Kim, With Love to You

I just found out about a schoolmate of mine who died. Her life ended with emotionally resonant exclamation marks -- which suits her better than any eulogy -- and, because of the strange way death moves, every living memory I have of her is back with me in vivid colour.

A year out of high school, she found me on AIM and randomly asked, "Are there ever nights you can't turn your brain off? And you're tired but you can never never sleep, because the thinking won't stop?"

I didn't answer, probably because I wasn't sure how. It was the last time I heard from her. But years later, when nights like the one she described became frequent spectres in my life, I remembered Kim and wondered what she'd been looking for.

The question now is futile, but it still wants asking: What could I have given her?

Twitter as Service or Utility.

Obama Gets the FDR Treatment

The current cover of Time magazine is a ready-made archive piece:



Comparisons between President Elect Barack Obama and Franklin D. Roosevelt began in earnest when Obama launched his first fireside-chat-style weekly address to the people -- on YouTube. Voici:



Seems like, for the meantime, John F. Kennedy's slipped off the juxtapo-radar. Which suggests people are thinking less about Obama's youth and charm, and more about how his communication strategies will actively change the political face of the States. (FDR was, after all, a talented piper of both mice and men.)

Shepard Fairey Takes on Prop 8

Read up. Feelin' it? Sign here. (V-v-v-via.)

Facebook, This Far is Too Far.

Well and good if you're gonna feed on my love handle complex, but whether I pass a razor over my Holy Grail is between me and God -- not me, God and your ad board.

Low-Hanging Beef

Dear Editor/Reporter/Producer:

Please click on the link below to take a very brief survey (less than 5 minutes) to help us to educate public relations practitioners and allied professionals about how to work effectively with you; the media.

No. But here are a couple of bones:

• Use my name. Or do that nifty direct mail auto-replace thing with Word. (You have Word, right?) Nobody needs to know how wide -- how very, very wide -- you cast your eager net.


• Master the (subtle) difference between a colon and a semicolon.

God help those public relations practitioners and allied professionals. Full letter here.