A friend of mine got an email “poll” announcement from the Republican National Committee. This is a “push” poll — an attempt to conduct politics using the poll as a cover. I’ll explain why no legitimate political party should ever do this. Here’s what the email looked like: And if you scroll all the way…
I made a pretty decent living as a writer this year, and I’m grateful — not many writers can say that. I thought it might help other writers and whatever friends and fans I have out there to peek into how I did it, so here’s a retrospective of a writer’s life in 2017. I…
“What am I going to write about?” That’s the content marketer’s constant challenge. In fact, the number of sources is endless. You just have to have the right mindset. Let’s remember what content marketing is. While there are any number of definitions out there, I think of it very simply: Content marketing is sharing something…
I thought I’d seen everything in sexual harassment apologies . . . until I saw one from celebrity chef Mario Batali that actually came with a recipe. Last week the Washington Post published an article about Batali that included a slew of documented instances of the chef making lewd suggestions to employees and others, and…
According to the Washington Post, the Trump administration has a list of words that analysts at the Centers for Disease Control aren’t supposed to use in budget requests. While banning words can make sense, the words that these officials picked were a pretty dumb way to politicize a scientific organization. Here’s what the Post wrote,…
HuffPost got access to the style guide for The Daily Stormer, a prominent neo-Nazi website. It’s like most style guides except in the language it contains about Jews and racial slurs. If you can bear to look at it, it might make you think about the language you’re using, too. I’ll start this post with…
Patreon, a crowdfunding site for artists and creators, screwed up with an ill-conceived attempt to change how it charges fees. Now its co-founder Jack Conte has admitted the company’s mistake and asked for a do-over. His apology is sincere, human, and effective. Learn from it. According to Patreon’s blog, its original fee structure had resulted…
President Donald Trump backed the evangelical Republican favorite Roy Moore in the Alabama Senate race, who lost to the Democrat, Doug Jones. Given his penchant for nasty revenge tweets, his response so far has been muted . . . but you haven’t seen the drafts he never sent. Here’s what he said: Congratulations to Doug…
Who’s going to win the special election for the next U.S. Senator from Alabama? According to the two most recent polls, it’s either Republican Roy Moore by 9 points or Democrat Doug Jones by 10 points. How is this much variation even possible? Unless a pollster stands over the shoulder of each individual who votes…