Businesses always need money. I don't have to tell you that.

But, maybe I should.

When the economy is booming, businesses need money to expand: to purchase new equipment, increase inventory, to expand or explore new opportunities. When everyone is lending, businesses need help figuring out the right kind of capital to borrow and the least expensive way to do so.

When the economy is sluggish, businesses need money to stay afloat: to make payroll and to purchase inventory. When the banks tighten their belts and stop making loans, businesses need help locating and negotiating for capital.

In either case, businesses need someone to broker loans for them. Just as you always want a lawyer representing you before a judge, and an accountant representing you before the IRS, you need a expert to to help define your lending needs and to make sure you get the best loan regardless of the current economic conditions.

Today, in late 2014, the majority of banks are not lending. And of those that are, they are only accepting about 10% of applications. 90% of businesses that need capital must go elsewhere. Where do they go? The average business person has no idea where to turn when their bank turns down their loan. That "elsewhere," it turns out, is what's called a commercial finance consultant. (Commercial finance consultants are also known as "diversified loan brokers." The terms are synonymous.)

Commercial finance consultants don't just simply connect lenders with bank loans. Instead, they work with many different types of financing products. Just as a business's needs change depending on the macroeconomic conditions, and on their own requirements specifically, commercial finance consultants offer a diverse set of financing options. Some financing products are readily available in good economic times, and are next to impossible to procure in down markets. Other types of loans do better when the economy is in a recession. Whatever the economic conditions, and the specific requirements of a business, a commercial financial consultant can help find the right type of financing.

Diversified loan brokers receive a commission on every loan they close, and thus make money when the economy is good, and when the economy is bad. In either situation, the demand for their service is always strong.

But better than the commissions, is the knowledge that without their services, capital, the lifeblood of every business, would disappear, and many businesses would ultimately fail.

If commercial loan brokering sounds interesting to you, you'll need to figure out how to start. You can't just hang up your shingle and call yourself a commercial capital consultant. First, you'll need to find businesses in need of capital. Yes, every business needs money, but they'll don't all take out full page ads in the newspaper to say so. And, once you do, you'll have to take on the even more difficult challenge of finding lenders to work with. You'll need to figure out all of the various types of financial products to offer. And, when you do, you'll discover that you have no track record. They'll be hesitant to do business you.

There is a company, though, that solves this problem rather neatly. Commercial Capital Training Group has created a way for people without any prior experience in the finance industry to easily walk right into the business. They provide an intensive seven day course designed train you, from beginning to end, on the how to connect businesses with capital. In addition, they will personally introduce you to, and approve you, with more than forty lenders who will start processing loans for you immediately.

Following the course, Commercial Capital Training Group will provide you with one-on-one support, seven days per week, to answer any questions, or to advise you how to proceed with any specific loan product you might be brokering.

About Commercial Capital Training Group

Commercial Capital Training Group was founded in 2009 by veteran New York financier Kris Roglieri. The success of his commercial loan company, Prime Commercial Lending, had caught the industry's attention, and for a time Roglieri was employed by several financing companies to train their staffs on the many alternative financing options and products available.

It was obvious to Roglieri that his training service was in demand, and he soon realized just how useful his training was. His big breakthrough, he said, was realizing that while business owners are good at running their business, they often lack the knowledge to find the right capital solution for it. "Most businesses don't know where to go for capital after their bank says no," he said.

Roglieri reviewed the various "loan broker training" options available at the time, and found that they mostly consisted of videotaped lessons. He realized that they weren't adequately preparing new loan brokers for the business. Not only were the other training programs not teaching their students enough about a wide range of funding options, they were also teaching what Roglieri calls bad broker etiquette. 1

Roglieri realized that he could make more money and help more businesses if he offered this same training to individuals. So, in 2009, he founded Commercial Capital Training Group, and in the last six years, Roglieri and his team have empowered hundreds of graduates to be truly independent and to succeed in an industry that allows for an almost unlimited income.

About the Training

Commercial Capital Training Group is not a franchise. It is an intensive training program that can take entrepreneurs from all walks of life, and build them into commercial loan brokers in just seven days. You don't need any experience in the financial industry. You can literally walk in knowing nothing, and come out the other side ready, and able, to broker business financing. Individuals with finance or real estate backgrounds, who are already in the business, can also utilize the educational program to expand their skill sets and product offerings with more alternative financing options.

