As biological organisms, it is in our nature to move away from discomfort and move towards comfort. Interestingly, this can serve as a disincentive to economic growth. We can see this, readily, in a simple example of personal economics.

How many families adhere to a strict program of saving some money, each and every week? Now, certainly, many people struggle to pay their weekly bills. So, the thought of saving money seems out of the question. The operative word here is seems. For example, how many of us feel that we cannot get through the day without making a few cell phone calls or sending a few text messages? How many snack foods or sodas do we feel we must have to simply exist? Is this really true? What if we curtailed our habits just a bit? How much money might we save over time?

However, the challenge of saving money is that while it can help us create wealth – and consequently more and greater comfort in the long run – in the short run it might make us feel uncomfortable, because we have to give up certain things we have gotten used to.

Where does Greece go from here? Faced with a harsh curtailment of spending and services, I would guess they will leave the Euro, return to the Drachma and attempt, to print their way out of their predicament. Of course, this will cause wealth destruction, punish people who are savers and throw that nation into greater tumult. We might read that as potentially greater discomfort.

And Europe as a whole? Might Spain follow Greece’s lead? I do not know, but we could see a domino effect in Europe. Perhaps, the best we can hope for is the greatest contradiction in terms; orderly chaos – chaos restricted within a range of possibilities -rather than out and out random chaos – a seemingly redundant concept.

You can reach me with your questions and comments at Jay@CYinterview.com

What, however, of mothers who have never had or adopted children. Do we recognize their contributions on an individual as well as a societal level?

Some of you might be scratching your heads. “Mothers who have never had or adopted children?” you are asking yourselves, “Isn’t that a contradiction in terms?” And the answer is yes, mothers who have never had or adopted children and no it is not a contradiction in terms.

There is being a mother by way of biology. There is being a mother by way of adoption. And there is being a mother by way of action, even when it is not supported by biology or adoption. What of all the aunts, cousins, next door neighbors and friends – women who do not have children of their own – who often step into the role of mother but do it without carrying that title?

These women often act in the same ways as “official” mothers. They work as caretakers and educators. And they bestow upon those in their charge much love.

Where would society be without the aunt who, having no children of her own, freely nurtures her nieces and nephews? Often, these aunts share in the process of child rearing to such an extent that the actual mothers of these children have more time available to work or pursue an education. What is the net economic benefit of this to society?

What about the neighbor who might not work and might not have children of her own but is always there with a helping hand to care for neighborhood kids? And, of course, what of the childless godmother who gives her all in the raising of her godchildren? Not only do these good women provide essential love to these children, they have a positive economic impact on society.

Let’s give thanks to all mothers, grandmothers, great-grandmothers, etc., not simply those with the official title but those who fulfill that role by way of action. Women who are childless yet take upon themselves the role of mother make a valuable contribution to society, economically and otherwise.

*A very smart person made me aware of this powerful concept of mothers who have never had or adopted children. I thank them.

Image: Salvatore Vuono / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

*Authors note: You might see this column pop up online in a newspaper, under the name Both Sides. I am publishing this column here first at CYInterview.com. For a bunch of years, I have been writing newspaper columns. Since my columns have received a good response on CYInterview, I thought I would share it with you. Hope you enjoy.

You can reach me with your questions and comments at Jay@CYinterview.com

In this CYInterview, you will gain some interesting insights into nail care and aesthetics, in addition to hearing some tidbits about Jenna’s celebrity clients. You can read the highlights and listen to our conversation in its entirety below:

Listen to the entire Jenna Hipp CYInterview:

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When speaking first about the latest trends in nail styling, the beauty industry veteran says the following:

“It’s funny to hear you say nail styling because I created that term because there was no term for celebrity. Everyone, we were just called celebrity manicurists and I didn’t want to be called a celebrity manicurist because what I did was so much more than being a celebrity manicurist. So I made up the term nail stylist like five years ago. So now, it’s really fun to see other people are starting to use the term… Starting to see the trends change is just seeing how nails have evolved in just the last five years…I create the trends…As me and other nail artists that are in the industry we’re all good friends and a lot of us in New York too have really worked hard to get the technology that has been coming our way onto the celebrities which in turn makes them more popular.”

