Posts tagged as:

Consumer culture

Life as a Board Game

April 8, 2010

Our life has become like a board game. Specifically, one that I created 38 years ago.
When I was in sixth grade in 1972, my friend David Saunders and I decided to create a Monopoly-like game with a dice, play money, and various cards which players would pick from a pile and then [...]

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Life Without Chocolate

March 16, 2010

Have you ever tried to go off chocolate? I can tell you from first hand experience, it’s no mean feat.
My banning of chocolate has to do with a book I’m reading called Insomniac by Gayle Green. The author, like me, suffers from chronic insomnia and, as with anyone who is sleep starved, [...]

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Meditations on Being Alone

February 16, 2010

My wife left me this week. Don’t worry – it’s nothing serious. Jody is participating in a week long meditation retreat at Kibbutz Hanaton in the Galilee. That means I’m home alone with the kids (not a problem) but also alone in the kitchen (bigger problem).
I have never been much of a whiz as a [...]

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Fruity Beer in Petach Tikva

December 30, 2009

How did a non-beer drinker wind up in a micro-brewery this past Saturday night? That’s a question I was asking myself as my wife and I joined our friends Debbie and Eliot at Jem’s, a hot new gourmet beer factory in Petach Tikva.

Jem’s was established by two immigrants from the U.S. – Daniel Alon, a [...]

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The Paradox of Choice: Consumer Lessons for the Holiday Season

December 22, 2006

In his fascinating and compelling book “The Paradox of Choice,” Barry Schwartz describes the process of buying a pair of jeans. At his local Gap, he tells a saleswoman that his size is 32 waist, 28 length.
“Do you want them slim fit, easy fit, relaxed fit, baggy or extra baggy,” the saleswoman replies, then continues: [...]

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