As I write this, I'm sitting on a third-floor deck of a house on St. George Island, Florida, looking out at the Gulf of Mexico as the sun rises. The sea is calm, almost glassy. There's no chill breeze, no sound except for the gentle lapping of the waves. The horizon… Read full post »

Advertising may be the ultimate "what have you done for me lately?" business. You're only as good as your last idea and, if you slip, there's always somebody--some other copywriter, some other agency--ready to give you an extra shove and walk over your prostrate body to show the client somethi… Read full post »

When I was seven, I was going to be a poet. I'd just written my first poem, entitled "My Boy Al and the Egg"; it was based a story I'd read about Thomas Edison. I was asked to recite it at a second-grade assembly. The applause was intoxicating. I could look forward/… Read full post »

I have to admit: as skeptical as I am about religion and politics, when it comes to relationships, I'm a complete naif. I am, in fact, I'm a bit of a pollyanna; it's against my nature to see the bad or deceptive in people.

For example: big ad agencies are breeding… Read full post »

There's a great scene in "Far Away Places," Episode 6 of Season 5 of Mad Men, in which Roger Sterling and his wife Jane are about to drop acid at the end of a dinner party at Jane's psychiatrist's house. "How long does it last?" asks Roger.

I could have told him… Read full post »

“The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation, and go to the grave with the song still in them.” That’s from Henry David Thoreau’s Walden.

That used to be me.

It was what I told myself to feel better about my desolation, anyway: that at least I was… 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 »

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 »

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 »

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 »

Yesterday, a friend from Denver, Steve Preston, handed me a story from the Denver Post in which food critic John Henderson rates his best and worst meals in the world for 2010. Worst sandwich in the world? I quote:

Grouper fillet, Loughmiller’s Pub & Eate… Read full post »

A little over three years ago, I found out what was really important to my neighbors. After almost 50 years on the planet, I finally understood what it was that would get them out in the streets, mad as hell, carrying, literally, torches and pitchforks and placards, shutting… Read full post »

In my almost thirty years in the advertising business, I’ve been presented with scores of interesting marketing puzzles to solve. I’ve also been blessed with great clients. But every once in a while, I’ve had a conflict. I’ve had a couple/… Read full post »

A friend told me a week ago that he was going to have to start watching Mad Men, but that his wife couldn’t handle it. “She can’t stand the way the women are treated,” he said. “She just won’t go there.”

I understand… Read full post »

Football season is upon us, and the fans are ready for action. I am not the world’s biggest football fan, but I spent a fair bit of a beautiful afternoon yesterday sitting in front of my TV watching the Indianapolis Colts. Peyton Manning had a magnificent game.&nb/… Read full post »

I read a printed book this weekend. An entire hardcover printed book. An actual, honest-to-god, made-from-trees book.

It’s been a while.

The book was Jonathan Franzen’s Freedom, most of which I devoured in two days. I was sent the book so I’d/… Read full post »

So Poison frontman and reality TV star Bret Michaels, he of the ubiquitous bandana and dueling groupies, has had a massive brain hemorrhage. As of this writing, he's still in critical condition at an undisclosed hospital, but he's been "awake and chatty."

That's good--even thou… Read full post »

I admit it: I'm a college sports curmudgeon. I hate the way we've turned our colleges and universities into farm systems for the NBA and the NFL. The money involved is obscene; in its annual ranking of most valuable college basketball programs, Forbes says the Tarheels of North C/… Read full post »

In so many ways, it's like any other television commercial you've worked on for the last thirty years. You dream up some spot ideas and pitch them to the client. (The client chooses the idea that wasn't your favorite.) You bid the job and hire the production company. (You don't have… Read full post »

It's a familiar refrain on sports talk radio in Indianapolis: "The national media's been dissing us all year! Finally, we're gonna show them all!"

This is boring, but true. Keyshawn Johnson called the Colts "the worst 14-0 team ever." That's a ridiculous statement on its face. The… Read full post »

Every year, I make a mix CD of my favorite songs. And nobody plays the damn thing all the way through.

Okay, right. I know you’re the exception. Seriously, you are. Dude. It’s okay, really.

It’s just that, for some time now, it’s struck me how often I’m talking to… Read full post »