Contributors
Kara Kovalchik
“Sure, I'll check it out.”
Ever since she was old enough to have homework, Kara was asking her dad for help. And whenever she asked, he’d tell her the same thing: Go look it up. Kara’s been looking stuff up ever since. She’s now into her 15th year researching and writing about facts and trivia. For the past seven years, Kara has worked as research editor at mental_floss magazine. She’s the co-writer of four books, and her work has appeared in Reader’s Digest, cnn.com, and nytimes.com.
Read: Six Famous Actors and the Big TV Roles They Turned Down
David Hornik
“Yes — a real profession.”
That was David’s reply when his mother asked about his becoming a venture capitalist. In 2000, he left his position as an intellectual property attorney and joined August Capital, a venture capital firm based in Menlo Park, California. Seven years ago, he started a VC blog (David thinks it’s the first of its kind) in hopes that his mother would finally understand that he was in a real profession. David says that despite his best efforts, his mom still has her doubts.
Sally McGraw
“It’s easy to look smart.”
A Minneapolis-based blogger, freelance writer, and communications pro, Sally is faithful to the daily upkeep of her style and body-image blog. Sha has also blogged for glamour.com and capessa.com. Sally welcomes all readers who want to post on her site. She also hires herself out for style consultations and loves that she can get paid for telling people what to wear. Her advice is available “live” for people who live in the Twin Cities and by email for anyone else.
Robert Rowland Smith
“What’s really behind the trivial stuff of everyday life?”
Author, lecturer, scholar, and consultant Robert Rowland Smith finds many unexpected answers to this question in his book, Breakfast with Socrates. By applying the thoughts and teachings of the world’s great philosophers to the perfunctory and seemingly innocuous actions of our daily lives, Robert introduces a new framework from which we can view ourselves and the world. He spent the first part of his career as a Prize Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford, and the second as a partner in a leading firm of management consultants. Robert lives in London with his wife and has three daughters.
Bob Sprankle
“So . . . what about Bob?”
A recipient of Maine’s Technology Teacher of the Year award, Bob is a technology integrator in a K–4 elementary school, where he preps over 500 kids for tech skills in the 21st century. His students have received wide recognition for their Room 208 podcast, which has been covered in the New York Times and on Apple’s Education site. Bob co-hosts a weekly podcast for teachers called Seedlings, surfs the Web on his iPhone, and throws his back out playing Wii.
Mary Buffett
“Warren is a genius.”
There’s no denying Warren Buffett’s place in the American pantheon of investment gods. Mary, who was married to Warren’s son for 12 years, has partnered again with “Buffettologist” David Clark to coauthor their sixth book on the investment and fi nance management strategies of the Oracle of Omaha. This month, we’re happy to present the opening chapter of their latest effort, Warren Buffett’s Management Secrets, available this month.
Read: Warren Buffett’s Management Secrets: Proven Tools for Personal and Business Success
Robert Tuchman
“Sports and travel!”
Working for Lehman Brothers in his early 20s, Robert realized that his passion — sports and travel — was taking a back seat. He resigned to start his own company,with the goal of providing travel experiences to major sporting events such as the Super Bowl and the World Cup. After achieving early success, Robert sold his business. He now writes about sports and travel. His work can be found at espn.com and on his own site at 100sportingevents.com.
Jacqui Cheng
“Not taking risks is risky.”
A self-described nerd with the gift of good writing skills, Jacqui moved from multimedia development to writing full time for Ars Technica. Her beat? “All things gadget-y, Apple-y, and Internetty.” Her main focus is the human side of technology and how people use new tools to get things done and connect with each other. In her free time, Jacqui tries her hand at cooking, running, cycling, and sewing, but says she’s “always online — even when I shouldn’t be.
April White
“Here’s where to go next.”
The first issue of this new year also marks the debut of an annual cover theme we will run every January. The theme is top travel destinations for the new year. And our travel guru, April White, has cited 17 top destinations — each desirable for a unique reason — that should be on your “to go” travel list for 2010. April, an avid traveler whose home base is Philadelphia, did extensive research to recommend the top locales within the US Airways system.
Karen Dillon
“Recession is the mother of reinvention.”
As editor of the Harvard Business Review, Karen has had a busy fall. She’s been overseeing a redesign of her magazine for a debut this month. After talking to readers over the past year, Karen and her staff have fine-tuned the content to better match their readers’ desire for relevance to current business and economic realities. She lives in the Boston area with her husband (whom she met while working in London as editor of The American Lawyer) and their two young daughters. Karen finds respite on the shores of Gloucester, where she loves to quietly absorb the sights and smells of the ocean.
Dov Seidman
“Outbehaving competitors beats outperforming them.”
In 2007, Dov Seidman authored a bestseller, How: Why HOW We Do Anything Means Everything … in Business (and in Life). While the book is written for anyone involved in business, its application is for everyone. A graduate of UCLA, Oxford, and Harvard Law, Dov has a unique message for our times. His astute observations about human nature, culture, economics, history, and business blend into a critically acclaimed work that’s informative, compelling, and motivational. This year, his book has been republished in Brazil, China, Germany, and Korea.
Emily Cox and Henry Rathvon
“We work with a set of 26.”
That’s the number of choices when fi lling in any crossword puzzle square. It’s really not a lot, less in fact than the number of items on many restaurant menus. But it’s the unique confi guration of letters, not the number, that makes a great crossword. Henry and Emily, our puzzle gurus for the past 12 years, are among the best at their trade. You’ll see their work in every issue of our magazine — as well as the New York Times, Boston Globe, and Condé Nast Traveler.