CCTG's training costs $23,000 for the seven day program2. Kris Roglieri puts his expertise and experience to good use, and does all of the training himself. After working through the course materials, students will role-play, engage with case studies and have time to test out their understanding of the concepts taught in an interactive setting. CCTG also brings in forty-eight lenders to make presentations on their lending products in person3. Students are able to ask questions and really connect with the lenders. Following the course, the students are immediately able to broker deals, because CCTG's course also introduces the students to the lenders, who following the students' graduation, have agreed to waive any "length of time in business" requirements they might normally have. In a sense, students taking the CCTG course are partnering with Roglieri's reputation.

CCTG, by way of their partner businesses Commercial Capital Marketing Group and Finance Marketing Group also provide the graduate with marketing and advertising support for two years after the completion of the course. This support comes in the form of web and print marketing help, email/social media, content marketing and lead generation.

Even though CCTG is not a franchise, they do provide continuing and ongoing support seven days a week. If a student ever needs help to analyze a transaction, CCTG's dedicated support staff is available seven days per week to answer their questions and to put their expertise to work for their graduates.

Money

Graduates of Commercial Capital Training Group will keep all of the commissions generated from any financial transactions they broker. CCTG takes no cut, and receives no royalties or kickbacks from the lender, or from the graduate. Commissions of 1-3% of the total value of the loan are very common in the business. Roglieri really stressed to me, that commercial loan brokering is not a get rich quick scheme. Graduates will have to really work to succeed at this business. They do have to put in the time, and do the work, but if they do, there's really no cap to the amount of money that they can earn. They can reap the fruits of their own labors.

Also, CCTG is not a fly by night operation. They've been in business training entrepreneurs from across the country for six years, and they will continue until there's no more need for business capital. In other words: forever.

CCTG is creating a network of independent commercial financial consultants, not a dependent team. After completing their course, graduates are able to work wherever and whenever they want. Being a commercial loan broker doesn't even require an office. Many of the graduates work from home with only a computer, an Internet connection and a telephone. It is very, very rare to ever meet clients in person. Almost all of the business is conducted via the telephone and the Internet.

Because of the large number of financial products, and the nearly infinite number of businesses who need capital, the market for the graduates is enormous. The business is also not based on your geography. If you live in the middle of nowhere, you can broker deals originating in Manhattan. If you live in Florida, you can broker deals in California. In fact, Roglieri explained to me that the highest concentration of CCTG graduates is in the state of Texas. But, even those graduates, to the best of his knowledge, have never competed for the same customer, or the same loan.

Again, this is not a get rich quick scheme. You can get rich, and hypothetically, you could do it quickly, but Commercial Capital Training Group is no scheme. They are accredited with the BBB, made the Inc. 500 list this year, and practice what they preach in their excellent, and all encompassing customer service.

Concluding Thoughts

• When the economy is up, demand for capital is up.
• When the economy is down, demand for capital is up.

In either economic condition, businesses need money.

• When the economy is up, there are financial products that do well, and are easy to obtain. The challenge is to get the best deal.
• When the economy is down, the financial products that worked when the economy was up don't work anymore. Instead, the economic conditions make available different products more available. The challenge is to get the right deal.

In other words, the business is the always the same, only the financial products available are different.

Sure, you could specialize in one financial product, but we know how well that worked for mortgage brokers when the real estate market crashed. Or, you could take Commercial Capital Training Group's course and expand your opportunities by taking on a wide assortment of financial products and services that will allow you to evolve and ride out the markets, whether up or down.

Commercial Capital Training Group's business model is recession proof, and their training covers the business from the beginning to end. If you take their course, Kris Roglieri will personally transfer everything he knows about commercial capital brokering into you. And with their arrangement with the lenders, you'll be able to make money almost immediately.

I recently had the opportunity to speak with Larry "Lo-Lo" White, the founder and namesake of Lo-Lo's Chicken & Waffles, a soul-food casual dining restaurant that is now offering a franchise.

My questions are below in bold. Enjoy.

