A pimpernel by any name is no shrinking violet

What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet

-Source: Juliet Capulet in Romeo and Juliet (William Shakespeare, 1594)

-Significance: Phrases.org.uk

This morning, I viewed MSNBC's Headliners and Legends: Nelson Mandela. The informative biopic, hosted by Lester Holt, was worth watching.

If you've read, watched or heard any biographies of Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, then you're familiar with the struggles and sacrifices, contributions and accomplishments for which the South African freedom fighter-political prisoner-statesman-Nobel Prize winner is famous. You also know he was once called the "Black Pimpernel." However, do you know why or what a pimpernel is?

If you don't, you're not alone. Today, the word pimpernel is commonly heard yet relatively obscure. Here is what it means and its several contexts.

In nature: A pimpernel is a flower. Like members of the rose family, pimpernel buds can bloom in any one of a number of colors, some of which have been embedded with special meanings. Especially well-known is the scarlet pimpernel (Anagallis arvensis‎, pictured right, courtesy of Wikipedia).

In literature, on stage and on screen: A European writer cultivated the popularity of the plant with her stageplay, The Scarlet Pimpernel, and by publishing an associated book series. Wikipedia - Scarlett Pimpernel (which furnished the book cover image to the left) explains:

The Scarlet Pimpernel is a classic play and adventure novel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy, set during the French Revolution. It was first produced as record-breaking play, in an adaptation by Julia Neilson and Fred Terry, which greatly helped the publication of the novel in 1905. The story is seen as a precursor to the spy fiction and the superhero genres. It gave rise to numerous sequels, and has been adapted several times for television and film.

The action takes place during the French Revolution, when a secret society of English aristocrats, called the League of the Scarlet Pimpernel, is engaged in rescuing their French counterparts from the guillotine. Their leader, the Scarlet Pimpernel, takes his nickname from the small red flower with which he signs his messages. No one except his small band of 19 followers, and possibly the Prince of Wales, knows his true identity.

In history and politics: What does all this have to do with Nelson Mandela? The answer, in Mandela's own words, lies in this excerpt from Long Walk to Freedom, Chapter 40:

During those early months, when there was a warrant for my arrest and I was being pursued by the police, my outlaw existence caught the imagination of the press. Articles claiming that I had been here and there were on the front pages. Roadblocks were instituted all over the country, but the police repeatedly came up empty-handed. I was dubbed the Black Pimpernel, a somewhat derogatory adaptation of Baroness Orczy's fictional character the Scarlet Pimpernel, who daringly evaded capture during the French Revolution.

The root of the matter. The Scarlet Pimpernel and the Black Pimpernel were no shrinking violets. Although they operated - at least sometimes - sub rosa and were named after flowers, both political activists left larger-than-life marks. Of course, it should go without saying, the legacy of real-life hero Nelson Mandela is far more profound and notable than that of the fictional character.

Don't miss your favorite radio show. Record it!

Whether it's music, talk or talk about music, don't miss your favorite radio show. Record it and listen on demand! Telegraph | Digital Life | Bootcamp 340: recording internet radio explains how.

Got resolutions? Mine include making my tech life hassle-free

"Out with the old, in with the new" is a popular catchphrase attributable to transitions. Perhaps the best-known threshhold is midnight between New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. Most earthlings celebrate that switchpoint.

In contrast, lethargic and buggy equipment inspires transitions of another kind. Too-frequent downtimes and glitches that plunder productivity, endanger data and require unscheduled, unbudgeted maintenance and repair can push even well-adjusted people to the precipice, make blood boil and transform Dr. Jekylls into Mr. Hydes.

Do your computers make you wanna holler with frustration (rather than celebration), sweep out the old schmutz and buy something new? Yeaaaaa, boooy! I know that feeling.

But sometimes even serious symptoms have simple fixes. So don't throw the baby out with the bathwater.

First, take a deep breath (or swig). Then read articles such as:

• Hassle-Free PC: Top Tips for a Cleaner, Faster Computer,
  
• Bootcamp 424: Spring clean and upgrade part 1,
  
• Bootcamp 425: Spring clean and upgrade part 2,
  
• Bootcamp 426: Spring clean and upgrade part 3, and
  
• Bootcamp 427: Spring clean and upgrade part 4.
  

They offer useful advice that'll help you hold 'em longer before you fold 'em and perform (and even look) better in the interim.

My tech resolutions short-list includes:

• Tame my misbehaving Treo.
• Pimp my Blogger blogs.
• Convert analog recordings of my radio shows to digital files and soundchecks.
• Update my websites.

Working With You is Killing Me!

It's 6 PM and I'm behind schedule. Some errands must be run and a hot dinner date awaits.

Dagnabit! I'd resolved to blow this joint. But bag in hand, I was making tracks to turn off my computer and put on my coat when Kate Lorenz's article caught my eye: MSN Careers/Career Advice - Working With You is Killing Me!

