The Idea Blog

I spent a few minutes with my friend Bill Bryant’s blog this morning, and I found something I never knew existed.

Many of us in the communications business have heard of Leo Burnett’s famous farewell speech, “When to take my name off the door.” I never knew it was captured on video, nor was I aware that it could be found on YouTube.

Entire generations of creative people may never know the power of some of the greats of the previous generation; not just Burnett but also Hal Riney, Jay Chiat, Mary Wells or Messrs. Doyle, Dane and Bernbach. May I recommend those creative types begin here with Leo Burnett’s farewell. It’s a wonderful place to start. Then, for convenience’s sake, give a watch to Art & Copy.

Need more proof that the world is being carried away by mobile devices. Intuit is introducing a full credit card payment package for the iPhone (3G and 3GS only), and it will be sold in Apple stores and online. (Here’s the report on Wired.com.) This is big, it seems to me, because it means that the largest small business accounting platform is helping to remove one of the biggest problems small businesses face: collecting.

“Would you like us to revise that digital file, sir? No problem. Your credit card, please?” Swipe it, key in a few characters and BAM!, a credit card transaction from your account to mine!

I’ve written about Square, another company that pioneered in this space, several times this year in anticipation of the functionality coming to my iPhone and iPad. Seems others now see an opportunity as well.

Earlier posts about Square:
Square is almost here (May 2010)
More on Square (April 2010)
Introducing Square, February 2010

I was listening to the latest Radiolab, Words, this morning on my daily sweat-filled walk around the ‘hood, and I came to a section of the program about Jill Bolte Taylor and her amazing story about a stroke she had years ago. (I’m sure I’ve posted this before, but I can’t resist embedding again.)

So as I’m walking (and sweating) and thinking of all I need and want to do when I get back to the house, I recall this marvelous image of a brain on hiatus, absolutely Rip Van Winkled, and … it … seems … so … marvelous …

Yes, I think I am. I was looking for a specific post I vaguely recall writing years ago – I want to say it was called “Bring back the stymie” – and I found one blog after another I’ve written and posted to over the years.

There’s this one – The Burris Blog – from Jan 2005 ’til Jan 2006. I was using Google’s Blogspot software.

Then there’s this, called Burris Blog (not the subtle drop of “The”), using Apple’s iWeb application. I was actively posting there from Jan 15, 2006, through Sep 2006.

I used to write two golf specialty blogs: (1) “Golfology” was “a 360-degree view of the game, especially the business of golf.” Up until Jan 15, 2006, Golfology was here. After that date and up until Sep 2006, Golfology was here. (2) And there was “Golfography,” or the places of golf, here and here.

All of these, of course, pre-dated The Idea Blog.

And now I also keep up with stuff like film clips and music on Substitutes, a Tumblr blog.

Anyway, I was looking for this thing I wrote about stymies to find a specific photo I posted which showed a stymie measuring ruler on a scorecard. I’m contributing to the GolfTripGenius.com blog during a special promotion period coinciding with the 2010 Ryder Cup. I finally found it – Bring back the stymie – after I whiled away about an hour reading old blog posts.

Much has been written about the renaissance now taking place at The Greenbrier. This article in the Times today presents the contradiction that is and will – now, with the help of Mr. Justice’s fortune – continue to be America’s timeless resort.

“It’s possible to gawk for hours at the Greenbrier’s color-splashed interiors, the work of the society designer Dorothy Draper in the mid-1940s. Nothing seems to match, and that’s the point. The result is something Lily Pulitzer and Laura Ashley might have dreamed up together after following Alice down the rabbit hole.”

Travel has always been part hardship, part fantasy. The Greenbrier has now restored the latter to go with the former.