My Substack

July 3rd is my brother Paul’s birthday. He died five years ago, but he would have been 54 on Thursday. I think it’s obvious why I’m thinking of him this week. But then there is the show Orange is the New Black, which I also can’t stop thinking…

I do a thing with ideas that will probably sound really weird. I did it while writing this. Here’s how it goes: I open a blank document for whatever it is I’m working on, like this newsletter, or an article, speech, web site or other marketing…

This is not a typical blog post (although please don’t ask me to describe what is a typical blog post is). Instead, below you'll find an essay, entitled "Out of Order." I started it about three years ago, and finished it in January of 2013, eight…

In the middle of a meeting last week with a client, their curtains fell down. The panels were attached with Velcro, and they unattached themselves loudly, peeling away from one end of the floor-to-ceiling window to the other. “That happens,” my…

I had an enlightening lunch the other day. I was with two colleagues, and we were talking about social media. One of these colleagues is what I would call “off the social media grid”: no Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter, a little-used Pinterest…