Reading about the IRS squeezing conservative and tea party groups and advocates, as well as the U.S. attorney general’s office snooping into AP emails, got me thinking that anyone who blindly follows the dogma of either political party in this country is part of the larger problem. This is not a reality show. This is not Survivor. It’s our nation and it deserves better than either party.

This article sent to me by my friend and colleague Phil McHugh got me thinking. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? After 25 years in this business, I’m generally and thrillingly confused.

Listening to the radio while driving with friends got me thinking: Does anyone really need to hear another Steve Miller Band, Whitesnake, Poison or Warrant song ever again?

Just got around to watching the final episode of Homeland season 2. The moment when Brody and Carrie have to face life without one another was striking. The line that Brody said – “You gave it up to me” – was so unusual in its phrasing that it got me thinking. Giving yourself is so different from loving. And I loved Carrie’s belated answer, as though she understood just that. “Completely.”

Watching Peggy on the Mad Men opener rip a young creative team about what an execution is versus a new idea got me thinking. Her take was both refreshing and frustrating. She nailed the essence of what young creatives don’t get. But still, some 40 or 50 years on, despite the proliferation of ad schools that are supposedly teaching these kids, most of them still don’t get it. Just laying it out on a tablet does not make it a new idea. It’s just another execution that will never get executed.