With Ms. Hipp’s belief in all things green and eco-friendly, she tells us she does not use any beauty products on her clients that contain hazardous chemicals. Jenna says this is a big issue in the beauty industry, where there things are that might be harmful to health.

“It’s basically impossible to find hand and foot care [products] that don’t have parabens and sulfates and tons of chemicals and fragrances in them. So I use more skin care products…but they’re not hand and foot products at all. They’re skin care for your face and for your body and I just use them for your nails and I find that my clients so appreciate the fact that I’m not using products that contain harsh chemicals on them… It’s my mission to educate people and make them excited not about, not make them scared about what they’ve been dealing with, but make them excited about new alternatives and new technology that’s coming our way or even just taking it back to the basics, cleaning with baking soda and lemon juice. You know, you don’t need Clorox.”

One of Jenna’s celebrity clients is past CYInterview guest Zoe Saldana [see here]. She talks about Zoe – the lead actress in Avatar – as well one of this year’s Oscar nominated actresses, Michelle Williams.

“Zoe, she’s just such a free spirit and she’s just so open and so, I mean she walks in the room and no makeup and no hair done, but she’s got the most fabulous outfit on and the most perfect shoes and the most perfect handbag. She’s so put together and so classy, but then she sits down and she’s just like, is like the girl from you know the Bronx. I mean it’s just the funniest thing I’ve ever seen, but she’s so relatable in so many ways and to so many people. I just feel so privileged…

She’s [Michelle Williams] on a completely different spectrum. Zoe is just very laughy and outgoing and very, very bubbly all the time whereas Michelle is very calm and very Zen. You walk into the room and you feel like you know everything is just gonna be ok, nothing’s wrong and it’s never chaotic around her. She does have you know her very close friend Busy Phillips with her getting ready all the time. So it’s just so fun. I feel like it’s like you know little girls getting ready and to be able to watch them play and laugh. They’ve been friends forever so I feel like I’m involved in their secret little world.”

Speaking about French manicures, Jenna says it is time to move on from a style that is no longer cutting edge:

“I’m not a fan of the French manicures at all anyway. I think at the time it was revolutionary and it was great, but now what’s happened is that with the length and with the shape that has, the square shape and the long square shape of the French manicure is just the biggest no, no really because the porn industry is taking it over and it’s, you will not see it on celebrities, but you’ll see it all throughout the Midwest. They still have their big long gels and their big long acrylics and it’s time to take them off.”

Focusing on the French pedicure, the celebrity nail stylist believes that style should have never taken foot:

“I think French pedicures should never happen and should never have happened and should never happen again. And I love a natural looking toe, but definitely to make your toe look like it needs to be cut is not a look that I think is attractive at all.”

In these challenging economic times, the beauty stylist tells us what she believes is the best way for women to save money on their nails and make them longer lasting:

“Don’t have impulse buys. Go through your wardrobe and go through your makeup kit and figure out colors that you’re gonna be able to wear with all of your clothes and your makeup and find complimentary colors. Don’t see a color and be like, ‘Oh my gosh, I love that color.’ And not think about what it’s gonna look on my skin tone or what it’s gonna look like with different outfits because then you get home and realize you’re never gonna use it. You put it in a drawer somewhere and then you don’t wear it for three years and then you grab it and use it and it chips off and it goes bad…The nail polish only lasts like a year. So get a color with what your when and where you’re gonna wear it.”

Jenna Hipp’s official website is here.

You can find more information about Nailing Hollywood here.

You can email Chris Yandek at ChrisYandek@CYInterview.com Chris is available for interviews to comment on anything featured on CYInterview.

You can follow Chris Yandek on Twitter here.

Below you can read the highlights and listen to the entire CYInterview for some interesting insights from one of America’s most successful fiction writers today and learn about her latest book, titled Deadlocked:

Listen to the entire Charlaine Harris CYInterview:

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In October 2008, Charlaine Harris became the only author to have an entire series on the New York Times bestsellers list for her books on which the the HBO series True Blood is based. She believes fantasy fiction gets a bump in sales during challenging economic times.

