These three commercials have gotten under my skin. I’m sure each of us has some pet peeve about the way commercials misrepresent the world. Mine tend to be around inaccuracy and the assumption that we viewers are gullible. Here’s my list: Principal Financial Group’s “Dream Car” This Principal Financial Group ad represents three generations of […]
Five Minute Friday: NAME
NAME Many of us say while socializing, “I’m bad with names. I may have to ask you next time we see each other.” That’s certainly the case with me. The truth of the matter, though, is that I tell people I’m bad with names because it’s easier for them to understand that than it is […]
The Endlessly Fascinating Nonprofit World
May was a blur. There’s a reason a group of my friends have a “Mothers Surviving May” party. It’s tough month (even for an empty nester, it seems). Looking back, here’s what stuck with me most from the stories I encountered as a SmartBrief editor last month. If I had to capture the theme, I’d […]
Five Minute Friday: CULTURE
CULTURE I chose an article, In a Town Shaped by Water, the River Is Winning, to share in the International City/County Management SmartBrief yesterday that had all the pieces I love in an piece of writing of its nature. The article talked about how Ellicott City, Md., has had two 1000-year floods since 2016. It […]
Should Office Plants be Banned?
“They’ll have to pry my African Violets from my cold dead hands.” Many of us (I count myself in this number) don’t like unexpected changes in our work environments. Sometimes the change is something relatively minor (maybe a piece of decorative art on the wall was changed). Other times, the change is more drastic (people […]
Did I Really Promise to Go Without Coffee?
PROMISE Have you ever made a hasty promise, thinking “how hard could that be?” THEN, upon learning what you had gotten yourself into, did you second-guess yourself? Did you wonder how you could get out of it and if doing so would matter to anyone? Welcome to my life. If you’re my Facebook friend, you […]