Guarding Tess starring Nicholas Cage and Shirley MacLaine Secret Service agents are inherently funny. This fact is the saving grace of "Guarding Tess." The basic premise is mindlessly simple: Special Agent Doug Chesnic (Nicholas Cage) guards eccentric former First Lady Tess Carlisle (Shirley MacLaine). Doug dreams of someday being in the line of fire, but dutifully performs "the worst job in the Secret Service" because the President wants him to. You have already seen the best parts of the...

Walk down many a suburban street at this time of year and you will see trees stuffed with ripe fruit - much of which will simply rot and go to waste. But would you let a stranger into your garden to do the picking? The season of mists and mellow fruitfulness seems particularly fruitful this year. Fat red apples hang heavy in private gardens. Roadside verges sparkle with the ruby glow of ripening berries. Nature's bounty is everywhere to see, from countryside tracks to the wilder corners of...

A customer will touch a company in many different ways before a deal is made. Before you rent your first ZipCar, you'll have talked to friends about it, checked ZipCar's website (and comparison websites), and maybe even called the company. From ZipCar's perspective, all of these touchpoints are important because if you hear bad reports or find the website and call center hard to manage, you'll very likely opt for the safe option of a Hertz or an Avis. Unfortunately, few companies have an...

As part of its series of Third Sector Future Dialogues, the Third Sector Research Centre (TSRC) recently published a discussion paper on the ‘specialness’ of charities. What exactly is it that makes charities special, it asked, and how should we measure what the sector does. It was a well-timed intervention. Charities have been wrestling with the need to better measure what they do, and what impact it has, for a number of years. And more recently still, critics have been suggesting that what...

Last night was a good night. I slept for a solid eight hours, can barely remember waking in the night, and woke up this morning feeling refreshed and ready for the day. I really needed it, because the night before that had been exactly the opposite, a hellish eight hours of broken sleep, restlessness and staring at the ceiling. Oh, and with the occasional dig in the ribs thrown in for good measure. Happily, the cause and effect is easy to understand. I know exactly why one night was good, and...