With a beautiful woman lying on a bed of rose petals, Air France’s ad in the November 17 Wall Street Journal promises to “surround you with thoughtful details throughout your flight:  considerate, personalized service, Champagne, unlimited beverages, newspapers, magazines, and varied appetizing menus.”
Sounds inviting, right?  Except that the rose petals are in the shape of [...]

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Lucca and I picked up this book, Drita: My Homegirl, by Jenny Lombard, on a recent visit to the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center.  While understandably a book cover showing the back of two elementary-aged school girls was initially an automatic “no” from my 10 year old son, we (that as probably me) decided [...]

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The short version of the review of Hop is that People Magazine gave Hop 3 (out of 4) stars and my son liked it.  It features a cute bunny and a cute leading man…something for the kids and for the moms…plus 100’s of adorable baby chicks.  How could you go wrong, right? 
But early on themes [...]

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Sage advice for anyone hoping to expand your presence in social media is to comment on other people’s blogs.  If you take the time to read an article, leave a comment.  Let people know you like what they’ve said, or engage in dialogue about the topic….unless the topic has to do with race.
It’s not the [...]

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Multicultural marketers in US spend oodles of time thinking of ways to package and market their products in other countries, but I don’t expect the Live Crab Vending Machine, now popping up in subway stations in China,  to be appearing in malls or transportation hubs in the US anytime soon.

NPR’s Bill Chappell shares more on [...]

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This may be an attempt at the most politically correct ad ever….representatives of diverse cultures, underlying green themes, and low-sodium….as long as no-one takes offense to leprechaun jokes!

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I always remember the scene from Sex, Lies and Videotape when Andy MacDowell is talking to her therapist about how hard it is to live her daily life when she reads about so much pain and suffering in the Newspaper everyday.
That’s how I feel after reading about Rutgers student Tyler Clementi, 18, a freshman at [...]

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In fair fighting, the rule was always to use “I” statements, as in “I feel this” or “I did this,” as opposed to “You” statements, as in “You always do this,” or “You make me feel this,” (”I feel YOU are an a——” doesn’t count.)
In intercultural communications, in the framework of Geert Hoftstede, it’s Individualism [...]

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If TS Elliot said “if I had more time I would have written a shorter letter,” then I say if I had been more brilliant I would have invented a simple and accessible application to teach about the depth of cultural differences and race in a way that immediately makes you aware of your unconscious [...]

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I read with a bit of sadness this week that Oxford University Press, the publisher of the Oxford English Dictionary, said
“so many people prefer to look up words using its online product that it’s uncertain whether the 126-year-old dictionary’s next edition will be printed on paper at all.”
I learned early on to replace “that’s not [...]

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