The event?  The 3rd Annual Stand Up For Education Celebrity Spelling Bee.

The cause? The Educational Enrichment Foundation, which provides support for Tucson Unified School District students in need.

Need? Yes, like shoes, eyeglasses, and other basic necessities that keep too many among us away from literacy, education, and o-p-p-o-r-t-u-n-i-t-y.

The celebrities? Contestants included first and second year champions State Sen. Steve Farley and Hilary Van Alsburg (Humane Society of Southern Arizona). Others on stage and spelling were People Magazine’s 2013 National Teacher of the Year Art Almquist, Supervisor Ray Carroll, Lucy Howell from mygirlpower.org, Congressional candidate Martha McSally, Jason Ott from Citibank, former school superintendent John Pedicone, Dancing in the Streets director Joey Rodgers, Club Congress

I write quickly and am rarely wanting for words. All week, though, I have been stymied with respect to August 9, 2014, the 40th anniversary of President Richard Nixon’s resignation. I mentioned my dilemma—what should I write?—to Ms. J. “May he rest in peace,” she offered. Not too helpful, for I am writing about someone whose positive attributes are, well, “not so much!” (I’m sure the comment tempered me a bit, though!)

Here are the basics:

Richard Nixon was born in 1913. He died in 1994. He graduated from Whittier College and Duke University School of Law. He served in the Navy in World War II. He was elected to Congress in 1946, the U.S. Senate in 1950, and

The Know-Nothings were a party/movement in the 1850s, known more formally as the American Republican Party. Lewis Levin, an American Jew and three-term Congressman, started the group. (In my faith we call this a shonda, or shame/embarrassment.) The Know-Nothings were white men who were upset with German/Irish/Catholic immigration. (Apparently, the name came from a mandate that party members say “I know nothing” in response to questions. Think Sergeant Schultz from Hogan’s Heroes!)

Skip ahead about 160 years. People still want to keep others out. And, in the American tradition, much of the upset comes from those whose forebears were not so welcome in their own time.

Alas, I have the movement’s name in my sights today. How fitting

“The cousin thing” is how someone called it the other week, when we were discussing a familial relationship. And so, once again, I got to explain cousins and the whole “removed” thing.

So here it is, as simple as I can make it. Cousins share a common grandparent, great-grandparent, great-great grandparent, etc. If you share a grandparent with someone you are first cousins. If the shared relative is a great-grandparent you are second cousins, etc. [UPDATE:  If you have a sibling, s/he is not your cousin, even though you do share common grandparents, etc.]

OK so far? Removed is where people seem to get challenged, but it’s not really hard at all. If you share with someone, but the

Negroni

Step 1:  Fill a martini glass with ice and water, and chill; measure out equal portions of gin, … .

Kidding aside, I’m sharing my writing process, and on many days it starts with a cocktail. Only in the evening, and only before dinner. (One is my limit, plus a bit of wine with dinner.)

“Write drunk; edit sober” gets attributed to Ernest Hemingway, but the Internet tells me Peter De Vries deserves credit for the quote. Regardless, for me it works, although I won’t own “drunk.”

Most blog posts get written after work. If I’m behind a scramble happens the next morning between 6:15 and 7:00 a.m., my deadline for reaching subscribers. I’m better after work,

I walked away from the nonprofit sector six months ago, after almost 20 years of pretty intense involvement/engagement. Working with charitable organizations was my non-working, non-family life. (I chaired four boards and the United Way Tocqueville Society, helped create Social Venture Partners Tucson, shut down one organization, tried to start a training institute, and served on many, many committees, task forces, etc. I also raised some money for good causes.)

Why did I walk away? I was tired and, at least in my own mind, had become ineffective. I left with plenty of anxieties about how I would fill my time—enter Mark Rubin Writes—and what would become of my relationships, but I knew for sure it was time

Business books? No thanks. Too many follow the “success in five easy steps” model, filling a few large type pages with bromides. Others are “written” by someone with a big business name—think Jack Welch, Al “Chainsaw Al” Dunlap, and Donald Trump—whose contributions to the book may be large or small. These books often focus on “let me tell you how great I was when” stories, which are usually trite and not especially informative. (Noteworthy, different, and definitely worth reading is Good to Great, along with its successors.)

I ran across The Hard Thing about Hard Things by Ben Horowitz—the subtitle is Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers—recently. Mr. Horowitz is a partner in Andreessen Horowitz, a