“I think people particularly in economically depressed times are anxious to read something that really doesn’t bare much relationship to their daily life. So fantasy fiction also traditionally takes a bump in sales during depressed economic times…That was pretty soon after True Blood started airing and though my books had been selling very, very well before that, the screening of True Blood just gave them a huge bump and I was the beneficiary of that bump and all the books started selling suddenly even more than they had before. So it just, all the numbers just combined and that incredible week happened.”

When looking at her 30 years writing books, Ms. Harris reflects about what it takes to write good fiction and looks at how the Sookie Stackhouse series came together and what it takes to make a good series of books:

“I think you have to have a conviction that you have a story to tell and that you really think people will enjoy reading it. I think you have to have a lot of determination. I guess you just have to write what entertains you and hope that it will also entertain other people…Having started the series, there is a lot of pressure. I have to say most of it was self applied in the hopes that each book would be better than the one proceeding it. Sometimes I make my target, sometimes I don’t, but I always try. The first book was a hard sell. I’d been published many years before when I wrote conventional mysteries, but the first book was a leap for me. It was out of the genre people were use to me being in and it took a long time for my agent to sell it.”

NY Times Bestselling Author Charlaine Harris

Commenting on the latest book from the Sookie Stackhouse series titled Deadlocked, Charlaine shares with us what her goals were. The character Sookie Stackhouse is telepathic, has a vampire boyfriend and deals with many challenges in her daily life. Deadlocked opens with Sookie and her female friends at a male strip club:

“There was a lot to tie together, a certain amount of plot threads that I had to end or resolve in some way. Plus I had to show her further development as a character and the events and the various supernatural communities and human communities that comprise her world…I just thought it would be a good note to start the book on, not any blood and guts, something that has a serious undertone when one of the people there realize it’s her husband up on the stage. For research I talked extensively to a male stripper.”

With the vampire craze sweeping America in recent years, from the Twilight movies to the HBO series True Blood inspired by her books, Ms. Harris has given the most interesting answer I’ve heard to date on why vampire entertainment has been a hot sell in recent years:

“I think aside from the escape into fantasy in general, maybe vampires in particular because Americans are always trying to look younger than they are. They’re always trying to perfect themselves physically and vampires are frozen at the moment they were turned which was usually at their physical peak. I think that’s kinda the American ideal to be forever as you are. Not to age or change.”

With the age of technology continuing to move along at what some would say is warp speed, Charlaine gives her thoughts on the state of literacy in America and people reading books on electronic devices:

“I thought about it extensively as you might imagine, but as a matter of fact, I think that books being on small screens will actually encourage reading because people now are conditioned to look at screens. They love their little gadgets that they carry with them and I’m not trying to sound patronizing, I’ve got my own little gadgets, but I think since the advent of eBooks, I think reading is up. I actually think more people are reading because they can do it on a device they can carry with them in their pocket.”

With 30 years of writing fiction, NY Times Bestselling success and books translated into 20 languages, Charlaine Harris says tells us what she’s most proud of in her writing career:

“My greatest accomplishment is producing a book I’m proud of and looking back on a scene and saying I did that right. There are a handful of things in the books I’ve written in my life, maybe you know five to ten scenes when I think I just did that as well as I ever could even if I look at in ten years I’ll say, ‘I did the best on that I could ever do.’ And I’m really proud of that. I wish I could sustain that for a whole book, but writing like everything else has different levels of excellence and you just have to keep striving. Writing is never easy no matter how many years you do it, unfortunately.”

