The Red Jacket Diaries blog

Sue Horner is a freelance writer in Oakville, Ontario, who blogs about writing, newsletters, communications and running an independent business in The Red Jacket Diaries blog.

Some favourite work things

by | Jul 31, 2008 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog

So Elicia MacKenzie has been crowned Maria von Trapp (in the show, How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?) for the upcoming Toronto production of the Sound of Music. Good for her! I did not see a single episode, nor have I watched any of American Idol or Canadian...

Reporter tries too hard

by | Jul 30, 2008 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog

This has been bugging me since I read it in Monday’s Toronto Star: “…the 26-year-old Arizona resident broke his tour maiden at Glen Abbey yesterday.” Shades of 13th-century virgins being despoiled! I suppose the reporter was trying (with a...

Life’s a butter dream

by | Jul 22, 2008 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog

Friday is your last chance to submit your favourite mondegreen to Merriam-Webster. “Mondegreen” is one of the new words M-W has added to the M-W Collegiate Dictionary this year, meaning “a word or phrase that results from a mishearing of something...

Keeping up with the Joneses

by | Jul 17, 2008 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog

Marketers are going after another supposedly influential group these days: Generation Jones, a term coined by Los Angeles “culture expert” Jonathan Pontell. This is the group within Baby Boomers born between 1954 and 1965. It probably tells you something...

Don’t wait for perfection

by | Jul 16, 2008 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog

When my elderly neighbour passed away more than a year ago, his daughter took time to mourn. Then she started the task of cleaning up and fixing up, intending to sell the place. It’s a small two-bedroom bungalow, so the likely buyer will be elderly.  The...

Talking ’bout my generation

by | Jul 7, 2008 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog

I had an interesting experience that followed up a session at the IABC conference on generational differences in the workplace. Exhibit A. My husband (baby boomer) was looking for the phone number of a local golf course. He turned first to the closest print phone book...