There’s not much to say about this product only that it will save my marriage. After years of conflict and misery over my love of Mexican food and its unfortunate side effects, a solution has been found: The Better Marriage Blanket. I’m buying stock in the company. If this thing works, I have a feeling it will be huge for Mexican food lovers everywhere. Are you joining me in purchasing one? Who in your family is the most “deserving” person for the blanket?

It’s holy week for Christians everywhere and for me, it’s the week I see some of the worst direct mail pieces come in my mailbox from churches inviting people to their Easter Services. This year is no exception. It’s only Monday and I already had my share of poorly conceived and designed post cards. So here’s 2010’s top ways to ruin your Easter mailer based on actual fail attempts I’ve personally received: This is cute, but what do you want from me? Fail to include your website, or if you do, misspell the address. Yes, even today people still don’t proofread their mailers. I’m looking at a mailer with a wrong website address.  Include a bad picture of the preacher and his wife. Since most people decide on the church based on their perception of the teaching pastor, I can understand using the pastor’s picture on a mailer; however, if…

This is part of my random Friday collection. I don’t know what to say about this video, but it is as captivating as it is scary. It beckons you to watch it much like a train wreck that horrifies and yet compels you to keep looking and watch it some more. How would you describe this experience?

This week my whole family had to make a trek to the main Nashville post office on Royal Oaks Blvd, a 45-minute drive with two smelly boys and another two of their equally smelly friends. The boys needed new passports and the only way to renew them was for the whole family to appear live at the post office (I tried talking Gwen into conferencing me in with a laptop but she just gave me “the look”). I wasn’t looking forward to the whole ordeal, but I underestimated the postal service’s ability to disappoint.  We show up at 5:25 knowing that the passport window closes at 6. The line was 8 people deep and the lonely employee inside the small room was, well, slower than molasses. Gwen, in order to expedite the process, had pre-filled all the necessary paperwork she picked up at our local branch beforehand. Twenty minutes later…

Communication happens long before you open your mouth. Whether you’re a presenter, a salesman, a preacher, or a guest, people will make categorical judgments based on how you look long before you have a chance to have a meaningful engagement. It might not be fair, but, nonetheless, it’s what happens. You can choose to deal with it or live with the consequences. Recently I had a meeting at a very conservative client’s office where I was supposed to meet with a new team and the CEO. I dressed appropriately to the occasion, a suit and tie. But I forgot that I was meeting a potential new client, an author, during one of my afternoon meetings. Interestingly, one of her first observations was “I expected you to be dressed more casually, since you’re in marketing.” Some might say that you need to be yourself, dress the way you want and be…