You can find more information and purchase a copy of Charlaine Harris’s Deadlocked here

The following dates are listed below for Charlaine Harris’s Deadlocked book tour:

May 4: CHARLESTON, SC @ 7 PM
Barnes & Noble, 1812 Rittenberg Blvd., Charleston, SC

May 5: LEXINGTON, KY @ 7 PM
Joseph-Beth Booksellers, 161 Lexington Green Circle, Lexington, KY

May 6: CHARLOTTE, NC @ 3 PM
Barnes & Noble, 3327 Pineville-Matthews Rd., Charlotte, NC

May 7: WINSTON-SALEM, NC @ 7 PM
Bookmarks, 2133 Bethabara Rd., Winston-Salem, NC

May 8: MEMPHIS, TN @ 7 PM
That Bookstore in Blytheville, 316 W. Main St., Blytheville, AR

May 9: JACKSON, MS @ 7 PM
Barnes & Noble, 1000 Highland Colony Parkway, Ridgeland, MS

May 10: BATON ROUGE, LA @ 7 PM
Barnes & Noble, 25900 Citiplace Court, Baton Rouge, LA

May 11: HOUSTON, TX @ 7 PM
Murder by the Book, 2342 Bissonnet St., Houston, TX

May 12: AUSTIN, TX @ 7 PM
Bookpeople, 603 North Lamar, Austin, TX

Charlaine Harris’s official website is here.

You can email Chris Yandek at ChrisYandek@CYInterview.com Chris is available for interviews to comment on anything featured on CYInterview.

You can follow Chris Yandek on Twitter here.

We are pleased to be joined by the director of 65_RedRoses, Phillip Lyall, to discuss his documentary which works to educate people about the disease. May is Cystic Fibrosis month. 65_RedRoses airs this Thursday night at 9:00 PM EST, on the Oprah Winfrey Network [OWN].

You can read the highlights of our conversation, as well as listen to the entire CYInterview below:

Listen to the entire Phillip Lyall CYInterview:

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Speaking of 65_RedRoses, Phillip shares his experiences and thoughts on doing a documentary about Cystic Fibrosis:

“We show the struggle of someone trying to live her life. You know, it’s an invisible disease and it’s a young person’s disease. So you look at them and they don’t look sick, but it’s something that’s internal and so I really think that it, the film shows a struggle of you know going to the hospital, living that life and then having to go back out into the real world and trying to live your life like a normal person. So I think we do capture some of that.”

Though there is currently no cure for Cystic Fibrosis, Mr. Lyall stresses the importance of people becoming organ donors to assist in giving someone with a disease, or any health challenge calling for an organ transplant, a chance at a longer life:

“It is a genetic disease right. So what they know is they are able to isolate the gene, but they’re not sure how to eradicate it. So the only thing they can do right now is obviously people can be tested before they, you know, give birth to their child while they’re pregnant. They can go in and get tested for the Cystic Fibrosis gene and then from there, of course, they can make a choice on whether to go on with the pregnancy or not…The organ donation is the huge thing because especially in Canada, there is a very, there’s a lack of organ donors and there’s a lot of people waiting on the list, especially a lot of young people, where people think it’s older, there’s actually a lot of young people waiting for organs, so for us it’s kind of like, oh my God, everyone should be an organ donor regardless of your religion or what you believe in.”

In the documentary, social networking is shown being used by three women sharing their experiences of dealing with the disease. The documentary filmmaker gives his thoughts on how this kind of communication has changed the way in which people are dealing with health challenges:

“This was sort of the B, C plot of the documentary is that while she’s [Eva] waiting for lungs, she’s isolated in this room and she can’t talk to other CF patients in person because of the threat of spreading infections, she went online because she’s a very social person. She needed that connection and also even though she had family and friends, all of this amazing support system, they don’t have Cystic Fibrosis, they’re not waiting for a transplants. They do not understand the full impact of what she’s going through.

So to go online and it was this live journal site at first where she’s started talking to people, she’s posting about her feelings, her wants in life and these are young girls, these are women that are at a point in their life where they’re just growing up, they’re coming out of university, they’re falling in love for the first time. So it was such a beautiful thing to see how she connected so deeply with people she’s never met before.”

65_RedRoses airs Thursday night at 9:00 PM EST on the Oprah Winfrey Network. You can find more out about the documentary at www.65redroses.com.

Find more information about the Oprah Winfrey Newtork Documentary Club here.

You can email Chris Yandek at ChrisYandek@CYInterview.com Chris is available for interviews to comment on anything featured on CYInterview.

