"That was the most brilliant, 'yup, I boffed the employee' admission I've ever seen, and believe me, I've seen a few. I would totally just give him the written warning."
Everything I need to know about social media I have to unlearn from kindergarten
Remember what your parents and teachers always told you?
"Why don't you play hide-and-go-fuck yourself?"
No, that was Rodney Dangerfield's parents.
Your parents told you it's better to stay silent and be thought a fool than open your mouth and remove all doubt.
Maybe you listened to that advice.
I did not.
And it's a good thing, too. My loquaciousness is starting to pay big dividends in the world of social media.
We know that the slowly but steadily increasing popularity of this blog doesn't have to do with any improvement on my part.
Apparently, it's on account of I never shut up—we're talking 419 posts in a year and a half—and there's nothing that I'm shy to talk about.
While talkaholism drives people off in regular life, it seems to draw people to me in the blogosphere.
Lots of my hits, I see, aren't on my most recent posts—many are people coming to read things I've written in the past, under every subject under the sun.
Just since midnight last night, people have hit my blog to read old posts on Michael Moore, Kurt Vonnegut, my motorcycle trip, employee communication consulting, the practice of ghostwriting your own LinkedIn recommendations, Wal-Mart PR, the need for speechwriters to remain anonymous, Obama's healthcare speech, the TV show The Office, why people don't say "you're welcome" anymore, teetotalers and Hitler, the history of Vital Speeches of the Day, how words often fail to get truth across and Obama's speechwriter.
Holy mother of Shel, have I happened into the key to social media success? Blathering so often on so many subjects that whenever anybody searches for anything on the web, they come to me?
Is that what it's all about?
If it is, babies, I'm on easy street.
If Chicago gets the Olympics, fat kids will lose weight and poor kids will try harder
Michelle Obama thinks Chicago should get the Olympics because it will help stem the American problem with childhood obesity and inspire the poor people to greatness. As she said in her Copenhagen speech yesterday:
When we're seeing rates of childhood obesity increase, it is so
important for us to raise up the platform of fitness and competition
and fair play; to teach kids to cheer on the victors and empathize with
those in defeat, but most importantly, to recognize that all the hard
work that is required to do something special. …And I just think, wouldn't it be great if
that kind of spirit was happening right down the street in our
community? Just think of that. Kids and communities across the city, in
Austin, kids who grew up in Cabrini, kids who live so far from the
city. Now just imagine if all of that was happening right in their own
backyard. That's what I think about.It does something to a kid when they can
feel that energy and power up close and personal. And for some kids in
our communities and our city, around the nation, around the world, they
can never dream of being that close to such power and opportunity. So
that's what excites me most about bringing the Games to Chicago—the
impact that it can have on the lives of our young people, and on our
entire community.
Oh, really? In America, the problem is that we haven't sufficiently exposed the kids to sports?
Back to the drawing board, Michelle. I can see how people lie lustily and playfully, but to spout such dismal falsehoods as this stuff with a straight face … it's draining just to think about it.