Love to Hate John and Kate

Ah, John & Kate. How sad you make me. I resisted watching your show for years, YEARS!! It felt like a violation of your privacy that you (understandably) allowed for financial gain. I finally get interested when the cracks started to show. I liked seeing the caring family beneath it.

Now, it appears that the show has caused the dissolution of the entire reason I watched in the first place. You may say the show didn’t have anything to do with it, but come on. The show was and remains an intrusion into your world. It opens up the family to the world’s eyes and judgment. That cannot be healthy.

Jerry Springer always has his final word at the end of the show where he takes the ridiculousness of the previous 58 minutes and makes sense of it in a rational way. After one show about cheating husbands or something, he said something that always stuck with me. When you have an affair, you’re violating more than the trust of your spouse. You’re violating the intimacy of your marriage. You’re allowing another person into the sacred space supposed to be shared by just 2 people. Once that breakdown, it is very difficult to get back.

In many ways, the show was there affair. The cameras/audience became another member of the family, and (I’m guessing) somehow got in between them. They grew apart, if not because of the show them maybe a little faster than if they bickered like a regular couple (love you, Harley!).

Looks like John had an affair, got a taste of life after Kate+8 and got intoxicated. He ran to the light without really thinking about the consequences. Kate got my sympathy last night, but she had her role in all of this. We’ve all seen how she treated him like the 9th kid over and over again. That behavior doesn’t go unpunished.

It makes me sad. It makes me want to stop watching the show. And I will stop watching. Maybe I’ll start watching again once the show comes off hiatus. I will definitely watch it, cause I am a bastard and love gossip even though I hate it.

Zen Soy Makes Me Happy

This brand keeps getting better. You might have seen previous blogs about Zen Soy, our preferred soy milk (it's the best chocolate soy milk by far). The old design is to the left.



Their quarts now have this cool waves built into the side of the carton. This is a relatively easy but cool way to get your brand to stand out. Sure beats changing the formula, which can costs millions in R&D! Expect more simple packaging changes in the future.

The Coolest Rake Ever

My father-in-law has this. It has an adjustable, central stablizing rod (my term) that lets you keep the teeth small and tight for rocks, and then opens up wide to better gather leaves. Awesome stuff.

Closed for rocks



Open for leaves

The New Formula 409

It's on the left. I don't like it. Looks thin and weak, not industrial. The color isn't as bold and doesn't stand out. But the copy is much more well organized.

Working With Clients in a Recession

The Funniest Story

Had the best weekend. Lilah went peepee on the potty - twice! Had some great time with the kids on Saturday night and a family walk and picnic in Central Park on Sunday night. It had been a long time since we got to spend real quality time, so it felt great.

I got into a little argument with a cop while trying to cross the Israel Day parade on Sunday. He didn't like that I crossed after he said stop. I said I couldn't stop because the stroller was already in the street. He again said he wasn't happy ("Not cool, man"). I said "What should I do? I got the stroller!". He asked for ID.

FYI - the new stroller sucks. It's heavy and is harder to steer than a boat. But it holds 2 kids and is the best of a bunch of bad options.

Anyway, I finally pull the boat to the side after weaving through the crowd, hand him my ID and apologize. He was pissed that I didn't respect his authority, so that was the first thing I did. He looks at me struggling with the stroller, and I can tell he's going to let me off. Things will be fine, let me just talk this thing through and we'll be on our way.

I tell him my wife and I had been arguing and I lost my temper. (Harley had been cross examining me, like the good lawyer she is, and it was not fun.) At that exact moment, she jumps in between the cop and me all tough and says, "Is there a problem officer?" I ask her to back off.

Again she says, "What did he do, officer?" He says, "What are you, his lawyer?" She says, "Yes, I am." I turn to him and say, "See?? That's the problem!!" We laughed about that for a good hour.

Logo Design

Here's an awesome article about the evolution of the corporate identity from a cold, strark treatment to a more friendly, bright look. When the going gets tough, corporate America gets soft.

And here are some new Coke bottles.

Sorry if this is boring, but it's what I do.