You can follow Chris Yandek on Twitter here.

In many contexts, it is easy to see that communication is persuasive. When a person has a clear objective and makes it readily known, we can tell that what they are doing is an act of persuasion. For example, imagine your friends are discussing what restaurant to eat at. You say, “I would love some Italian food,” or “You know, there are lots of good restaurants to go to, but I hear Mediterranean cuisine is very healthy.” It should seem obvious you are working to influence their decision. You are attempting to persuade them to go where you want to go.

However, what about when someone says good morning to you or simply says hello? Could that possibly be persuasive communication? Isn’t it just part of basic dialog which carries with it no persuasive component? I say no.

Every time we speak, we are doing that speaking from a unique point of view. We are speaking from our particular vantage point in the world. What is persuasive about saying hello to someone? On one level, it is an act of courtesy which seeks to persuade another person that, at the very least, we are courteous. But it is more than that.

Every single time we speak, no matter how banal the topic, no matter how short the message, we are planting a flag of personal, existential significance. In an often complex and confusing world, we want to persuade others, as well as ourselves, that we exist. When we speak, it is at very least a persuasive cry to be paid attention to.

The challenge we have when we discuss communication is that we often fail to realize that any piece of communication: spoken, written, body language, etc, has a goal – stated or unstated, conscious or subconscious. When we wake up to the reality that communication by its very nature is persuasive, we become better able to take in the messages we are receiving and contextualize them with our own perspectives, needs and desires.

Becoming a better communicator means becoming more persuasive. The first step to becoming more persuasive is being able to understand the fundamental nature of communication in the first place.

Image: Master isolated images / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

You can reach me with your questions and comments at Jay@CYinterview.com

In a philosophy course I took in college, the professor started out by stating that one of the most basic philosophical quests is to discern appearance from reality. I accepted what my professor said without question. Years later, I happened upon a book about philosophy. In it, the writer offered that, “Appearance is not apart from reality, it is a part of reality.” A light bulb went off in my brain.

Those of us who are enamored by substance – and we should be – often become dismissive of appearance. We claim that how something looks is unimportant. We only care about how it functions. While this utilitarian mentality sounds noble, it lacks a fundamental understanding of how people come to conclusions.

Some questions:

Would you go to a toothless dentist?
Would you go to a nutritionist who is obese?
Would you go to a hair stylist whose own hair looks like it had been styled with garden tools?

I suspect your answers to the above questions are no. But think about it. In each case, the above mentioned people might be very good at what they do. The issue is that they do not look the part. There is a lack of congruence. You see, for better or for worse, we take image into consideration when judging performance.

So, for example, if you are in business you might want to think about how your appearance affects your sales. An individual does not have to be a movie star to have a sound professional image. However, keeping in mind certain basics like grooming and neatness can go a long way to aid us in our endeavors.

Being able to accomplish something is not always enough to be successful. Frequently, we must look like we can accomplish it as well, in order to be given the opportunity to demonstrate our abilities. Is this fair? We will leave that philosophical question for another time.

Image: Idea go / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

*Authors note: You might see this column pop up online in a newspaper, under the name Both Sides. I am publishing this column here first at CYInterview.com. For a bunch of years, I have been writing newspaper columns. Since my columns have received a good response on CYInterview, I thought I would share it with you. Hope you enjoy.

You can reach me with your questions and comments at Jay@CYinterview.com

In recent months, mainstream media outlets have discussed the state of the Senate, particularly its seeming lack of getting much accomplished. Members of Congress have seemed to forget the art of compromise. With this in mind, and with his new book out, we are pleased to have had the opportunity to speak with former Senator Specter. During this CYInterview, featured columnist Jay Bildstein continued to put forward his solutions to change the environment in Congress:

Below you can read the entire transcript or listen to the entire CYInterview:

Listen to the entire Alren Specter CYInterview:

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Chris Yandek: Senator, thank you so much for joining us today. We really, greatly appreciate it and I want to get right into it with you and say you know, looking at one of the biggest messages of the book, you talk about the lack of centrists, the lack of moderates, the lack of people in Washington willing to meet in the middle. The question I have for you as you very well know, Maine’s Olympia Snowe has recently retired because she can’t deal with not being able to be a moderate. How are we ever going to get anything accomplished in Congress? How are we ever gonna get anything accomplished in the Senate if we can’t have people meet in the middle, if we can’t have people compromising?