Where did the idea for Lo-Lo's Chicken & Waffles come from?

Lo-Lo: The Lo-Lo's Chicken & Waffles concept started in 1997 when I perfected my fried chicken recipe in the back of my grandmother's restaurant and opened my first location in Phoenix, Ariz.

How did you bring it to life?

Lo-Lo: Through hard work and determination. I had a plan, and I executed it in a way that would resonate well with my customers.

Where do you see Lo-Lo's in five years?

Lo-Lo: I would like to see Lo-Lo's in different cities across the country; we want to bring our soul food to consumers nationwide!

If you were to start again, what would you do differently?

Lo-Lo: Nothing. I feel like all of the trials and tribulations we went through gave character and meaning to the brand we created.

What does your typical day look like?

Lo-Lo: My day starts by seeing my daughters off to school, followed by manager meetings, a morning visit to the Scottsdale location and to Phoenix by lunchtime. Then, of course, I am ready to deal with whatever comes my way.

What's one trend that really excites you?

Lo-Lo: The trend of social media. Seeing our presence grow on social media with all the postings and messages we get on our platforms is truly amazing and is helping to spread the word about Lo-Lo's.

What was the worst job you ever had and what did you learn from it?

Lo-Lo: The grunt work when I was working at Mrs. Whites Golden Rule Cafe. But it helped to teach me what hard work was all about, which has benefited me in my venture with Lo-Lo's Chicken & Waffles.

As an entrepreneur, what is the one thing you do over and over and recommend everyone else do, too?

Lo-Lo: Staying hands on, knowing your brand and supporting your employees.

What is one failure you had as an entrepreneur, and how did you overcome it?

Lo-Lo: Hiring friends and family. You have to learn how to separate the two. I've made hiring mistakes in the past, and I've learned that there needs to be a distinction between business and pleasure when it comes to managing employees, especially when they are friends and family.

What is one business idea that you're willing to give away to our readers?

Lo-Lo: Consistency is everything!! It emphasizes the knowledge, quality and structure of brand that's on the path to success.

If you could change one thing in the world, what would it be and how would you go about it?

Lo-Lo: I would create world peace over a plate of chicken and waffles and a glass of Kool-Aid.

What are your three favorite online tools or resources and what do you love about them?

Lo-Lo: I'm a hands-on guy; I use technology where I have to but I like to pick up the phone and communicate. I still carry a BlackBerry!

What is the one book that you recommend our community should read and why?

Lo-Lo: The New Gold Standard: 5 Leadership Principles for Creating a Legendary Customer Experience Courtesy of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company. It emphasizes the idea of “the answer is yes, now what is the question” and the importance of refined guest service.

Three people we should follow on Twitter and why?

Lo-Lo's Chicken & Waffles follows a handful of great Twitter personalities, but if I had to recommend three, I would say @LarryFitzgerald, @VisitPhoenix, and @ChefEmanuel.

Larry Fitzgerald is a class act athlete and represents Arizona in such an honorable way. Visit Phoenix does a great job of showcasing all of the great things the city has to offer. And Chef Emanuel is a great soul food chef, so naturally; the Lo-Lo's family loves him!

When was the last time you laughed out loud? What caused it?

Just the other day. My daughters always have me laughing out loud. I never know what they are going to say.

Who is your hero?

Muhammad Ali

Do you (or did you ever) have a mentor?

My grandmother.

Tell us a secret.

The recipe for our secret seasoning is so secret; my wife doesn't even know it!

What's your website where people can find out more about Lo-Lo's Chicken & Waffles?

How about you personally?

Our Founder – Larry Lo-Lo White

Where can people find Lo-Lo's on social media?

When the Harlem Shake destroyed the internet in early 2014, it had nothing to do with the "hive mind" of the internet. It wasn't an uncoordinated meme that accidentally went viral. It was content marketing.

Read more on Medium.

