Keep Those Catalogs Comin’

Mister, Mister
By Peter Funt on Wednesday, June 5th, 2013
Here’s a little game I invented the other day after phoning the water company to complain about my bill and hearing an overly-chipper woman say, “Hi, Peter. How may I help you?” Increasingly I find that strangers who address me by my first name are the very people from whom I’d prefer an ounce of respect in the form of the honorific “Mr.” On the other hand, the folks who graciously call me Mr. Funt ...
What Is A Journalist?
By Peter Funt on Friday, May 31st, 2013
As amateur news hounds gain power and influence through social media, the definition of “journalist” has ripened for philosophical debate. But now it’s becoming a legal issue — one that could hamper efforts to protect the news profession at the very time federal lawmakers are awakening to the need to do so. Following disclosure of government scrutiny of the Associated Press in connection with leaks of sensitive material, President Obama urged passage of a new ...
BYOB : Bring Your Own Bag
By Peter Funt on Tuesday, May 28th, 2013
MONTEREY, Calif.—They don’t ask, “Paper or plastic?” around here anymore. Single-use plastic bags are banned, and stores offering paper are required to charge the stiff price of 25 cents per bag. The Monterey law, like many anti-bag ordinances popping up around the nation and the globe, seems to have been authored with good intentions, but where some see overdue environmental awareness, others see government overreach. California leads the nation in combating bag pollution, with more ...
Getting it Wrong
By Peter Funt on Thursday, May 16th, 2013
Scott Pelley of CBS News raised eyebrows and passions among journalists at a Quinnipiac University luncheon the other day when he said, “Our house is on fire.” He was talking about challenges to the news business from within, as reporters become careless in a rush to be “first”; and, from outside, where social media supply what he labeled “more bad information” than at any time in history. Pelley is a worthy recipient of the Fred ...
Keep Those Catalogs Comin’
By Peter Funt on Tuesday, May 14th, 2013
What America needs is a good Productivity Boosting Nap Pod, a device that looks like a dentist chair with a roof. As luck would have it, this 310-pound unit, that “provides optimal ergonomics for napping,” is available from Hammacher Schlemmer for $16,000. Dagwood Bumstead take note. I don’t recall buying anything from the 165-year-old New York store in over two decades, yet its richly entertaining catalogs have followed me across the country and continue to ...