Quick — wanna look busy?
THINK BIG.
Play the World’s Biggest Pac-Man game right on your computer!
It’s going on now online, and is being played by people around the world.
The mazes are interconnected and go on and on and on. You can start wherever you want and play as long and as far as your skill will take you. You can also play alone or challenge competitors online, and check your stats against…
THE WORLD
There now. Doesn’t that sound like a whole lot more fun than work??
Posted in Business, Commentary, Entertainment, Games, Humor, Internet, Life, Television
Tagged Business, commentary, computer games, eating dots, entertainment, games, Humor, Internet, life, maze, online, Pac-Man, Pac-Man dots, stats, sure beats work, technology, TGIF, World's Biggest Pac-Man game
To all travelers, business or pleasure:
I got a peek behind the curtain yesterday during my flight to Dallas. Discovered something that can turn a cold, distant flight attendant into a friendly and engaged conversationalist.
Cookies
It’s as simple as that.
Two pilots were deadheading on my flight from New York City, and they were in the row in front of me. After we achieved a ‘comfortable cruising altitude,’ the flight attendants started coming. One by one. Big smiles on their faces. Gratitude on their lips.
All because one of the pilots brought the crew cookies when he boarded the plane.
With the rest of the passengers, the flight attendants were polite, but we didn’t get those genuine grins. Or the frequent check-ins to see if we needed anything else.
I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. I’ve received a less effusive version of this treatment when I’ve given a flight attendant a magazine when I’m finished with it. But yesterday I learned an important nuance:
Do it at the start of the flight.
Posted in Airplanes, Business, Commentary, Food, Foods, Humor, Life, Travel
Tagged airplane seat, airplanes, Business, comfortable cruising altitude, commentary, cookies, Dallas, deadheading, flight attendants, flight crew, food, Foods, Humor, life, magazine, New York City, pilots, Travel
Did you know you can track Santa’s progress tonight via NORAD?
Yep, as in the North American Aerospace Defense Command. And all because of a misprinted phone number.
Back in 1955, a newspaper ad for a Sears store in Colorado Springs advertised a direct line to Santa Claus. Callers instead reached CONRAD — NORAD’s predecessor — and hotline operator Colonel Harry Shoup obligingly used the radar to track Santa for the kids on the line.
That’s customer service, folks.
And a tradition was born. Since 1958, NORAD volunteers have personally responded to phone calls and emails about Santa from children all around the world. Today NORAD provides up-to-the-minute info on Santa’s location via Google Earth and Google Maps, and Twitter and Facebook posts about each sighting, including the cookies and beverages consumed by the big man at each stop.
Talk about turning a wrong into a right.
Way to go, Harry.
Posted in Business, Christmas, Commentary, Holiday, Humor, Internet, Life
Tagged Business, children, Christmas, Colonel Harry Shoup, Colorado Springs, commentary, CONRAD, Facebook, Google Earth, Google Maps, Holiday, hotline, Humor, Internet, newspaper ad, NORAD, North American Aerospace Defense Command, phone number, radar, santa, Santa Claus, Sears, tracking Santa, turning a wrong into a right, Twitter
MBA students at Boston University recommended brands for purchase and revitalization in team presentations Monday and today.
I’d like to add another to the list:
The felt tip pen
One such pen swallowed by a woman in Great Britain 25 years ago was recovered by doctors from her stomach intact and ready to write. Stomach acids had eaten off the pen’s brand name — darn the luck — but not the ink inside. In fact, upon removal, doctors wrote ‘hello’ with the pen.
Find that hard to believe?
The woman supposedly swallowed the pen using it to check spots on her tonsils in a mirror while standing on a ladder when she fell, leading to the accidental ingestion.
Heck — forget the pen company. Buy the movie rights!
