Send it Back

Send it Back

I frequently receive unsolicited spam. But I repeat myself. Among the most frequent spammers is something calling itself the Reverse Logistics Association (RLA). Until I went on its website to find out what it was and what it did, my only recourse was to guess at what...
As If

As If

Empiricism is a dying art. We’ve lost faith in our senses, in the evidence — any evidence — before us. We’ve lost the conviction that what looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck must be a duck. We’ve jettisoned the...
What Price Respect?

What Price Respect?

As he got older, Grandpa O’Brien was increasingly bemused by things he couldn’t understand. Whether those things were familial, commercial, cultural, or political, they’d elicit the same reaction: a wry smile, a shake of the head both mystified and...
Reverse Marketing

Reverse Marketing

Floyd and Boyd are not real people. But they play them on TV. They recently engaged in this discussion during an episode of Unreal People on UPC (the Unreal People Channel). Floyd: Why don’t companies market to vendors? Boyd: What? Floyd: If companies need the...
LA (LinkedIn Anonymous)

LA (LinkedIn Anonymous)

I was reading a book the other day about mysteries of the universe. There were chapters about — and alleged photographs of — UFOs, crop circles, Bigfoot, the Bermuda Triangle, the Loch Ness Monster, and honest politicians. Then there was this: LinkedIn member This...
I Want to be Seduced

I Want to be Seduced

According to dictionary.com, hype is a derivation of hyperbole: Origin: 1925–30, Americanism; in sense “to trick, swindle,” of uncertain origin; subsequent senses perhaps by reanalysis as a shortening of hyperbole That’s easy enough to imagine. A hyperbolic pitch...