by Sue Horner | Jul 21, 2016 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
In a showdown between fast cars and slow-moving turtles, the losers are easy to spot, flattened on increasingly busy roads. The study of this often deadly interaction of road networks and nature is called road ecology. Some background reading I’m doing for a project...
by Sue Horner | Jul 14, 2016 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
“Summer afternoon — summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.” — Henry James Whether you are a freelancer or work in a corporate office, you may find that business slows in the summertime. People you...
by Sue Horner | Jul 6, 2016 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
When technology and big data converge, the results can be revolutionary. Just don’t forget communications. Illustrating that point was one of many stories shared by Julia Oosterman at the “Next Big Thing” session for IABC/Toronto Westend members on June 23. Julia...
by Sue Horner | Jun 30, 2016 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Sometimes, individual months draaaag along (January, I’m looking at you), but suddenly June hurtles past and the year is halfway through. Heading into the July 1st / July 4th long weekend, here’s a half-dozen of my most-viewed blog posts so far this year: ‘How to take...
by Sue Horner | Jun 27, 2016 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
How rare is it to be born on February 29, the extra day in a Leap Year? By chance I was travelling on this extra day one year, and found this explanation by journalist Steve Rubenstein in the San Francisco Chronicle: “Being born on Feb. 29 is rare, sort of. The odds...
by Sue Horner | Jun 22, 2016 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
My client’s newsletter deadline was already past, she was scrambling to get it finished, and then WHAM. A story she was counting on looked like it had fallen through. This is a case where the person you hire to help you with some writing is more than her ability...
by Sue Horner | Jun 16, 2016 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
A mom out dancing with her son was one of the 49 people killed and 53 injured in the latest senseless shooting in the U.S. That could have been me; maybe that could have been you, or your mother, daughter, sister, wife, aunt, friend. It’s almost irrelevant that...
by Sue Horner | Jun 10, 2016 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
It breaks my heart when I read that colon cancer is 90% preventable if detected early. The fact that my brother didn’t find his in time, sadly, puts him in an uncomfortably large crowd. According to Colon Cancer Canada, about 24,400 new cases were diagnosed in...
by Sue Horner | Jun 1, 2016 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
A campaign described in The New York Times last week got me thinking about how writers can contribute to safety awareness. The article reported that roadway deaths are on the rise, and we need to stop calling the reason accidents. Writer Matt Richtel quotes “safety...
by Sue Horner | May 26, 2016 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
The well of BS is endless, as a new Twitter connection observed about business jargon this week. During the exchange, the word stakeholder came up. Fans find it a useful word describing people with an interest in something, an expansion of the original shareholders...