The Original Necco Wafers Are Back!

An unknown blogger who commented on an old post brought me the best news I’ve heard in a long time:

The original Necco Wafers are back!

The blogger's comment on this post reads:

"And the old packaging is back too!"

Oh man, Susan... I was TICKED when they changed the formula. Part of the 2009 change was to drop the green wafers. Horror! As a native New Englander, I grew up with all the Necco products (Gotta love the Skybar!) I still eat a half a roll of Necco's a day! I cut the roll in half and eat half one day; the other half the next. The GOOD news is that Necco has finally responded to customer pressure (and a sharp drop in sales) and has returned to the former recipe! And the old packaging is back too!

Making Necco Wafers healthier by eliminating artificial colors and flavors was a laudable goal. But chances are, if you’re an advocate of healthy eating, you’re not eating candy in the first place – not even a candy as benign as the 165-year-old rolled wafers.

Actually, the original-recipe Neccos have been back since October 2011: back when I was unpacking and sorting and hunting for lost stuff. I couldn’t find the identity of the blogger who commented on my Necco Wafers post, so I Googled “original Necco Wafers are back” and found this NPR article.  A boston.com article about the iconic New England product  was shared over 350 times.

Thank you, Unknown Blogger, for your comment -- and to typography designer Mark Simonson for being a font of knowledge about the Necco Wafers lettering. Natural-recipe Necco Wafers have joined the category of New Coke, McDonald’s Arch Deluxe, and Crystal Pepsi: ideas that seemed good at the time, but ultimately bombed. What others can you add to the list? 

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Give Up My Pharmacist? Never!

Tom Sengupta, owner of Schneider Drug in Minneapolis.

When deciding on a health plan, most people choose the plan that lets them keep their doctor or dentist. My choice was determined by whether I could keep my pharmacist: Tom Sengupta, owner of Schneider Drug in Minneapolis.

In the past 15 years I've lived in Minneapolis, in east central Minnesota, and in southeast Minnesota. I've been a customer of Schneider Drug for the entire time, the last 11 years by mail. Comparatively, I'm a newbie; some of Tom's customers have been coming to his store for over 40 years.

It's been difficult for medical and insurance professionals to understand why I visit a pharmacist who is 70 miles away. A specialist at Olmsted Clinic in Rochester asked if I wanted to switch pharmacists, and was probably surprised at my defiant "No!"

I checked with an insurance specialist about whether Schneider Drug was a participating pharmacy. "You live in Dodge Center?," the person asked.

A cornerstone of Minneapolis's
Prospect Park neighborhood. 

"Yes."

"And Schneider Drug is in Minneapolis?"

"Yes."

"Is it a compound pharmacy?"

"I don't know what that is," I admitted.

"A pharmacy where they make the medications," the insurance specialist explained.

"No. It's just a store where they give excellent customer service."

"Oh."

An Ask-Your-Pharmacist Type of Pharmacist

You won't find toys like these
in a big-box drug store.

I discovered Schneider Drug in 1996, when I worked in the Prospect Park neighborhood of Minneapolis. I was pregnant, needed to buy maternity vitamins, and wanted to find a store within walking distance. Schneider Drug fit the bill, with the added benefit of having a retro 1960s feel. Years later, when I'd come in with my son Wyatt, Tom would give him pennies for the gumball machine or a special price on a small toy. Whenever Mike and I were unsure of which cold medicine to purchase, we'd say, "Let's ask Tom." When the best purchase was no purchase, Tom would say so. He'd remind me of when blood tests were due, or explain when formulary (brand name) drugs could be safely replaced by generic drugs.

The Politics of Healthcare

A young Hubert H. Humphrey helped
out at Schneider Drug before Tom owned it.

If you’re a person whose shopping decisions are guided by progressive values, you probably already know about Schneider Drug -- a store where a young Hubert H. Humphrey sometimes helped out at, according to Liz Riggs in this fascinating article. Tom Sengupta is an advocate for universal health care and regularly holds town hall meetings. Back in the 1990s, visiting politicians would ask U.S. Senator Paul Wellstone about health care in Minnesota. Wellstone would tell them, “Ya gotta talk to Tom.” A Wellstone! sign is still prominent in Tom's store.

