Cautionary Tales

This is one of my favorite dumb criminal stories. In 1995, McArthur Wheeler and Clifton Earl Johnson robbed two banks in Pittsburgh without wearing masks. Cops used footage from the banks’ security cameras to track down the robbers and arrest them. When cops showed Wheeler the photos they used to identify him, he said, “But I wore…

Another timeless marketing tale, ripped from the pages of Scientific Advertising by Claude C. Hopkins: Back in the early 20th century, razor manufacturers touted how quickly their devices could complete a shave. All used vague phrases, such as “quick shave,” to state their claims… …until one manufacturer advertised a “78-second shave.” The result? “…sensational advances in sales.”…

I usually write these emails on the mornings I send them. But not this one. By the time this email lands in your inbox, I’ll be on the highway east of Miami, cutting across the Everglades, on my way to Marco Island for a two-day meeting with Dave Dee and his Elite Mastermind group. Weather…

Looking for that perfect holiday gift for that special someone? How about “Polish Potatoes” perfume (for women OR men)? This is not a joke — although it is kind of funny. Polish perfumer Michał Gilbert Lach invented the scent which he describes as “a journey into the depths of childhood experiences.” As a kid, Michal…

Here’s something I didn’t know until Melissa and I visited Pompeii last week during our European vacation… Ancient Romans loved to gamble with dice. The archeologists who excavated Pompeii (buried under 15 feet of ash when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 A.D.) founds lots of dice. Here are some on display at the National Archeological…

From the balcony of my cliffside hotel on the Amalfi Coast in Italy, I look due west across the Gulf of Salerno… …at Sorrento, perched on the tip of the peninsula separating the gulf in front of me from the Gulf of Naples. These are historic waters. In September 1943, Allied warships filled the Gulf…

Remember this scene in “Meet the Parents” when Gaylord Focker (Ben Stiller) wants to board a plane, but a power-hungry gate agent makes him wait? Funny when you watch it. But not so funny when — like me — you live through something like it. It happened Sunday at the Philadelphia International Airport. Melissa and I arrived…

This is a tale of customer gone wrong… …with a happy ending. It was 97 degrees the day the a/c crapped out in Melissa’s Volvo. She loves that car — except for the problems with the heating and cooling systems. We paid $400 to “recharge” the a/c — only to have the thing fail again…

In ancient days, when he was the first emperor of a unified China, Qin Shi Huang, was obsessed with immortality. He issued an executive order for officials across his kingdom to search for a potion that would give him eternal life. At some point on this quest, he began consuming cinnabar (sounds tasty). He thought…

Yesterday, I was minding my own business, sitting on the screen porch, checking my emails when… …I caught a whiff of natural gas — a strong whiff. So I called the gas company which sent a technician over to diagnose the problem. Turns out there was a small leak which was simple to fix. All…