Everyday Extraordinary

This book explores the aesthetics of the objects and environments we encounter in daily life. Thomas Leddy stresses the close relationship between everyday aesthetics and the aesthetics of art, but places special emphasis on neglected aesthetic terms such as ‘neat,’ ‘messy,’ ‘pretty,’ ‘lovely,’ ‘cute,’ and ‘pleasant.’ The author advances a general theory of aesthetic experience that can account for our appreciation of art, nature, and the everyday.

The concept of fetishism has long been a window through which philosophers, psychoanalysts and cultural anthropologists have looked in order to critically examine the nature of beliefs, sexual interests and material values, and it remains today a vital interpretive paradigm. The enduring interest in fetishism gives testimony to the fact that its status and significance have yet to be fully resolved. In the attempt to further clarify this ambiguous and often mystifying phenomenon, the contributors to Everyday Extraordinary: Encountering Fetishism with Marx, Freud and Lacan have taken a fresh look at the fundamental dynamic of fetishism through the lenses of its most influential interpreters?not only Marx, Freud and Lacan, but also Derrida, Mannoni and Pietz.In this collection of essays, the philosophical approach joins forces with the psychoanalytic, and the psychoanalytic with the aesthetic and mythological, often with striking results. Emerging from the essays contained in this volume is a notion of fetishism as a response to a crisis of meaning: personal, social or religious. The fetish mediates the crisis that arises when a system of meaning and identity is confronted with something that threatens it with dissolution, whether this threat arises from an excessive and traumatic figure of alterity, or from the loss of the ground on which ones certainty had been staked. And the stakes of this confrontation are indeed high, as the fetish is here seen as an object having a profound influence on the life of desire, now leading to a symbolic blossoming of the mundane, now into perverse repetition and the refusal of change.

As a companion book to the permanent exhibit of the same name at ASME's new headquarters, Engineering the Everyday and the Extraordinary celebrates engineering achievements and their impact on everyday life. The exhibit is made up of 80 rotatable triangular modules, each one telling an engineering story with a brief overview, a strong central image and a patent drawing or illustration, covering nine major domains of engineering. The size and scope of the exhibit makes it an experience that can be visited many times, with each visit inspiring something new. Engineering the Everyday and the Extraordinary invites us to rediscover the remarkable - the engineers and inventions that have shaped our world as well as the extraordinary breakthroughs that are already setting the stage for the future. The exhibit's striking photographs, crisp diagrams and engaging content are presented in a beautifully designed, colorful format. From the Foreword by the renowned engineering historian Henry Petroski, who curated the exhibit, to the final pages, the book sparkles with engineering accomplishments, large and small.

Most of the stories we tell are about great feats, dangerous journeys, or daring confrontations—exceptional moments in our existence. But what about how we live every single day? In Everyday Life, Joseph A. Amato offers an account of daily existence that reminds us how important the quotidian is. Ranging across social, economic, and cultural history—as well as anthropology, folklore, and technology—he explores how and why the pattern of our lives has changed and developed over time. Amato examines the common facts and occurrences in lives from all spheres, whether of a pauper or a noble, a criminal or state official, or a lunatic or a philosopher. Such facts include basic aspects of human existence, such as play, work, conflict, and healing, as well the logistics of survival, such as housing, clothing, cleaning, cooking, animals, plants, and machines. Tracing core historical developments like efficiency of production and greater mobility, Amato shows how we became modern in everyday ways. He explores how, paradoxically, commerce, technology, design, industrialization, nationalism, and democratization—which have so undercut traditional culture and have homogenized, centralized, and secularized masses of people—have also profoundly transformed daily life, affording citizens with materially improved lives, individual rights, and productive and rewarding expectations. A wide-ranging account of lives throughout history, this book gives us new insights into our own condition, showing us how extraordinary the ordinary can be.

Learn how you can tackle everyday leadership challenges regardless of your title, position, or authority with this insightful resource A book about leadership for people who are not in formal or hierarchical leadership positions, Everyday People, Extraordinary Leadership provides readers with a comprehensive and practical approach to addressing leadership challenges, no matter the setting or circumstance. Esteemed scholars and sought-after consultants Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner adapt their trademark The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership® framework to today’s more horizontal workplace, showing people that leadership is not about where you are in the organization; it’s about how you behave and what you do. Everyday People, Extraordinary Leadership draws on the authors’ deep well of research and practical experience to cover key subjects: The essence of making a difference in any role, setting, or situation The difference between positions of authority and leadership The importance of self-development in leadership development This book is perfectly applicable and accessible for anyone who wants to improve their own leadership potential and who isn’t yet in an official leadership role. Everyday People, Extraordinary Leadership offers authoritative new insights, original case studies and examples, and practical guidance for those individuals who want to make a difference. You supply the will, and this book will supply the way.

The acclaimed leadership expert offers a proven, research-based method for creating workplaces where everyone performs at the highest level. All high-performance organizations have one thing in common: execution. The men and women who work there sustain performance at seemingly otherworldly levels of precision, accuracy, and consistency. In the fifth and final book of Mark Miller's High-Performance series, he uses his trademark business fable format to show how any organization can cultivate the kind of everyday habits that yield extraordinary results. Miller tells the story of Blake Brown, a CEO who learns essential business leadership lessons from a surprising source: his son's high school football coach. The story is fictional, but the principles and practices are very real, derived from years of research led by a team from Stanford University. Miller and his team interviewed leaders and employees from numerous world-class organizations, including the Navy SEALS, Starbucks, Apple, Southwest Airlines, the Seattle Seahawks, Mayo Clinic, Cirque du Soleil, and more. The lessons learned were then field-tested with over seventy businesses employing over seven thousand people. Miller gives you proven tools to release the untapped potential in your people, create a strong competitive advantage, and win not just on game day but every day.

Imaginative, self-confident, EXTRAORDINARY Mimi steps into the spotlight in this charming debut with an emotional heart. If you were to imagine an extraordinary moment of destiny, I bet you wouldn’t imagine it in a kitchen on a particularly ordinary Wednesday. I bet you wouldn’t imagine a plate of cheese and crackers or a replacement best friend—but this was my moment. Because when my Dad left to be a trick high diver in Mr. Morelli’s Big Top Circus Extravaganza, he left his ordinary life to achieve his extraordinary destiny. Grandma didn’t realize she had just handed me the key to my extraordinary life. Mimi is the expert in all things extraordinary, like snow days, blue raspberry candy, and especially her dad, who recently joined the circus. And she’s sure he’ll be back to recruit her once she proves how extraordinary she can be. With her new hamster as her assistant, Mimi starts rehearsals for a marvelous mime show. But her moody older brother and needy ex-best-friend—not to mention memories of the day her dad left home—keep interfering with her plans. Still, Mimi throws herself into her act. Everything has to be perfect for her dad’s return—even if no one but her hamster believes in her. Even if Mimi is starting to doubt her own story, too. Debut author Eliza Martin’s quirky characters are brought vividly to life by Anna Bron’s endearing art in this charming novel about savoring the extraordinary in even the most difficult moments.

Focusing on urban areas in the 1930s, this college professor illuminates the ways that Soviet city-dwellers coped with this world, examining such diverse activities as shopping, landing a job, and other acts.