Arlen Specter: “The perspective answer has been supplied by what happened to Senator Murkowski in Alaska. We’ve had a situation where the extremes have taken control of both parties where you have a strong senator like Bob Bennett in Utah with a 93 percent conservative rating, can’t win a Republican primary because of a single vote. Similarly you have an outstanding senator like Joe Lieberman from Connecticut who can’t win a Democratic primary.

Well, with Senator Lisa Murkowski, she was opposed in a primary by a Tea Party candidate, she was defeated, but she came back to win a write in. And you know how hard it is to write in Murkowski. If you put a y instead of an I, your ballot’s thrown out. But that showed and she won the primary statewide, virtually unprecedented move in American political history. It shows that if you acquaint the people with the nature of the problem and motivate them, but you can get the center out to put a moderate in government. I think that could be a microcosm of what could be done in this 2012 election.”

CY: Well, I know that Jay is gonna want to talk with you about the center and he’ll have some ideas for you that we’ve been talking about with so many high profile people in politics, so Jay why don’t you go ahead.

Jay Bildstein: Well, Senator Specter first of all, thank you for being with us here today. It’s an honor to be speaking with you. To follow up on what Chris said, you know, you make this point and I really take to mean that for our nation to be led well it’s gotta be led from the center, certainly not from the far left, certainly not from the far right. But for a nation to be led well we need leaders and to me, and I think to many Americans, to be a leader means to lead by example.

Now in our current economic climate, where meaningful adjustments are gonna have to be made to insure the financial well being of the nation, I’ve put forward and I’ve spoken to this to a number of people. One of the last folks we just spoke to is somebody who I regard very highly, former U.S. Comptroller General David Walker and I put forward a three point fiscal leadership plan which consists of the following: One, the Congress, president and vice president need to take a 50 percent pay cut in salaries because after all currently, we’re practically borrowing half the money, which is being paid to them and which is using to go to fund most of the programs of the nation and they have to give up their rich after office benefits. Two, we need a lifetime embargo on lobbying. And three, there need to be term limits. I wonder what your thoughts on that type of plan are?

AS: “Well, I think that if you cut the president’s salary by 50 percent it would be symbolic, but it wouldn’t save you a lot of money. When you talk about lobbying, I think there you do put your finger on it, on an important nerve where there is too much influence by the lobbyists, too much political fundraising, too much bundling and really too much influence. Of course that’s only a fraction of the problem which you have in larger measure by the decision in Citizen’s United where now the Supreme Court is allowing corporations and unions to make unlimited and anonymous expenditures.

When you get to the subject of term limits, there I’m hesitant. You got a very tough ingrained bureaucracy. I served as Chairman of the Intelligence Committee. Let me tell you, it’s tough to find out what the CIA is doing. They led us astray on the weapons of mass destruction that they said Saddam Hussein found. We sent out Collin Powell, Secretary of State, former National Security Counselor, chief of staff, four star general, couldn’t find it out. I’d be reluctant to cut into term limits. I think if the voters would become informed and aroused, they could impose the proper limits on the guys who ought to be out, guys and gals.”

JB: Senator, do you think that there’s a reason that some, not all, but that some people in Congress have, at least it seems to me, a lot of people we’ve spoken to kind of act in a way that is not kind of congruent with what the average American is dealing with. I mean, I read all the time, all these different kind of fiscal plans looking to solve the financial and economic ills of the United States of America.

Don’t you think we should be in a nation where the people who lead us and have to make the tough fiscal decisions, if they ask the every man or the every woman, “Hey! Pull your belt in two notches,” shouldn’t they be willing to pull their belt in four notches to kind of say, “Look” – like a good leader in a battle, like a good platoon sergeant – “Look, guys. I’m in front of you. I’m not behind you saying take that hill. I’m in front of you saying follow me,”?

