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Commercial success

Every once in a while there’s a commercial on TV that resonates with us and reminds us that maybe there still is a bit of imagination and creativity left in the advertising business. We still love to yell, “Start the car, start the car” when we score a bargain, thanks to IKEA. My friend Margaret just sent me a great one from the Canadian employee-owned…

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A reminder to remember

One of my first blog posts, “My kinda’ gun control” was in support of a gun amnesty program in Newark, New Jersey that began under the leadership of Corey Booker. As the anniversary of the horror of #Sandy Hook approaches, I think it is worth bringing the issue forward again. The Caliber Foundation dismantles guns seized by police or surrendered during amnesty programs and recycles…

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Shame on Joe Fresh

Ordinarily I’m a huge fan of the Joe Fresh brand. They offer affordable, fashionable clothing with quick turnover of designs. They let me down however when I saw their most recent commercial for children’s clothing. As I was watching the CTV news at 6:00 p.m. the other night, a #Joe Fresh commercial aired that made me very uncomfortable. It showed a number of small children…

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Imagining a better book club

As an avid reader I should probably belong to at least one book club, but I don’t. The reason is that I simply love books too much to try reading one that’s not a total delight. #Book clubs provide wonderful social and intellectual opportunities for readers and I think they are incredibly valuable instruments for meeting people and enrichingyour mind. However, they’re just not for…

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Alice doesn’t live here anymore

Alice Munro is without doubt a very good author – after all she recently won the Nobel Prize for literature. The thing is – and I’m embarrassed to admit this – I just don’t get her. In an earlier blog posting, I applauded her winning the Nobel Prize and was as proud as any Canadian could be. It motivated me to dig out my hard-cover…

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Dear Mr. Gates and the rest of you b#$%@&ds

I try to keep up, I really do. But it’s becoming increasingly more difficult for me to be our household I.T. Manager. Why can’t the so-called brilliant minds at our high-tech companies devise gadgets that work like they should – the first time – and stay working. The problems of maintaining all our electronic gadgets is becoming too much for me to manage. Yesterday, my…

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