I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation. Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of … Continue Reading
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“Let the Decadence Begin”
Godiva’ s new ad campaign, as seen on a poster in a Metro station: A woman in a slinky dress kneels on the floor next to an enormous chocolate box. She’s tearing the ribbon off to get to the chocolates, which are at least the size of her head. Tagline: “Let the decadence begin.” Now, … Continue Reading
More in the “stupid plagiarism” category
It’s funny that people think in the age of the Internet, you can plagiarize and it won’t be noticed. All it takes is one person to notice, and since the blogosphere loves outing plagiarists, you’re done. So really, all plagiarism these days is pretty stupid. But I think this case deserves special attention: It all … Continue Reading
Narcissurfing, wikiality, and spaghetti marketing
Tom Chandler at Copywriter Underground covered nine (why not 10?) top buzzwords for 2007 and inadvertently taught me about Buzzwhack.com. My favorite buzzwords on Tom’s list are above, but you can read the whole list here. Other “good” (for some definitions of the word) buzzwords: yogurt cities: Cities with thriving “active cultures” — museums, symphonies, … Continue Reading
Tuesday’s Tools: an oldie but goodie
If you’re not familiar with Roy Peter Clark’s “50 Tools for Writers” you ought to be. These tools aren’t literal hammers and nails (pens and pencils), or even pieces of software. Rather, these tools are rules and guidelines for crafting a sentence, a paragraph, a story. They range from the overarching (“Work from a plan”) … Continue Reading
On alma maters (matri? almae matres? HELP)
Flickr: cassetteject (Note: I originally was going to post this on Scrapple Spring Rolls, but got so tied up in the language issues that I thought it might fit here.) I graduated 6 months ago. (More than that, actually, but let’s go with the figure of 6.)So why does my school have no official record … Continue Reading
Make your interview questions knock ’em down
Roger Clemens, who was named in the Mitchell Report as a user of performance-enhancing drugs, appeared on ’60 Minutes’ last Sunday. That’s about as much sports as I can handle, but over at ESPN.com, journalism teacher/mentor John Sawatsky explains how 60 Minutes should have conducted the interview (the segment was pre-taped) and how interviewer Mike … Continue Reading
Some poorly chosen words
Last Friday, Golf Channel announcer Kelly Tilghman joked that Tiger Woods’ opponents should gang up on him and “[l]ynch him in a back alley.” Let that sink in for a minute. Tilghman’s apology statement said she “used some poorly chosen words…I have known Tiger for 12 years and I have apologized directly to him. I … Continue Reading
More on the Merc
Via Romenesko today: Just a few weeks before former San Jose Mercury News Editor Carole Leigh Hutton resigned in a surprise move last Thursday, she led a team of staffers in a presentation to MediaNews Group CEO William Dean Singleton to turn the daily into a three-section paper. Some staffers, still puzzled days after Hutton’s … Continue Reading
Tuesday’s Tools: Back up with Mozy
Previous Tuesday’s Tools here! Rule 1 of computing: Don’t trust the machine. Rule 1.5: Don’t do what I did, which was trust the machine. Rule 2: Have backups. Preferably more than one. This all brings us to Mozy, a backup widget you install on Mac or PC. From there, it’s almost automatic and (almost) idiot-proof. For … Continue Reading