All posts by Philip Yaffe

Philip Yaffe was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1942 and grew up in Los Angeles, where he graduated from the University of California with a degree in mathematics and physics. In his senior year, he was also editor-in-chief of the Daily Bruin, UCLA's daily student newspaper. He has more than 40 years of experience in journalism and international marketing communication. At various points in his career, he has been a teacher of journalism, a reporter/feature writer with The Wall Street Journal, an account executive with a major international press relations agency, European marketing communication director with two major international companies, and a founding partner of a specialized marketing communication agency in Brussels, Belgium, where he has lived since 1974. He is author of 14 books, which can be found easily in Amazon Kindle.

KITE—Extraordinary Ordinary Things

Ben Franklin was not the first example of a kite being used for a scientific experiment, nor was it the last. Few people know that kites today are still very much being used to explore and understand our world. If you do already know this, that’s what makes you a nerd.

The subtle humor of Charles Schulz’s beloved “Peanuts” comic strip (which débuted in 1947) is somewhat of an acquired taste. When they first come across it, many people see little or nothing to it. However, the more they are exposed to the comic, the more they appreciate its delicate profundity. That’s what makes them intellectuals.

Most likely, dear reader, you fall into both categories, which together make you a very well rounded person.

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Biting the Hand that Treats You. Unwarranted Assaults on Healthcare Advice

Anyone who has been paying attention to the developing COVID-19 crisis in the United States will have noticed a puzzling and damaging paradox. While political leaders claim to be taking action against the pandemic based on the best scientific advice available, when this advice conflicts with what they perceive to be in their own best political interests, they reject it. Worse, they denounce the advice being given as bad science and the advisers as being bad scientists. The attacks seem to become additionally virulent when a scientific advisor changes his or her mind.

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The Whistle—Extraordinary Ordinary Things

Some of the most famous lines in cinema history were uttered by Lauren Bacall to Humphry Bogart in the 1944 Film “To Have and To Have Not.” The scene has Bogart’s character Harry “Steve” Morgan, a fishing captain in Nazi-occupied France refusing to smuggle members of the resistance on to his boat. Bacall, playing Marie “Slim” Browning, flirtatiously tries to change his mind. Just before exiting the scene, she passionately kisses him and says, “You don’t have to act with me, Steve. You don’t have to say anything and you don’t have to do anything. Not a thing. Oh, maybe just whistle. You know how to whistle, don’t you Steve? You just put your lips together, and blow.”

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SCISSORS: Extraordinary Ordinary Things

Have you ever needed a pair of scissors and couldn’t find one? No doubt you were extremely frustrated. Although scissors are one of mankind’s most low-tech inventions (two strips of metal joined at a pivot point), their uses are manifold and there seems to be no substitute. Imagine trying to cut a piece of paper without a pair of scissors, cutting out an article from a newspaper or magazine without scissors, opening a package tied up with string without scissors, etc.

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