I'm moving the office for Straight Talk Public Relations, my p.r. consultancy. Straight Talk will no longer be in Cambridge's Kendall Square, which is one of America's most active centers of business innovation and activity. Instead, it'll be at the other end of Cambridge, in the Fresh Pond area near the Alewife "T" station. The new office is located be in a more convenient location where I can easily bike or walk to work, in addition to be reachable via a short drive. It's a place where I can contentrate on helping clients more fully. Here's my new business card.... Continue reading

Straight Talk Public Relations, publisher of The NIMBY Monitor, is moving. We will no longer be in Cambridge's Kendall Square, which is one of America's most active centers of business innovation and activity. Instead, we'll be at the other end of Cambridge, in the Fresh Pond area near the Alewife... Continue reading

Straight Talk Public Relations, publisher of The Content Wordshop, is moving. We will no longer be in Cambridge's Kendall Square, which is one of America's most active centers of business innovation and activity. Instead, we'll be at the other end of Cambridge, in the Fresh Pond area near the Alewife... Continue reading

Our office is moving. We will no longer be in Cambridge's Kendall Square, which is one of America's most active centers of business innovation and activity. Instead, we'll be at the other end of Cambridge, in the Fresh Pond area near the Alewife "T" station. Our new office is located... Continue reading

Sun and Earth, Photographed 7 May 2013 from the International Space Station by Col. Chris Hadfield of Canada, the mission commander. Chris Hadfield, commander of the International Space Station and an extraordinary photographer, writes of this photo taken on Tuesday: "Our Sun is immensely, unfathomably powerful." It is also beautiful as it embraces the Earth, the other planets, and other celestial members of the Solar System. (Think of Pluto, no longer classified a planet!) The photo came to mind when I read today's meditation offering from The Rev. Galen Guengerich of All Souls Unitarian Church in New York City. The... Continue reading

I was honored to have my letter to the editor of The Boston Globe published in Saturday's issue of the newspaper. The Globe chose to illustrate the letter with a photo by the European Press Photo Agency of President Obama and Vice President Biden listening to remarks by Mark Barden of Newtown, whose son lost his life on December 14, 2012. The photo was taken at the White House on April 17, after the Senate rejected the sensible gun safety measures favored by nine out of ten Americans. Here's the letter with the photo selected by The Globe. Path of... Continue reading

I was honored to have my letter to the editor of The Boston Globe published in Saturday's issue of the newspaper. The Globe chose to illustrate the letter with a photo by the European Press Photo Agency of President Obama and Vice President Biden listening to remarks by Mark Barden... Continue reading

Last night, Marta and I (and a friend) viewed all three one-hour segments of Makers: Women Who Make America. It's a just-aired documentary on the amazing progress and sad setbacks in the fight for gender justice, civil rights, cultural equality, and protection from fear for women in America. If you've got the time, it's a great documentary. Makers covers the period from the 1950s to now, which means it covers my lifetime. The soundtrack is amazing, if you can hear it when you're not listening to Meryl Streep, who delivers the narration, and one amazing woman after another in recent... Continue reading

For about three months, I've been working to end my problem with email overload. My email was out of control. My name is Doug. I'm an infoholic. For longer than I care to admit, I've been stymied by receiving a hundred or several hundred messagesdaily. I had signed onto news... Continue reading

Just read on Adam Auster's blog, Word on the Street, that the Town of Arlington and Cemusa have agreed to locate a new bus shelter at the Thorndike Street stop I used for inbound MBTA bus service to Cambridge. Great news. Left a comment on the blog. Map of Location for Expected Shelter ... View Larger Map Continue reading

On our companion NIMBYmonitor.com blog, I suggest that supersized NIMBY battles are shaping up for the community relations discipline within public relations. The cause: major public works that will have to be designed, engineered, and sited -- often with little choice on that last one, as hydrology dictates location in... Continue reading

The NIMBYs are about to face their biggest contender ever. It's the entire Earth. A few weeks ago, I wrote that the dawning realization that global warming and the attendent climate change could unleash mitigation projects on a scale previously unimaginable. And along with those public works projects -- engineered... Continue reading