Posted in Business, Comedy, Commentary, Family, Health, Humor, Internet, News
Tagged Boston University, business acquisition, business revitalization, comedy, commentary, family, felt tip pens, Great Britain, Health, Humor, Internet, life, MBA, movie rights, news, news of the weird, stomach, stomach acid, tonsils
American Airlines — you know, the bankrupt one — sent me an email reminder last night to check-in for my ‘international flight.’
Can I really leave the country on American Eagle in less than 90 minutes?
Turns out I can.
That breathtaking view is Toronto, Ontario. This won’t be my first visit there, but my first real opportunity to see the city . Last time the weather was so heinous, I only saw the airport and my hotel, which was located on the outskirts of the city.
Didn’t step a foot outside.
This trip I’m staying in the heart of the city. So I’m crossing all my available appendages that it will be nice enough outside to do a little sightseeing during my 30-hour stay. But the forecast says ‘light snow.’
How many inches = light in the Great White North?
Posted in Airplanes, Business, Commentary, Humor, Life, transportation, Travel
Tagged American Airlines, American Eagle, bankruptcy, Business, Canada, commentary, email check-in, forecast, Great White North, hotel, Humor, life, light snow, sightseeing, Toronto, Toronto Ontario, Travel
Take a good look at your body.
Which part is worth the big bucks?
Lots of celebs have had to answer that question…and have taken big insurance policies as a result. Many make perfect sense.
Others are kinda surprising.
Let’s start with the more expected ones. Supermodel and Project Runway host Heidi Klum has her legs insured for $2 million with London’s Phillips de Pury & Co., although her right leg is supposedly worth more than her left which has a small scar.
And Rolling Stones’ guitarist Keith Richards has his hands insured for $1.6 million with Lloyd’s of London.
They make their living off their limbs, so it stands to reason (even if Richards doesn’t).
But a $10 million policy on actress America Ferrara’s smile? Just because she hawks Crest White Strips? And a $120 million worth of insurance on St. Louis Cardinal Mark McGuire’s ankle?
His ankle? It doesn’t even swing the bat!
Of course, that’s nothing compared to David Beckham’s whopping $195 million policy that covers his entire body — the largest personal insurance policy in sports history — because a lot of his income comes from endorsements.
Beckham can’t bend it if he isn’t pretty.
Which brings us back to today’s burning question…
What body part would you insure? What is most valuable to you, your livelihood and your quality of life?
Like Keith Richards, I would insure my hands. Not because I can play any musical instrument well enough to earn even my lunch money, but because I use them to earn a living. And to take care of my day-to-day needs.
And to play on Facebook and Twitter.
Heck, that’s worth a couple of million dollars right there.
Posted in Business, Celebrities, Comedy, Commentary, Entertainment, Humor, Life
Tagged America Ferrara, bend it like Beckham, body parts, body parts insurance, Business, celebrities, comedy, commentary, Crest White Strips, David Beckham, entertainment, Facebook, Heidi Klum, Humor, Keith Richards, life, Lloyds of London, make a living, Mark McGuire, product endorsements, St Louis Cardinals, Twitter
I was wondering what I would write today, and then it hit me.
Literally.
I was sitting on the airplane, and the passenger in front of me reclined his seat back in one fast, forceful, in-my-face motion. Since he was quite tall, his head was suddenly inches from my face.
There was no look back to see if I had my tray table down. (It was.) No quick check to make sure he wouldn’t overturn food or crush a laptop. (I almost dropped both.) He just pushed his way into my personal space.
This was war.
Now, I have a lot of sympathy for the overly tall on airplanes. I have given up my exit row seat on more than one occasion to folks jammed into middle seats. But this man had two seats to himself. He could have easily angled his body to gain more legroom without robbing me of mine.
Allowing seats to recline on airplanes is based on the assumption that people will do the right thing. Can we assume that anymore?
Sadly, I think not.
So I propose that, going forward, we remove the recline lever from all airplane seats. Instead, the standard airplane seat will be set at a gentle recline at all times. This compromise position will accommodate the majority of travelers and do away with the growing recline lever abuse.