• Fundamentals of Success: 6 Components of Capital 2013, Topiwala
• Culturematic: How Reality TV, John Cheever, a Pie Lab, Julia Child, Fantasy Football … Will Help You Create and Execute Breakthrough Ideas 2012, McCracken
• Creativity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship 2012, Santhi
• Small Business Marketing Kit For Dummies 2012, Schenck
• High Performance Companies: Successful Strategies from the World’s Top Achievers 2011, Pangarkar
• Become a Franchise Owner! 2011, Libava
• 2011 Social Media Directory: The Ultimate Guide to Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn Resources 2010, Riley
• Web Analytics: An Hour a Day 2009, Kaushik
• What If? and Why Not? 2009, Groover
• Blog Blazers 2008, Grenier
• The 2009 Internet Directory: Web 2.0 Edition Paperback 2008, Averello, Belicove, Conner, Crew
• Franchising for Dummies 2007, Seid
• Micro-Entrepreneurship for Dummies 2007, Mladjenovic
• Blogging Quick & Easy: A Planned Approach to Blogging Success Perfect Paperback 2007, Masters
• Clear Blogging: How People Blogging Are Changing the World and How You Can Join Them Paperback 2007, Walsh
• Six Disciplines for Excellence: Building Small Businesses That Learn, Lead and Last 2007, Harpst

Nothing says Thanksgiving quite like a pecan pie. Sure, the turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce are important, and apple and pumpkin pies are more widely made and eaten, but pecan pie, with its sweet nuttiness, is the perfect Thanksgiving dessert.

The pie is overly sweet, contains both a crunch, and gooey center, and contains nearly as many calories per slice as an entire plate mounded high with turkey and all the fixings. It's an over-the-top end, to an over-the-top meal.

In other words, it's heaven.

Consisting almost entirely of one ingredient (and I don't mean the pecans), the pie seems like it was almost made to be marketed as candy with a crust. And the truth is, that's not too far from the truth.

Because for whatever else it is, pecan pie is also a content marketing masterpiece.

And I'm going to prove it to you.

To really understand how pecan pie came about, we have to go back to the beginning. Not to to the first Thanksgiving, when the Pilgrims in their funny hats and buckled shoes shared in the bounty of the friendly American indians, but back to the early days of the sugar refining business.

Sugar!

Americans have always loved their sweets, but they weren't always cheap.

Historically, the primary sweetener in North America was maple syrup, the sap of the sugar maple tree. Native Americans had long been collecting and consuming maple syrup. As much as 12% of the diet of some northeastern tribes was what they called "tree water." The Native Americans caught the sap from the tree in hollowed or carved-out logs and cooked it by dropping hot rocks into the collected sap. Early European settlers learned from the natives how to collect the sap, and improved on the refining process. By 1800, Americans consumed 18 pounds of sugar per year, the bulk of which was maple syrup and its derivatives.

Refined cane sugar and molasses were also available domestically, but the fact that they were produced from sugar cane, which only grew in the subtropical latitudes of the Caribbean Sea, and had be processed on-site, made it more expensive to import during the age of the sailing ship.

By the late 1800s, though, the status of maple syrup and cane sugar had switched. By this time, lumber harvesting had decimated the trees, and less than 20% of the northeastern United States was still forested. The steam ship dramatically reduced transportation costs, and processed cane sugar because proportionately cheaper and more widely available. Effectively by the end of the century, cane sugar had become the commodity sweetener and maple syrup had become the luxury item, something only to be used once a week on a pile of steaming pancakes.

By 1900, the average American consumed, 90 pounds of sugar, primarily from cane sugar.

With this century-long rapid increase in demand for sweets, other innovations followed.

Just before the American Civil War, a process was created to extract corn starch from the corn kernel. These starches were primarily used in the starching of clothing in the laundry business, but immediately following the war, in 1866, it was discovered that dextrose sugar could be further extracted from the corn starch. Within about a decade, the process was more or less perfected, and corn sugar, also known as corn syrup, became available for purchase.

Although corn syrup was easy to make, and in some areas of the country very inexpensive, it was sold in large barrels to retailers who'd refill customers' jugs with a ladle.

The messy process wasn't ideal, and in 1902, the Corn Products Refining Co. of New York and Chicago, created and began selling Karo Syrup, the first corn syrup packaged in a small container specifically for use at home.

