Dear Bonnie: I’m the publisher of a food magazine and am getting married soon to a woman who is also involved in the food and entertainment industry. Almost everyone attending the wedding and reception are also in the food biz. We’re going to have a... Continue
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While on vacation recently my wife and I were in no mood to search high and low for the best restaurant in Chicago and decided to eat as close to our hotel as possible. The day had been long and the temperature hot...one sign I... Continue
Until recently, the only way for nonprofit leaders in Sonoma Valley to hone their leadership skills was to travel outside the Valley for training – with no follow-up coaching available. Now, through the generosity of Jeni Nichols, owner of Sonoma Leadership Systems (SLS), local nonprofit... Continue
Package labeling has become the art of deception, the intentional use of language to confuse and deceive the consumer. This is particularly obvious as food companies seek to exploit the organic food movement, currently the fastest-growing segment of the food industry, but the cosmetic and... Continue
I remember sitting in our family living room as my father turned and folded pages, snapping and creasing the newsprint as he made his way through every section. Meanwhile, my mother would work across and down, completing the crossword puzzle with a pen. Growing up with... Continue
I always enjoy writing “hairballs” (learned from my cats) but this one is difficult. I believe in communication but what to do when you love someone who can’t speak? I visited my brother last week in southern California. He can’t walk or talk. He’s been lying... Continue
I was sitting on the couch with granddaughter Isabelle listening to her talk about numbers the other day – how ten is a bigger number than one, that one-hundred is even bigger, and that a million is even bigger than that. Suddenly she blurted out “infinity!”... Continue
The presidential race is ramping up quickly, both sides having moved assertively into attack mode. Politics in America has degraded to the point that the billions spent on advertising are all about trash talk. It’s hard not to feel like one must choose the lesser... Continue
The results of the 2012 “Nonprofit Social Networking Benchmark Report” are in and it’s no surprise that the use of social media, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Foursquare, by nonprofit organizations is up significantly over 2011. This study of 3,522 nonprofit professionals throughout the U.S.... Continue
Among the channels proliferating via Dish Network I’ve recently taken to watching reruns of old network TV westerns. I watched many of these episodes when I was 10 or twelve years old, black and white westerns about good guys and bad guys and the women... Continue