One summer, my husband and I started a game of “What did you do today?” It was born of the necessity to keep from arguing about the use of my time during the summer. The game began when he came home a particularly jovial mood, took one look at me and asked, “So, did you just sit in that one spot all day?” As you might imagine, I didn’t accept the question with it’s intended...

The decision of whether to endorse President Obama is not an easy decision for the NEA Representative Assembly. Friendships are being broken and a few strangers have even stooped to name-calling.With strong feelings on both sides, I expected our Tennessee Caucus to turn into a confrontational, uncomfortable event. I was wrong. Rather than confrontation, our delegates presented clear, thoughtful reasons for their...

The Apple Retail Store Hates You  - I recently visited the Apple store to exchange a defective power adapter which was still under warranty.  I still have the defective adapter, as it has now cost more time and effort than it was originally worth. What I have lost is time, money, and trust in the ethics of the retail store.  What I have gained is disdain for their tactics and a sick feeling every time I hear...

This morning on Twitter, Seth Simonds tweeted: “In 5th grade we learned how to say “my friends are nice” in 10 different languages. If I remembered how, I’d say it now.” What a great thought!  Guessing that there must be some magic teacher worksheet for that, I Googled every possible combination of those terms. Nothing was found for “my friends are nice” as a list...

Someone at the Murphy-Goode Winery had an amazing PR idea. The execution of that idea (whether poor planning or someone’s crass indifference toward their customer base), has quickly become a nightmare. At best, Murphy-Goode has shown that it is a company with no concept of the breadth and strength of current social media. At worst, it has shown the world that it is a company completely devoid of basic...