So what's all this have to do with the pecan pie? Although most people assume that the pie has it's origins in the colonial period, because, after all, how difficult could it have been to collect the pecans that fall off the trees and ripen in the fall, and then mix them into a molasses or maple syrup sauce and bake it, it turns out that no written recipes can be found for the pecan pie that date to before 1930. And to understand why, we have to look at how corn syrup, and especially Karo Syrup was marketed in the early 20th century.

Karo Syrup and Their Content Marketing

At first, Karo Syrup was sold as a wonder food. A 1903 advertisement in The Pittsburgh Press reads:

"As a food product, corn heads the list of grains in nutritive elements necessary to human sustenance. The process of extracting and retaining these valuable food properties have made KARO CORN SYRUP "The Great Spread for Daily Bread." A golden syrup so good, pure and wholesome that infant, invalid or dyspeptic can eat it with safety. It's a table delight for morning, noon or night. Coaxes the appetite and makes you eat. Sold at grocers, 10c, 25c and 50c tins."

A dyspeptic person is one who is suffering from indigestion, and consequent irritability and depression. So, in other words, Karo Syrup was originally advertised as a cure for depression.

In the early 20th century, there were no federal laws that regulated the contents and sale of food and pharmaceuticals. Instead, a patchwork of various state laws provided varying degrees of protection against unethical sales practices. But, in 1906, under President Theodore Roosevelt, the Food and Drug Act was signed into law.

The Act prohibited, under penalty of seizure of goods, the interstate transport of food which had been "adulterated or misbranded." According to the Act, adulterated referred to the addition of fillers of reduced "quality or strength," coloring to conceal "damage or inferiority," formulation with additives "injurious to health," or the use of "filthy, decomposed, or putrid" substances. Another law in 1912 added "false and fraudulent" claims of "curative or therapeutic effect" to the Act's definition of "misbranded."

Overnight, the makers of Karo Syrup could not longer market and sell their syrup as a wonder elixir designed to cure hunger and end depression. A new strategy had to be developed.

In 1910, the Corn Products Refining Company launched an enormous, $250,000 ($6.5 million today), advertising campaign to create national awareness and demand for Karo brand corn syrups.

As part of this campaign, the first Karo Cook Book was published. Compiled and written by Emma Churchman Hewitt, former associate editor of the Ladies Home Journal, this 50 page booklet contained more than 150 recipes, most of which contained Karo Syrup, including asparagus soup. The book even cautioned that "to prevent Karo Syrup from burning, drop in three of four stone marbles. The heat will keep these constantly on the move and will not only prevent the burning but will do most of the stirring."

Surprisingly, pecan pie was not one of the recipes compiled in the first Karo Cook Book. For that, we have to wait until 1930, when according to ACH Food Companies, Inc., the current owner of Karo Syrup, "the wife of a corporate sales executive discovered a new use for corn syrup. A mixture of corn syrup, sugar, eggs, vanilla and pecans baked in a pie shell produced the now classic Pecan Pie. Down South, today, that same recipe continues to be called Karo Pie."

At the time, most newspapers published weekly "favorite recipe" columns, where female readers would send in their favorite recipes for publication, and other readers would clip them and add them to their recipe books. In a sense, these newspaper columns were the blogs and Facebook of the early 20th century.

Almost overnight, the pecan pie began to dominate these newspaper columns, especially in the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving and Christmas.

A 1931 recipe for "Karo Pecan Pie" from the Sallisaw, Oklahoma Democrat-America, called for "3 eggs, 1 cup Karo (blue label), 4 tablespoons corn meal, 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 cup chopped pecans or less if desired, 2 tablespoons melted butter, pastry."

Another, from 1938, called the "White House Pecan Pie" also specifically called for 1 cup of dark Karo Syrup.

This "grassroots advertising campaign" must have worked, because Karo began incorporating the recipe advice columns directly into their market budget in the 1940s.

A sponsored content column in the Big Spring Daily Herald, published in 1941, called "Surprise the Folks with Karo Pecan Pie Tonight…it's wonderful!" described how to bake this "Texas favorite" with "1 cup of Karo (Blue Label)."

Another paid placement in 1942 described the pecan pie this way: "I have nibbled at the Utterly Deadly Southern Pecan Pie, and have served it to those in whose welfare I took no interest, but being included to plumpness, and having as well a desire to see out my days on earth, I have never eaten a full portion."