The title compelled me to cool my heels long enough to peruse the piece, blog this post, and urge an acquaintance (who sorely needed to read it) to take a look, too.

Here's why the article is so compelling:

The book, Working With You is Killing Me: Freeing Yourself from Emotional Traps at Work (Warner Business Books, 2006), is a worthwhile read. Months ago, I'd read the editorial reviews, seen TV interviews with the authors - Katherine Crowley and Kathi Elster - and resolved to book 'em for an upcoming Lisa Tolliver Show.

The characters and emotional traps the book addresses are, regrettably, all too familiar. Thanks to countless colleagues, clients, subcontractors, students, and even relatives and radio guests I've had occasions to collaborate with in one way or another, I've seen it all. You probably have, too. Consequently, it's common knowledge: all the expertise in the world can't stave off encounters with people and situations like those Crowley and Elster describe.

Hence, the value of the serenity prayer and the book's five steps for effectively handling almost any interpersonal situation at work. The process works elsewhere, too.

1. Acknowledge that there is a problem. Get out of denial. Acknowledge the physical, mental, emotional and behavioral signs that you are "hooked" in an emotionally distressing situation. Once you do, you can make a new plan, Stan, to empower yourself to manage your reactions to stress-provoking personalities and situations. To do so, you'll have to...
2. Unhook physically.
3. Unhook mentally.
4. Unhook verbally.
5. Unhook with a business tool.

You can read the article and book, Working With You is Killing Me: Freeing Yourself from Emotional Traps at Work, for yourself. You might also want to keep your eye on my events calendar so you can join the authors and me on air.

But right here, right now:

1. I acknowledge the need to unhook from work mode and to end this post.
2. I'm donning my coat.
3. I've mentally mapped my exit route. (Out the back, Jack.)
4. I'm saying "hasta la vista" to my colleague.
5. I'm turning off the computer.

Roundup of the Dec. 27 Lisa Tolliver Show

This was our last broadcast in 2006. Hasta luego, 2006. Konichiwa, 2007! Topics:

• Auld Lang Syne: what it means, what it sounds like, and a musical rendition
• Gerald Ford: Highlights of his life and accomplishments
• James Brown: Highlights of his life and accomplishments and selections from James Brown - 20 All-Time Greatest Hits!
• Safety tip: December's the month with the most traffic crashes. Drive safely!

These are my next shows on New York Radio WVOX AM 1460 and www.wvox.com:

• January 10 at 11:30 AM - noon, Eastern Time - SCORE Radio: Counselors to America's Small Business - TOPIC: Organizers and writers involved with the 9th Annual African American Writers and Readers Literary Tea, organized by the Westchester Library System. The tea is held annually on MLK's birthday.
• January 10 at high noon - 12:30 PM, Eastern Time - The Lisa Tolliver Show - TOPIC: Interview with Frank Giordano, Trustee of the Thomas E. Giordano Education Fund.
• January 15, time to be determined 9:00-10:00 AM, Eastern Time - Lisa Tolliver Show - TOPIC: Special broadcast in honor of Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Birthday.###

How they got rich and ways you might, too: quick reads

In the latest issues of Latina magazine and Latina.com, 10 Latina Millionarias Share Their Secrets (Latina - Mujer - MSN Latino) for how they got rich and Carmen Ulrich gives 10 tips for how you can get rich, too. Although the articles are not quite blueprints to wealth, both are worthwhile, quick reads and might inspire you.

Feliz Navidad!###

Snakesss on the 'glades! Tread carefully.

Yikes: giant snakesss are squeezing out other forms of wildlife on Florida's everglades! Reportage about the reptiles that might make your skin crawl is breeding extensive coverage in the news. For example, are you familiar with the doubly-deadly gator vs. python bout?

Snake stories are slithering into TV-show plots, too. Ophidiophobics should tread carefully when selecting shows, such as CSI: Miami, which has encoiled stories about boa constrictors and pythons into ssseveral episodesss.

Punch drunk with gratitude, Tara Conner tearfully thanked Donald Trump

Whether you care or not, this story's all over the news.

Punch drunk with gratitude, Tara Conner tearfully tipped her tiara to, er raised her glass to, thanked Donald Trump for not saying, "You're fired!" The Donald rationalized explained his decision not to dethrone the disgraced Miss USA by praising her as a "good person" who's been "trying hard." "I've always been a believer in second chances, and Tara deserves a second chance," he said. Trump blamed her unbecoming behavior (allegations of underage drinking, drug use and sexual misconduct) on her being a naive country gal who was spoiled rotten by the Big Apple.

Not everyone gulped that palaver. However, running to rehab has worked to turn the likes of some high profile people (such as swashbuckling actor Errol Flynn, Congressman Mark Foley, movie-maker Mel Gibson, Representative Patrick Kennedy (D-RI) and model Kate Moss) from villains to victims,* and it's worked for Tara too.

