THERE IS ONLY ONE T IN MAT

Every weekend, I catch up on NPR’s This American Life. Glad I didn’t miss one mid-April broadcast of Episode 462: Own Worst Enemy — stories of self-sabatoge, including people who have food allergies but regularly eat the foods anyway, even if they end up in the E.R. As a food allergy sufferrer myself, it’s both hilarious + horrifying. The full ep is great, including an audio theatre production from the new podcast The Truth about a guy on a first date.

Monocle is my current content hero.

I love great editorial reported + packaged + repackaged across channel. I also love great audio, especially podcasting, which I listen to at the gym, on long walks, and plane trips. For me, Monocle has been doing the most thoughtful and modern work in content. Most of us know it as a travel/lifestyle magazine, with contributors around the world giving you bite-size facts and interviews and features.

They also have a few retail stores in cities such as New York (Hudson & Charles St) where you can buy travel accessories, notebooks and a fairly unique, innovative (and pricey) suit travel bag for short trips.

But what I’ve really gotten into is Monocle Radio — all their podcasts, available through their site and iTunes. Monocle 24 is their main show, and one great segment to listen for is lunch with the ambassador of some great country you don’t know much about (e.g. Estonia, Nepal) and learn about the culture and the food. Monocle doesn’t skimp; each episode is long, rich and leisurely.

Monocle Review is my second favorite, a weekly review of books, music, film. My favorite is the opening segment in which they visit 3 independent bookshops in 3 cities around the world and find out what’s selling that week and get to know the shop. This past week’s episode were bookstores in London, Paris & Shanghai.

Really feels like tons of love, intelligence and effort is going into this brand and the steady, rich stream of content they produce every week. Going to try to found out who and how many people are also eating it up. How do they produce it all? How do they pay for it? Subscriptions and the store?

Tune in + travel. And if you like it, subscribe to the magazine so we can all keep hearing it.

Good warning. I wish I could put quotes up on our front door

Headline check: I am positive I’m not the first one to read this United Chase MileagePlus Explorer ad and react to the winky-wink headline+subhead (“Free Checked Bag. Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it”) with a bit of irritation. Um, I was quite used to free checked bags until you took that away and charged me for it.

Don’t get me wrong, free checked bags is a fine perk for a rewards card or program. But brands need to have some memory about how they re-stage the return of something that was included beforehand. This was lazy + kinda stupid.

I’m early with this piece to make sure you’re not late.

This April 25 is Administrative Professionals Day. 19 years ago I did a campaign for it (then called Prof’l Secretaries Day) with a not-so-subtle ploy to get promoted from Secretary to Copywriter. Just found the work and wrote this piece on The Faster Times. Comment (at the article) and share if you like it. And be sure to thank your favorite administrative folk.

Condensing sentimental notebooks and albums, came across my Rules to Live By, written in 1991-92, towards the end of college. I love how true they still seem:
1. Always ask yourself: Am I happy?
2. Remain honest to yourself and to all others.
3. Satisfy your curiosity.
4. Remain open-minded to issues, people, and opinions.
5. Trust family, friends.
6. Always give people at least a second chance; don’t trust first impressions
7. Help other people; thank those who help you
8. Consider decisions carefully; seek advice but trust your judgment.
9. Look around, take opportunity seriously; live a little.
10. Act ethically. Always.

1. Never intentionally hurt another person.
2. Never compromise yourself.

(Not sure why the second grouping ‘never’ only gets two-deep. Maybe I ran out of steam or just had fewer nevers. Maybe I was trying to do a reverse Ten Commandments thing - positive on one side; negative on the other)

Back to school. All day intensive.