Some of these were contributed by folks who follow me @ICTCheap on Twitter, and others were told to me by various people since I’ve lived here.

Wichita, KS was first to rock the electric guitar http://wichitahistory.org/special_traveling_exhibits.asp

Topeka, KS changed its name to Google and Google changed its name to Topeka in 2010!

The Coleman Company, famous manufacturer of camping gear, is headquartered in Wichita, KS

The Coleman Lantern was introduced at a Fairmount College football game in 1905. http://ow.ly/32Wgo

And then of course there’s Greensburg, KS, the model “Green Town” http://ow.ly/32WmN

Brown v. Board of Education case from Topeka, KS ended legal segregation in public schools. http://ow.ly/32WcQ

Hutchinson, KS the location of the first #140conf#smalltowns event.

Also in Hutch, the salt mine has stored Hollywood films and props and costumes for years–long before it was The Kansas Underground Salt Museum

Pizza Hut was started in Wichita by two college students. (I believe they were WSU students, but I don’t know if the college was called WSU at the time.)

White Castle started in Wichita, KS

One of the first successful Civi Rights sit-ins was in July, 1958 in Wichita, KS http://ow.ly/32W7A

Cessna started in Wichita, KS And I believe Flight Safety here is still where pilots have to come for training…?

Norman No. 1  was the first oil well west of the Mississippi River to produce a commercial quantity. Nov. 28, 1892 http://www.kshs.org/portraits/norman_no_1.htm (Thanks @ditziwt)

Wichita is the world headquarters of Koch Industries (Thanks, @KSTaxMan)

You probably won’t be able to read it here since the thumbnail-size image makes the print pretty small, but you can find the article online in the Women’s Focus flipbook (p. 15 of the digital copy) or pick up a print copy of the September 2010 issue.

You can see three of the case studies online at Tomcat-Group.com/Case-Studies.html. Go ahead — take a peek. These folks are amazing at what they do.

To complete the case studies, I work with an outline of events provided to me at the beginning of the job. I drill down for further details by online research and communication with the CEO.

I worked with clients at enDevelopment to write this press release about the launch of CommonCents 3.0, personal budgeting software based on the envelope system. It was released today.

They used PRWeb to distribute the release and it seemed to work well. The package they chose allowed them to add this overview video of the budgeting software.

(I know it’s hanging over the edge of my theme. Sorry.)

http://www.youtube.com/v/oiYwqySmi_4&hl=en_US&fs=1&

So take this as it’s intended: a friendly reminder for those who already know it, and a quick lesson for anyone who was absent that day in English class.

A person is a “who” and a thing is a “that,” thus:

Wrong: The girl that wrote my marketing copy is fabulous.
Correct: The girl who wrote my marketing copy is fabulous.
Also correct: The writer who wrote my marketing copy is fabulous.

Easy-peasey. As a bonus, I’m going to throw in “which” for free:

Wrong: The writer, which wrote my fabulous marketing copy, is not uppity about grammar.
Correct: The writer, who … (Okay, you get it. )

Update: Like so many other hard-and-fast rules of grammar, this one isn’t hard or fast. See this post by the Grammar Girl, who shows how the who/that sits in a gray area. (But she’s on my side.)

It’s an “awareness” month. Can you guess from the title which one?

No Buts About It

But before you run off to report me to your English teacher or editor (tattle-tale), let me clarify:

I love cliches with the kind of affection people bestow upon puppies and kittens. And while puppies and kittens can be very effective persuaders, they don’t work for every audience or in every situation. I’m not saying you should necessarily use cliches (or puppies and kittens) in your writing.

My fondness for cliches is born of awe. Once, long ago, they weren’t cliches. They were original expressions that either by extreme brilliance or happy accident said something JUST RIGHT, and their meaning resonated with us. And we loved them so much, we adopted them.

Oh, I know. We get tired of hearing them, like the “new” jokes a first-grader brings home from school.

But that actually makes my point. Think, for a moment, about the chicken that crossed the road. It’s still delightful to any 7-year-old hearing it for the first time. So simple, and yet so exquisitely unexpected:

To get to the other side. To get to the other side!

So yes, in general, avoid cliches in your writing, but let’s not be smug. When was the last time you wrote something so good it was absorbed by humankind? The originators of these colorful expressions did what any writer wants to do: to give voice and structure to thought, to communicate and to connect, and to get to the other side.

Then he does it. Actually, he leaves religious groups alone. His message to WAHMs is simple: it’s bad business to market yourself as a WAHM unless your prospective clients are other WAHMs. According to Stratten, the WAHM label may carry with it a negative connotation. At best, it is irrelevant to whether you can do the job for your prospective clients.

I suspect his intention with the post is to raise the ire (and gain the notice) of those who proudly embrace the moniker. And just so I’m not a total cynic, I’ll allow that he may truly want to do some good by warning mothers away from using a term that will diminish their marketing efforts.

Choose your words wisely and with intent. If your prospects value the WAHM title, use it. If they don’t, don’t. On the other hand, I don’t advocate trying to hide it. If you set up your website so that you appear to be a large agency in a high-rise office building, the first scream of “Mommy, I pooped!” while you’re on the phone with a client is going to give you away. And if I was the client, I would immediately feel uncertain about your honesty.

That doesn’t mean, however, that you have to advertise your WAHM status with cute buttons and links to coupon sites. In that, I completely agree with Stratten. A link to your “mommy blog” might be perfectly appropriate; it depends–as does everything else in your promotional materials–on whether it’s relevant to your market.

But take note: When huge companies like Wal-Mart and Frito-Lay enlist the services of moms because they are moms, it doesn’t do to dismiss out-of-hand the possible added value of your WAHM status.

The year 2009 is as exciting as a blank page. What will you write on it?

I have some ideas for how I want to write my story this year.