When were you last asked a question with that lead in? Me neither.

It's okay. After all, it's really quite a burden, don't you think, to have an individual (or a roomful of people) hanging, listening rapturously, attentively, with bated breath to what you have to profess. That's because you know that this very same individual, (or audience) is laying in wait ready to pounce on you when what you professed proved wrong.

Which is why I am such a devotee of NPR. 

Their guests are usually the arbiters of what we should be thinking about, doing, practicing. Today's interviewees, sometime in the not so distant future, morph into the defenders of why we erred, doing what we did, even if it was exactly what they said we should do. Mea Culpa? Hardly.

For example, Wall Street Chiefs Defend Compensation at Firms.  Jamie Dimon, Chief Executive of JPMorgan Chase & Co., when asked "if you knew then what you do now, what would you have done differently?" Dimon's response was "a crucial blunder was how we missed that housing prices don't go up forever."  That's his expert opinion? Of course, in his zip code the housing prices do go up, forever.

So what to do? 

Not listen to Dr. Phil, Rachel Ray, Dr Oz, all borne from the expert of experts, Oprah? Tune Martha out? Eat Special K, fiber cookies, once a day, week, or simply never eat again? Date younger, older, richer, make that richer and on their last legs people? Admit it, haven't you asked the bored senseless salesperson what they think of the pants/blouse/shoes/jacket you are trying on? You did, didn't you?

The pronouncements of experts. The buck stops here. The only way to think. The final word.

Want my opinion?