Happiness Archives - Page 9 of 11

Pet Peeves: Why They’re Good to Talk About

May 23, 2010 by Ocean Palmer Leave a Comment

The kitchen, apparently, is a battlefield. Former TV chef Juan-Carlos Cruz, host of the Food Network’s canceled cooking show Calorie Commando, was arrested recently by Santa Monica police for solicitation to commit murder. Cruz allegedly asked several homeless men to kill his wife. About five miles from my home, a Colorado woman was just sentenced […]

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For Whom the Bell Tolls

May 14, 2010 by Ocean Palmer Leave a Comment

Somewhere in suburban Los Angeles a tall, balding middle-aged man lies in an ICU hospital bed, tethered to an octopus of medical necessity. He is dealing with multiple organ failure; his liver is shot and kidneys need dialysis help. At 57, life as he knew it is over. How he got into this predicament doesn’t […]

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Why Love Hurts

April 27, 2010 by Ocean Palmer Leave a Comment

“Treat people like kings and kings like people and you’ll get along with everybody.” — Muhammad Ali A friend recently dropped me a note, curious for my take on why romantic breakups takes such a tough emotional toll. There are, I believe, three behavioral nuances that blend to create seasickness between-the-ears following a disrupted romance. […]

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Why April 15 is Income Tax Day

April 14, 2010 by Ocean Palmer Leave a Comment

Today, April 15, is Tax Day, a tradition less than a century old. During our nation’s infancy the United States government raised revenue easily; it taxed whiskey and tobacco. Since we’ve always been a consumer-driven society, they collected a whole lot. For many years the sin tax money covered most of the government’s expenses. But […]

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Why Tiger Became the Madoff of Corporate Integrity

April 8, 2010 by Ocean Palmer Leave a Comment

Two snaking, overlapping things — narcissism and flawed personal integrity — reportedly branded as “sexual addiction,” have teamed to implode the legacy of Tiger Woods. Narcissism is a modern four-syllable synonym for what ancient Greeks called hubris. In Greek mythology Narcissus was a handsome young man who rejected the love of nymph Echo; as punishment, […]

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How to Get Closure

March 17, 2010 by Ocean Palmer Leave a Comment

Ah, the dictionary’s most dreaded seven-letter word, defined thusly: “noun. A permanent end of business. Barring of access. A sense of finality.” Real life’s definition is never so simple. Real life defines closure as something we do to others before they do it to us, on a full sprint en route to running and hiding. […]

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Why Men Have A Midlife Crisis

March 11, 2010 by Ocean Palmer Leave a Comment

In a world without women, what would a crazy man do? Many of my middle age friends have cartwheeled out of control at some point with at least one bizarre behavioral crisis. When the economy was flush, some involved playthings and wheelbarrows of money. Now that money’s tight, the drive to act squirrely is just […]

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Hurt People

March 6, 2010 by Ocean Palmer Leave a Comment

In a recent column I mentioned a mass shooting by a co-worker in Honolulu while I was still working with Xerox. The shooter, Byran Uyesugi, was a service technician who fixed machines. The men he killed were his teammates, fellow technicians. The massacre occurred at the start of a team meeting on November 2, 1999. […]

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The Psychology of Progress: “Throw Down the Bones!”

March 3, 2010 by Ocean Palmer Leave a Comment

One of the best pieces of advice I’ve received in the last few years came from Steve Moore, the great cartoonist who draws the daily sports panel “In the Bleachers.” If you aren’t familiar with his work, make sure to visit gocomics.com/inthebleachers and take a look. Day in, day out Moore is as good as […]

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Why I Walked Away

March 1, 2010 by Ocean Palmer Leave a Comment

Twenty years seems a long time. Then again it’s less than the blink of an eye since the earth is 4.6 billion years old. Too bad we insist on making it show its age. I have earned a buck many ways since the tragic day my parents halted the allowance gravy train: Fur trapper → […]

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