Shouldn’t we at least work to do something in Congress, where American people – David Walker said we’re gonna have to renegotiate the social insurance contract of America; I think he knows what he’s talking about – don’t you think we’re gonna have to ask our leaders somehow to do a bit more than they ask of the general public to kind of raise morale and say, “It’s not Washington hypocrisy,”?

AS: “Yeah. But what I would ask the leaders to do is to better understand the American people. I would insist that the leaders have town meetings and meet the people and listen to them and find out what is on their minds. I made it a point in 30 years to cover virtually every county, virtually every year. When I turned up for my town meetings in 2009 when the Tea Party rebellion is starting to swell, had a very famous town meeting, 1200 people, stormed of the Bastille, shaking their fists in my face.

I’d make – before I’d elect somebody – I’d make him do town meetings and face the people and then I would insist that the person not run on a platform of no compromising. The meaningful thing that the leaders could do would be to be dedicated to a discussion across the isle, to vote their consciences and not to follow the strict party line. I think that would lead to sensible decisions. I would seek leadership on those really meaningful ways. Make those demands and make them stick or vote them out.”

CY: I think more so than anything else I agree with you on many of the things you’re saying, but you know looking at the future of the Senate as someone who was there for three decades, you know if we have people on the far left and we have people on the far right and no one is willing to compromise, no one is willing to meet in the middle, no one is willing to have some taxes raised with some cuts applied to a budget plan, how are we ever going to get any meaningful legislation done in the Senate going forward. Isn’t it just dysfunctional at this point?

AS: “Well, we have people there who do have substantial wisdom and substantial experience. And if they were confident enough to express their own views, that they wouldn’t be bushwhacked by the party for casting a single vote like Bob Bennett was or like I was, they’d be willing to speak up and they’d be willing to speak their consciences and put their ideas on the line. But right now, there is timidity, there is fear that if they do that a single votes gonna cost them their job and they’re not willing to make that kind of a sacrifice and they’re not enough with the people. How many members of Congress go face the people in a town meeting and are prepared to answer questions from the floor. That to me is the real litmus test.”

CY: I think I agree with you, what you’re saying is that, but people at the same time need to hold their public officials accountable. But what I say to you is when I look at that scenario, you know if you’re in Washington and you’re concerned about one vote that’s possibly gonna get you voted out, you’re really not being a public official. A public official is someone who goes to Washington to benefit the public and that means that they’re not worried about being a career politician.

And the problem we have with Washington right now Senator is we’ve got too many career politicians. We’ve got too many people who are concerned only about you know, continuing to have this public official job that they think is supposed to be a long term career from the private sector and that’s just not the case.

AS: “Well, you and I agree. I think a public official ought to follow his conscience as to what is in the public interest, not what will protect his job. Listen, great talking to you, but I gotta move on.”

CY: Well, thank you very much for your time senator. We greatly appreciate it.

JB: Thank you senator. Thank you very much. Have a very nice day.

AS: “Good talking. Thank you.”

You can purchase a copy and find out more information about Alren Specter’s book Life Among The Cannibals: A Political Career, a Tea Party Uprising, and the End of Governing As We Know It here

You can email Chris Yandek at ChrisYandek@CYInterview.com Chris and Jay are available for interviews to comment on anything featured on CYInterview.

You can follow Chris Yandek on Twitter here.

Listen to the entire Racquel Bailey CYInterview:

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Focusing on her billboard, Ms. Bailey is an example of someone who took a chance. Some people believe, that in life, things take time to develop, particularly with respect to opportunities and recognition in the film industry. Other individuals want to approach success in a different way, with hopes of more immediate results. Ms. Bailey had this to say about her billboard message:

“I’m an actress from New Jersey. I decided to put up a billboard in Atlanta, Georgia for the reasons to capture the attention of Tyler Perry. My billboard says, ‘Attention to the top filmmaker in Atlanta, I want to be your next leading lady.’”

