One Score Down – Happy business anniversary to my good friend Emily Brackett and her branding and design firm Visible Logic who celebrated its 20th year last Friday on September 10. Yes, she started a business the day before 9/11/2001. Despite this she grew the firm into a force in the space, with all the great work they do, plus unique products like Branding Compass and Mail on the Mark. I got to know Emily when she was in Chicago before relocating to the coast of Maine and we collaborated on several projects. In the Web world there’s a handful of people I wholeheartedly trust, and she is one of them. Cheers to the first 20 and here’s to the future!

Making Malls Mighty – In the last week I learned of 2 projects to convert empty mall stores into athletic facilities. A former Macy’s in Virginia will soon be an indoor 50-meter pool and one proposed in southern Wisconsin for a former Sears will be two ice rinks and a field space. As the shells of these stores are likely still in great physical condition (something I learned about from serving on the local library project advisory board) this is a perfect use for them. Now if we can just get a 50-meter pool at one of the empty stores around me in northeast Wisconsin...!

Training People in Person > Training People Remotely – As part of my job I train users on the Web content management system I support. Where I have conducted over 200 training classes over the years, only one of them was in-person, and it was by chance the participant just happening to be in my office. This past week I conducted my second one to a live, in-person audience, and it was a great experience. Proximity again played into it, and it made me want more in-person events of all types, and soon.

Nothing on Netflix – I was late to learning that 90’s hit TV show Seinfeld is coming to Netflix on October 1. Apparently it was previously streaming on Hulu, but I don’t have it. As much as I enjoyed watching the show when I did, I never saw every episode and can’t quote the show like most people I know. I will binge it.

It’s All About the Case – Presented without further comment is a link to my kiddos’ school system’s newly-launched COVID-19 dashboard. It presents number of cases and the percentages for the approximately 16,000 students in the school system.

Do Frogs Eat Broken Links Too? – Also new to me is the Screaming Frog SEO Spider tool. I don’t pretend to know about every Web tool out there, and I am going to try this one out against the Web site platform I support.

Cleaned Out – I learned my favorite dry cleaner ever, Donny on the Spot, is shutting down at the end of September. They were previously a long-standing family-run business and during the lockdowns they pivoted to a purely delivery-based model. I wondered why they didn’t pick-up my cleaning bag this week, and then I saw the note on their Web site. It’s sad to see such a business go, especially one that had friendly, quality service and the nearest competitor being the most expensive dry cleaner I have ever encountered in my life. I wish them all the best of luck on whatever is next.

A Fish Called Carolyn – I get text messages like this all the time. No, my name is not nor was ever Carolyn. I have no idea who had my phone number before me, but maybe it was a Carolyn. And no, I didn’t click on this link. Please delete and block the number from any such texts like this you may get, and see you next time.

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This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni.

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