Archives for November 2009

The FBI had a file on Studs Terkel, and he had a file on them

11.20.2009 by David Murray // 1 Comment

All the stories this week about Studs Terkel's FBI file overlooked Studs' own account of his decades-long dance with the agency. I've got it, in my latest at the Huffington Post.

IABC’s Global Communication Conference, and you

11.20.2009 by David Murray // 26 Comments

When you wake up in the morning and lie there readying yourself for the day, what are you steeling yourself to do?

Perhaps:

Working out tonight.

Getting the H1N1 vaccine.

Finishing that book on the nightstand.

Finishing the big project I'm two weeks behind on.

Finally getting around to calling the dentist about that tender incisor.

Bringing together Eastern and Western contexts in an ever-changing business landscape.

If you said, "Bringing together Eastern and Western contexts in an ever-changing business landscape," then you're in luck, because that's the theme of IABC's 2010 Global Communication Conference, April 7-9 in Hong Kong!

And if your morning resolution was, "Planning a boffo business boondoggle after a two-year training-budget freeze," or "Increasing my carbon footprint to fit my big-ass American shoes," or, "Acting more statesmanlike in my role as a mid-level corporate communication manager"—well, the Hong Kong conference will achieve those goals as well.

I said “vital,” not “sensible”

11.19.2009 by David Murray // 4 Comments

Today is what I call "carpal tunnel day," where I crank up the classical music, take all the speeches I've deemed worthy of appearing in Vital Speeches and crank them into shape.

The worthiness test is as tangled as Beethoven's mane, and I do hope to articulate it one day. But we publish a lot of stuff I don't agree with.

And occasionally, there's a chance for a laugh.

Like a bombastic speech I'm editing right now, that asserts:

"Ladies and gentlemen, the failure of government schools is a time bomb that has been ticking for a century and a half."

Perhaps when you're talking about a trend that's 150 years old, the hackneyed metaphor of choice isn't the "time bomb," which probably wasn't even invented in 1859.

Eh?