by Sue Horner | Nov 23, 2007 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
I’ve often heard about “Black Friday,” the day after American Thanksgiving, when shoppers are out in full force heralding the official start of the traditional Christmas shopping marathon. I wasn’t sure where the name came from, imagining it...
by Sue Horner | Nov 19, 2007 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
I didn’t know until catching up on my Bloglines feeds and reading Dan Santow’s Word Wise that the 2007 word of the year (named by Webster New World College Dictionary) is grass station. A variation on gas station, it refers to where we may all be fuelling...
by Sue Horner | Nov 14, 2007 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Is this for real? I just found the Free Rice site (through Seth Godin) that has a word game that promises to donate 10 grains of rice through the UN every time you correctly pick the right meaning of a word. It’s an admirable mission, although I wonder just who...
by Sue Horner | Nov 6, 2007 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
You know technology has truly infiltrated our lives when tech terms apply to people. A client recently asked what my bandwidth was. It used to mean how much data could be sent through a network or modem, but now it’s evolved to mean “how much extra time do...
by Sue Horner | Oct 22, 2007 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
“Innerpreneur.” Isn’t that a great term? I ran across it following a trail from the latest MarketingSherpa newsletter to a book called Karma Queens, Geek Gods & Innerpreneurs, by Consumer Eyes marketing firm founder Ron Rentel. The book...
by Sue Horner | Oct 17, 2007 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
In the latest of Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox newsletters, I ran across this terrific phrase: voodoo usability. As Nielsen explains it, “Most sites employ horribly misguided methodologies that do not assess real usability. Sometimes the methods are simply worthless; other...
by Sue Horner | Oct 16, 2007 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Fellow independent Joanna Turlej pointed me to Trendwatching, an interesting site about – what else – trends. As you can imagine, the spotters at Trendwatching come up with new words all the time to describe the trends they see. They credit Faith Popcorn, probably...
by Sue Horner | Oct 8, 2007 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
A mailing sent this month by the Toronto chapter of IABC that would normally include the monthly newsletter, Communicator, instead contained a sheet of paper that said, “A new and improved Communicator is coming this fall.” The notice included this line:...
by Sue Horner | Oct 1, 2007 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
I’ve ranted before about the bad things that happen to good quotes at the hands of executives, so I was pleased to see my sentiments echoed in an article (sorry, I tried to link to it but it may be one of those limited-time-access things) by the impassioned...
by Sue Horner | Sep 6, 2007 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Making their way around the world lately by e-mail and blog (including Aussie Angry 365 Days a Year and Reluctant Nomad in Amsterdam) are some classic insults from the days when insults weren’t mean and crude, but had wit and class. Winston Churchill was always...
