I am a flexible fella. But, there are some lines I can’t cross:  Nikon vs Canon. This photo geek grudge runs deep. He may be a Canon Gangsta, but I’m a Nikon Ninja. Of course, there is one thing that could be worse. To find out, you’ll have to watch the video.

The kitchen door flew open with a smack. I bounded in, every watt of seventh grade enthusiasm burning bright. I couldn’t wait to tell mom my big news: I was signed up for the big annual talent show at school.

There was a catch: I had no demonstrable talent. Couldn’t dance. Didn’t have musical ability. Wasn’t athletic. What burned deep inside, though, was my 12-year old lifelong ambition of being a stand-up comedian.

Mom looked back at me with a veneer of loving support barely concealing her more seasoned sense of terror at what would happen when I stepped into the spotlight’s fire armed with nothing but jokes taken from the back of Boy’s Life.

“That’s terrific. What’s your gimmic?” she asked me. “Everybody’s gotta have a schtick, Charlie. What’s yours?”

Unbridled enthusiasm dragged me in a runaway gallop to my first lesson in marketing. Thankfully, the teacher was there. We worked for two weeks, amassing a five-minute set of jokes with a schtick I was born to wield.

Today is Barbara Lane’s 76th birthday. That schtick thing is just one of many lessons about business, marketing and life she’s taught me along the way. Everyone should be so blessed to have someone like her standing just off stage.

The night of the talent show, I  strode into the spotlight and stole show. My schtick? What else? Jokes about my mom, the woman with “so many candles on her cake it looked like a prairie fire.”

Happy birthday, mom. I can still hear your applause above all the rest.

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There could never be another Frank Sinatra. Since his early days with Dorsey through the Capitol years, his interpretive ownership and swaggering style have defined a sense of cool as timeless as these performances. There's an excellent salute to The Chairman on PowerLine well worth the read. And, while this has nothing to do with advertising, it has everything to do with the power of confident presentation.

His personal favorite signature song. (And, no, he's NOT lip-syncing–watch the end.)

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It is our choice to a be man. Randy Pausch, a man in every sense of the word, whose inspirational "last lecture" about living life to the fullest even while battling pancreatic cancer, died today today. He was 47.

ABC News first reported the story this morning. ABC’s Diane Sawyer anchored an hour-long special with Pausch in April, seven months after Pausch delivered that "last lecture" at Carnegie Mellon. The lecture has been viewed more than three million times on YouTube.

ABC is preparing a one-hour special to run this Tuesday. Clear time on your schedule to watch his last lecture. It will change how you live your life.

His courage and character are an example to every man blessed to be a father.