Saturday, May 24, 2014

Collossal Prize at Lily's Quilts

For chances to win this COLOSSAL prize, here are your options:

1.   Sign up to the Pink Castle Fabrics newsletter and let me know that you have (or were already signed up) and you can sign up right here!  

 


2.   For extra chances, retweet, regram, share, blog, google+ etc - one comment per social media share.
The winner will be picked a week from today.  

For info on this give away - to find out what the collossal give away is please go here: http://lilysquilts.blogspot.com/2014/05/cotton-steel-monthly-club-144-fq.html

Comments disabled on this entry since it's Lily's Quilts event, not mine!

Sunday, May 4, 2014

Thursday, May 1, 2014

Book: Hardball by Chris Matthews

This isn't a review, it's too hot and I'm out of practice with reviewing. Well, even with reading something longer than a blog post...

Hardball by Chris Matthews is a book about politics.  In each chapter he discusses a method or technique and then follows up with personal observations of examples and non-examples. It's a very balanced book as it doesn't matter what party the examples and non-examples are.  We can tell he is democrat, but many of his examples are of successful republications.  He also has non-example democrats.  Some of the people mentioned I knew, and some I did not.  It would have been better to know them all, but even so I was able to get past that and to take peek into the thinking of a very intelligent person.  The book was about others, but in the writing I learned more about Chris Matthews and a life style that is very different from mine.  I would not want to be in the business of politics, but it sure would be fun to be the business of having such intelligent conversations!

I recommend the book and look forward to other books by Chris Matthews.  We were back in San Diego and missed a book talk he did on his newest book Tip and the Gipper: When Politics Worked at the Cambridge library.  To think I could have walked to this event earlier in the year.  Another reason to be back in Cambridge!

Part I   Alliances
1   It's not who you know; it's who you get to know
     -  Arrange life so you meet people (RR brushing teeth story)
2   All politics is local
3   It's better to receive than to give
     - People have more support/loyalty when they have contributed something - can't buy support.
4   Dance with the one that brung ya
     - Commit to the right person
     - What have you done for me lately?  Can't live on past experiences, have to keep things fresh.
     - Spread out support, keep yourself necessary

Part II  Enemies
5   Keep your enemies in front of you
6   Don't get mad; don't get even; get ahead
     - Keep your focus on what you want
7   Leave no shot unanswered

Part III   Deals
8   Only talk when it improves the silence
     - Story of Winston Churchill and how he became PM
9   Always concede on principle

Part IV   Reputations
10  Hang a lantern on your problem
11  Spin!
12  The press is the enemy
13  The reputation of power
14  Positioning