Schools in the market for grads

It’s graduation season: a time when departing students reminisce about their years of undie running, exam cramming and days of waking up not remembering what happened the night before. And, oh yes, they ponder the question of finding a job after graduation. But in this economy, perhaps it’s a more difficult question to answer than before.

Stop the smear tactics

Watching the latest gubernatorial ad campaigns reminds me of “The Simpsons” episode in which Bart joins a boy band whose songs repeat subliminal messages. The similarity between the episode and the ads isn’t so much how the candidates for governor resemble the show’s characters (although Steve Poizner does look somewhat like Milhouse). It’s more that the lesson the episode teaches (and with “The Simpsons” there’s always something educational) can be applied to the tactics of the ad campaigns currently running.

News media, take a tip from TMZ

We’ve all done it. Secretly we take pleasure in laughing at celebrities’ antics caught on camera while ashamedly admitting to our friends that the news we’ve just learned is due to our trusty media source, TMZ. In fact, it’s almost as good as Ashton Kutcher’s Punk’d, with the added punch line that the celebrities are actually aware of the cameras surrounding them.