Did you know that the Philly Cheese Steak sandwich is made with Kraft Cheez Whiz? Note that the good folks at Kraft spelled Cheez with a zee (not zed or s). And Whiz? Who came up with that? I also discovered tonight that Philadephia Cheese Cake is made with Kraft Philly cheese! More processed cheese! Someone has to look into this. What’s with the processed cheeses? The waiter told me tonight I could replace the whiz with gorgonzola if I preferred. That’s a start. But it’s not Philly. I’m in Pennsylvania for the first time tonight. And again, I’m amazed by what I see. There’s something about American cities. Downtown…

The news popped up Friday with about a dozen other messages on my Blackberry. Subject line: Aunt Grace. I knew she was dead. After all, she was 96. And just last week another aunt, Margaret, called to tell me that Grace was “very, very frail.” Grace is (or was) actually my Great Aunt. My dad’s aunt. She went 96 times around the sun but lived no further than 25k from where she was born. It’s the end of an era, in a whole lot of ways. She might call it the end times. Aunt Grace was a very sweet lady – a real “lady” in the old fashioned sense. She…

I’m in Edmonton tonight. It’s 12:30AM where I came from, and I have an 8AM meeting. I managed to squeeze in a 7k run on the treadmill, but there was no way I could get the TV on. The remote was asking me questions for which I had no answer. So I just decided to go to bed. But I couldn’t figure out how to turn the bedside lamp on. Now I find I have to hit the letter i key extra hard to get it to appear. Geez. But I sa d that would wr te here, so w ll l ve up to my prom ses. Good n…

One of the best parts of my job is being able to meet and work with smart and creative people, leaders in their fields. Today, for instance, my colleague and One Change Assoc. Exec. Director John Mulvihill and I spent an entire day with Richard Earle, David Basch and Mark Chinoy of the Regis Group here in Leesburg, VA — bashing and remodeling the One Change concept and trying to figure out how to make it global. Before coming to my fledgling NGO, John was Deputy Secretary General of the Canadian Red Cross. He managed the Red Cross through the Hep-C blood crisis and dispatched teams to assist people in…

Welcome to Leesburg, Virginia, the town where the US government retreated when the British (aka Canadians) stormed Washington and burned the White House. I’m here for two days of facilitated strategic planning — which is more exciting than it sounds when you’re planning to, well, take over the United States. I’m in a Hampton Inn tonight, a wee step down from the Fairmont San Francisco of last week, but I’m not complaining. It’s the crusty remnants of snow banks outside my window that bother me the most. It seems there’s snow everywhere lately. Folks in San Fran were talking about their unexpected Christmas snow, the people I’m meeting tomorrow said…