As I curate the last few weeks I am wondering what the big deal is about a one Alabama police officer who looks like one actor / former wrestler, especially as I share the look of about a quarter of the people who attend a pro football game on any given Sunday.

Simply Wrong – My last post on the previous 2-week period showed up a week late thanks to my selecting the wrong date. As I was on a road trip with the family, I wasn’t planning on blogging during our trip, so I scheduled the post to go live ahead of time. I guess it’s ok I made the mistake as I slipped into vacation mode?

Somethin’ Honey – On our trip we stopped at a friend’s farm where they have beehives and process and sell honey. It was amazing to hear how it is done, and I learned that you can eat a honeycomb – honey and the wax comb. Who knew? Though it’s ok to spit out the wax instead. It is also said that eating local honey from near where you live can help in fending off seasonal allergies.

A Better Place Than Pie – Pineapple margaritas go great with fresh Atlantic Ocean raw oysters. This is a much better use of the fruit than the sacrilege of putting it on a pizza.

Brand Flashback – When grabbing a bottle of milk for coffee one morning on our trip and, though not yet functionally caffeinated, I made a double-take at the brand on the bottle – Sealtest. I haven’t seen this brand in years, as I have fond memories of Sealtest Maple Walnut ice cream half gallons (when they actually 64 ounces of the dairy treat) in my home freezer as a kid. It turns out the brand is now used in the US only for milk and is bottled in Asheville, North Carolina, and no longer used for ice cream.

Video Flashback – In talking with a colleague about Web promotional videos for products, I recalled this video I produced to promote its internal employee database mobile app for a former employer. Though I don’t look back at my time at that firm with much fondness, this was one of the highlights of my time there.

Gaming The Ads Too – Being in remote areas of the US along our vacation shed light that ads in mobile apps didn’t display when I had no service. Apparently the ads are downloaded over the Internet in real-time, and the lack of service in spots made playing the games a better experience. Putting your mobile device into Airplane Mode will give the same, positive results.

Degoogle Yourself From Maps – One day for some reason I brought up a friend’s address in Google Maps, and I noticed the street view of his house was all blurred out. I made a mental note to ask him about this but forgot to. Then I ran across this article about how to remove your house from the various online map services. If you don’t want your house or license plates on the cars in your driveway to be for all to see – well, at least for those looking to go to your house – then you may want to look into doing this.

New Great Name, Same Great Intent – Congrats to the organizers of the Wisconsin UX (for user experience) Meetup group for rebranding it as Intent + Craft. I love the new name, as it speaks to the thought and work going into a great user experience. I can’t wait for them to resume in-person gatherings, but catch as many of their virtual events as possible.

Do You Signal? – A friend was persuasive in getting me to try Signal, an encrypted alternative to open text messaging. If you know my mobile phone number, you can find me there – go ahead and send me a message!

Ciao Italia – Italian airline Alitalia announced it is shutting down in October. Though I have never flown Alitalia, the brand has been a source of Italian pride and was the airline Popes would fly on. It will be “replaced” by a new airline, ITA, who is buying many of Alitalia’s planes, gates and hiring much of its staff. My guess is they are buying a lot of white paint to cover over a few letters in Alitalia’s logo in the interim.

I Was Working But You Didn’t Know That – When I got back from my vacation this week, I said I was going to be back to work on Thursday. However I was actually “in” on Wednesday, as I took the day as an “incognito day” – I was working, had my out of office messages still active on my email and voicemail, and used the day to catch-up on 2 weeks of emails and activity without anyone bothering me. The only person who knew about this was my director, and I had his blessing. I will do this again, as it made my official return much more orderly and stress-free.

Honest Is The Best Hotel Policy – As I checked into the Hampton Inn in Louisville Kentucky late at night for an overnight stop on my road trip, I noticed this sign at the front desk. At first sight I was expecting something like the legendary Riot House back in the day, it was a nice hotel and perfect for our family to recharge before continuing our trek. But rock stars roaming the hallways would have made for an interesting first stop on the trip.

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

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So here I was, waiting for my test FEMA alert and all this time it was because I wasn’t opted-in to receive them? Luckily I wasn’t solely focused on this over the last few weeks.

