about a person’s character by how they drive their car.
A few minutes ago, I went down to Larry’s Cookies to feed my craving for some chocolate chip cookies. I got two large ones and the bill came to $5.20. The woman behind the counter bugs me. She’s been there before (of course) and she is always on the phone, never says “thank you”, and…