New post on The Content Wordshop, about color choices and the ColourLovers pallette tool. Continue reading

It's usually basic black. Or it might be something else. Whatever you pick, color is the packaging material that makes words -- not to mention graphics -- visible to the eye. No color, no transmission of meaning. I usually deal mostly with words alone. But today, I happen to be... Continue reading

At our ContentWordshop blog, there's a new post on why it's wise to own the URL that most closely matches the name you are known by. Continue reading

Personally, I have no position yet on whether the United States Senate should confirm President Obama's nomination of former Senator Chuck Hagel (R-Nebraska) as the next secretary of defense. But I'd lay dollars to cornhuskers that Chuck Hagel wishes he had taken the simple step anytime during the past few... Continue reading

As Newtown recedes (but just a bit), and the Taft, California, almost-tragedy strikes this week, poetry about children strikes me deeply. Try this poem, by Sophia Lyon Fahs (adapted), printed in the order of service for First Parish Unitarian Universalist Church of Arlington, Massachusetts, for 16 December 2012. The date was intended to be a child dedication service as well as the Third Sunday of Advent. It was all those things -- and it became Newtown Sunday as well. Fahs writes: And so the children come and so they have been coming. No angels herald theur beginnings. No prophets predict... Continue reading

We're in possession of a new office phone number for Straight Talk Public Relations, generated courtesy of Skype. In picking a number, Skype presented me with many choices. I decided to try variations of my children's birthdays. They were born on the 2nd and the 26th of the month. Skype... Continue reading

I wish I had more followers like the rapid-response -- and rabid-response -- gun crowd of Texas. One little tweet about Texas' pro-gun atmosphere and the Texas gun enthusiasts are all over me for a few days. General sentiment: Stay away. Don't mess with Texas, dontcha know. What happened? Well, I saw a tweet containing a picture of a "guns welcome here" sign purportedly for a Texas establishment along with a request that guns be holstered "unless need arises." In which case, by the way, "judiciopus marksmanship is appreciated." The photo was posted by Twitter user @TinaStullRacing. So I made... Continue reading

The town I live in, Arlington, Massachusetts, has for many years been planning improvements to Massachusetts Avenue. "MassAve," as it is known to everyone, is the main east-west thoroughfare through the town. View Larger Map The road has many problems. It is striped as a two-lane road, generally with one travel lane in each direction. But it's wide enough to be a runway for a small jet, and in practice it is used by cars and trucks, buses too, as a four-lane street. And fast travel, too -- maybe as fast as a jet on takeoff! It's wide because it... Continue reading

On my LinkedIn feed, I found tonight that Mark St. John posted a link to an editorial in Friday's Indianapolis Star calling on the Legislature to avoid the temptation to once again plunge the state into controversy over same-sex marriage. This onetime Hoosier in New England agrees. Given the incredible right-wing tilt in the Indiana General Assembly, there's little chance of changing the state law to permit same-sex marriages. Regrettable as it is, that's the picture in Indiana. No same-sex marriage bill has a prayer. But the controversy would turn the Statehouse away from very real issues that even Republicans... Continue reading

Over at The Content Wordshop blog, I just put up a post about the role of context in content marketing. Continue reading

I responded today to a post a few days ago by Bryan Kramer on the PureMatter blog. Mr. Kramer's post raises awareness about the growing role of context in the realm of content marketing. I suggested that he elaborate on the idea, and I gave some thoughts from some old-fashioned... Continue reading

I've become fascinated with real-time images of our planet, Earth. I can't stop looking at them. At home and while traveling, I like falling asleep and waking up to an absolutely beautiful alarm clock application called Living Earth, available in iPhone and iPad configurations and more lately available as a... Continue reading

Few events in my lifetime have been as exciting as the July 1969 mission of Apollo 11 to land human beings on the Moon -- on any otherworld -- for the first time. So today, a few months after the death of Neil Armstrong , the first human to walk on the Moon, we today observe the 82nd birthday of his colleague on 1969's Apollo 11 mission, the Command Module Pilot Michael Collins. He is one of just 24 humans to have ever flown to the Moon. (In an endevor that proved very dangerous indeed, it's a blessing that all... Continue reading