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no one else does…

…personally, I try to hit the Cult of Innovation.

Basically, I brainstorm.

And not the sort of brainstorming everyone thinks they already do… the sort of prevalent New Age foppery where management teams in earnest meeting rooms in the company headquarters call an all-hands meeting and invite everyone to stare at a travel agent’s poster of Milan and attempt to inspire the drones to imagine themselves thinking in some new manner, somewhere else, besides their dreary lives and in even drearier cubicles… …no, I mean the sort of new-thing-every-five-seconds sort of innovation, where you mentally reinvent the wheel four different times while setting that better mousetrap as you star in your own beloved sitcom and approve your likeness on the unbreakable plastic cup Seven-Eleven is offering with this summer’s Slurpees. I mean the sort of innovation that inspires a whole new way of looking at things, a leap of faith, and a unique reinterpretation of How Things Work, all rolled into one. So, not to put too fine a point on it, the question really shouldn’t be "Where do you get your ideas?" but rather, "What do I do with my ideas once I have them?"

And, you know… with that one…

…I’m not going to be much help.

You’ve gotta answer that one on your own.

But I will impart this: your emphasis should not be so much on the "what" part of the equation as it should be on the "do."

Or, as my coarse and somewhat earthy Dad says, "Do something, even if it’s wrong."

But then, my Dad’s a Man of Action.

Sixteen Tons July 6, 2001

The only thing that cheeses me off more than late-delivered comics is the inbred, born-in-the-back-of-a-truck, isn’t-it-a-shame-when-cousins-marry, I’ve-got-a-BA-in-Liberal-Arts, pabulum-eating, micro-brew-drinking, $80 haircut-having jarheads that pass for "civilized" members of our fair city.

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