Every once in a while, while I am scanning my spam folder, a subject so ridiculous – so preposterous – so laughable – catches my eye.
Such as this one:
“Bomb her womb from your huge cannon!”
My gosh – I’m hot now!
I mean…seriously, how many men actually think “I want to go bomb me some womb tonight!”
I’m pretty sure that the men who are actively trying to reach the womb of their loved one are not the same men who would think about the act as “bombing”.
Or am I wrong here?
If you’ve ever had a dog that likes to get into the garbage, you know how frustrating (and dangerous) it is. And you also know how frustrating it is to try to find a dog-proof garbage can. In fact, there was only one dog-proof trash can on the market – and you had to (I kid you not) bolt it to the wall. And that dog proof garbage can cost $110.00 plus shipping. So I was thrilled to find this dog proof trash can which doesn’t need to be bolted to the wall, and which comes with free shipping from Amazon.
And which is on sale at Amazon right now for only $45.00!
Made by Simplehuman, this dog-proof garbage can features an easy to use slide lock which locks the lid in place. And, even though it’s a standard kitchen-size slim garbage can, it has wheels (pretty cool!)
Here’s a picture of it:
.
It works perfectly.
We love ours. And our dog doesn’t. Nuff said.
According to a CNN breaking news update, it would appear that U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is staging a coup.
According to the CNN breaking news update, and I quote here:
— U.S. Treasury secretary announces plan to take over troubled mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
—
An ambitious undertaking for an individual, to be sure. And probably the first coupe attempt in the U. S. since Alexander Haig infamously uttered the words “I’m in control” on March 30, 1981.
Sigh…why can’t copywriters..you know…write?
But to balance it all out..I was shocked to discover that Tori Spelling, of all people, writes surprisingly well! I picked up a copy of her sTORI Telling to read on the train, and was really pleasantly surprised at how well-written she is.
Can you believe that baby has grown so? Or that she is only just barely 4 months old??
(Baby is the one on the right.)
As some of you know, we’re on the road again. Right now we’re up in Seattle, where I’m running our semi-annual Internet Success Makers Group workshop.
Anyways, I wanted to share this amazing view with you – this is the sunset last night from our hotel room in Seattle:
My husband brought this little gem home from his last business trip – you know, those darned lawyers ruin it for everybody:
A couple of days ago I wrote an open letter to Mother Earth News, complaining about the cigarette advertising in their magazine – a magazine I had previously considered a model of leadership for “good living”.
To their credit, at least they gave me a response, even if it wasn’t the one that I’d wanted:
“Thanks for writing.
Our many decisions regarding whether or not to accept advertising from any particular company are seldom simple. Our readers come to us for alternatives. Our advertisers, knowing this, sometimes offer “alternative� tools, therapies and appliances that I, personally, don’t see as valuable and wouldn’t, personally, purchase.
Our acid test is whether the add is, on its face, misleading offensive or exploitative. We reject advertisers on these bases regularly.
Cigarettes are harmful to people who smoke them. It states this clearly on the advertisement you mentioned. American Spirit makes only the mildest and vaguest of claims regarding how “natural� the product might be. I cannot conclude that the advertisement in misleading.
The ad is, in our opinion, not offensive. However, this is the most subjective of our judgments and the one most likely to prompt a change in our position.
That leaves the question of whether cigarettes are, by their nature, exploitative. My colleagues include people who smoke, people who used to smoke but quit and people who never smoked. I respect the people in each of these groups for their decisions. Are the smokers being exploited by tobacco companies? I can’t see how. They pick up and light each cigarette with the full knowledge of its effect. No one is physically incapable of quitting.
We respect our readers for their ability to make decisions of this kind and we have elected to run these legal advertisements for a legal product whose negative effects are (unlike many other products’) clearly described on the advertisements themselves. I believe the ads are, in this respect, superior to ads for automobiles with excessive horsepower; fatty, over-processed foods; and inefficient appliances.
Furthermore, obviously, these ads and all the other ads allow us to distribute important information to millions of people each year at an astonishingly low cost to the consumer.
Bryan Welch
Publisher and Editorial Director
Ogden Publications, Inc.
1503 SW 42nd St.
Topeka, KS 66609
12 North 12th Street
Suite 400
Minneapolis, MN 55403
785-274-4308
Fax: 785-274-4309
Mother Earth News, Utne Reader, Natural Home, Motorcycle Classics, Farm Collector, Gas Engine Magazine, Steam Traction, The Herb Companion, Herbs for Health, CAPPER’S, GRIT, American Life & Traditions, Brave Hearts Magazine, Good Things To Eat Magazine, Capper’s Insurance Service and Capper’s Reader Service.
www.ogdenpubs.com”
— —
P.S. If you want to tell Mother Earth News how you feel about this, you can do so here.
Dear Mother Earth News,
I was shocked – and very *very* disappointed – to open this month’s issue and find a full page advertisement for cigarettes, of all things! I’m referring to the ad for “Natural American Spirit” cigarettes that appeared near the back of the August/September 2008 issue.
I have been a fan of Mother Earth News for more than 30 years – since the original publication of the magazine. I have turned more people on to M.E.N. than I can remember, and my husband and I have held M.E.N. up to our son as one of the few publications that is true to both the earth, and clean, honest, healthy living.
To now find you pushing *cigarettes* is so shocking to the conscience – so antithetical to all for which we believed you to stand – that it is all we can do to not cancel our subscription immediately.
However, instead we will wait for the next issue, in the dear hope that the offending – and so completely out of character – advertising will be gone.
If it isn’t, we will be, and you will have alienated and lost at least one very loyal subscribing family.
I found myself saying this to a friend today – I always say “do what you love, and love what you do”, but today what flowed from me somehow seemed more profound, and I felt that I should put pixel to screen, to make sure that I had it down somewhere, so here it is:
“You know you should do what you love, and love what you do, right? To truly become an expert on something you need not only the knowledge and information, but you need the passion. Then the opportunities don’t just flow to you – your very energy and enthusiasm creates them!”
I walk quickly. I always have. I chalk it up to being a New Yorker. Because, you know, New Yorkers walk fast. We’re busy people, and we have places to go, and things to see.
Even when we aren’t in New York. (Even, in fact, when we haven’t lived in New York for many years.)
You can take the fast walker out of New York, but you can’t take the fast New York out of the walker. Or something like that.
Now here’s the thing:
All you people out on the sidewalks who aren’t from New York – all you people who walk so agonizingly sloooooowly – and you know who you are – you’re in our way!
You’re holding up traffic!
Get the heck out of the way!
Move to the right, so that we can pass you.
No..further.
Tip by
Tip by
Tip by