Turn-off Voicemail Transcription, Mate – As I mentioned I have been setting up a new iPhone and I seem to keep finding more settings to change. One is voicemail transcriptions, which are useless to me. Though there is no switch to turn them off, if you change the language of your device to one that doesn’t support transcription – like Australian English – that will do the trick.

Here’s Apple Looking At You – News broke on how tech giant Apple is going to run algorithms on photos stored in its iCloud for potential child pornography and of course both outrage and indifference ensued. I have used similar technology in the process of evaluating parental control apps for my kiddos phone (more on that in a future post) and the technology has been mediocre to poor at best with all being false positives. Of course you don’t have to store your photos in iCloud, as using a Synology NAS or Nextcloud as more technical but viable options.

Identity Issues – New to me... do you remember, or maybe years later heard of, the Keep America Beautiful commercial from the 1970’s featuring an Native American who sheds a tear at the end in response to pollution? It turns out the main character of the commercial, Iron Eyes Cody, was actually an Italian American named Espera Oscar de Corti.

Active Avenue – The typically quiet downtown of my fair city was alive the long weekend of the 5th thru the 8th for Mile of Music, a free music festival held at various venues along the almost 5,280 feet of College Avenue, the city’s main strip and thus the name. It was great to see the activity – people, music, commerce – return after a year off.

Library Reimagined – Previously I mentioned I was chosen to be on my city’s Library Building Project Advisory Committee. As part of this, I got a sneak peek at the architect’s plans for it, and wasn’t supposed to say anything publicly at first. Now the preliminary plans for the library have been released and wider public opinion is flowing. Personally I think this is an amazing approach to reimagining the facility and purpose of the library, and can’t wait for the groundbreaking.

Revisiting the Big Book – A few years ago I looked into tools to help with documenting my life and my family... you know, in case something happens and someone wants to know where the key to something is kept, among other things. I then found The Big Book of Everything, but didn’t do anything with it. I am revisiting this and found there’s a new version. The tool is free but he accepts donations, which I will likely get to when I finish it.

Friendly Weed Killer – On a recent episode of the news analysis podcast No Agenda I listen to, there was a mention of a friendlier way to kill weeds using Dawn dishwashing liquid. I tried the mixture of it with Epson salts and vinegar and it worked very well. Now to find a similarly simplistic way to pick-up the dead weeds.

The New Local Way the Cookie Crumbls – I was recently made aware by my kiddo of Crumbl Cookies a chain of boutique cookie shops where they change the varieties on a weekly basis on their large, delicious product. In a roundabout way I found out they are opening near me as Crumbl is hiring for a general manager. Unfortunately said kiddo is not qualified for the job, but likely qualified to be a customer.

Serial Stealers – Oops, someone did it again, as when I went to rent a Redbox DVD (yes, I still work with physical media on occasion) the disc was not in the box, but someone had peeled off the label on it and stuck it to the case, as shown above. Now it’s not like they can’t track who last had the disc, but I digress. It happened to me onetime before, and after a lengthier-than-hoped call, I was taken off their Most Wanted List and got credit for the incident.

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

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Observations... older, Budweiser.

The World According to Him – The other week comedian Jackie Mason left this mortal coil at age 93. I was first aware of the Sheboygan, Wisconsin native from his comedy album based on his Broadway show, The World According to Him. He went on to star in movies and his career got a boost from that time. Years later I was walking along Michigan Avenue in Chicago when Mason was walking towards me. I stared at him, and he stared back at me. I should have thanked him for the laughs.

All History Is Local – As someone who grew up in New England and often would say you can spit from one historic site to the next, I naturally became interested in local history, not just there but wherever I have lived. Serendipitously my wife and I came across the Appleton Historical Society. I had seen the unique building but had no idea what was in it. There’s a plethora of pictures, memorabilia – even a recreation of a old hat shop – all chronicling the history of this city which, interestingly, was named after a New Englander.