By the late 1940s, when the many of the people who'd remember the 19th had died off, Karo was no longer a sold as a therapeutic syrup, but instead the inexpensive and nutrition-less corn syrup was marketed as the basis for a decadent desert reminiscent of the antebellum pre-Civil War South.

Following World War Two, in 1949, Karo Syrup published a new cookbook, called Karo Kookery, which prominently featured the pecan pie as delicacy of the American diet. Karo also began printing the recipe for the pie directly on the bottle of syrup.

The Abraham Lincoln Connection

Spurred in large part by Walt Disney and television in the 1950s, America began to look back, romantically, at their past. And there was no historical figure that Walt Disney, and America, loved more than Abraham Lincoln.

Abraham Lincoln was America's first President to be assassinated in office, having been tragically shot in Ford's Theater in Washington D.C. in April 1865, while watching a play from his private box. Over the years, his story left an impression on countless people including Walt Disney. Walt Disney admired Lincoln greatly, so much so that when Walt was asked to develop attractions for the New York World's Fair in 1964, he created an animatronic Lincoln to deliver inspiring words. When the fair ended it's run, the robot Lincoln was taken to Disneyland and set up in the Opera House to continue his speech for ever.

In the buildup to the hundredth anniversary of his death in 1965, America could be said to have Lincoln-mania. It wasn't just television and Disneyland that cashed in on this: dozens of new biographies were written, as were more than a few cookbooks of the former President's favorite dishes.

More than one cookbook relayed that Lincoln's favorite dessert was a pecan pie that he supposedly ordered, by wagon-load, from The Excelsior Pie and Cake Bakery in Washington, D.C. The included recipes almost always consisted of the standard Karo Syrup recipe, with or without a little include molasses for a some added historical character.

Let me remind you, again, that Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in 1865, and that the process for extracting dextrose from corn starch wasn't invented until in 1866 — one year after his death, and that there are no written recipes for pecan pie dating to before 1930.

Today, pecan pie is a traditional pie enjoyed by at least 25% of the population of the United States on Thanksgiving. It is, truth be told, my favorite pie. But there's nothing traditional about it, unless your definition of traditional only goes back two, or maybe three, generations and is based on the content marketing of one specific company.

Content Marketing Lessons from Pecan Pie

So, what can we learn from Karo Syrup's content marketing? I see six lessons that you can use.

1. Don't Just Sell a Product, Tell a Story. Karo's brilliant "discovery" of the pecan pie recipe in 1930 undoubtedly saved the company from financial ruin. Without the pie, there'd be nothing to talk about. This article about Karo wouldn't exist. And most importantly, there'd be no bottle of Karo Syrup on my counter.

2. Get your customers to spread the word for you. Karo Syrup's success, in large part, was based on the recipes it's customers sent into their local newspapers. Sharing information in newspaper columns, and clipping out other columns was one of the primary methods of sharing content in the early 20th century. Whatever method is popular today, get your customers to frame your story such that your customers will spread it themselves.

3. Add Perceived Value Ounce for ounce, the cost of making Karo Syrup can't be very high. Consequently, it should probably be priced at, or below, the cost of sugar. But, by connecting it with something decadent and delicious it suddenly gains status, and has, by extension, a perceived higher value. This equates directly to higher prices.

4. Challenge Conventions to Expand Your Market I'm sort of a health-food nut, and I'd almost be embarrassed to buy a bottle of Karo Syrup. What if someone saw me, and saw it my shopping cart? But include a carton of eggs, a bag of sugar, a bottle of vanilla, and a stick of butter, and I don't have anything to be ashamed of. I have the makings of a pecan pie!

5. Package Your Product in Some Excellent Content I would eat almost anything else, before I'd gulp down a bottle of Karo Syrup. But, place a pecan pie and fork in front of me, and I'll eat the whole bottle!

6. Nobody Cares About You, They Care About What They Love Nobody loves Karo Syrup. I'd bet that in spite of their 1903 advertising, no one spreads Karo Syrup on their toast in the morning. No one gives Karo Syrup to their babies and grandmothers when they won't eat. Nobody cares about Karo Syrup and what the company said. They care about pecan pie. Nevermind that Karo Syrup and pecan pie are one in the same.

