Surviving the Black Friday Pit of Excess

Black Friday, you were never a problem before. What are you trying to do to me? How did you get a hold of me like that? How did you bend me to your holiday commercialistic will? Make me want to buy a whole lot of stuff that I certainly didn’t want (32% off … what a bargain!) and definitely didn’t need.

Maybe it’s COVID-19 and being cooped up all the time. I’ve never been into the holiday shopping day-of-deals, which became more like a week this year. Never liked going to the stores to be crowded in among people, all scrapping and wrestling for bargains on flat screen TVs or cookware sets. Even before the coronavirus I was something of a social distancer, not to mention discount-shopping adverse.

But online? Well, that’s a different story. And I got a little bit by the bug this year it seemed. Suddenly there were things I needed, or more likely didn’t, marked down to ridiculous prices that I just couldn’t miss out on. I knew I couldn’t “miss out” because all Web posts and news stories told me. That I would be, in their words, a “damn fool” if I didn’t take advantage. That I better shop soon and hurry!

“Oh, OK. Well, if the Internet says so, I better getting spending!”

And I did.

Continue Reading

Hottest tips for 2019 summer traveling

As summer creeps up on us, and the thought of travelling looms, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking and researching on the best ways to use rewards points, best travel gadgets to waste money on and how to score luxury stuff for peasant prices. So, for your benefit, I’ve put it all together in my “Brian Thompson’s Get-Gone Guide to Summer Traveling:”

Best packing method: A lot has been made of travel cubes – mesh bags that allow you to look down on the rest of society who don’t know what travel cubes are – and new packing techniques, like the KonMari method of rolling everything like sushi. But I actually subscribe to the “big ball method” where you wad everything into a giant ball, jam it into your suitcase until the zipper pings across the room and ignore the wrinkles because most of the stuff you’ll never wear anyway.

Continue Reading

Life in a Nutshell wins Florida Press Club award for commentary writing

Brian Thompson’s column won first place in the Florida Press Club’s 2017 Excellence in Journalism Competition in a category for commentary writing. The Bradenton Herald and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel were the other winners in the category. This is the 8th award the column has won from the Press Club since 2000. Read the three columns submitted for the award: https://www.nutshellcity.com/the-lesson-from-hurricane-matthew/ https://www.nutshellcity.com/the-somewhat-flight-of-the-christmas-drone/ https://www.nutshellcity.com/a-family-river-rapid-down-memory-lane/

Continue Reading

Yes, that was me on WJCT in Jacksonville

WJCT, the NPR-affiliate in Jacksonville, Fla., played one of my award-winning columns and had me on for a brief interview on June 29. Didn’t sound too bad, if I do say so myself. (But radio is way more terrifying than typing words!) You can hear the piece here: http://news.wjct.org/post/first-coast-connect-humor-columnist-receives-national-award And here’s the full podcast with interview. I come on around the 45th minute: http://cpa.ds.npr.org/wjct/audio/2016/06/fcc20160629.mp3?origin=body

Continue Reading

Thompson wins award from National Society of Newspaper Columnists

My weekly column in The St. Augustine Record won a second place award for humor writing in the National Society of Newspaper Columnists’ 2016 Column Contest. The awards were handed out at NSNC’s 40th annual conference in Los Angeles on June 25, and I had to be there … just to make sure it was for real. Because I didn’t believe it until I could see it for myself. BUT IT WAS REAL!!! The award was in the humor category for print newspapers under 50,000 circulation, and it’s the first national award I’ve received for my column. The NSNC gave out more than 25 awards at its 2016 conference, and also recognized Pulitzer Prize winning-columnist Leonard Pitts Jr. and “Dear Abby” author Jeanne Phillips. Dang! Talk about good company. Read more about it: http://www.columnists.com/2016/06/2016-column-contest-winners-announced-in-los-angeles/ Check out the three award-winning columns here (and yes, one of them is a letter to a cat!): • A letter to Little Joe, the cat • A TRUE Disney dream come true • Light bulb insanity

Continue Reading

Thompson a finalist in NSNC Column Contest

I just learned my weekly column in The St. Augustine Record is one of three finalists in the National Society of Newspaper Columnists’ 2016 Column Contest. It is in the Humor Category for circulations under 50,000. Ain’t that sumthin’? I’ll learn what place I got in June. See kids: Writing really ridiculous stuff can pay off! Read the three award-winning columns here (boy, that sounded cool!): • A letter to Little Joe, the cat • A TRUE Disney dream come true • Light bulb insanity Learn more about the National Society of Newspaper Columnists at http://www.columnists.com/

Continue Reading