Wall Street Journal, Oct 28, 2017

choi

(1) James Hagerty, Obituary: Chuck Ames 1925-2017: Executive Led Endangered Industrial Firms.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/chu ... al-firms-1509114601

Quote:

(a) "As a student at Illinois Wesleyan University [1850- ; private; located in Bloomington, Ill] in the late 1940s, Chuck Ames agreed to be president of his fraternity, largely because it meant a free room. He was a C+ student and, when he later applied to Harvard Business School, he figured his chances of acceptance were low.

Harvard's interviewer, noting that service as a fraternity officer, saw leadership potential. Harvard admitted him. Mr Ames was launched on a career in which he rose to become a partner at McKinsey & Co and was chief executive at three industrial companies struggling against tough foreign competition.

(b) His memoir, published in 2013, is called 'Lucky Breaks.' but Mr Ames made much of his own luck. [explanations not important here]

(c) As a corporate director [in the board], Mr Ames was impatient with long-winded answers. He sometimes told executives to limit their responses to yes, no or a number.

"He didn't believe companies should make moonshot investments. 'I'm not interested in Nobel prizes,' he told the Washington Post in 1988. 'I want to focus on market requirement.'

"Bruce Charles Ames was born June 27, 1925 in Elgin, Ill [a city 35 miles northwest of Chicago; named for Early Elgin who achieved [local] fame for the butter and dairy goods]. (After schoolmates insisted Bruce was a sissy name, he switched to Chuck.)

My comment: I do not know who he was, but the quotations are interesting. There is no need to read the rest.

choi

(2) Kathryn O'Shea-Evans, Plants That Go Bump in the Night; 5 spooky species for creeping out your friends (or yourself) this Halloween.
([No] 5 night-blooming cereus (Epiphyllum oxypetalum) [昙花; a cactus])

Note:
(a)
(i) things that go bump in the night: "informal, humorous  unexplained and frightening noises at night, regarded as being caused by ghosts  <the fear of long-legged beasties and things that go bump in the night>"
https://en.oxforddictionaries.co ... o_bump_in_the_night
(ii) bump (n): "Idiom: things that go bump in the night"
www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/us/definition/english/bump_2
(b) I finally learn the names (English and scientific) of 昙花.