In 2004, Democratic Presidential candidate Bill Bradley phoned Sengupta while Tom was waiting on a customer. Sengupta apologized and said he had to put Bradley on hold; the candidate understood. The idea of the less-than-dynamic Bradley on hold makes me chuckle. But it's absolutely indicative of Tom's customer-first work ethic. 

One time back in the 1990s I had forgotten to call in my refill,  and Schneider Drug was closed. So I stopped at the Target pharmacy on Broadway in north Minneapolis, where I lived. I showed the pharmacist the empty bottle so he knew where the prescription had been previously filled.

"Schneider Drug. Are they still open?," the Target pharmacist asked.

Paul Wellstone's politics are alive at Schneider Drug.

The next time I was in Tom's store, I mentioned the exchange at Target. As I left the store with my purchase, Tom called after me, "You tell Target we're still here. And we're going to be here for a long time." It was the only time I saw that gentle man's ire up.

The Broadway Target closed in 2003. Schneider Drug is still going strong.

My Pharmacist? You Bet!
I try to avoid referring to service professionals as "my mechanic" or my this or that because they're not possessions. But with Tom Sengupta, I make an exception. Someday Tom will retire. Someday I will have an emergency and will need a same-day prescription. When that day comes, I'll find a local pharmacy. Until then, Tom Sengupta of Schneider Drug is my pharmacist.

Read Liz Riggs' Bridgeland News article about Schneider Drug here. And listen to an NPR story by Michael May below:



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A Name from the Past Creates a Brighter Future for Many

Back in the 1980s, when I lived in the Detroit area, I met a guy named Craig Newmark. The venue was a barbecue where the guests were comic book artists and computer geeks. I remember that he worked at EDS, the company founded by Ross Perot. He was soft-spoken and had a self-deprecating sense of humor.

Fast forward 20 years to a company called Craigslist and a series on National Public Radio called 'This I Believe.'  The announcer introduced the day's speaker: the founder of Craigslist, Craig Newmark.

That's not a common name, I thought. I wonder if it's the same Craig Newmark.

I heard the voice and realized it was. Who knew?

Craig Newmark is a person who has touched millions of lives through social media and his foundation, craigconnects. Right now he wants to donate $10,000 to Kiva, the nonprofit that empowers people around the world by making microloans of $25. He's asking people on his Facebook page to choose an area: housing, education, food or services. If you'd enjoy helping someone spend $10,000, cast your decision today.

Take a moment to listen to Craig's This I Believe essay, entitled "That Golden Rule Thing."

Also, have you met a person who went on to become famous? Share your "Who Knew?" moment in a comment.

Hey, Who Moved My Noxzema?

Something's been blowing in the wind and making me sneeze for the past few days. My husband Mike says it could be goldenrod, which is the only thing blooming around here. Or the wind from the south, which has prevailed for the past week, could be blowing in pollen from 1,000 miles away.

Yesterday I was on a quest for Noxzema skin cream. With all the moisturizers out there, I gravitate to Noxzema because my mom used it. The cobalt blue jar and eucalyptus scent are hard-wired into my brain. With my allergies raging, I could imagine the cool cream soothing my hot skin and the eucalyptus oil bringing breathing relief.

Photo from Tipnut.

I looked. And looked. And looked. And couldn't find it anywhere. Finally, I asked the woman behind the pharmacy counter. She directed me to an aisle that I'd scoured before. I returned to the aisle, looked again, and finally found a row of jars that were cobalt blue -- sort of -- but closer to metallic blue.

What the hell?

Once the Grand Old Cobalt Blue Lady, Noxzema had morphed into a dozen other products on the shelf: newer, pricier, sexier, and completely lost in the crowd.

They better not have messed with the formula, I muttered to myself.

Luckily, the cream was the same. Billowy. Eucalyptus-y. At home I spread Noxzema on my face and blissfully napped, enjoying a sneeze-free hour for the first time in a week. Noxzema even soothed the no-see-um bites on my arms. No-see-ums are those microscopic and maddening black gnats that I thought existed only on Survivor: Samoa. Climate change deniers will say no-see-ums are a plague sent to rid us of our wicked ways.

