Worst Corporate gift ever?

Anyone have a worst corporate gift story? At the moment, the leading contender is a cardboard cutout of a vendors mascot, with a front surface of dry erase material, with a non-working dry erase pen. Currently, the only one visible in our office, is sitting on a co-workers desk, with the writing bubble filled in with "worst corporate gift ever."
From the great gifts, Google had a nice one this year.
And, in the inexplicable category, a potential vendor sent a holiday card signed by two people I don't know, with a $10 gift card to Applebees. Which has no connection at all to their business...

Who is Cris Popenoe?

One of the downsides of having lots of connections on LinkedIn, is that every time someone joins a new social networking service, they tend to invite all their contacts. I've been invited to join "Spock" and "Blue Chip Experts" and a variety of others. The latest oddity is the mass holiday email. In general, it's a nice thought. However, I've gotten 5 holiday email cards from Cris Popenoe, who I don't really know. They're all from American Greetings, which keeps sending me reminders that I haven't opened them. And, it being holiday time, you hate to think of these forlorn ecards wasting away :(

UPDATE: I got a nice note from Cris. I had met Cris a long time ago, through Will Kreth, a Time Warner colleague. Cris had sent out one holiday greeting through American Greetings, and the rest is gremlins in the system. In a completely unrelated sign, it's clear this blog does well in natural search, since this blog is now the #3 result in "Google" searches for Cris's name

Network Magic coupon

If you're looking for a Network Magic coupon, try NMeasy. Saved 20%, with about 30 seconds of searching. At $720/hour, that's a pretty good rate for a quick Google search. :)

Holiday season

Posting's been very light, with the holiday season in full swing. In checking with Yahoo Site Explorer, perhaps you'd be interested in the most popular post in this sites history "Yours is a very bad hotel."

Starbucks - thanks, now get out

The Washington Post had an article about Starbucks booting some homeless people who liked to buy coffee and hang out. What's interesting is the changes they've made in the newly remodeled Starbucks near my house, clearly intended from an ergonomic standpoint to look great to people who just get their coffee and walk out, but to discourage anyone from lingering. In the picture to the left is what used to be a seating space with 4 or 5 standalone tables. Now, there's a section of high backed chairs with tabletops anchored in front. It looks nice, but it puts you at an uncomfortable angle leaning back - an awful angle, if you were going to type on a laptop. The other chairs are very uncomfortable after a few minutes... In the back, where there were originally comfy couches, they have a similar approach, with chairs that are now standalone, and lean back. I wonder if there's been a corporate directive of some sort, since the store was new enough that it didn't really need to be remodeled, to try and change the brand experience as people come through.