In an attention grabbing entertainment industry, sometimes talent is overlooked. Ms. Bailey, however, is an example of a real talent who understands that if people do not know about you, your work or your abilities, the prospects for success are slim:

“What happens when you decide that you want to be an actress, it is a different profession other than becoming a doctor or a lawyer. There is no guarantee that you will have that great success. When I decided to put the billboard up, what would make me different than everybody else because that’s what really matters, what makes you stand out from the crowd and when you’re putting out headshots and resumes and you’re going through the routines of going back and forth to auditions and just hoping that you’ll get the call. And sometimes it’s who you know, sometimes it doesn’t even matter if you’re good or not and I decided to set myself apart from the pack.”

Racquel Bailey's Billboard to Tyler Perry

Racquel is not just someone taking a shot at being cast in a movie; she’s acted in Law and Order, various off Broadway performances and commercials. She is an experienced performer with skills. But as with so many things in life, it is all about being recognized by the right people:

“I’m not looking for just to be 15 minutes of fame. I’ve actually been doing this for about 10 years now, maybe even 11 professionally. I’m a working actress, but so many of us are. We’re working, but we’re not being recognized for our talent and ability ‘cause there’s so many of us striving for the same thing…I was a reporter on Law and Order. I’ve done many off Broadway productions. I’ve done, let’s see, Cleopatra, I’ve done For Colored Girls, I’ve done Down the River…I tend to kind of gravitate towards the classics.”

Ms. Bailey says she is open to other acting opportunities, even if Mr. Perry never contacts her. Her comments on the acting business should be of interest to fellow and aspiring performers:

“You have to want it. You have to be determined. It is not something that’s gonna come to you tomorrow. It is not for the weak. You have to be strong and be able to stand time because you can’t expect overnight success with this…I think what makes an actress very versatile is when she opens herself to work with many different directors and many different producers.”

Racquel Bailey has provided us with an important lesson. To succeed you have to make things happen. You have to take action and go after what you want. Hopefully, someone in Hollywood will give her a chance. She has big dreams:

“I have a quote that I like to live by and it says, ‘I have nothing to lose but everything to gain…I want the gold. I want the Oscar. I am gonna be honest with you. When I started, when I decided to become an actress, that’s what I’ve been working for. I want the Oscar.”

You can watch Racquel Bailey’s reel and find out more information about the actress at her official site http://www.racquelbailey.com

You can email Chris Yandek at ChrisYandek@CYInterview.com Chris is available for interviews to comment on anything featured on CYInterview.

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2 – Bamboozled is a word that does not seem to get used much anymore. Words come in and out of favor. Today’s cool word (is it still cool to say cool?) is often part of tomorrow’s embarrassing phrase. Thinking about this word, bamboozled, I wonder if someone, somehow, tricked me into writing about it. I am perplexed and puzzled by the thought of it.

3 – A man walks into a bar and asks for a napkin. The bartender, feeling like his establishment is being taken advantage of, gives a quick lecture on the tavern not being the paper goods section of the local grocery store. The man replies that he just wanted to have the napkin ready for when his drink was served. The bartender says no drink was asked for. The man says he was not given a chance to ask for a drink because he was being lectured about how the tavern is not the paper goods section of the local grocery store. Who is right and who is wrong? Does it matter? Assuming both the man and the bartender were honest in their intentions, what is the cure? What about better communication?

4 – When mysteries are revealed, puzzles solved and inventions created we tend to take the results for granted. Oh sure, initially we offer up praise. Soon after, however, we act as if those things were available to us all along. Hey, here’s a thought. Without an instruction book or the use of the Internet, go into a quiet room in your home. Sit down and design a computer. Then go build it from scratch. How do you think that will work out?

5 – A giraffe and a hippopotamus, distinct yet similar. People, distinct yet similar.

Image: Jomphong / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

*Authors note: You might see this column pop up online in a newspaper, under the name Both Sides. I am publishing this column here first at CYInterview.com. For a bunch of years, I have been writing newspaper columns. Since my columns have received a good response on CYInterview, I thought I would share it with you. Hope you enjoy.

You can reach me with your questions and comments at Jay@CYinterview.com