Take Your Shot – Benshot is a unique business that makes glassware with things stuck in them. They got their start by putting bullet shells into glasses and can insert just about anything… including a referee whistle. The coaches and officials gifts for this year’s Bird Bath Invitational swim meet were custom designed, etched and had a whistle embedded into it. An added touch to these glasses is that Benshot is located a few miles from where the meet was held.

Stop Drinking Coffee and It Could Happen Anyway – In the on-going study battle if coffee is good for you or not, the latest is on the bad side that high coffee drinking could cause dementia. I’ll be holding out for the next study, providing I remember to.

Anchors Away – Anchors are hyperlinks within a Web page that used to easily navigate you up or down the content on the page. Here’s a good HTML anchor tutorial if 1) you didn’t know what the heck I was talking about and 2) want to know how to create them yourself.

That’s Haaahgan To You – I finally got around to watching the independent comedy Captain Hagen’s Bed and Breakfast. It had been on my watchlist as my good friend and member of my one-time improv group Andrew Cornelius was one of the stars. It’s a cute comedy and I highly recommend it!

Less Beer to Cry Over – A friend in the Boston area shared with me the Boston Beer Works chain of brewpubs has permanently closed their doors. Beer Works opened across from Fenway Park shortly after I moved to the Boston area and was a year-round stop destination for me. Among other memories it was where this radio spot I was in was recorded. On stops back to the Hub I would always make a stop and have a blueberry ale when I went to stock up on Red Sox gear. It will be missed and hopefully someone can bring this tradition back to life.

I Got It The First Time Apple – I am manually setting up a new iPhone as this is how I roll with any technology. One thing I discovered was whenever I got a text and did not unlock my device to view it (I usually read the notifications on the Lock Screen) I was getting a second audio notification. Fortunately you can extend or turn off a second notification on iPhones.

Say No to Business Algos – Lately on LinkedIn I realized I was seeing the same posts in my timeline over and over. I then noticed this little drop-down selector, highlighted below, where you can select Top or Recent posts in your timeline feed.

I quickly changed this to recent and I then saw all new content. On subsequent visits to the networking site, I had to keep resetting it to recent. Look for this option to bypass the Microsoft algorithms and see what is truly new with your business network.

Scribble to Quality – I learned that scribble is the term for the first matter that comes out of a 3D printer. I also learned 3D Scribble is an amazing business that makes high-quality 3D printed items and is owned by my good friend and serial entrepreneur Steven Benjamin. The business also has a wicked cool logo to go along with the cool things they make and how they make them.

Flying for Eyes – This past weekend I went to EAA AirVenture a global gathering of aviation enthusiasts that happens to be about 20 minutes from me in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Over 600,000 people attended this year, plus over 7,000 flights in and out of the airport, making it the busiest airport in the world for the week. Among the experimental and vintage aircraft was the above-pictured MD-80 converted to a flying eye hospital for Orbis a global non-profit which brings eye surgery skills and equipment to people in need. The plane is literally a flying classroom and surgical hospital. I was impressed by the work this organization brings to people around the world, and have added them to my support circle.

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

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Business, tech and sports made the list this week, but it was far from bland.

Be a Certified Mentor – The University of Wisconsin Green Bay (yes, that Green Bay, and for those outside of Wisconsin, there’s a lot more there than football!) is offering a virtual certificate in mentorship program. Over the years I have unofficially served in this role, namely as people have told me they consider me a mentor, something I was always proud to hear. This university certificate will take me through a formal process of being a mentor, and I am looking forward to taking it.

Ducking Email – A new message appeared on my DuckDuckGo home page in my browser (yes, DuckDuckGo is search engine of choice) promoting a new email protection service they are offering. It looks like you get an email address something like .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address), and you can use it to filter your own email thru their servers, where it will remove tracking, ads, etc. I signed up for the beta of this free service, though I doubt I can get .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address), but that would be a cool email address nonetheless as I experiment with this service.

Tom the Troll – Being the GOAT has its privileges. Twice this week I saw signs of Tom Brady being Tom Brady, no matter who is around him, even the President of the United States at his own house. First the Tampa Bay Buccaneers football team visited the White House after winning the Super Bowl over the winter. In his remarks at the 18 minute mark of this video from C-SPAN the 21-season quarterback cracked jokes about President Biden’s election victory and nickname from the former president. He then appeared in a commercial for the revamp of Subway sub shops’s menu even though he likely won’t eat there.

