Every Monday, we're rounding up the things, small and big, that make us stop and think. Today, we're inspired by..."When you're 50, the best thing to do is dance the Argentinean tango."
-Performance artist Marina Abramović, discussing parties, silence, and her unconditional love for strangers, in Interview Magazine.

"Be fully awake to everything about you & the more you learn the more you can appreciate & get a full measure of joy & happiness out of life.”
-Jackson Pollock's father, LeRoy, in a 1928 letter to his son.

"Let me break it down for you: she’s writing herself into existence. She’s giving herself a part to play because, God knows, no one else will and she wants to matter in this life."
-Liz Phair on the self-creation of Lana Del Ray.

“She'd wake up like we do, look out the window just like us, rummage through her days, but somehow what caught her attention — a grasshopper's hop, an infant's fingernails, plankton, a snowflake — when Wislawa Szymborska noticed something, she noticed it so well, her gaze reshaped the thing she saw, gave it a dignity, a vividness.”
-NPR’s Robert Krulwich’s tribute to the Nobel-Prize-winning Polish poet who died last week.

Men! What are they thinking? We can't always answer that, but we'll be posting our favorite glimpses into their world in this space every Thursday.

Photo: Getty Images

* "With the inception of Soul Train, a young, progressive brother set the pace and worldwide standard for young aspiring African American men and entrepreneurs in TV—out of Chicago. He transcended barriers among young adults. They became one."—Aretha Franklin on Don Cornelius, who created and hosted Soul Train, and died this week at 75. (LA Times)

* The Man of the Century: Prince Charming. See Disney princes on the covers of men's magazines. (i09)

* On the Rosie Show, Dermot Mulroney plays the cello. Good luck not swooning. (Rosie.com)

* In honor of Groundhog Day, revisit this excellent interview with Harold Ramis, who wrote and directed the Bill Murray movie: "I try to work from both ends. I look for the meaning in what’s funny, and I look for what’s funny about things that are meaningful to me." (The Believer)

Every Monday, we're rounding up the things, small and big, that make us stop and think. Today, we're inspired by...

“What we have to do, folks, is create great schools for kids, no matter where they are.”
-Chicago Public Schools CEO Jean-Claude Brizard at the Chicago New School Expo.

"Taboos? There aren't any taboos anymore."
-Mary Tyler Moore, recipient of the Screen Actors Guild Lifetime Achievement Award, on the new slew of female-centric sitcoms.

"I always tell people go work in a lot of different places and get different experiences. Find out where you want to be later."
-Landmarc chef and Chopped judge Marc Murphy, on what he would tell himself when he was just starting out.

"I just quit. I stopped grass then, I mean pretty much, and decided to get off the couch."
-Brad Pitt, on how seeing poor children in Morocco in the late '90s changed his life.

Men! What are they thinking? We can't always answer that, but we'll be posting our favorite glimpses into their world in this space every Thursday.



* Two Toronto teenagers sent a Lego Man into space, and the resulting video is nothing short of awe inspiring. (MetaFilter)

* Do you love Maurice Sendak? How about Steven Colbert? If you answered yes to either of those questions, watch this video. (Colbert Nation)

* Because there's no such thing as too much (Jon) Hamm, send someone you love a Hamm-O-Gram this Valentine's Day. (Hamm-O-Gram)

* An insightful—and sad—profile of NFL wide receiver Terrell Owens, who is out of work, out of money, and out of friends to go bowling with. (GQ)

* "There's this perception that plant-based diets are for privileged white people, but that hasn't been my experience."—Inspired Vegan Bryant Terry has some thoughtful ideas about food. (O Magazine)

Every Monday, we're rounding up the things, small and big, that make us stop and think. Today, we're inspired by..."We can do so much more by working together."
-Arizona Representative Gabrielle Giffords, in her resignation announcement, one year after suffering a gunshot wound to the head.

"But here I am having almost circumnavigated the whole world. Yes, that idea is slowly sinking in... "
-16-year-old Laura Dekker, the youngest sailor to ever circumnavigate the globe solo, writing on her blog.

"You get more lonely when you're older, more sensitive and sentimental. When you're young you are more aggressive. But a good thing is I have the company of 25-year old interns. They fill up my loneliness and I can share my philosophy with them."
-Ginny Garcia, a 61-year-old pediatrician who moved to Sierra Leone to start a health clinic.

 

Men! What are they thinking? We can't always answer that, but we'll be posting our favorite glimpses into their world in this space every Thursday.

