The Tableaux Grab Bag, October 2026
Hey Whipple, Squeeze This
This renowned book on advertising by Luke Sullivan (updated in a 6th edition in 2022) is written as a guide to junior copyrighters, but it is so much more than a how-to book. I found it entertaining and also genuinely thought-provoking. The book not only presents the work product of creative geniuses but explores how creative workers work their creative muscles (unsurprisingly, as with most jobs, there aren’t shortcuts). On several occasions, it felt like the author took me into my favorite scenes from the TV show, Mad Men – the ones where Don Draper designed and delivered his ad pitches – and delved deeper into the creative process. In a world where words and images can be created by AI models, it’s nice to be reminded how we can use and hone our own creativity.
Image created with ChatGPT
Berkshire Bird Observatory
I have a knack for meeting the right people at the wrong time. This time was last months Josh Billings triathlon, as I tried to shelter from the steady rain under a tree, waiting for Tableaux’s Luke Delorme to finish cycling and join me for the paddle. (We won second place in the corporate division, thanks entirely to Luke’s speed on the bike and run.)
Two women and a man nearby engaged me in the kind of giddy banter that occurs spontaneously just before an endurance race or something equally awful. As you’d expect, our conversation soon turned to broad-winged hawks.
I’m not a birder, but I like to think I know my local birds. Not at all. Somehow, I’ve reached late middle age completely unaware of one of the more common raptors in eastern North America.
It was quickly obvious that this guy was an ornithologist, but he wore his expertise lightly. I’d probably never encountered broad-winged hawks, he said, because they live in the forest and can be confused with their larger cousins, red-tailed hawks. If I wanted to see the hawk, now was a perfect time of year, when they gather skyward in large groups, or kettles, to begin their migration south.
But now wasn’t the perfect time. I was about to paddle five miles, and I’d leave town the next day to return home to Florida.
On my trip south, paging through the fall issue of Berkshire magazine, I discovered by chance who I was talking to: Ben Nickley, founder and executive director of Berkshire Bird Observatory, and featured as one of the magazine’s Berkshire 25.
I’ll check out the Observatory’s events when I’m back in the Berkshires, as well as Berkshire BioBlitz, which Ben also highly recommended and (again) that I missed but that should happen again next September.
Despite my less-than-perfect timing, I find it hopeful to know there are still many birds out there I’m unfamiliar with, and interesting people I’ve yet to meet. Part of the good life is knowing there’s always something more to discover.
Joe Polidoro
Image created with ChatGPT
The Hoptimist
On a recent trip to Los Angeles, I came home from the Huntington Gardens with a Hoptimist, a little bobbing figure that Danish designer Hans Gustav Ehrenreich dreamed up in the late 1960s out of nothing more than a circle and an ellipse. It now sits on my desk, and whenever the day starts to feel heavier than it probably is, I give it a tap and watch it bounce happily for a few seconds. Do I really need a spring-loaded figurine to get through a busy afternoon? Probably not. That is rather the point, though: these small desk and bookshelf tchotchkes aren't clutter; they're reminders that life is usually less serious than the noise in our head suggests and that a moment of silliness can pull us back into the present.
Matt Chester
Image taken from Amazon.com