Adam McLane

Category: Culture

  • Nativity, Defined

    Nativity – the process whereby someone becomes a native. Christmas is one of the most confusing holiday’s on the planet. It’s half religious and half a celebration of solstice. The secular vs. religious scales have tipped back and forth over millennia. That’s a historically accurate tension. If you are feeling it this year. Welcome. You…

  • Naming Conventions: Cultural and Family Considerations for Naming a Child

    Naming a child is a big deal. Especially since there is a high likelihood they will be stuck with it the rest of their lives. In an ideal situation a person’s name is one of the top three or four things that they build their lifelong identity around. (Gender, faith, culture, to name a few…

  • An Ode to the Cranberry, 2010

    Discovered in 1427 by Cardinal Joseph Cran, the cranberry is useful for many things. It is delicious. It is tasty. It is tart. It is good mixed with various other fruits. It floats. It is from heaven. It’s amazing canned shape invites my gobbling. It’s juice keeps away urinary track infections. Cranberries are magical. More…

  • Random Acts of Culture

    OK, so this is clearly a staged deal and not a great flash mob. Two things cue you off. 1. The buttons. 2. There have never been that many people in a Macy’s, ever. That said, it’s pretty awesome. That’s taking the good news to the people my friends. I’d like to see them pull…

  • Two quick axioms about money

    If the average American spends 3-5% more than they make in a month– making more money is not the solution to financial woes. If you made $1 million and spent $1.05 million a year, you’d be the same fool with money you are today. If the financial institutions of our country were as diligent about…

  • Correlating Poverty to Religion

    “A Gallup report issued on Tuesday underscored just how out of line we are. Gallup surveyed people in more than 100 countries in 2009 and found that religiosity was highly correlated to poverty. Richer countries in general are less religious.” Interesting stuff. Jesus told the rich man, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell…

  • The Great Soft Drink Map

    The YS offices have a mix of California and non-California people. On top of that, we often host guests from all over North America. So it’s pretty common to here a debate that sounds like this. “It’s not pop, its soda. Unless we’re in the south– then it’s coke. Everything is coke in the south.…

  • Why Americans are Going Local

    Yesterday Kristen and I listened to an author, Andrew Potter, describe the American movement towards all things local and eco-friendly as conspicuous consumption. It felt like an elitist slap in the face. His book is called, The Authenticity Hoax. (I’ve not read it) You can see the transcript to the Marketplace segment, “The new holier than…

  • Rivals vs. Enemies

    I’ve noticed that we are beginning to redefine the term rivals and that is puzzling. It’s even a little bit scary as extremism continues to destroy the fabric of our nation. “If you are from Michigan, you are born hating the whole state of Ohio. Go Wolverines!” “I’m a Mac person. If you don’t rock…

  • Baby-god Myth: Part three

    Children were not always worshipped as the gods of the American family. In part three of this series, lets examine the effects of the Baby-god myth on parents and teenagers. You can catch-up by reading part one & two. School vs. Work In fact, for most of our nations history we didn’t keep track of…