Nearly twenty years ago I did a couple of talks at American Express in New York. In fact if I crane my neck I can see the video tapes of one of them from my desk in our sordid basement. …
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Crazy thinking on Twitter about Wikipedia
I am getting lots of invitations – as no doubt you are – from people to follow them on twitter. Most twitterings are witterings, but since I hardly ever get invited to anything nowadays (sad little chap) I tend to …
Read MoreNew Year’s Day Games in Kabul – from a marketer I REALLY admire
I somehow doubt whether all that many able copywriters are currently serving as soldiers of fortune in Afghanistan, but Greg Waggett is. These photos were taken by him in Kabul on New Year’s Day. They show the players and spectators …
Read MoreA new year joke. Don’t all laugh at once
I found this in a magnificent book of old Punch Cartoons given to me by my ex-wife and friend Pam. The book has convinced me that few things wear as badly as yesterday’s jokes. But it does contain an enormous …
Read MoreThree charity lessons from Scrooge Bird before the New Year begins
An hour ago I was stopped outside Heals on the King’s Road by a guy collecting for the Painted Children Charity. “Sorry,” I said, “I’ve already given. You lot are everywhere.” This is true – they’ve been doing an amazing …
Read MoreThe Great Elmer Gantry tradition lives on
Many of us, I am sure, have heard the story about the founder of Scientology. Half jokingly perhaps, he said at a meeting of fellow science fiction writers over half a century ago that if you want to make real …
Read MoreThe unexpected joys of Spam … now that’s what I call a pair of kneecaps
I think I mentioned the other day that Steve, who arranges these matters for me, has reset our thing-a-me-bob machine to allow a deluge of spam to come flooding in. This makes life pretty tedious, but there are small compensations …
Read MoreThe new black market: don’t get caught holding the sardines
After the second world war, when I was already middle aged, ha! there was a joke going round about a crate of sardines. One of the boys on the black market liberated them off the back of a lorry, and …
Read MoreIs there a greater curse than fanatical religion? I sometimes wonder
The greatest pain for me in the last few days has been a plague of spam. Recently a few people have had their messages to me bounce, so one theory was that this was caused by the Spam filter, which …
Read MoreA little bouquet of Christmas Nightmares
You don’t need to tell me Christmas can be stressful. 39 years ago the lady I was then with sat on the banister outside our flat in Harley Street on Christmas morning and threatened to jump if I didn’t marry …
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