Today, December 30, marks the 7th anniversary of the very first blog post on The Hot Iron, appropriately titled, Hello World.

Rather than getting mushy about the past, I’d like to thank you for reading, whether this is the first time you have read something I have written, you for some reason have been with me for the past 7 years or you are somewhere in between.

It has been an up and down journey, but aren’t they all? This past year I have gotten re-energized about blogging, and I hope to keep it up in the coming year. Only time will tell.

As I have in the past, I have wanted to have some photo to accompany the years, and this year I chose Heaven on Seven, an amazing New Orleans-style restaurant in Chicago. If you come to the Windy City, you must try it. They have 2 locations – one on the Magnificent Mile and one on Wabash Avenue, where this sign is located in front of. Go to the latter – the feel is more authentic.

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This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni.

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To all my readers and friends who celebrate the holiday, Merry Christmas!

I am writing this prior to completing the final touches on our Christmas for our 2 kids. Where they are excited for what Santa Claus will be bringing them on Christmas morning, I am also trying to carry on traditions for the holidays that were part of my own growing-up. In addition to many common ones – family gatherings, gift giving, the nativity, church, etc., here’s a few unique elements of my Christmas over the years that I am sharing with them, and I would like to share with you.

Zat You Santa Claus?

Pictured is a plastic illuminated Santa Claus that towers at 3 feet tall and is over 40 years old. It was always standing watch in our breezeway window in the house I grew up in through Christmas. But on Christmas day, Santa returned to his post in the basement, not to be illuminated until the following year. When my Mom moved from my childhood home, I took Santa in, and he has been with me now for almost 20 years.

An interesting story on the jolly old elf is when I moved to Chicago, I took Santa with me. Rather than putting himinto a moving box, he sat next to me on the drive from Boston to the Windy City, literally. Donning a baseball cap, he got his share of looks from passing cars and when I stopped along the way.

The Littlest Snowman

Have you ever heard of the story The Littlest Snowman? If you said you didn’t I wouldn’t be surprised, as many people have not. Yet for some reason, this is the one story I remember the most from Christmases long ago. My own copy of the book is long gone, but thanks to the magic of eBay, I was able to get an original copy of the hardcover Golden Book.

The story is somewhat similar to that of the other famous snowman, Frosty. Then again, we’re talking about snowmen, so other than coming to life and melting, they are limited in what they can do. But it is a cute story I remembered, and now I have read to my own kids several times through the month. Despite this, I have a sneaking suspicion Frosty is still their favorite.

Pizzelles

It would not be a complete story on Christmas by an Italian if there were no mention of food. Where there are many culinary traditions for the holidays, one that brings the most memories and has taken on a new meaning for me is pizzelles.

Pizzelles are a flat Italian cookie made with an iron that resembles a waffle iron. Made with basic ingredients, they were a staple for all Christmas and Easter gatherings of family, as most everybody had their own pizzelle iron and their own variation on the recipe. They are commonly flavored with anise, but can also be made with vanilla or even maple syrup- the latter was due to my family growing up in Vermont. On occasion we would have chocolate pizzelles made with cocoa powder, but anise was always my favorite.

This year I decided to carry on the tradition and make pizzelles myself. I used my Mom’s recipe, and had bought a new electric iron as hers had long ago stopped working. As you can see from the photo above, they turned out pretty good. These were from my first batch, which did not last long due to their popularity with family and visiting friends. They are really simple to make and I also had my youngest kid help in the mixing, extending the tradition to yet another generation.

Buon Natale

Thank you for allowing me to share a few of my unique Christmas traditions with you. I would like to hear what you do to make the holidays unique and you are welcome to share them in the comments of this post.

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This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni.

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There were screams of joy across the Land of Lincoln (or at least in my corner of it) as I received an email inviting me back into the affiliate program for Amazon.com called Amazon Associates. So why not join me in celebrating by clicking the link below to buy this beautiful Platinum Cushion Cut Blue Sapphire And Round Diamond Pendant?

A Little Background

Residents of the state of Illinois were tossed out of the program back in 2011 upon the state’s passing of the Main Street Fairness Act. The law recognized affiliates of Amazon and other online companies, those who did not have a physical presence in Illinois, as the physical presence of those companies, and thus required purchases made through affiliate links and Web sites to be taxed with Illinois state tax. I wrote about this back then in an eloquent piece called Pat Quinn Screws Entrepreneurship In Illinois By Signing Amazon Tax Bill.

The intent of the law was to “level the playing field” – and I am quoting the politicians who supported it, including Illinois governor Pat Quinn – between brick and mortar stores across the state and online retailers, the latter who have been taking business from the former. Where the intent was good, the law did not do anything to make anything more fair for anyone. As quickly as Amazon dropped its affiliates, it never missed a beat in its own sales. Residents of Illinois were still buying from Amazon, and as a result choosing to not buy from local stores. It actually had a negative effect as people and businesses who were affiliates – from myself to other bloggers to coupon companies like Coupon Cabin – either lost money or were chased from Illinois to neighboring states like Indiana and Wisconsin. And as these people and companies pay taxes on their affiliate earnings, the state lost out on that tax revenue.

