Pithy Title Here

Twitter gives you 140 characters to make a point. If I don't break this blog up into little tiny paragraphs, you may skim its words, if read it at all. Study after study shows that Americans have either shorter attention spans or multitask to the point that they need information quickly and concisely. Not saying any of this is good or bad... or even that these are new problems. Shakespeare said in Richard III : "Tis better to be brief than tedious." That was back in the 16th century. But our world of soundbytes seems to have led to hyperbole and oversimplification that, perhaps, are not the best ways to examine what is anything but a simple world. We can see this all over the place. The recent frenzy over Planned Parenthood's federal funding comes to mind. The soundbyte was "They use funding for abortions." That's interesting when only 3% of Planned Parenthood's operations deal with abortion. Cutting funding would kinda be like if your doctor tells y...

Lately, several of our friends have started considering disconnecting their cable/satellite services. A couple have actually pulled the plug. Their reasoning up-front seems sound: they want to save money. They say they can stream all the network TV content they want and, for any shows they cannot catch online, they can get on DVD (or streaming) through a service such as Netflix . I'm not so sure this plan works out in the long term for them. I can say for sure my wife and I are considering ways we can cut our bill down. Perhaps cutting the Starz /Encore package? But a moment of truth: I watch way too much sports. A friend of mine admits he's "going to likely be spending more time in bars this fall" to catch his college football. For what it's worth, I have definitely spent the equivalent of a cable bill in a bar tab for a sporting event. And when you consider my lovely wife seems to have grown quite fond of the Yankees and Sounders - and since sports is best watch...

In the late 18 th Century, English physician Edward Jenner took an untested (at least in modern research terms) theory and ended up finding a way that led to the eradication of smallpox. A big part of his hunch toward a vaccine was that milkmaids tended to not get smallpox. The theory was that cowpox, a similar, less lethal virus, did something that, in the end, made the body immune to smallpox. In fact, modern science can tell you exactly why this is the case. As an oversimplification, the body "learns" to fight smallpox by killing the similar cowpox virus. So today, as you live your life free of smallpox, you should be happy that milkmaids of yore weren't using Purell every time they got done touching an udder. Would you do the same? I doubt it. My lovely wife wrote a rather humorous blog post on the subject of bathroom habits and it got me thinking... We are flipping nuts. Flushing the toilet with your foot? Washing up like you just left a salmonella factory every...

I fly through Phoenix a lot. Comes with the territory of being a US Airways flyer . I always go for window seats because I am a six-year-old and love looking out the window at stuff. As much as I fly into PHX , I had never noticed something until a few weeks ago. At first, I didn't know what I was seeing. I kept looking... Yes. It's a flipping fountain. But, thanks to The Googles and The Internets, I know it is not just any fountain. Apparently, it is the key feature of the Fountain Hills community and was built in 1970. Our friends at Wikipedia say it blasts 7,000 gallons of water every minute through three 600 horsepower pumps and that "ideally" it shoots water 560 feet into the air. The Washington Monument, by the way, is 555 feet and 5 1/8 inches tall. Yes, friends, in the middle of the flipping desert, we have built a fountain that can top out higher than a major national landmark. I barely know where to start here. I should note that it doesn't constantly ...

On Tuesday night, I'm attending the opening of Major League Soccer's 2011 season. In fact, I'll be at all of the Seattle Sounders FC games this season as a season ticket holder. I have to admit, if you had told me 10 years ago I'd be an MLS season ticket holder, I probably wouldn't have believed it. But, 15 years in, MLS is starting to gain some respect as a soccer league. Players in offseason training with Barclay's Premiership teams in England come back reporting that the gap is closer than ever. And, to be honest, the way Seattle cheers its team on makes the games worth it out of the box... 36,000 rowdy, chanting, singing fans. When I first went to a Sounders game, I was stunned by the crowd. I've attended a lot of sporting events in my life, been in some jacked up crowds... but never have I seen a crowd quite like the Sounders fans that fill Qwest Field. It makes some sense. More Americans grew up playing soccer in the last generation than any other...

In early 2003, I worked at a PR firm that promoted BBC Video. Not a bad gig for a somewhat-recent college grad. Especially if you like British humor (oh how I still think it's a tragedy what the USA did to Coupling . And don't even start me on my thoughts on the original British version of The Office ...). There was one DVD release, though, that took me by surprise. I had never heard of The Singing Detective . Our product managers on the client side spoke well of it... very well. And, when a member of the PR firm spoke to then-TV critic at the New York Daily News David Bianculli (he's now a guest host and TV critic on NPR's Fresh Air and founded TVWorthWatching .com), the well-respected critic referred to the 1986 BBC production as one of the best bits of dramatic TV ever. He ended up writing the DVD liner notes. Most of you have likely encountered Michael Gambon in the Harry Potter films. A younger Imelda Staunton (who also made her way to Harry Potter ) has a ro...

Last week, for the second time in my life, I found myself in Las Vegas. A side note: both times, my trips to Vegas have been for Ragan / PRSA social media conferences and they have both been amazing. These haven't been two days of listening to presenters pat themselves on their backs about what a great job they're doing. These have been real-time forums and discussions of using social channels as communications tools. I cannot recommend them enough. Anyhow, back to the story... I kind of hate Las Vegas. I am all for societies having their places of ill-repute. I just always thought Los Angeles fit that bill nicely. I challenge any group of frat boys to have a bachelor party in Los Angeles that doesn't go as well as one in Las Vegas. Hell, minus the gambling, it might go better in LA. And therein lies my first issue with Vegas: the assumption that you are up to no good. Usually, I go to conferences and it's easy to network and meet people. In Vegas, if I start talkin...