Getting Back in the Saddle On Stage – I caught the live broadcast of “So What?” a videocast by Trust Insights on the topic of returning to live presentations at events after over a year of webinar after webinar after webinar after... well you get the point. My good friend John Wall, who is as much of a marketing genius as he is a marketing realist, talked about his recent in-person conference with his colleagues among other marketing insights.

Get Out of My Building! – First Amazon wanted access to your car trunk to deliver packages, now they want access to your apartment building. Amazon Key for Business is going a little too far for me, but for others it may be just what they want.

Google Says Now Do This – Just when you thought owning a Web site was enough work, the search behemoth Google has rolled out Core Web Vitals. What is this? They are now saying page performance measurements will be taken into consideration with page ranking in search results. For example if your Web site has ginormous images and loads slow, you will rank lower. Note Core Web Vitals is a subset of Web Vitals, which contains more requirements. Talk to your Web consultant about this, and if you don’t have one – get one!

Go Bucks! – Congrats to the Milwaukee Bucks basketball team for winning the NBA Championships, their first in 50 years. Where I admit I don’t follow the sport that was invented about 5 miles from where I grew up as much as I used to, being in-state it’s hard to miss the coverage, namely of their exciting star Giannis Antetokounmpo. It was nice to see Bucks players from my childhood, namely Kareen Abdul-Jabbar and Oscar Robertson, at the games.

Even Tom Hanks Can't Sell Me on This One – The Cleveland Indians baseball team is rebranding as the Cleveland Guardians. From the response I heard, the expression “meh” seemed universal. It will certainly drive sales of new merchandise, but will it bring back a World Series to the city on Lake Erie? Apparently Hanks’s tie to Cleveland goes to when he was starting out in his acting career.

A Different Take on BOGO – In what people call a tight real estate (or any) market, salespeople need to do what they can to stand out. Even if it means free animals, I guess? I saw this car when stopped at a light this past week and was so shocked I almost didn’t get the picture. Interestingly it was at the same intersection I got this picture of a few weeks ago of Jack. Let’s see what else this magic crossroad yields in the future.

Let the games begin!

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

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Despite my local gas station recently upgrading its pumps with video screens and blasting GSTV – Gas Station TV for those who fortunately have never heard of it – nothing below came from what I was sucked into viewing for the brief periods of refueling the minivan over the past few weeks.

Swim Spox – As I have eluded to in the past (which some say too often), every year my kiddos swim team puts on 2 major swim meets in the summer. Well, except for last year. We were allowed to host them again this year (with a mere 8 weeks to pull them off, but I digress). As these meets means a lot to swimmers and the community, I had the honor to once again be interviewed by a local radio program, Fresh Take on WHBY, and its host Josh Dukelow. You can hear the segment on the WHBY Web site at the 38-minute time code. It’s been a while since I have done an interview like this, and listening to it I thought it turned out well.

To Books and Beyond – Speaking of the community, a little pat on the back to myself as I was chosen to be on the Library Building Project Advisory Committee for the reimagining of the Appleton, Wisconsin Public Library. I applied for this volunteer role and was selected after a call from the city’s mayor. We had our first meeting this past week virtually and I am looking forward to sharing my thoughts and meeting my fellow community members as the city moves towards a new library.

Twenty Years of That’s Weird, Grandma – For a couple of years I had the honor to be on the Board of Barrel of Monkeys, an arts-education organization in Chicago who teaches inner-city school kids creative writing, then takes what the kids writes and adapts sketch comedy from them. It really is as awesome as it sounds. On August 5 there will be the celebration of the 20th anniversary of That’s Weird, Grandma, the show that PlayMakers Laboratory (their recently rebranded organizational name) puts on to showcase this comedy. It will be held in person at The Annoyance Theater in Chicago as well as streamed online. Tickets and making a donation is available here. Where That’s Weird, Grandma is best seen in person, seeing it online with a live audience will be equally awesome.