Photo: George Burns

* "I have a big ego, but I don't buy into it. I can't live off the ego. It's an honor that I get to be that guy on stage. It's not something I earned."—Steven Tyler opens up in a revealing conversation with Oprah. (O Magazine)

* Read the amazing story of Amit Gupta, who was diagnosed with leukemia in September of last year and has used the power of the Internet to find a potentially life-saving bone marrow donor. (Amit Gupta Likes You)

* Elvis Presley wore blue suede shoes to his prom, but he also apologized to his date for being unable to dance (really!). His teenage sweetheart tells all. (Mental Floss)

* What does war do to a man? These striking photos of soldiers before, during and after serving in Afghanistan help illuminate the toll fighting takes. (The Telegraph)

"Maybe it'll be like James Bond—and it's just a question of, twenty years from now, which other dude gets to wear the hat?"—Timothy Olyphant on the endless appeal of his Justified character, Raylan Givens. (Vulture)

Every Monday, we're rounding up the things, small and big, that make us stop and think. Today, we're inspired by..."I haven't seen myself naked in the mirror for probably a decade. I'm very prudish."
-Actress Casey Mulligan, on playing an exhibitionist in the new film Shame.

"There are many of you out there—and I was one of them—but it doesn't have to define you."
-The new Miss America, Laura Kaeppeler, on being the child of an incarcerated adult.

"I consider myself a mother first, and an actress second. The person I most want to thank is my daughter, my little girl whose bravery and exuberance is the example that I take with me in my work and in my life."
-Michelle Williams, accepting her Golden Globe for Best Actress.

Every Monday, we're rounding up the things, small and big, that make us stop and think. Today, we're inspired by...“Although I cannot move, and have to speak through a computer, in my mind I am free.”
-Theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, who has lived with Lou Gehrig's Disease for 49 years.

"I was just saying, 'Man trust your speed. Trust your speed. Don't cut back. Don't cut back.'"
-Pittsburgh Steeler Willis McGahee, watching his teammate Demaryius Thomas run to the end zone in the longest overtime touchdown in football playoff history.

"I had the height of a supermodel, breasts that were naturally big and real, and a God-given shape. Why would I feel insecure about that?"
-Jennifer Hudson, on being a "big girl" in Hollywood.

"I thought yoga was fruity... I underestimated it. That yoga stuff is the bomb."
-A patient at the Santa Fe Recovery Center, where a holistic approach to addiction recovery includes yoga.

"You thought I didn't really notice. But I did. I wanted to high-five you."
-Store manager Kristen Wolfe, writing to a teenager who stuck up for his little brother in her store.

Men! What are they thinking? We can't always answer that, but we'll be posting our favorite glimpses into their world in this space every Thursday.

Photo: Getty Images

* Raise a light-saber to the man who choreographed—and body-doubled in—one of the most iconic moments in cinema. Bob Anderson, the fencer who helped design Hollywood sword fights, passed away this week at 89 years old. (NYTimes.com)

* How one J. Crew suit became a uniform and a calling card. (The Observer)

* An oldie but a goodie: Malcolm Gladwell dug up a photo of himself from his high school track championship, and it is worth a look. (Gladwell.Typepad.com)

* Who is fashion photographer Patrick Demarchelier's preferred subject? As he tells the Telegraph, "When people ask me which is your favourite portrait... they expect it to be Diana, or someone famous. But the answer is my dog, Puffy. They think I mean Puff Daddy. No, it is the dog." (The Telegraph)

Photo: Thinkstock

Back in the days of yore, my dad called his parenting technique "the carrot and the stick." This metaphor probably had something to do with his own childhood, spent on a ranch raising sheep. The "carrot" part occurred when he'd offer me jelly beans in order to get me to do something I didn't want to do—for example, wash his truck or keep hiking up a steep mountain trail. The "stick"  part occurred when he'd yell at me in the world's deepest and most booming voice, also to get me to do something I didn't want to do—for example, wash his truck or keep hiking up a steep mountain trail. He switched between the two methods at whim and to great success, at least in my book. As a child, I did what my dad said.

Now we're all our own parents, and there are so many things we don't want to do. Like wake up at 6 in the morning and pay the bills we ignored the night before (whoops, slept in) or get to the gym as we publicly vowed to do in 2012 while tipsy on New Year Eve. Luckily, A new service called Gym Pact, which appeared in the New York Times this week has come to our aid, using an app that mimics my dad's old fashioned method. Basically you sign up on your smart phone and register how many days you want to commit to working out. The gym's computers are linked to the app, so if you don't go, you get fined $5. If you do go, you get paid—that's right, paid!—an amount that's determined each week by pooling and dividing all the money collected from no-goers. Right now that's about $1.50 a week, or $6 a month—an amount that I will try to  spend on organic kale or carrots, but will probably spend on...jelly beans.

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