Karen Leland
“What's for lunch?”
If Karen looks familiar, it might be because you’ve seen her on The Today Show, Good Morning America, Oprah, or CNN talking about work-life balance. Or you may have seen her byline in Self, Woman’s Day, or The Huffington Post. She is the author of seven books, most recently Time Management in an Instant. We’re sure that her advice is solid: She also finds time to head up the active Sterling Marketing Group and is an accomplished painter and actor.
Larry Olmsted
“Tee it up? Anytime.”
Saying that Larry plays a lot of golf is a vast understatement. His most famous outing? A 24-hour marathon of 7,496 miles that earned him a Guinness World Record for the “Greatest Distance Between Two Rounds of Golf Played in the Same Day.” (He followed that up with a book titled Getting Into Guinness, a humorous account of his adventure, published last year.) Larry has authored over a thousand articles on golf travel and writes a weekly column for USA Today.
Katherine Dudley Hoehn
observationsindailylife.blogspot.com
“It’s my time now.”
A recovering former D.C.-based lobbyist, Katherine has been unemployed since January — and much to her delight. She’s used her time to travel, write, pursue her love of photography, and enjoy the outdoors (especially at her family’s rural cabin in Kentucky, “where it’s so dark you can see a million stars”). She is now writing about and working to compile more than 700 letters her father wrote in WWII. Katherine is headed to Spain and Portugal in 2010.
Michelle Cantrell
“Women: Love Yourself.”
A full-time mother of two daughters, Michelle decided a few years ago to combine her passion for writing with her mission to promote self-acceptance among women and girls. The result is her Web site, VenusVision, where she provides info and inspiration to combat many of the negative media messages that exploit women's insecurities. When she's not blogging, Michelle travels, reads, and enjoys good food and wine. She resides in Virginia.
Catherine Barker
deardavelieberman.blogspot.com
“I'd like a home in Paris.”
Her parents knew something was up when, at a young age, she developed a taste for chicken hearts. Her inner gourmet broke free at age 16 while spending a summer in Belgium. It was there she learned how homemade mayo and chunky waffles dipped in chocolate can change a life. They changed hers — after that trip, her goal was to travel and taste. Now living in D.C., Catherine is determined to have a second home in Paris, where she can blog more about food.
LeNell Smothers
“I love gin, sin, and men.”
LeNell defines herself primarily as a bartender but notes that on many occasions she's been called worse. She claims Alabama as her birthplace but has explored the whole country. In Brooklyn, she ran her own liquor store and had her own whiskey label (Red Hook Rye). Now in La Paz in Mexico's Baja California Sur, she is launching Casa Cóctel, a "libation B&B haven." She is planning to have her new Web site — casacoctel.com — up and running soon.
Read: The Lost Wager
Lee Eisenberg
“How do we decide what to buy — and why?”
In 2006, Lee Eisenberg, former award-winning editor of Esquire magazine, wrote The Number: A Completely Different Way to Think About the Rest of Your Life. The book quickly became a New York Times bestseller. This month, we're happy to offer an excerpt from his brand-new book, Shoptimism: Why the American Consumer Will Keep on Buying No Matter What. Eisenberg breaks down his subject into two parts: "Them Versus You" (the sell side) and "You Versus You" (the buyer's psychology). The book is smartly written, informed, and provocatively amusing.
Read: Shoptimism
Kara Williams
“Ready? Let's go!”
Being married with two young children has little effect on Kara's love for travel. With her home base in Colorado, she's a big fan of family weekends at the ski resorts of the Rockies and camping forays in the parks of America's Southwest. For longer getaways, she and her family go for sun, sand, and surf — typically places like Florida, Mexico, and Hawaii. She also makes an annual summer trip to her roots in New Hampshire. Kara blogs for practicaltravelgear.com as well.
Julie Anderson
chubbymommyrunningclub.blogspot.com
“It's middle-aged angst.”
A 40-something mom in Bend, Oregon, Julie is a freelance writer and the founder of the Chubby Mommy Running Club, a blog she, writes to "pretend I'm,actually getting into shape." When not blogging, running, or, mothering, she takes long walks with her husband, Rhett, during which they think of cool companies to start. Sometimes they have to work at real jobs in order to buy food for their three children and organic kibble for their two dogs.
Dr. Jason Fowler
“Treat the whole person.”
A firm believer in looking at all aspects of his patients' health, Jason practices at Lake Saint Louis Chiropractic. He is an avid blogger who keeps abreast of the latest in technology as well as the newest and best natural vitamins and minerals. When not treating patients or blogging, he spends time with his wife and young son, tackles remodeling projects, and (when he can) watches his favorite baseball team, the St. Louis Cardinals.
Read: Smart Stretching
Claire Litton
“How do you find the time?”
That's what people usually want to know after Claire lists her professional obligations. "I'm a professional belly-dancer, freelance personal assistant, photographer's assistant, and the most requested figure model in Pittsburgh." She’s also an avid scuba diver. Claire recently earned a scholarship that will take her to Australia to study for an M.S. in clinical psychology. We found her post on vagablogging.net, but she also maintains her own blog at travelingclaire.blogspot.com.
Read: Twittering the World
Joe Posnanski
“I write long posts.”
To say that Joe is prolific is an understatement. Want proof? Check out his Web site. Aside from being a sports columnist for the Kansas City Star, he is a frequent contributor to Sports Illustrated, a book author (currently working on one about the 1975 Cincinnati Reds, but he's behind because of his habit of writing long blogs), and an award winner for his fine journalism. He's also humble, admitting on his site that his blog is a look into his "confused mind."
Read: Sneaker Phones
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