I can’t resist sharing Bill Dyszel’s “freelance national anthem,” about the joys of being a freelance writer. Appropriately enough, it’s sung to Ode to Joy (written by German poet Friedrich Schiller but best known in its musical setting in Ludwig van Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony). It opens with: “We are full-time freelance writers / what we [...]
Tag Archives: General nonsense
I brake for Christmas
Did you know that Santa’s blogging this year, and he’s planning to podcast next year? Dave Fleet, who listed what he’d do if he were Santa’s PR guy, directed me to Santa’s blog. Check it out and see if YOUR eyes don’t twinkle! The list of 100 things about Santa is pretty funny, and it [...]
What Bill was really thinking
As Christmas creeps ever closer, the mind refuses to stay focused on work. So instead we’ll ponder what Bill Gates might have been thinking when he named Windows XP. Grammar Girl Mignon Fogarty has been posting seasonal grammar tips, and one related to the use of “Xmas” in signs instead of “Christmas” caught my eye. [...]
Fads spread like kudzu
Here’s one for communications guru Les Potter, ABC: Krudzu: Any proliferating management fad — or simply dumb concept — that overtakes and eventually strangles a company or organization. (From Buzzwhack.com.) Why Les? Because we had a discussion after an earlier post that mentioned Twitter as “sprawling as kudzu.” Les was kind enough to comment, revealing [...]
And I quote…
Here’s one for those of you who “dislike” when misguided “writers” apply quotation marks with wild abandon: Mark DiCristina’s “Blog” of “unnecessary” quotation marks (misinterpreting bad punctuation since 2005). You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll shake your head at the many, many instances of randomly distributed and misused quotation marks, many sent in by loyal readers. [...]
More praise for Sesame Street
From Babble, “the magazine and community for a new generation of parents” (and I have no idea how I came across it), a link to the 50 best Sesame Street moments. The one my two guys and I enjoyed when they were little is #49: “It is I, Captain Vegetable, with my carrot and my [...]
Read the fine print & laugh
Do you read the fine print? I read everything, and I love that some creative types reward people like me. For example: Andy Wibbels offers to send his blog posts by e-mail, and when he does, it has this note at the bottom: “All Rights Reserved. Please forward to friends, colleagues, enemies and groupies. I [...]
Mindless diversions
It’s funny how blogging is the first casualty when I’m up to my eyeballs in work. In the meantime, here are a few diversions: “Insanely interesting facts” from the Mental Floss “amazing fact generator”: http://www.mentalfloss.com/amazingfactgenerator/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2008-06-20&utm_content=Amazing-Fact-Generator. For example, every year since 1971, Nova Scotia has sent a giant evergreen to Massachusetts as thanks for sending aid [...]
Sesame Street rules at clever writing
One of the great things about having small children is watching Sesame Street. My children loved that show for the funny puppets and silly sketches. I loved it for the way it made learning fun, and because the writers did crazy things that made parents as well as children laugh, and did clever things referencing [...]
Dancing to fame
By now, you are no doubt among the estimated 15 million people who have viewed Matt Harding doing his goofy dance around the world. Talk about viral! It’s interesting to see how his video has taken off. His web site – which shows he’s home in Seattle, just back from his second media tour – [...]