For those of us destined for fire and pitchforks, pack the Noxzema. It soothes burned skin.

Want more ideas? Check out Quirky Tips for Noxzema Skin Cream by Joey Green. Share your own memories and quirky ideas below. And check out how the fashionable set stayed cool in 1965:




Disclosure: I was not compensated by Unilever for writing this post, which was inspired by an iconic brand: a brand, like Scotch Tape and Jell-O, has become synonymous with the generic product.

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How to Sing in a Second Language

I'm in awe of people who can speak a second language, and even more, people who can write in a second language. The Internet has made translations more accessible through services like freetranslation.com and Google Translate. But it takes a human translator to take a second language and make it sing, a gift that apps don't have and bots ain't got.

As a marketing copywriter for the entertainment retailer Musicland, I often wrote ad copy that promoted CDs by Latino artists in markets such as New York, Los Angeles and Miami. I would create a basic copy treatment with a heading such as "Hot Latino Hits" (a heading that today still makes me cringe), and send it to a person who would translate the English to Spanish. The person I worked with was George Rabasa, who I'd known when he was creative director at Carlson Marketing Group. Today he's an acclaimed novelist and short story writer.

One Latino Size Doesn't Fit All

Starting with the basic marketing message, George would translate it into copy that culturally reflected and respected the diverse markets: the Cuban presence in Miami, the Dominican and Puerto Rican presence in New York, the Mexican and Chicano presence in Los Angeles. Having been raised in Mexico, George felt most at home in the latter market. But he knew how to infuse copy for New York and Miami markets with a Caribbean flavor.

Author George Rabasa.

"I wouldn't go crazy with the idioms," he explains. "I would be careful. I would use the rhythm of the language rather than specific words. By rhythm, I mean if you read Caribbean-inflected Spanish out loud or Chicano-inflected, they sound different, even if the words sound similar -- word placement, length of sentences. It's pretty subtle but it's there."

Tejano pop star Selena.

In 1995 Tejano pop star Selena was murdered at age 23 by her fan club president, and Musicland placed an ad of the star's CDs in Latino markets. The only thing I knew about Selena was that her fans had worshipped her. So, I asked George to write the ad in Spanish rather than translate an English copy treatment. I knew whatever I wrote couldn't begin to capture what her fans felt.

Second languages sing when spoken by human translators. There's a sense of judgment and nuance, an ear for rhythm, a respect of place and culture. Because I admire the ability to translate and I value service by a person, I've welcomed an affiliate partner, bewords.com, an online marketplace where you can meet and work with translators. Real ones. Check them out. Who knows, the translator you hire today may be the important novelist of tomorrow.

Listen to author George Rabasa discuss his newest novel, Miss Entropia and the Adam Bomb.


Author photo from georgerabasa.com. Flickr photo of Selena from hellboy_93.

A Liberal Tea Party: Just a Dream?

From a branding standpoint, the Tea Party is a work of genius.

• It has a robust identity that's a mash-up of past history and present culture: the Boston Tea Party of 1773 and the anti-tax sentiment of today, with the acronym Taxed Enough Already?
• It can be instantly identified with a simple and logo-ready symbol, the tea bag.
• It began as a viral communication and developed a life of its own.

I don’t agree with it ideologically. But I’m in awe of it in terms of marketing and branding.

Will Van Jones’s American Dream Movement be the Tea Party movement that liberals have been waiting for? Time will tell, says this Washington Post blog post by Rachel Weiner.

Coffee Party was Weak Kool-Aid

Weiner mentions previous attempts such as the Coffee Party. This iteration didn’t work, in my opinion, because it defined itself in terms of the Tea Party. What exactly is a Coffee Party, anyway? What did it stand for? And can such a movement work when it’s billed as nonpartisan?

The Tea Party embraces its partisanship. I’ve been toying with names for a liberal Tea Party that embrace the terms that are used to deride and silence liberals:

• The Class Warrior Party
• The HellYeah Party (HellYeah we’re liberal. HellYeah we want living-wage jobs. HellYeah we believe in the healthcare public option.)
• The Second Revolution (HellYeah, we’re embracing the French for rising up in revolution.)

But if Van Jones wants to try the American Dream Movement, I'm game.

