Tips to spur creativity, from the Direct Marketing Association :

• Avoid isolation. Force yourself into situations where you interact with people of different races, ethnicities, religions, etc.
  
• Travel. Be it to Europe or a cattle ranch, break out of your element.
  
• Browse. Hit the Net regularly and log on to a new site every day.
  
• Channel surf. Sample every one of your 694 channels - and no skipping the infomercials!
  
• Read. Study anything with words from Edgar Allen Poe to a ketchup bottle.

Fall is my favorite season. So why do I always feel a tinge of sadness when summer comes to an end?

Today's puzzling phone call:

(Phone rings. Panel on phone displays co-worker's name.)
Me: Hi, Michael.
Co-worker: Can't talk right now.
Me: You called me.
Co-worker: I know. Can't talk right now. See ya.

An MVD employee actually made a joke while she assisted me this afternoon. I'm still recovering from the shock.

I have to visit the Motor Vehicle Division today to replace a lost driver's license. I'm dreading it. I suspect the MVD employement applications include a line at the top that reads, "If you're not surly, don't even think of applying to work here."

When people greet each other in the morning, it's not really a greeting as much as an identification of the time of day: "Morning." (The "Good" that used to precede it has apparently been dropped in the interest of efficiency). Strange, when you think about it. Nobody encounters someone at lunchtime and says, "Noon."

What is wrong with toymakers, that they came up with this?