Binderama60for60
A Life So Far
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Get ready for some glorious over-sharing, from childhood adventures to career triumphs and tribulations, life’s hard knocks and the wisdom gained, awesome people and tales of joy. I invite you to join me as I turn a big fat calendar page on life.
March 13, 2025 – March 12, 2026
Category: WORK
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I’ve known Matt Palmer for 40 years. He hates when I share the story of how we met. I respect that. And since we’re such good friends, I will save that story for the third or fourth paragraph of this post. This ongoing 60|60 project features 60 essays about things that are relevant to me,…
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Note to subscribers: Posts are often better viewed in a browser. Click here. So much goodness and the longest of the series! Today is Mickey Mouse’s 97th Birthday. To many of you, that’s trivia. To others, like me, it’s a big thing. Back in 1928, the cartoon short “Steamboat Willie” premiered in movie theaters. I honestly…
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Note to subscribers: Posts are often better viewed in a browser. Click here. Happy Birthday, Babe! Here’s a story about the Family I married into. A while back, Mary’s niece Emma was accepted into Colorado College. She was the latest in a long line of O’Neills to matriculate there. Her application was stellar: activism, volunteering,…
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This one’s gonna be messy. I’ve been grateful to spend much of my career being creative. Writing, design, illustration, theater, film and video, live events. Mostly business stuff. Corporate. Some award-winning, some esoteric. Most of it was never seen by more than a few thousand peeps, rarely in the light of day. Or night. Or…
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Today is our 10th anniversary Yes yes, I know what you’re thinking: “Doug, are you really going to publish a blog about your marriage. And surprise your Wife with it? On your anniversary? That sounds like a really bad idea.” Heard. Here we go! Christmastime in Virginia, mid-aughts. It was one of our first visits…
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Posts are sometimes better viewed in a browser: https://binderama60for60.com/ I could write more than 60 blog posts about just one topic: Walt Disney. And just as many about Walt Disney World. As I am planning out this post just now (in July), I am feeling JAZZED! The memories overwhelm. Originally I intended to do this as…
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“Enthusiast” is a good descriptor of Kim Anschultz. She gets excited about almost anything; it is contagious. The girl can talk your ear off. Without peer. It’s all the good stuff in the world: family, friends, neat experiences, new opportunities. She doesn’t dwell on the bad stuff. And she can go for days on her…
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One morning in June, the legendary performer Dickie Smothers sneered at me, “shame on you.” I was late to pick him and his brother up at National Airport because I’d overslept after my buddy Chris Castle and I had roadtripped to Virginia Beach and back in the previous 20 hours, as one does at that…
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Time to celebrate my Dad on this Father’s Day! All things Pop. Dad. Blood. Sir. We’ll save Jim, Jimbo, Jazzbo and L. James (and “Skull James”) for another time. Admittedly, this is one of the hardest posts in this 60|60 series to write so far. I’ll start with this: he was a wonderful Dad. He…
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There was a period back in the early 80s when Michael Jackson was the most recognizable person on the planet. Maybe in history. Whatever album he had just released was backed by an overwhelming media blitz, a series of videos and a single-gloved taste-making revolution. It was a white-hot mystique like I’ve never seen before…
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This is my impression alone; hundreds of others who were there that day have their own stories to tell. Please do! 9:10 AM. Just as Steven Spielberg prepped the clown-sized scissors to cut the ribbon and officially open Universal Studios Florida, my radio squawked: I was needed somewhere else in the park to talk with…
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I have a celebrity problem. I’ve always been drawn to famous people. Fame. People who have fame. People who are famous. People who attract the eyes and admiration of other people, millions and even billions of people. I can’t say I’m proud of it, but I’ve not made it much of a secret either: Those…
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We loaded the U-Haul in late August to hit the road, each of us going our separate ways: back home, back to school or no where in particular. Wait, does this sound like the beginning of every coming-of-age story you’ve ever seen? Cool. It was hot and muggy in the parking lot surrounded by lots…
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Focaccia Focaccia is the best word. Full stop. It’s fun to say. It’s got all the feels. To pronounce it, it starts soft, then hits you hard with a staccato jag; the first syllable’s pronunciation can be adjusted to make it sound adolescently obscene. The rock hard “c” leaps into the flourish of two soothing…
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The story of a life can be told in linear fashion, a sort of timeline. That’s boring. Such a tale would miss all the best stuff, the diversions and tangents, the screw-ups and resets, and most importantly, the people that shuffle through our lives. For this post, I’m going to imagine life as a line…
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My name appears on a window in the New York back lot of Universal Orlando. Anyone familiar with the Disney tradition of featuring super-special contributors on the windows along Main Street knows what an honor it is to be remembered this way. In my case at Universal, the “honor” was bestowed on me because, 35…
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My teenage years were pure John Hughes. Or at least that’s how I’ve come to recall them. The Summer of 1981 had almost every ingredient of an ’80s teen classic, beginning with an outcast with a heart of gold, his new drivers license, and a summer fast approaching. A little backstory: I was a dweeb…
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I never got around to making you. I could have. I was healthy enough, fortunate enough to know viable partners and had the means to raise you. I just never made time. Truth is, I was too busy living my own life. And so, my name and bloodline end with this generation, my generation, me.…
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Doug Binder. Creative Executive. Decent Human. Objective: I’m looking to use my depth of experience and breadth of skills to land a cush gig with much power and little responsibility, plus extra-competitive salary, frequent 5-star international travel (+1), generous pension, health plan that includes in-home surgical theater, and invitations to exciting parties with open bars,…
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On this day in 1965, my Mom wrote this in her diary. “Cramps began when I got up. Hurriedly washed the dishes and packed up the boys’ stuff…I called the hospital and they said to come in and be checked…They decided it was labor so [I] stayed…Our new son was born at 4:45. Weighed 8…
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