The Beach by the Seine Will Have to Suffice
The number of French vacationers has risen continuously, growing from an estimated 30 percent of the population in 1950 to more than 70 percent in the early eighties, Froidure said. CNN Travel had this sad story in today’s editions. “After stagnating for about two decades, these numbers appear on the […]
The Gaulic Dismay: "We were Robbed"
The New Yorker’s August 22 ‘all Target ads issue’ included among the creative uses of the red and white bullseye, a look at the sour mood in France by Adam Gopnik. He writes. “When the name “London” was announced, a punch-in-the-stomach silence struck Paris. The French Olympians insisted that the […]
Would You Pay Half a Buck for A Short Story?
David Utter writes in WebProNews about Amazon’s new Short Story Shorts. “For less than the price of a Coke Zero, customers can purchase short stories by a selection of published authors. It’s an experiment in little payments for little stories. 49 cents will gets the buyer a dozen pages by […]
Takes a Lotta Time to Write Reality Shows
On his first day as a story assistant for the reality TV series “Renovate My Family,” Zachary Isenberg said, his bosses made an unusual request: Fill out your time card for the next three weeks of work. Isenberg was puzzled. How could he estimate his hours before he worked them? […]
Dining on Gino’s Chicken to Honor the Man
Gino Piccin is a legendary salesman who taught me many things about the business. He was in the news recently, being honored by his fellow Dante clubbers in West Springfield, Tom Shea wrote about him in today’s Republican. Gino’s famous chicken with herbs will be cooked up by his brother […]
What We Really Want
Attention is becoming the holy grail of mankind, the thing we most strive for but get the least. I predict that there will be a surge in demand for someone’s full and undivided attention…and a valueing and delineation of this. This special thing will be what advertisers crave but rarely […]
Travel Vandals Invading Venice
Venice illustrates some of the complicated political and economic issues involved in tourism. The city receives 16.5 million tourists a year, most of whom shuffle down the main route from St Mark’s Square to the Rialto Bridge. The latest plague there is the cruise ships. Forbe’s Anna Somers writes in […]
A Tiny Town Kinda Tale
The Boston Herald editorial staff wrote a doozer today, on their website. “So does anyone think Aramark Concessions went to the Yellow Pages and by chance picked a security firm owned by a Suffolk court official who also happens to have a sister on the Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission? No? […]