* Source: Ann-Marie Dorning, ABC News, "Running to Rehab: When Celebrities, Athletes and Politicians Mess Up, Rehab Offers a Popular Escape" (October 2, 2006)

Trump has spoken, and here's what he said: Tara will hold steady to her Miss USA title and prizes - provided she tee-toe-tals the line from here on. In an article filed under "Train Wrecks, Wacky and Weird," TMZ.com explains:

"She's agreed to go into rehab. She knows that if she makes even the slightest mistake from here on, she will be immediately replaced," said Trump. The carefully coifed billionaire explained that he will use Conner as a role model. "I believe she can do a tremendous service to young people."

Too bad for dethroned beauty queens such as Miss America 1984 (Vanessa Williams, New York) and Miss Earth 2002 (Dzejla Glavovic, Lebanon) The Donald didn't own and preside over their pageants. And too bad for Miss Teen USA 2006, Katie Blair, that even The Donald can't save her MADD, MADD, MADD gig as national spokesperson for Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

Ratings rule for The Donald, and I believe they affected his decision to let Tara retain her tarnished tiara. Here's my logic: people like watching him fire candidates The Apprentice, and he does so - on that show - in a New York minute. When he allowed Martha Stewart to head a parallel Apprentice household and saw his own ratings being cannibalized, he sent the domestic diva packing and dissed her with a nasty, public post-eviction notice. And sordid stories about Tara's alleged bad behavior, predictions she'd be dethroned, and Donald's final answer got oceans of ink. Not all of it was favorable, but as far as Mr. Trump was concerned, apparently, "it's all good."





Dickens' A Christmas Carol

Oh! You'd better watch out! I'm telling you why: The 'Lisa Tolliver Show' is coming to town tomorrow at noon

Oh! You'd better watch out,
You'd better not cry,
You'd better not pout,
I'm telling you why:
The 'Lisa Tolliver Show' is coming to town.

Yes, Virginia. And Rudolph, Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Donder, Blitzen, Cupid and Comet. And Tim, and Bob and Ebenezer. We'll be in your neighborhood tomorrow, December 6, 2006 at high noon, Eastern Time.

Have you been naughty? Or nice? Whatever. It's our last broadcast before Christmas. You're all invited. Each and every one. So join in for goodness sake!

Here's how:

• Tune to New York Radio WVOX 1460 AM,
• Listen live at WVOX.com, or
• Hear and share via call-in line: (01) 914.636.0110.

Next shows: December 13 and December 27. Same time. Same station.

Haaaappy holidays!

Experience my podcasts.

My Odeo Channel (odeo/5704db03cd3360a2)

"A Time For Healing" commemorates World AIDS Day 2006

Coretta Bush has organized "A Time for Healing" to commemorate World Aids Day 2006. The event will be held at Walker Memorial Baptist Church in the Bronx from 6:30-8:30 PM, Eastern Time today (December 2, 2006). The address is 120 East 169th Street, between Jerome Avenue and the Grand Concourse.

Among the key topics to be addressed are:

1. The alarming increase in black heterosexual women contracting HIV/AIDS
2. African American churches: What has been done? What is being done? What will be done?

The event will also feature a candlelight prayer and altar call.

Everyone listed on the program has professional experience (of one sort or another) working with HIV/AIDS. The featured participants include:

FEATURED SPEAKER: Reverend Barbara Evans, R.N, N.P., M.P.H., M.Div. - Minister for Health and Wholeness at Grace Baptist Church in Mount Vernon, NY; Assistant Pastor and Minister for Christian Education at Faith Mission, Yonkers, NY; and Founder/CEO of the Health Education Institute in Mount Vernon, NY.

FEATURED SPEAKER: A physicianFidelia Tavares, M.D., M.P.H., Director of Women's Health Programs at The Balm in Gilead (self-described as "a not-for-profit, non-governmental organization with an international mission to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS throughout the African Diaspora by building the capacity of faith communities to provide AIDS education and support networks for all people living and affected by HIV/AIDS").

EVENT ORGANIZER/SPEAKER: Coretta Bush, whose father - Reverend Doctor J. Albert Bush - is the pastor at Walker Memorial Baptist Church. Ms. Bush formerly worked as a Corrections Officer in a prison HIV/AIDS ward. What she observed and her conversations with prisoners prompted her to petition the state governor to make condoms and more effective counseling specific to safe-sex and HIV/AIDS available to incarcerated prisoners and those being released.

MISTRESS OF CEREMONIES: Yours truly. I have conducted a number of consulting and research projects addressing various aspects of HIV/AIDS. For example, I consulted with Reverend Evans and other members of the Tri-County HIV/AIDS Coalition several years ago to create and conduct a survey of faith-based institutions in Westchester, Rockland and Orange Counties to address the very questions raised in key topic (2) above. [The survey received kudos from the New York State Department of Health.] In another example, I volunteered as a researcher with Cornell's Anxiety Disorders Clinic to study the incidence of post-traumatic stress disorder among people diagnosed with HIV/AIDS.

I look forward to learning a lot today and to fellowshipping with other attendees. Come join us.###