Consumer Escapes - Retro Decorating

We've been talking about renovating our kitchen for years. One element in our plan is to install a double oven. I find the planning itself to be an escape. The actual remodeling is painful. It takes longer than expected and costs more than planned.

Inspiration often comes from flipping through remodeling magazines. Although everything starts to look the same. Maybe if the appliance advertising was more like this classic from the 70's our kitchen would be done by now.

Come to think of it, my parent's house had a Thermodor oven when I was a kid. Hmm, wonder who was reading remodeling magazines back then?

Consumer Escapes - Reading around the edges

This morning I had the pleasure to listen to a talk at The Roeper School by Don Ambrose, Ph.D. Acting Associate Dean, College of Liberal Arts, Education, & Sciences and Professor of Graduate Education at Rider College in New Jersey. Don was speaking about the foundations for gifted education and creative intelligence. One topic area he covered gave me permission to keep doing something I've been doing. He called it "reading around the edges." Basically as students and organizations deal with a rapidly changing world we must have greater interdisciplinary understanding. So a scientist can get inspiration from art; a writer gains discovery through an appreciation for music; and so on.

My wife with her Kindle (see earlier post) said that the device will only gain in popularity because people can't judge you by what you're reading. No one knows if you're reading a trashy romance novel or today's newspaper. But as I think about what Dr. Ambrose outlined, I can read anything proudly, so far as it's contributing to broadening my horizons. This weekend we'll see just how effective reading Maxim is in helping me escape from cognitive traps.

Consumer Escapes - Vintage Advertising

A colleague turned me on to a great site to spend a few minutes with called “Found in Mom’s Basement.” It's a well-organized collection of vintage advertising. In many cases the Mad Men were mad. Dust 'em off and take a look.

Link to Found in Mom's Basement