A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Coronation

Although all presidential elections in the US are “historic,” our most recent election will probably go down in history as the most historic of all. As most of you already know, the election featured the first woman candidate to be nominated by a major political party, and the first major oligarch who pretended to be the candidate of the people. It also featured more—a lot more—of the usual yelling and screaming—and sometimes punching and shoving—than most US presidential contests.

One of the influencing factors was, of course, accomplishments of President Obama, many resented him because he was the first . . . → Read More: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Coronation

Customer Service

While we don’t always get good customer service, I hope that we (you and I) always do our best to provide it. This blog post is a follow-up to my previous post on Gas Pains. When I wrote that blog entry, I had received less-than-wonderful customer service from #Napoleon Fireplaces and blogged about my experiences attempting to get a new plastic knob to control the gas valve on a Napoleon gas log insert. You can still see much of the discussion on Facebook, although at this point you’ll need to search for it.

To summarize, the original gas knob, . . . → Read More: Customer Service

Gas Pains

This blog is not about eating too many beans…. Some gas pains are worse than others.

This is the story of my experience attempting to replace a $2 plastic knob on a Napoleon gas log fireplace. You may have had a similar experience with one product or another, or you may encounter something similar in the future. In the days before social media, sharing similar stories with a sufficient number of people to influence corporate behavior would have been extremely difficult if not impossible. The sharing part is relatively easy now. What remains not so easy is influencing corporate . . . → Read More: Gas Pains

Are We Having Fun Yet?

What’s been happening in your life while you were making other plans? World events in recent weeks have basically captured attention I had intended to “spend” elsewhere. First, the earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear plant meltdowns in Japan…. As someone with friends and semi-relatives (my daughter-in-law is Japanese, and her parents live in Osaka), I have been following the events there with some concern. Second, recent events in the Mideast have been difficult to ignore. Compared with what’s currently going on in Libya, the “revolution” in Egypt was fun to watch.

In an article titled, “Washington vs. the Merciless,” Thomas . . . → Read More: Are We Having Fun Yet?