What It Needs to Succeed

Jones, a former White House environmental official, announced the American Dream Movement at Netroots Nation, an annual conference of progressive political activists. For any type of liberal Tea Party to succeed, it needs to have a life beyond the Internet, beyond the digitally savvy and financially comfortable and politically plugged in.

• People who aren’t political junkies but are recreational users, if even that.
• People who don’t know chapter and verse of Robert’s Rules of Order, or the minutiae of legislative procedure. All they know is they’re frustrated because they’re not being represented by their party.

Going Viral Among the Unplugged

In 2003, Democratic Presidential  candidate Howard Dean was slapped down for saying he wanted to be the candidate for guys with Confederate flags in their pickup trucks. In a clumsy way, he was talking about people who are disinterested in or disengaged from politics. People who don’t have smart phones or RSS feeds or even Internet service. A liberal Tea Party needs to have the momentum to migrate off the grid and go viral among the unplugged masses. The question is, how. Thoughts?

A Prepaid Smartphone Would Change the World

The guy at Radio Shack tried not to laugh when I asked if they had a prepaid smartphone. Not one with an annual contract, or even with a month-to-month contract like Verizon’s, but an honest-to-goodness pay-as-you-go smartphone. Where you buy a minutes card, load the minutes, use up the minutes, buy another card and get more minutes.

A pay-as-you-go smartphone would bridge the digital divide the way electricity brought rural America onto the power grid.

Remember the outrage over a man at a soup kitchen who used a cell phone to take pictures of Michelle Obama when the First Lady was serving food? The underlying message was, these people shouldn’t have this equipment. If they can afford a cell phone they don’t need a soup kitchen.

The fact is, cell phones are available for as little as ten dollars. The fact is, you need a phone to get job callbacks. A pay-as-you-go smartphone would cost more than ten dollars, obviously. But remember when the prices of DVD players dropped? Or home computers?  

Think of the number of times a day you use Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn to share information, establish connections, network in your field. Try to remember the last time you read the "help wanted" ads in a newspaper. Then think about people who have no or limited access to digital technology.

On the digital evolution scale, I'm evolved enough to have a digitally distinct rating, but not evolved enough to know how to embed the widget that tells the world about it. Still, I realize many people wish they were where I was. That’s why Monday I’m attending the Digital Inclusion seminar at The Humphrey Institute.

Expanding digital access enriches people's lives by opening them up to vital sources of information and opportunity. Expanding access also enriches the digital conversation by bringing in new ideas and perspectives. When the same people with the same ideologies share the same information, social networks can easily become echo chambers.

New media marketer Jeff Korhan recently blogged about the need to find uncharted social waters. Bringing rural America to the power grid was a foray into uncharted waters. Bridging the digital divide would be another. And a pay-as-you-go smartphone would be the vehicle that makes it happen.

Becoming a Social Media Hound

Owning a high-maintenance Weimaraner rescue puppy means time away from the computer, but not time away from the job.

While I walk Jerry, ideas that may not have made sense while staring at the computer screen suddenly come into clarity.

Social media is about engaging with people and keeping them coming back regularly to your space: Facebook page, Web site, Twitter account. Blogging is one way to do it. Another way is with lists. Author Brandon Lacy Campos has his  One-Liner of the Week Award.  Artist  David Berube  recently displayed a series of mail art cards on Facebook, each depicting a letter of the alphabet. Twenty-six cards, twenty-six reasons to come back and see what's next. Outgoing Minneapolis School Board member Chris Stewart featured a list of fifty best love songs on his Facebook page. People came back to see what was next, and to add their own ideas.

I've been pleasantly surprised at the outpouring of interest over Jerry, and have wondered if his own Facebook page could be in the future. For now, he can help me become a social media hound. There's no shortage of lists that a rescue Weimaraner with issues could inspire:

• The Things That Make Jerry Nervous

• Jerry's Daily Self-Esteem Journal, which chronicles the one small feat he accomplishes every day
   that helps him expand his comfort zone

• The Smelly Things Jerry Likes to Roll In

The other day I was at the computer and Jerry was at my side, nosing the mouse, causing the cursor to move on the screen. He was either saying "Let's go for a walk" or "You've been on long enough, it's my turn on the computer now."