KATHRYN R. BIEL: AUTHOR

I am a marketer's dream. I come by it honestly. I inherited it from my parents. My mom likes to buy vacuums and cleaning implements (and has single handedly supported Shark). My dad is a serious junkie. I can't tell you how many infomercial products he's bought. His latest is an electric pressure cooker. He bought it while in the hospital. I guess there wasn't much on late night TV. In his defense, he does use it every week, and hasn't blown up anything yet. Frequently, my parents will mention a product advertised in an infomercial. And I have to tell them again  that I don't watch infomercials. Not because I don't have time, or because I'm above it. But because I'm susceptible. I will  become convinced, long before that 30 minutes is up, that I need  that product. I don't know what it is, I will need it. I am a marketer's dream. Years later, I will still associate songs with the product they represented. Commercials for food make me want...

The year was 1991. ( Please give me a moment while I sob uncontrollably that 1991 was 25 years ago. Holy crap, where did that go?). I was a freshman in high school with a big perm and a crush on a Sophomore. I was on a field trip to Boston with Math Club. We were in Quincy Market when I decided that I should probably get a birthday card for my dad, seeing as how it was his birthday and all. I'd already bought myself a Goofy watch at the Disney store. I remember going up to a small booth and spinning the rack of cards around. Then I saw it. The birthday card for my dad. This is what it looked like: Copyright Sandra Boynton. The card was a big hit. Like a really big hit. So much so that the next year, on that same trip to Boston, I found the same vendor in Quincy Market and bough another version of that birthday card. Best birthday card ever. Fast forward a dozen or so years, and I had my first child. My friend Amy gave me some board books for my shower. Included in that ...