Its not often I feel compelled to "pile on" a statment made by Cory Doctorow (Usually he says what says directly) but I think he missed the larger point on this recent Boing-Boing post. He didn't bring out the personal issue, I think. He made a comment on the larger, social issue, but he didn't and call the author of the article a douchebag. This is I service I am only too happy to provide.

In his Chicago Sun-Times column, Terry Savage boorishly tells a tale of how he saw some little kids giving away lemonade, so he and his brother stopped and harassed those kids about the economic and socetal implications of "free leomonade." What a Douchebag!

Here's the scary part: There are people in the world who feel they have some moral obligation to pull over and harange someone elses' kids with their political/economic agenda. And, worse, is that there are people in the world who feel they can serve the world by bragging about pulling over and harrasing some little kids with their political/economic agenda.

This, friends, is why newspapers and old media are dying. These are the kinds of assholes who write for them. Shame on you, Terry Savage, author of the Chicago Sun-Times column wherein the story is told. I hope that next time someone offers you a free cup of Lemonade on a hot day, you do the right thing and say thank you.

There is nothing wrong with sharing something for the sake of sharing it-- in fact, it's outright heroic.

I was very excited to receive a bulging package in today’s mail from some kind of promotion. I always love bulging packages because a free pen or piece of wacky swag is always a welcome diversion for the day. I mean, since the Big Pharma decided that idiot doctors are too easily influenced by free pens, swag pens are harder to come by around these parts.
So, imagine my disapointment when, upon stripping the envelope off the package, I discover a measly pack of Smarties hot-glued to a card. Lame!

Showing this packet around to my colleagues was met with mixed reaction. One colleague said: "Smarties? I'm not in 2nd Grade!" Another said: "Sweet. Smarties!" and ate them.
But here's the thing: None of us are going to book a conference in Chicago because of the Smarties and the card they were attached to is already thrown in the garbage. At least a free pen keeps your logo and name on my desk for a few weeks.

Post Script:Perhaps you think that they were gambling on the fact that I would blog about the promotion and therefor provide some of that magical Social Media(tm) viral marketing stuff that all the kids are peddaling these days? Perhaps you are an idiot. Those two sentences do not nesessarily need to be related, but I suspect they are.