If you’ve ever played Tetris (or any video game, really) for long periods of time, you’ve probably discovered that afterwards, as you’re drifting off to sleep, the imagery from the game dominates your imagination. This phenomenon been termed the “Tetris effect” by scientists who study such things (and make up fun sounding names for their discoveries so that they’ll be mentioned by the morning talk shows.)

Tetris actually seems to change the way the brain works, and how memories are created and stored. In one study on the phenomenon, volunteers were shown a traumatic video full of graphic imagery of real blood and guts. (Think of the drivers’ ed scare films you might have seen as a teen, or in traffic school, only with more gore, and more real blood.)

Afterwards, half the volunteers were allowed to play Tetris for 30 minutes, while the other half were forced to stay in their seats and do nothing.

Later, the subjects recorded the number of “flashbacks” they experienced over the following week. The volunteers who’d played Tetris reported significantly fewer than the control group, while the control group had so many bad dreams that they regretted signing up for the study.

So, the next time your spouse is mad at you for doing something stupid, recommend that they play Tetris for half and hour. (And then duck!)

I haven’t been playing Tetris, but I have been cutting tomatoes. When I close my eyes, I see tomatoes.

All is not well in the Carlson household today.

Last night, the dogs cornered a skunk outside our bedroom door.

At midnight, the telltale odor of the disturbed creature, and the bark of the dogs, alerted us from our slumber that all was not calm outside. After sleep walking through the process of shutting all of the windows, I was able to drift back to sleep, content in the knowledge that our fortress of wood, stucco and fiberglass would hold up to whatever artillery barrage the animal could deliver, confident in the tactics of our canine infantry to drive him off.

But, with a crash we came awake at 2 AM! Chairs and all manner of outdoor patio paraphernalia were tossed and clobbered. The battle was no longer out there, in some unknowable distant darkness, but immediately outside of our bedroom. Groggy still, I flipped on the light, and pulled back the curtains.

The creature was right outside our door – with it’s tail raised and it’s glands exposed right against the window! I screamed like a girl. Angie did too, but she could be excused on account of her gender.

Our house came alive like a firehouse full of untrained recruits during their first three alarm fire. Thankfully after much coaxing and screaming, I was able to command the dogs (through the living room window) to move away from the animal. No matter how much their nature might have wanted to bark and give chase, their domesticity cried out for someone to take control and relieve them of the torment of the noxious assaults to their noses, and the blindings to their eyes.

The immature little skunk found himself “trapped” between a sliding glass door, two chairs, and a pair of Franklin’s swim trunks. He was repeatedly startled by his own reflection in the glass, and the chairs, though still spaced far enough apart that he could have departed in a march, continuously brushed against his tail and turned him back. The swim trunks, well, their gaudy designed both frightened and enticed him enough that he dared not approach them too closely, and yet they continued to beckon to him in a way that only an adolescent would understand.

After an hour of trying our best to convince him that rationally it was in his best interest to depart, we were rewarded with only a skunk stained slider and the lingering smell of insanity in our mouthes. The glass door obviously muffled the logic of our arguments.

Thankfully, Franklin was on an overnight visit with his grandmother, and so we (Angie, Emerson, Greyson and I) made a cautious retreat and fell down together into the three boys’ beds. Lumpy, cold and narrow, they allowed us a fitful sleep, and by morning, the creature had departed into the dawn’s early light. Was it real, we asked? The camera showed only a white stripe in the darkness, but the lingering taste in our mouthes, and smell on everything, convinced us that it was, and that we had lost the battle.

If only there wasn’t a week’s harvest of tomatoes ripening in the kitchen. Would they go to salsa, or to the bathtub?

Reuters: "Gold futures traded above $425 an ounce for the first time in more than 15 years in New York Monday, extending its watershed rally on the first trading day of 2004 as investors continued to diversify out of the beleagured dollar."

Happy New Year!

I'm going to be taking a break from this weblog through the end of 2003. If you get bored without me between now and then, I'll still be posting daily to:

• Diet Blog (RSS)
• My bookmarks (RSS)