I am a big fan of the online and TV shopping enterprise QVC, and one of the hosts, Carolyn Gracie, said something on a show which really resonated with me. This summer I was watching a show where she was selling clothing for women, including (it being summer) several tops without sleeves, and she was busy showing them off, chatting all the while. She is business as usual, moving the clothing around on rack, talking about the colors, the fabrics,…
Today President Biden announced a major new program to eliminate the school loan debt of some people and to help make the debt load for others much easier! This is great news! I needed a lot of scholarship money and took out loans for my undergraduate degree at Bryn Mawr College. The college helped a lot with its own money, and I was a National Merit Scholar. But, I had to take out loans. Without them I could not have…
I have to admit there have been times in the last few years (talking about my life during these past few years of COVID) when I contemplated scenes from second half the 1997 blockbuster movie Titanic. Specifically, I mean the scenes where the ship musicians just play on while people are trying to get off the ship, and the situation is dire. For some, these scenes would seem idiotic. I mean, really, playing music with death and destruction all around?…
One of the definitions of the word “hiatus” is an interruption in time or continuity. Well, that fits. I was on hiatus as far as this blog is concerned during the initial years of the COVID pandemic. My attention was needed elsewhere, but now I am back. Stay tuned for future posts, and thanks for listening. I have something to say. Photo credit: Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash
Popping in to say thank you to the brave men and women fighting fires in California. There just isn’t any way to show how hard their job is and how important. We all, rightly, think a lot about the damage the fires do, but, here’s one photo and news story that made me smile. I am glad the firemen took the time to rescue the little owl. He looks a little upset about the whole situation, but he is going…
A friend of mine in her mid 20s told me QVC is launching a clothing line with Rachel Hollis, blogger and author of Girl, Wash Your Your Face and Girl, Stop Apologizing. My friend had mentioned it to me because I am, I admit, a big fan of QVC and a long-time customer. By the way, QVC has a bookmarker page up on its site for the line, apparently the launch is set for sometime later this Spring. My friend…
A friend of mine sent me a message this morning telling me I should take a look at a cool Web site, a wind map of the United States: http://hint.fm/wind/. So, here’s what I saw (see below). I drew the shape on the map to make it easier for others to see what I see: a face. I see eyes, a nose, a mouth and a beard, among other things. The tip of the nose is right over Denver, and…
Note: this post first appeared earlier this month as a guest opinion column on What’s New in Publishing. In the closing days of 2018, New York Magazine published an article on its Web site entitled How Much of the Internet Is Fake? Turns Out, a Lot of It, Actually. This article is a must-read for anyone involved in digital advertising. In case you were wondering, I agree with everything the writer, Max Read, has to say in the article, which is a…
Ralph Breaks the Internet is a new 3-D movie from Disney. The plot is pretty standard Disney fare, but what interested me most about the movie is how the animators envisioned the Internet in physical space. Briefly, Wreak-It-Ralph and friend Vanellope von Schweetz journey from their video game homeland to the worldwide universe of the Internet on a quest. No more spoilers on the story than this! Now, consider the design challenge this brief represents and then focus on the biggest…
The reasons United States citizens do not vote or even bother to vote are complex and numerous. Yes, some people feel their votes do not make a difference, while others take pride in refusing to take part in what they consider to be a charade of some sort. And, in some parts of the country the states themselves make it difficult to vote. Take Pennsylvania, for example, just one small example. Pennsylvania refuses to allow people to vote early or…