by Sarah Firisen There once was a company BainThat Mitt Romney runs from in vainTo prove no active roleIs clearly his goalBut to believe that is really a strain While bailing the Olympic games outThe evidence shows he had cloutBain's full owner it seemsBut no part of their schemesA technicality he says with a pout…

by Sarah Firisen With the Olympics coming to town The British started to frownThe construction, the costThe traffic lane lostOur economy's already so down You know it'll just get rained outThey've done what with the cycling route?And the summer looks glumBecause tourists won't comeIt's a fiasco without a doubt Just as the grumbling built to…

by Sarah Firisen I look up to the heavens in prayer Let Obamacare die now I swearThere's no words to berateThat evil mandateAnd keep your hands right off my Medicare Stop the death panels right now I cryThe government wants me to dieIt's the private insurersWho should be healthcare jurorsOnly corporations won't send this awry…

by Sarah Firisen I expected China to be different; exotic, challenging, overwhelming in its otherness. But, in many ways, it was depressingly familiar; the mall next to my apartment building had a Gap, an H&M, a Subway and a Baskin Robbins. The New York Pizza restaurant was always at least as busy as the excellent…

by Sarah Firisen There once was a candidate, Mitt Who was rich, smart, handsome and fitNo extremist hereClearly not much to fearThe perfect choice you'd have to admit He'd been governor of a blue stateBrought in health reform with a mandateModerate through and throughThe job now seemed his dueAfter losing to McCain in '08 With…

I'm begging you please let this end Decide which of these clowns you will sendJust take your pickFrom Newt, Ron or RickOr Mitt who is able to bend Into whatever candidate that you might needFor he's not met one belief he can't kneadIf one doesn't thrillPerhaps a different one willWhatever it takes to succeed So…

I'd like to have my own Super PAC That on my behalf could attackOf course any sign of collusionWould be just an illusionI wouldn't tell them how to act I know that no contact's allowedBut what's the harm if I just say out loud“It would so make my dayIf your ads were to sayThat only…

So we're two GOP primaries downBut don't worry, don't pout, snarl or frownThe fun won't end soonStill so much to lampoonSouth Carolina, the circus' in town! Mitt, Newt, Ron, Rick one and Rick two For today we bid Huntsman adieuWho does God love more?Well clearly no one who's poorAt least that's the creed of this…

by Sarah Firisen There once was a writer called Hitch,Whose contrarian urge had an itch,He had no sacred cows,No unbreakable vows,No ideals too holy to ditch. A brilliant but difficult sod,Who took as his nemesis, God,Perhaps a bold move to make,He announced him “not great”,Embracing the role, lightning rod. But now our dear Christopher's dead,Was…

by Sarah Firisen So let's talk about college. Or to be more specific, let's have a look at how prepared our children are go to college. And I'm not talking about their academic readiness, though clearly many, many words could be devoted to that. I'm talking about their work habits. My 11-year old daughter, Anya,…

by Sarah Firisen First it was Libya, most recently it was Hurricane Irene, but in the middle of the week the single biggest news item, at least measured in terms of newspaper real estate, was that Steve Jobs has stepped down from running Apple. Is it stretching superlatives to say that he may be the…

by Sarah Firisen Summer; a time of fun in the sun, but it's also often a time of transition, particularly for children. They learn how to swim; they go away to summer camp for the first time; they often have growth spurts in the 3 months they're off and you find in the week before…

I’m an ENTP, preferring extroversion over introversion, intuition over sensing, thinking over feeling and perceiving over judging. In case you didn’t know, this is my MBTI® score, or Myers-Briggs Type Indicator®. When I first took on my new role in a leadership development group, I heard everyone throwing around these letters “I’m a J, so…

by Sarah Firisen If there’s anything that we should have learned from the world events of the past couple of months it’s that the desire to be autonomous is a universal human one. Events in Egypt seem to show that when people feel empowered and can taste freedom, anything is possible. Perhaps this insight into…

by Sarah Firisen My children’s school is hosting a panel discussion this month on Educating for 21st Century Success and anticipating this has caused me to pause and wonder what that term really means. What is success and what will it mean in the future? David Cameron, Britain’s Prime Minister, has decided to create a…

by Sarah Firisen “Facebook 2, Arab leaders 0”, read a sign held by an Egyptian woman on Friday as the celebrations erupted in Tahir Square. In a sharply ironic turn of events, it seems that American software companies may have done more to bring about regime change in the Middle East than all the trillions…

Sarah Firisen was born in London, England, lived for a number of years in New York City and now lives in Upstate New York with her husband Michael, two daughters Anya and Sasha, a dog Treetree and a cat Ernie. She has an undergraduate degree in Philosophy from the University of Nottingham and a graduate…

Although, these days, my children would normally prefer to read to themselves than to have me read them a bedtime story, they both love it when I tell them stories of my family. Both my parents died before my daughters were born and so their only connection to their grandparents is through the people I…

There’s probably a little bit of mean girl in all of us; everyone wants to be accepted, to be a member of the in crowd. And for there to be an “in” crowd, there have to be people who are left out. A sense of exclusivity can be intoxicating for adults, let alone kids, and…