Know thy customer
Oh, those funny folks at Honda! They’re doing a good job of keeping in touch with me, long-time Honda owner that I am. But their enthusiasm for selling me a new car always seems to overtake their good sense. I bought a 2009 Honda Civic last year, and I’m...Just don’t call it a battle
Tell me you do this, too — as you flip past the newspaper section containing obituaries, you can’t help but stop and read the ones accompanied by a photo of a young-looking person. Here’s why I do it. Having lost a few friends to cancer, I feel...
Brand You, no margaritas required
Are you always the same person, or do you act one way with friends and family, and a different way with clients and colleagues? While on vacation, I was chatting (over a few margaritas) with a few ladies I had just met, and one of the women spoke warmly of her son....Do you respond promptly?
Having been away for a week, I’m a little nervous. A few weeks ago, I managed to live through a day where no e-mail messages made it to my in-box. It took a while to find out, because I could send messages; but the replies didn’t make it through. Of...Words matter
To wind up the work week and provide some amusement for word nerds, here are a few errors spotted recently in print or online, some of them in places where someone really should have known better/proofread: …wore a vile of her blood (vial) …balling her...
IBD can’t wait
A woman knocked on my door one day, asking to use the washroom. I don’t remember if she had a card to say she suffered from Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), but that’s probably the only reason someone would ask to use a stranger’s bathroom....
Don’t be a hoarder
You wouldn’t believe it, looking at my office last week, but I am not a hoarder. Hoarders, as displayed to the world in the A&E show of the same name, have “an inability to part with their belongings” that is so out of control, they are on the...
Another odd book title wins a quirky contest
In case you missed it, the winner of the prestigious Diagram Prize for Oddest Book Title of the Year has been chosen. Drumroll, please. It is Daina Taimina’s Crocheting Adventures with Hyperbolic Planes. No doubt you are as surprised as I that Governing Lethal...