Brandt’s Rant 1/31/20
I haven’t let out a good rant in a while. Buckle up, kids, here we go.
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Social Marketing
Sloan Ranger Stories
This is Mike Sloan’s final resting place near Peterborough. It’s one of the perils of pre-planning – Mike died on Monday, very much in 2020. Mike had one persona before the rest of the country got to know him via his cancer fight. He developed another one, a better, more effective and loving one, afterward.
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Investigative Insight
I’ve joked that if I was ever cut open, secrets would explode out of me and fill the room with noise. From details of the Bernardo case, to Tori Stafford and many in between – I’ve locked away so many things that were never made public but that journalists covering the cases were privy to.
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In Praise of Pen and Paper
I’ll never give up my Post-It notes until they pry them from my cold, dead hands!
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Walking a Mile
If you’re not familiar, Walk a Mile in Her Shoes is an international fundraising walk that’s not like all the others. In various towns and cities, the annual stroll supports different charities and organizations. In London, it’s Anova.
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The Delivery Scam
Let’s see what people who don’t want to live honest lives are up to this week, shall we? The delivery scam is a new one making the rounds in the UK, so it’s a matter of time until we hear about it on this side of the pond because it works.
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Bedtime Stories
Two young girls from Dover, Delaware love to read and they wanted to share that love. They begged their Mom to let them read bedtime stories every night on Facebook Live. They reasoned that other kids don’t have someone to read to them. The girls found it easier to fall asleep to a story and wanted to help other kids do the same. Their Mom agreed, with a strict list of rules.
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Under the Influence
Our favourite show on CBC radio is, without a doubt, Under the Influence with Terry O’Reilly. It used to be called Age of Persuasion. In a recent rerun (the show is on summer hiatus) Terry told a story that was so moving and well, influential, I’m going to paraphrase for you.
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This Week In Scams
These email scammers are creative, I’ll give them that.
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Centre-Middle-Thingy
As a child of the late 60s and the 70s, it always irked me when people called a 45 centre a “spider”. “Oh, that’s what it was called”, they said. “They”, being amateur historians who weren’t there when 45s were the most popular way to play music and needed the special bit of plastic to fit them onto a record player spindle! Harrumph, and other sounds of indignation…
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Scary Job Fakery
People now seem to understand the depth and breadth of human trafficking in the London area. The Forest City is attractive to these horrible creeps who deal in slavery because the city is so accessible from the 401. It’s easy to move from city to city, Toronto to Windsor, and all points in between.
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Kids’ Manners and Artificial Intelligence
In my role as a blogger for Witlingo, I get to delve into the world of voice-first technology; smart speakers, apps (called skills) for smart speakers, and the AI voices for the big companies. Those include Siri, Bixby, Cortana, and others. And when I say delve, I mean concentrate as if someone has put me in control of a space shuttle without instruction!
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Anti-Socializing
Does it ever feel like the noise is too much? Not the actual noise, the noise made by social media.
…90 Adorable Seconds
The original version of this Father’s Day video of a Dad and his son having a conversation, racked up 35 million views.
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One Mo Time
That’s an ancient photo of me on a barge in Lake Ontario, emceeing the Symphony of Fire fireworks contest. At that moment, I was looking for a cue from the producer and swallowing a pound of bugs.
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Five Big News Writing Mistakes
Everybody makes mistakes. I’ve certainly made my share, and some still haunt me to this day. Why oh why did I think David Duchovny’s surname was pronounced do-SHOVE-knee?
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Sunscreen – The New Talc
When I was a teenager, I dated a guy who was overly concerned about my health and well-being. One day, I casually mentioned using baby powder and he lost his mind! He practically begged me to stop using it. It turns out that he had a point, albeit a small one.
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