I was a little surprised to read the other day about the demise of Viewshound.com. I wasn't surprised that they stopped doing what they were doing, but I was surprised by how quickly it all fell in upon itself. I figured someone doing something that ambitious would try to hang on a little/… Read full post »

Hi, everyone. I'm crossposting this as Punchnel's in OS. Please make Punchnel's a favorite if you want to get these updates.

One more note: we have a great photo essay by Barry Doyle you'll want to see if you're a fan of his work here. And you isn't? 

Greetings,… Read full post »

Hey, all. We're alive and rocking at Punchnel's. I'm going to post updates on OS once a week as Punchnel's, so please make Punchnels' a favorite (http://open.salon.com/blog/punchnels) if you want to see what we're doing. Here's what's happening this week:

Hello, OSers. Just stopping by to tell you wh… Read full post »

A little over nine years ago, I was sitting in a northside bar with a woman I worked with. We’d been out for a drink with a client, who’d left early; he lived in Lafayette and had another engagement there. Neither my woman friend nor I had anyplace to go, so… Read full post »

For a while now–maybe forever–it’s been popular in marketing circles to talk about generational differences and how they affect people’s behavior. Baby Boomers are self-involved and idealistic and competitive. They’re goal-oriented workaholics. Gen-Xers are indivi… Read full post »

When I was a kid, I loved The Hardy Boys. Not the terrible TV show starring Shawn Cassidy and that dude who was married to Kirstie Alley when she was still super-hot. No–I mean the series of books penned by Franklin W. Dixon. I was enamored of the boys and their chums B/… Read full post »

If you’re a creative writer, the Internet Age has been a mixed blessing. The opportunities to get your work in front of an audience have proliferated. You don’t need to win anyone’s approval to have a public forum; just start a blog and publish yourself. It’s great&ndas… Read full post »

Progress has always been a double-edged sword. Inventions intended to save us time and make our lives easier can have surprising downstream consequences.

Take, for example, Eli Whitney’s cotton gin, patented in 1794. This handy little gadget gave cotton growers a simple way to separate cot/… Read full post »

This morning on the way to work, I was listening to Mikes Golic and Greenberg, hosts of ESPN Radio’s Mike and Mike Show, chatting with former NFL player and coach Herman Edwards about Miami Dolphins linebacker Channing Crowder and the “stupid” thing he said on th… Read full post »

My Beautiful Wife and I just got back from a trip to Italy. My father bought our plane tickets and arranged for us, along with my brothers and sisters and their spouses, to meet in Rome, where we spent five days walking among the ruins and splendors of the ancient world… Read full post »

When I was a kid, I used to read the comics in the newspaper. We called them “the funnies.” Does anyone still call them the funnies? Even the ones that weren’t funny–Rex Morgan, MD and Brenda Starr, for example–were “the funnies,” and I read/… Read full post »

Lately I’ve felt the need to be in closer touch with poetry. The best way I know to achieve my goal is to read a lot of poetry–and to reread Edward Hirsch‘s excellent How To Read A Poem (And Fall In Love With Poetry). You’ll get more out of the book if you know/… Read full post »

So Donald Trump has decided he won't be available to drive the pace car at 100th running of the Indianapolis 500. In a statement released Thursday, Trump said, "I very much appreciate the honor, but time and business constraints make my appearance there...impossible to fulfill. I l/… Read full post »

I have a friend named C.K. She’s a groovy sort of gal.

(Sure, I know that that’s offensive, but, come on, be a pal.)

And so to help her celebrate the day that she was born

I searched the world over for a perfect ponicorn.

Ponicorns are special—if you haven’t,… Read full post »

This Sunday, May 1, is Mutt Strut out at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It’s the biggest benefit of the year for the Humane Society of Indianapolis where My Beautiful Wife is the director of development. Which means, this year, anyway, she’s pret/… Read full post »

For thirty years, I have made my living as a writer. Perhaps not in the way you’d imagine. It was certainly never what I imagined.

I’ve been a copywriter for my entire career. I’ve made a great living writing advertising and marketing materials&mdash… Read full post »

The Indianapolis Star‘s Bob Kravitz has a great (if hardly original) idea: the NCAA should allow college athletes to be paid. In Friday’s paper, Kravitz called on the NCAA to “end the charade and pay players.”

He’s right. Student-athletes, as th… Read full post »

With our plucky Butler Bulldogs back in the NCAA men’s basketball championship game, people can’t help going back and looking forHoosiers comparisons–and they’ve found yet another in the Milan Indians, the real-life inspiration for the classic film. Milan–the little/… Read full post »

Abby Day is a bright, attractive twenty-something with a good job, a nice apartment, and plenty of friends. She’s not the depressive type. But when I mentioned the subject of “Facebook depression” in her presence, she nodded knowingly.

“… Read full post »

As I wrote last week, I don’t spend much time listening to sports talk on the radio. Only when my team is winning and I want to revel in it do I tune into the inane blather that passes for analysis. Most of the chatter is beyond stupid. Some some of/… Read full post »

I am decidedly not a news junky. I never watch network news, and the only reason I get any local TV news is that My Beautiful Wife has WTHR’s pre-Today Show newscast on every morning while she gets ready for work. Occasionally I read The New York Times o/… Read full post »

Dear Peyton,

How’s it going? It was great to see you at the Celebration of Hope Gala for Peyton Manning Children’s Hospital at St.Vincent. You looked as if you were having a great time. Kenny Chesney was fantastic and Bob Costas was his old, charming self, wasn&r… Read full post »

B.R. Myers has stirred up a big pot controversy. In his article this month in The Atlantic, “The Moral Crusade Against Foodies,” Myers makes the case that well-known foodies–including Michael Pollan, Anthony Bourdain, Dana Goodyear, and lots of ot/… Read full post »

Here in Indianapolis, we love our monuments. Not long ago, I learned that Indianapolis is second only to Washington, D.C. in the number of monuments in our downtown area memorializing our war heroes; in fact, someone told me it was why we saw “so many Ger… Read full post »

There's a big party in Indianapolis tonight, and we're invited.

Actually, we invited ourselves by springing for a table at the fourth annual Celebration of Caring Gala to benefit Peyton Manning Children's Hospital at St.Vincent. It's the first big event to be held at the brand-new /… Read full post »