It will also free up flight attendants of one pre- and post-flight announcement and duty — no more seat backs to straighten or police.
I like it. What say you? Vote in the poll below. Be heard!
Posted in Airplanes, Blogging, Blogs, Business, Commentary, Design, Humor, Life, transportation, Travel
Tagged airplane legroom, airplane passenger, airplane seat, airplane seat recline, airplanes, Business, commentary, design, exit row, flight announcement, flight attendants, Humor, life, personal space, transportation, Travel, travelers, tray table
I know celebrities and regular people live in different worlds…
But do their clocks work differently, too?
Case in point: Lindsay Lohan.
She was recently sentenced to 30 days in jail for violating the terms of her probation. Last night at nine she checked into the Century Regional Detention Facility in Lynnwood, California…and promptly checked right back out at 1:30am.
Turns out 30 days in the real world is only 4.5 hours to the celebrity set.
I wonder if it works that way for everything.
On talk shows and interviews, actors are always bemoaning their long days on the set — sometimes 14-16 hours for some television shows and movies. If they are using ‘regular people time’ (so we will be able to understand, bless our hearts), in celebrity terms they may actually only be working about….10 minutes.
Good work if you can get it.
Posted in Business, Celebrities, Commentary, Entertainment, Humor, Life, Movies, News
Tagged 30 day sentence, Business, California, celebrities, Century Regional Detention Facility, commentary, entertainment, good work if you can get it, Humor, life, Lindsay Lohan, Lynnwood CA, Movies, news, prison sentence, probation, released from jail, time warp
After a long day yesterday, I was excited to see that Tropic Thunder, the hilarious Vietnam War movie-within-a-movie, was playing on FX. 
So I settled on the couch, prepared to laugh away my lethargy. But I was soon too annoyed to enjoy the film.
Why?
One of my favorite scenes in the movie — which is also one of the most controversial — was censored. As in bleeped. When no curse words were used.
In the scene, actors Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey, Jr.), a five-time Oscar winner, and Tugg Speedman (Ben Stiller), an action hero whose career is definitely waning, are discussing Tugg’s recent performance in the movie Simple Jack, where Tugg portrayed a mentally challenged boy ala Forrest Gump.
The conversation pokes fun at actors — how they choose these roles to garner major awards — and not at the characters they portray. But the comedy is apparently too subtle for some, because FX bleeped out certain words in Lazarus’s speech, thereby killing the scene and the movie (for me).
If he had belittled the Simple Jack character, that would be one thing. But the whole scene made fun of actors.
Actors!
Trust me, they can take it. And hopefully have maintained their sense of humor.
Posted in Business, Comedy, Commentary, Entertainment, Humor, Life, Movies, Television, TV
Tagged actors, Ben Stiller, bleep, Business, celebrities, censorship, comedy, commentary, curse words, entertainment, Forrest Gump, FX, FX Network, Humor, Jack Black, Kirk Lazarus, life, major movie awards, movie scenes, movie-within-a-movie, Movies, Oscar-winning actor, Oscars, poking fun, Robert Downey Jr., Simple Jack movie, Television, Tropic Thunder movie, Tugg Speedman, TV, Vietnam War
Snooze button
Prudential’s current television campaign, entitled “Day One,” features men and women enjoying their first day of retirement. Having enough money to do so comfortably may be the underlying message, but Prudential is smart enough to focus on why it’s so desirable.
More time to spend with family. Travel. Enjoy your hobbies. Volunteer. And the image that made me smile and shake my head in ready agreement…
No more alarm clocks.
Since today is Sunday, many of us — retired or not — got to skip the alarm. Now, close your eyes and imagine….
One day you can take a sledge hammer to that thing.
For realsies.
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Posted in Advertising, Business, Commentary, Humor, Life, Travel, Vacation
Tagged advertising, advertising campaign, alarm clocks, Business, commentary, family, Humor, life, Prudential, Relationships, retirement, television ads, Travel, TV