Welcome Back

In October, the Illinois Supreme Court struck down the Main Street Fairness law, paving the way for the return of the program. Just hours before I wrote this post, I got an email from Amazon Associates inviting me back into the program, and the text of the short but to the point email is below.

Hello,

We're pleased to announce that the Amazon Associates program is again open to residents of the State of Illinois. We're now able to re-open the program because the Illinois State Supreme Court recently struck down legislation that had forced Amazon to close the program to residents of Illinois. Amazon strongly supports federal legislation like the Marketplace Fairness Act that’s now pending before Congress, which is the only constitutional way to resolve interstate sales tax collection issues.

Residents of Illinois who would like to participate in the Amazon Associates program can submit an application here:

http://affiliate-program.amazon.com/gp/associates/apply/main.html

Thanks for your past participation in the Amazon Associates program. We hope to see you again soon.

What it means to myself and others

The return of the program is definitely good news for those who run affiliate programs or are seeking to monetize their Web sites. The world of affiliate marketing is vast and, in my opinion, fascinating and too much to talk about in this post alone. For myself and this little corner of the Internet called The Hot Iron, I am certainly not looking at the return of the program as a cash cow. In the past links to products – namely books and electronics – were affiliate links to Amazon, and if anyone purchased them, I would get a percentage of the cost.

This is why I am welcoming back the program with what I found as a very beautiful piece of jewelry, let alone pricy. The affiliate earnings for this pendant would pay for a nice vacation, or a couple of months of my daughter’s daycare. I will admit I never got rich off the program in the past, and I don’t see myself doing so in the future, as links on The Hot Iron were never obtrusive and hopefully a compliment to the site.

I also welcome your thoughts and questions on Amazon Associates in the comments to this post. I am curious if the return of affiliate programs like this one will impact you or not, or if you even knew they went away to begin with.

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This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni.

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Editor's Note: I am no longer collecting Box Tops, and the email address has been removed from this post.

Have you seen this symbol?

If you have and you don't cut them out and just discard or recycle them, may I ask you to send them to me? Why? Your unused Box Tops for Education will benefit my kid's education.

Yes, really.

The Box Tops for Education program places these small symbols on various consumer goods and products, everything from Scott toilet paper to Cheerios. Each one is worth US$.10, and some products can have multiple symbols or even unique codes to redeem online. My kid, who now attends one of the finest schools in the universe (name purposely omitted) is collecting them to benefit that very school. And those little symbols can add up - last year the school raised nearly US$1,000, and I think they can do better than that, but we will need your help.

How to help

If you would like to offload these symbols to me, please email me. I will send you a postage-paid envelope for you to send them back to me. As well, if you have any products with codes to redeem online, you can send them to that email address as well.

Thank you

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This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni.

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For those of you in the US or abroad who honor the holiday, Happy Thanksgiving!

When people think of Thanksgiving – 4 things come to mind: family, friends, food and football. Sitting around the table with those closest to us, eating all kinds of turkey and the compliments, then parking ourselves in front of the TV to watch the traditional matchups against both Detroit and Dallas… that is what Thanksgiving is to many people. Whether you fully believe the story of the Pilgrims or not, taking time out to reflect, be thankful and celebrate a year of hard work with some relaxation is what many look forward to on the fourth Thursday every November.

I will take this opportunity to offer one more thing to the mix – music. Sorry it doesn’t begin with the letter F, but I digress. Going back to my days in college radio, where music became a big part of my life, I would always celebrate Thanksgiving with 2 particular songs. Though quirky and comical, they are the only Thanksgiving songs I know, and I have always played them every year since then to this date.

Thanksgiving Song by Adam Sandler

Originally performed as part of the Weekend Update news sketch on an episode of Saturday Night Live in 1992 by Adam Sandler, the song was recorded live a year later for his comedy album and that live version is what gets most radio airplay, as well as in my home.

Below I have embedded the original version from Saturday Night Live – watch it here or on YouTube.

Alice’s Restaurant Massacree by Arlo Guthrie

Though the formal name of the song has the word “Massacree” (note – not massacre) in the end, the album was called Alice’s Restaurant and folk singer Arlo Guthrie himself, at the beginning of the song, only refers to it as Alice’s Restaurant. There never was a restaurant named as such, though there was an Alice who lived in a former church. The song is a satirical take on a real event Guthrie was involved in on a Thanksgiving Day in the mid-1960’s. And it is over 18 minutes long!

Below I have embedded a performance of the song from Farm Aid in 2005 – watch it here or on YouTube.

I hope you have enjoyed these songs, and hopefully laughing on a full stomach didn’t hurt too much.

What untraditional Thanksgiving – or other holiday – traditions do you have? Please share them in the comments to this post.

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This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni.

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