Category: Uncategorized

I wonder if Chinese restaurants were the founders of fast food. If you stop to think about it there are some striking similarities. You order pre-made dishes by number (personally I like the number 82), get it packaged in uniquely-folded, fun-shaped, paperboard pagodas. And with each order you receive an individually wrapped fortune cookie. It’s a formula that is unique to Chinese restaurants – and McDonald’s. In particular, their Happy Meal. Technically, Chinese Take Out is like several adult Happy Meals only it costs more, has more MSG and instead of french fries you get copious amounts of white rice.

It’s amazing how imaginative young boys can be. Especially when it comes to weaponry. As parents we’ve tried very hard to limit our boys’ exposure to guns and violence when they were young but they still innately gravitated toward armed conflict. Even if you don’t succumb to the purchase of toy weapons, they will invent their own using just about any ordinary object. I’ve learned this the hard way.

At any given moment you can find sticks and branches of various lengths around the perimeter of our yard. The first time I noticed this I went around gathering them up assuming they were offerings from the firewood fairy. I learned later as we roasted marshmallows by the fire that I had destroyed my youngest son’s arsenal of guns. Big mistake.

Fortunately, not all weapons of mass imagination are decoys of nature. A lot of the toys in the toy box work just fine providing they are long and narrow enough. Even my three-year-old nephew has this ability and demonstrates it quite well. Just yesterday he marched around our house blasting away his older cousins with a blue plastic hockey stick. Beyoo! Beyoo!

Happy Mother’s Day! To all the moms out there who have selflessly and tirelessly baked for, mended, supported, encouraged, disciplined, cooked for, tucked in, clothed, labored for, cleaned, carpooled, managed, financed, diapered, read to, played with, bathed, kissed, sang for, comforted, and loved their children – THANK YOU! You are especially loved this day!

And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own? Or more commonly known as,”Do as I say, not as I do.” We’ve all heard this proverbial adage before and undoubtedly every one of us is guilty of living it from time to time. Nobody likes a hypocrite. Remember that when you point the finger at someone else, you have three fingers pointing back at you.

Everybody has their vices. Chocolate. Donuts. Coffee. I guess mine would have to be my wife’s chocolate chip cookies. They’re habit forming. If you’re fortunate enough to be in my neighborhood at work, you’ll get to try them yourself. The last thing I need is over three batches of cookies at home. Yes, nothing beats a chocolate chip cookie on a cold, snowy, spring day.

Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

It’s difficult to remain completely objective with regard to those that don’t share the same values, ideals or opinions as yourself. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try. Thinking oneself better than another for any reason is a matter of selfish pride. Every one of us is guilty of prejudices against others and every one of us falls short of perfect – by a lot. Having the courage to acknowledge and admit this fact takes humility and integrity. Just think how different the world would be if we not only remained mindful of this advice but held our tongues long enough to evaluate ourselves by the same standard we use to judge others.

I don’t think anyone can deny that this country is all about eating on the go. The fast food empire remains strong and many franchises are extending their reach. Some have ventured into the late night binge market and others are joining in to reinvent the most important meal of the day – breakfast.

Fast food steadies like McD’s, Hardees and Burger King have done breakfast forever it seems, but now we see more chains jumping on the morning meal wagon. I thought it was absurd when Taco John’s entered the race but lately even ‘the healthy choice’ Subway has made the leap. Where will it end? As America’s obesity epidemic continues these franchises look to compete for your dollar 24 hours a day.

As a designer and instructor I’m always preaching the importance of good typography to clients and students. Choosing a typeface that communicates clearly and reinforces the literal, as well as implied meaning of an item is a skill that every successful designer must master. Granted, even the best designers will fail on occasion when it comes to choosing the right typeface, but most agree about which ones to avoid all together. One such typeface for me is Comic Sans.

About the only time I would endorse the use of this typeface as a valid design choice is when setting the dialog in a comic book word bubble (even then, it’s a weak choice – there are far better). Every typeface has a personality and evokes a certain set of emotions. To me Comic Sans is synonymous with silliness, lightheartedness, and comedy. So, you can about imagine what my reaction was when I saw it used to set the word “Ambulance” on a small town emergency vehicle that raced by.

That was easily one of the most awkward moments I think I’ve ever been in. In one breath I thought of the poor patient inside whose life may have been in serious peril and then laughed at the irony and utter ridiculousness of Comic Sans being used in such a situation. Before you write off all designers as being callous critics, please note that it was my wife who first noticed the visual incongruity (I’ll probably need an ambulance for admitting that).

Whenever a television sitcom starring children becomes a runaway success, you can predict a shelf-life of about five years. After that studio execs often attempt to revive dismal ratings by recycling the character formula that made the series a smash in the first place.

I think back to all the shows I watched as a kid. Shows that started out good, but got worse when the networks rolled out the sitcom scrubs – that crop of younger, cuter characters to relieve the aging stars. Yes, once Bobby Brady, Arnold Drummond and Rudy Huxstable started squeezing pimples they became less appealing, so to amp up the cute, lovable quotient (or so the networks thought) we get Cousin Oliver, Sam McKinney and Olivia Kendall – all characters we’d just as soon forget.

Heck, even cartoons weren’t off-limits. Once Scooby-Doo made the annoying nephew, the forever crappy, Scrappy-Doo a recurring character I officially grew up. The only thing more painful than watching aging adults recapture their youth is watching television shows try.