by Mark O'Brien | Oct 2, 2014
Prevailing wisdom contends that the most important aspect of direct-email marketing is the subject line. I hadn’t given the notion all that much thought until I started receiving a blizzard of such emails, all with this attention-grabbing subject line: Burial...
by Mark O'Brien | Sep 26, 2014
We decided to supersize the newest addition to the OCG pet family. The young fella sprawled across JoAnna’s lap is Crush, a 12-week-old Great Dane. Pledges to the OCG Pet Food Fund can be made by calling 1-800-GET-CHOW. Yikes!
by Mark O'Brien | Sep 19, 2014
Salem is perennially curious about the origins of shopworn shibboleths. Just the other day he was asking us if we knew how and why people so many people so readily assume cats love to play with balls of thread, twine, or yarn. He actually seemed a tad offended at the...
by Mark O'Brien | Aug 16, 2014
Contributing editor, John Brandon, recently published a piece in Inc. called, “8 Expressions Really Good Communicators Always Use”. If nothing else, it proves the old adage that one man’s compliment is another man’s insult. You can read the...
by Mark O'Brien | Aug 15, 2014
“All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.” (Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast) When I first began presenting my book, Martin the Marlin, to large groups of children, I’d find myself getting anxious. Oddly enough, I...