“Dear Valued Subscriber,” the note began. Ah, my newspaper really appreciates my business. As well it should; isn’t the industry in distress? Millennials don’t read newspapers, do they? It’s time to renew my subscription and I’ll bet the paper really wants to keep me as a customer. Well, maybe it does want to keep me, [...]
Tag Archives: Communications
Pick up the phone!
When was the last time you actually called someone rather than send an email or a text message? I was out with a friend recently and we got to talking about how people seldom pick up the phone and call each other any more. Even when it would be easier and faster to actually talk [...]
Stop and say thanks
When was the last time you received a hand-written note, in the mail? It’s not that you aren’t getting in touch with or hearing from other people. You send and receive dozens, maybe hundreds of emails every day. You read newspapers and magazines and listen to the radio. You probably exchange tweets and Facebook updates, [...]
A hope for peace
9/11. It’s become shorthand instantly understood around the world for a day filled with tragedy. Can it really be 10 years since we watched, horrified, as one plane and then a second crashed into the World Trade Center? I was at work in my home office when my husband called. He was on his way [...]
Does age matter?
Over lunch recently, a colleague mentioned that she had been on a job interview where the recruiter pointedly told her, “We have a YOUNG team here.” Do I need to mention that my colleague would not be considered “young” but what we’d prefer to call “more seasoned”? In fact, I suggested she should have replied, [...]
Lessons from DWTS
The last couple of weeks have been crazy busy, without much time for an online life. But — shh! don’t tell! — I still allowed myself the guilty pleasure of watching Dancing With The Stars on Monday and Tuesday nights. And yes, I even had dibs on the TV with NHL playoffs going on. Although [...]
OMG, I’m late!
I’m late to the game talking about this, but I’ve noticed that a lot of people seem to be upset that the Oxford English Dictionary will now include OMG and LOL, as of the March 24 update. This adds insult to injury, I suppose, after previous additions included IMHO, BFF and TMI. (To translate, that’s [...]
6 ways to improve email subject lines
An email arrived the other day and was promptly sent to the junk folder by my mail program. The reason? The subject line read, “Thought you might be interested in this.” I do scan mail in the junk folder, especially because postings to my school forums often seem to end up there. “Thought you might [...]
Tell me why
I’m sitting in my curtained cubicle, in jeans and a drafty cotton hospital gown, waiting for the technician to usher me in for a mammogram. I’ve had this procedure before and know enough not to wear deodorant, which can apparently leave tiny deposits on the skin that might show up on the X-ray as a [...]
Man up? Be gone
Along with a fresh new year comes the latest list of Banished Words, as issued by Lake Superior State University. How epic is that? While you might wish many of these words to actually be banished forever, that’s just wishful thinking. The list for 2011 includes epic, fail (which actually are often combined into the [...]
