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Ordinary People

Why Most People Are Just 'Mediocre' At What They Do

The Saturday Evening Post | Posted 03.09.2013 | Fifty
Read More: Job Market, Jobs, Ordinary People, Technology, Fifty News, Aging Workforce, Robert Moritz, Jobs post50, Fifty News
The Saturday Evening Post

A short time ago, I called my bank with a simple question about my account, only to be faced with an endless maze of voice recognition questions -- press 1, press 4, for Spanish press 2, etc. etc. 'Can't I just get a human operator?' I fumed with exasperation. If I could, the call would have taken less than a minute.

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Divorce On Page And Screen: 13 NY Times Bestselling Split Stories-Turned-Films

Posted 12.12.2011 | Divorce
Read More: The Accidental Tourist, Le Divorce, Eat Pray Love, Nights in Rodanthe, Waiting to Exhale, Message in a Bottle, Heartburn, The Other Boleyn Girl, Under the Tuscan Sun, Nicholas Sparks, Love and Other Impossible Pursuits, New York Times Best Seller, Nora Ephron, Divorce Books, The Other Woman, Ordinary People, The First Wives Club, Wonder Boys, Bestsellers on Divorce Turned Into Film, Divorce News

From Nathaniel Hawthorne's classic novel, "The Scarlet Letter," to Elizabeth Gilbert's more contemporary, "Eat, Pray, Love," marital turmoil, divorce,...

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As He Turns 75, Thoughts on the Legacy of Robert Redford

John Farr | Posted 05.31.2013 | Entertainment
Read More: Sydney Pollack, All the President's Men, Mia Farrow, Progressive Values, Academy Awards, John Turturro, Progressives, Angelina Jolie, Native Americans, Liberal, Best Movies by Farr, Cary Grant, Brad Pitt, Paul Scofield, Donald Sutherland, Robin Wright Penn, Jason Robards, The Conspirator, Owen Wilson, The Great Gatsby, The Sting, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Sundance Film Festival, Nrdc, Best Movies on DVD, Paul Newman, Best Movies, Ralph Fiennes, Sundance Channel, Sundance Institute, Independent Film, Meryl Streep, Environment, Greta Garbo, Ordinary People, Kim Kardashian, Robert Redford, Entertainment News
John Farr

I saw no mention of Robert Redford's birthday amongst all the pop dreck that seems to capture people's attention these days. I am going to attempt a tribute of sorts, as I can think of few people in the entertainment field more deserving.

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Happy Mother's Day: Psycho Moms In Literature

Amy Wilson | Posted 07.06.2011 | Books
Read More: Slidepollajax, Anywhere but Here, Stephen King, Psycho Moms, Psycho Moms Literature, Mother's Day, Carrie, Ordinary People, Vladimir Nabokov, Her Last Death, Lolita, Crazy Moms, Books News
Amy Wilson

As compared to the mommies dearest in these pages, almost any woman can feel like Mother of the Year. A frisson of schadenfreude might be preferable to a entire bouquet of roses.

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Attention, Oscar Whiners: Get Over It!

Marshall Fine | Posted 05.25.2011 | Entertainment
Read More: Jeffrey Wells, Ordinary People, The Social Network, Oscar Predictions, No Country for Old Men, True Grit, Marshall Fine, The King's Speech, Academy Award, Brokeback Mountain, Aaron Sorkin, Toronto Film Festival, Marshall Fine Commentary, Oscars, David Fincher, Colin Firth, Crash, Raging Bull, Hurt Locker, Entertainment News
Marshall Fine

OK, that's it - I'm officially tuning out all further Academy Award whining, prognosticating, analyzing, deconstructing and every other kind of Oscar ...

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Condi's Moving Civil Rights Story Can't Trump Her Role in Bush's Despicable Iraq Folly

Earl Ofari Hutchinson | Posted 05.25.2011 | Books
Read More: Ordinary People, Extraordinary, Condoleezza Rice Bush, Condoleezza Rice Biography, Condoleezza Rice, Iraq War, Books News
Earl Ofari Hutchinson

Condi's remarkable personal triumphant over the racial odds were praiseworthy then and they still are. Unfortunately, her moving civil rights story can't trump the role she played in Bush's despicable Iraq folly.

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Stephanie Meyer, Harry Potter Discovered By Accident: Any Chance You'll Be Next?

Wall Street Journal | Katherine Rosman | Posted 05.25.2011 | Books
Read More: Ordinary People, Book Publishing, Slush Pile, Best Books, Literary Prizes, Stephanie Meyer, Goodbye Columbus, Publisher, Bestsellers, Literary Agent, Twilight, Judith Guest, Harry Potter, Anne Frank, Books News

In 1991, a book editor at Random House pulled from the heaps of unsolicited manuscripts a novel about a murder that roils a Baltimore suburb. Written ...

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Marcus Sakey Is No Amateur at Writing Engrossing Novels

Jackie K. Cooper | Posted 05.25.2011 | Media
Read More: Marcus Sakey, Alfred Hitchcock, Robbery, Ordinary People, Mob, Media News
Jackie K. Cooper

There is a brilliant writer in America somehow flying under the radar of public knowledge. His name is Marcus Sakey and he has written four enormously enjoyable books, the latest being The Amateurs.

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