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California — cool since 1510

As far as state names go, California is the black sheep of America. Rather than some stale, obligatory honor to a founding father, a lazy attempt to replicate somewhere in England or a halfhearted remembrance of a decimated Indian nation, “California” is a dream. It represents not what was found or what died here, but…

Glory Holes, and other terrible names to give your donut shop

Bad names are everywhere. From the corner store to the corner office, people find themselves giving terrible names to the things they love, and no one seems to be able to stop them from doing it. Well, um, stop it. We’re tired of seeing neat things with lame names. That’s why we’ve set up an…

9 Hilarious Amazon Product Reviews

Product reviews: They can be an endorsement of something extra special, or they can offer an entertaining way to rubberneck at the carnage along the highway of online shopping. The standard application of the product review is pretty self-evident. It’s the medium by which you can rave about a favorite new juice processor or rant…

Startups: If we only had a brand

When you’re out to change the world, things are happening fast. Between raising money, finding good people, building a product, and dodging bullets, there’s not a lot of time to think about branding. By the time you finish reading this, you will start making the time. Because how well you tell your story in a…

McDonald’s, McRibs and McIndigestion: Why we eat crap in a bun

There are only a handful of American traditions that people will dare to truly question: Why should I have to pay taxes? Is everything really bigger in Texas? How can you be too old for American Idol? Yet the question that prompts the most soul searching, the most gut-wrenching existential doubt in the heart of…

Lost in translation — why having a pronounceable and spell-able name matters less than you think

Everyone wants the perfect name. They want it to be edgy, imaginative, and inimitable, but only so long as it’s also easy to spell, easy to say, and impossible to forget. The only trouble being, easy and evocative are natural enemies. And nothing is so sure to slip between the ears undetected as the word that requires no effort…

Tiny woman trapped in iPhone sues local man

Attorneys representing a woman who lives in a local man’s iPhone 4S have filed a lawsuit against him, claiming he keeps her trapped in his smart phone, expects her to instantly know how to get to places she’s never heard of and frequently asks her bizarre questions. Worst of all, she says she doesn’t get…

I’ll bet you’re a marketing genius

Marketing is a good idea. Except for the way most of the world does it. Most marketing starts with the premise that people are total idiots so you need to pound stuff into their heads with a 2×4. They still don’t get it? Buy more CPMs and pound some more. 3% clicked and 1% bought?…

Flattening the Like Button: why Facebook’s omnipresent thumb sticks in the eye

Welcome to the age of the Like. Whether it’s the way in which we, like, speak to each other or the currently fashionable post-Siskel approach to film review — “Did you like Real Steel? I liked it, because, you know, it was really good.” — the word itself has taken total control over how we…

Return of the Return of the Return of the Jedi: George Lucas abuses The Force again

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, George Lucas decided he was going to milk the Star Wars franchise for everything it had. What used to be pop culture’s sacred cow, a cinematic fantasy that nourished the geek in all of us for decades, has now become an emaciated cheese-machine in an…

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