Four exclamation points in colorful text bubbles The English major in me says that the use of exclamation points is like cooking with hot pepper chili flakes; something to use sparingly for extra oomph. Still, the old "bang" in writing could be argued as unnecessary. If the choreography of the words themselves haven't generated excitement, is a line with a dot on the bottom really going to make it better? Quite the contrary—exclamation points can dull the impact with visual w

I have a love/hate relationship with Trams. I get that it’s the vehicle that everyone joins to transport stuff, but I do find it lags at...

There was a time when I drove an SUP. I needed the extra space when my daughter was little and I was carting her and her friends around....

The following has been posted on behalf of Lisa Safran's physical body parts (PBP), post-marathon training for the 2022 NYC Marathon....

When I first started my career, I recall sitting in an occasional meeting with one of the executives of the company. She was a big shot...

A friend and colleague said to me the other morning, “You’ve been freelancing for so long. You should do a blog on working from home.”...

When you're a writer, and you're working on a book, you dance. You edit to death, contemplating if the word "a" is stronger than "the" or...

A few weeks ago, IHOP made headlines. They had us scratching our heads over the skillet flip of the "p" in their company name/acronym to...

I was at the post office this morning mailing a package to a friend. The postal worker had a lot of questions for me: Anything liquid,...

Someone has a serious Napoleon complex. With the swagger shape of some puny punk leaning against a brick wall in an alleyway, this bully...

Sears Department Stores recently announced that they're bringing back its "Wish Book." They claim that customers missed it, so they've...

There are many things I love about being a freelance waiter. I can serve others with creativity and integrity. I have the freedom to...

Dear Resistant Plant, I can understand how circumstance may have led you to feel this way - people not watering you, taking your...

I just experienced a totality I will never, ever see again in my lifetime. I knew it was coming for a long time now, and as excited as I...

In the 1970s, Trident gum came out with “four out of five dentists surveyed recommend sugarless gum for their patients who chew gum.” The...

This article appeared in Publishers Weekly magazine. There was a time when I couldn’t work/write without my physical, hardcover...

We've all seen our share of bad writing. Novels with convoluted plot lines, marketing materials rife with typos, emails and texts where...

Just recently, kids and teachers celebrated the first 100 days of school—an epic moment because it officially marked the halfway point of...

I used to tell people I was a copywriter and then they’d look at me funny. I knew they were not hearing the “er” part. Copyright? © Like...