New milk coolers have been introduced at Godby High School, and apparently, the white fluid has begun to affect the way children talk — at least that's how the reporter made it seem. The pull-quote from the story, "I like it. It's good. I drink it once a week at lunch, and I'll probably drink more," could only have been extricated from such a probing question as: So, what do you think of milk?… That's great, thanks, gotta run. I'm on deadline.

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This video is a wonderful reminder of the fact that that even when we seem to be acting alone, in reality, the opposite is true. We endure every day with the support of our families, our friends, our colleagues, and everyone else in our lives who gives us the strength and encouragement to do things we never thought possible — like play a game of matrix ping pong.

Hope you had a great Sunday.

every third thursday of each month, the Greater Tallahassee Chamber of Commerce — with sponsor, premier bank — puts on business nuts & bolts, an event that offers breakfast, networking, and solid advice…all before the shop opens (a term which means 7am — an ungodly hour as small business owners like myself rarely get to sleep before 5am). i will be co-chairing with michelle rehwinkel vasilinda from september, 2006 to september, 2007. this morning's function was our first. the topic: preparing your business for the avian flu. my question to the speaker was this: considering the tailgating community in Tallahassee, is this something that would affect buffalo wings? calienes and vasilinda are seen here during a dress rehearsal at the local IHOP. to spite the content of tomorrow's topic, they punctuated the success of the rehearsal with the eating of an omelet.

massachusetts design firm Mechanica USA — with transplant creative director michael calienes as site copywriter — landed top prize in the chicago area marketing and management excellence awards for the their work for sky55, a luxury high-rise apartment building in the heart of central station, chicago. additional site credits go to matthew parmet, designer, and ezra friedman, agency producer. to visit the award-winning site, click here.

It's summertime in Tallahassee, Florida — the time of year when constituents plant political signage on their lawns like poorly considered tattoos. Every week it seems, a new sign sprouts up destined to survive by feeding on its own tackiness like an artificial, unkillable weed. Although political loyalty isn't pretty, it is offered by faithful voters at no cost to their party. Offering your very own property to advertise some person, some product, some idea, some thing, is a very personal choice. So you'd understand why I was unnerved when I pulled up to my home last week and found that our mailbox had been turned into a small billboard for Charlie Crist (if you're not from Florida and don't know Chuck, he's the guy most likely to take over Jeb Bush's very warm governor's seat this November). 

As you can see from the photograph, two pieces of collateral material were wedged between the outgoing mail flag and the mailbox. One was an informational piece discussing why one should vote for the man, and the other was a sticker that asked one to Vote Red to "Keep the majority in 2006." The Crist campaign had commandeered my mailbox, and every other mailbox on the block. Our house in the neighborhood had been Chucked.

Is this legal? I thought my wife, myself, and my mail carrier (and sometimes drunken teenagers wielding bats), were the only people allowed to come in contact with our mailbox. Perhaps I should locate Charlie Crist's home and place an ad for my business on his mailbox. Would he read what I'd left him? Would he call to hire me? Or would he just ask that I just not do it again? Since the above may be too much trouble I resorted to a solution that was a little more adult. Being an advertising professional who's familiar with outdoor advertising rates, I quickly:

1. calculated the typical traffic on my block in a typical 8 hour period
2. considered the size of each collateral piece (mostly a moot point)
3. and padded the numbers a little for having used the space without permission

I forwarded the invoice seen here to Charlie Crist's campaign headquarters but have not heard back. Perhaps they're out Chucking some other neighborhood.