Master Change – Where we all know a change will do you good, many people don’t make that change. Specifically for small businesses, this can be to their detriment. Barry Moltz is a small business consultant and someone whom I worked with years ago for my past business. He has written several great books on small business and his newest one, ChangeMasters, is coming out this fall. Though I am not in my own business anymore I have pre-ordered a copy as I know there will be much in there I can lean on for my own job. You can sign up to receive free chapters from ChangeMasters once they are available.

Make My Favorite Meme – I don’t always make memes, but when I do it’s either with the Dos Equis beer guy or the Change My Mind scene – where podcaster/comedian Steven Crowder is sitting at a table, sipping coffee, with a sign that has a statement and closes with, Change My Mind. I found this site where I can create my own Change My Mind memes, and you can too.

What’s In a Name? – PBC is a horrible auto-immune liver disease that primarily inflicts women, and I lost my Mom to it many years ago. The acronym used to stand for Primary Biliary Cirrhosis, but new to me is that it was renamed to Primary Biliary Cholangitis several years ago. Why? Apparently the Cirrhosis part only happens late in the process of having the overall disease. Plus, Cirrhosis has a very negative connotation with drug or alcohol abuse, which for someone with PBC may never come into play. I can attest to that, as that came up every time someone asked and I had to explain it. Also new to me is this cartoon video that came out a few years ago where a piano-playing liver named Liverace describes what PBC is. It’s a long 4+ minute video, and still need to show it to my kiddos, but I am interested in hearing anyone’s thoughts on this one. Especially as I am not sure this is the best way to talk about something so deadly.

Fighting Fish Fallout – A headline came and went across my bow a few weeks ago that Subway sub shops weren’t serving real tuna fish, and whatever the substance was didn’t have any tuna DNA in it. Honestly I didn’t put a whole lot of thought into it, although the idea of DNA testing it seemed odd to me. Apparently this wasn’t exactly a true story, and the global sub franchise giant has come out with this Web site to combat the fake news on their tuna. I thought this was a well-done, straightforward site detailing the case at hand, the falsehoods and offered the names of their tuna suppliers. Why stories come out like this is baffling to me, but sadly not that surprising. As many Subway sub shops are owned by entrepreneurs, I wish them well.

Go HOMAGO! – When I was on the first Library Building Project Advisory Committee meeting this past week, I learned the acronym HOMAGO, which stands for Hang Out, Mess Around, Geek Out. It is used by the YOUmedia learning labs that are part of the Chicago Public Library system. Where I was familiar with the labs, I wasn’t with the acronym. It harkens back to my days growing up with LEGOs and my TRS-80 computer.

Taking Suck to a Whole New Level – The other day I visited the local Tropical Smoothie Café for lunch, and noticed a couple of summer flavors that came with a lime straw. The staff mentioned it is indeed edible and lasts about 40 minutes. What the heck, so I tried it and saved the straw wrapper to look up what it’s made of. Its brand name is Sorbos, and after looking at the ingredients, I’ll stick with plastic or paper, or heck, just remove the lid and slurp. I’m not even including a link to these things. It’s a bad way to try to add the taste of lime to a drink.

His Beat Was What I Needed – I learned that hip-hop artist Biz Markie died this past week. He was known for the song “Just a Friend” that came out in 1989 and was a favorite on the R&B shows on my college radio station. I saw him perform at SUNY-Albany in 1990 in an on-campus concert series where the Red Hot Chili Peppers also performed. Biz Markie was the last performer, and as we left the venue we saw him come down the steps near us and hopped thru the open window in the back of a station wagon, something to this day I clearly have never forgotten.

Of Course – As I mentioned a few months ago, I have been working out of a great co-working spot in the downtown of my fair city, and as a result I have noticed architectural gems I never did before. Another one is the above-pictured horse’s head atop a building that now hosts a tea bar and a law office. Was it a stable at one point? Not sure, but I am sure it was put there for a reason.

"Privacy isn’t something I’m merely entitled to, it’s an absolute prerequisite.” – Marlon Brando

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

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