Enter an original caption in the Porn for Women Caption Contest for your chance to win a bouquet of flowers today (a winner will be chosen every day during the month of December)!

Visit WannaSnuggle.com for more information.

While you’re at it, send a Porn for Women e-postcard to a friend!

Cheers,
Hannah Cox
Entertainment Marketing Manager

Popularity: 4% [?]

I know there are those of you out there that are crazy MAD magazine fans. You know who you are…

Well, we recently released the The MAD Magazine Poster Book. It has been selling like hot cakes! We’re out of stock on the poster book right now but will have more in stock in early December.

In the meantime, we want to know how mad you are for MAD.

Respond (detailing your MAD obsession, the boxes of issues still under your bed, about blacking out your tooth for a year as a kid, etc.) to this blog post for a chance to win Spy vs. Spy Book Ends (valued at $295.00)!!*

And, as an additional perk, the first 200 folks who order the The MAD Magazine Poster Book from us will get Issue #166 as a gift with purchase. In April 1974, MAD published its infamous “Finger” cover. Rejected by many newsstand dealers across the country, the issue saw limited distribution. Resulting in horrible sales, and one very depressed publisher. And with returns of this now rare and collectible issue pouring in, MAD’s publisher William M. Gaines sent several boxes of the issue to the MAD vault where they remained, undistributed and forgotten, until last year when the vault was emptied. Now is your chance, people, to get your hands on your very own copy of this legendary issue. (It will be sent to you with a Certificate of Authenticity to boot). Order today!

Madly yours,
Hannah Cox
Entertainment Marketing Manager

*We’ll pick the maddest of you on December 12th and notify the winner of the Spy vs. Spy Book Ends!

Popularity: 4% [?]

You may have noticed that politicians’ looks come under A LOT of scrutiny. Eyeglasses, dresses, lapel pins, and haircuts have spawned whole newspaper articles and fashion movements. For those politicians (and all you politician wannabes) out there who need a makeover, this one’s for you.

HOW TO GIVE YOURSELF A POLITICAL MAKEOVER

Excerpted from The Worst-Case Scenario Almanac: Politics

By Dave Borgenicht & Turk Regan

1. Audit your appearance.
Take a long, hard look at yourself. Ask trusted colleagues and family members to evaluate how you look and take notes on your strengths and weaknesses. Your physical appearance delivers the first and most lasting impression of you as a person and politician to voters. If voters are not responding to your message, it may be because your appearance is either distracting from or working against the impression you wish to give. Your hair, wardrobe, facial expressions, and body language are all interpreted as measures of your abilities and aptitude.

2. Neutralize negative features.
Do not seek to turn every aspect of your appearance into a shining asset or you will risk overcompensating in a way that can draw still more attention to your flaws. Seek to deflect attention from what is a given (height, weight, ugliness) and change what you can.

3. Establish a core look.
Select signature clothing styles, personal details, or physical mannerisms that will form the foundation of the new political identity you wish to convey. Translate your desired impression into a fashion statement: decisive leadership (loud, colored accessories), steadfast and reliable (a sober hairstyle), someone who gets things done (shirtsleeves rolled up or hair pulled back), or the friendliest candidate (calculatedly unpolished.)

4. Accessorize.
Use different fashion accessories to adjust your core look to the variety of events and locations you encounter. A hat, a clipboard, or a hot dog can complement, not compete, with your basic look.

5. Avoid trends.
Resist the temptation to adopt trendy fashions and hairstyles, which may make you momentarily popular with younger voters, but risk giving the impression that you spend too much time refining your appearance rather than considering substantive issues, or tagging your candidacy to a fashion look that may not last very long or suit you very well.

6. Blunt your sexiness.
While being attractive is an advantage in politics, being sexy can seem threatening. Voters want candidates who are easy on the eyes, but not hot.

7. Mirror success.
If you are unsure what look to adopt, consider the style and appearance details of successful candidates with whom you are not directly competing and copy his or her look.

What’s the best political makeover you’ve witnessed? Leave a comment for a chance to win The Worst-Case Scenario Almanac: Politics!

Hannah Cox
Marketing Manager

Popularity: 4% [?]

In this current political climate, it’s important that a politician is able to get out of sticky situations and into office. We’ve compiled a few scenarios from The Worst-Case Scenario Almanac: Politics to give folks an idea of why politicians do some of the whacky things they do, and to give those politicos a little help along the way…you can expect a scenario a week until the election is over.

HOW TO WORK A HOSTILE ROOM

Excerpted from The Worst-Case Scenario Almanac: Politics

By Dave Borgenicht & Turk Regan

Plan quick exit routes.
When making an appearance in front of an organization or in a locale that is traditionally hostile to you or your party, immediately assess your closest routes of entry and exit. Note areas where you may be confronted by protesters, or any open public areas from which you might be struck by tomatoes, eggs, pies, or other thrown objects. During the event, ensure that staffers are positioned to be able to clear a quick means of escape, and are peripherally located to watch for hurled projectiles.

Humanize yourself.
Arrive early and engage with individuals and small groups of two or three. Try to connect on a personal level, discussing family, hobbies, sports, the weather, or other nonpolitical subjects to try to humanize yourself and temper hostility that would be directed at you during the event itself.

Arrange an introduction.
Have your staff arrange for a respected local figure to introduce your address to the group. After the introduction, praise the person’s achievements and character—applaud the speaker and urge the crowd to join you.

Extend praise and work common ground.
Emphasize your common belief in basic concepts shared by virtually everyone. Compliment the audience and the citizens of the city, state, province, territory, or country for safely assumed truisms such as dedication to family, security, and prosperity, and avow that you share these values. Declare your opposition to crime, poverty, illness, unhappiness, and other things generally understood to be bad. Avoid specifics.

Acknowledge and isolate differences.
Acknowledge issues of disagreement by saying that being able to point to a difference of opinion openly is the first important step to finding agreement, and express your interest in coming to such agreement. Avoid specifics.

Surround yourself with children.
Bring a group of local children to the event, preferably from disadvantaged backgrounds. Mention them during your speech as examples of “the future.” If the event becomes heated or confrontational, summon the children to gather around you and ask the crowd to maintain calm and civility “for the sake of the children.” Note that the presence of children also reduces your chance of being the target of thrown objects.

Exit the event as soon as possible.

Purchase The Worst-Case Scenario Almanac: Politics

Hannah Cox, Marketing Manager

Popularity: 3% [?]

One thing that Chronicle Books folks love to do is laugh. We laugh in the elevator in the morning, chortle on conference calls, guffaw at group meetings and sometimes cackle on our car- or bus trips home. So, it seems natural that we would work with Tom and Ray Magliozzi the hosts of Car Talk on NPR; better known as “Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers.” Apparently, lots of other folks think they’re funny, too. Each month, more than 4.5 million listeners tune into Car Talk on over 600 public radio stations, and their nationally syndicated, twice-weekly newspaper column appears in more than 400 newspapers.

I used to date one of those listeners. Each Saturday morning, he would wake up, turn on his radio and listen (in bed) to Tom and Ray’s hilarious answers to a wide array of difficult, odd, amusing and sometimes confounding questions. No early morning brunches or trips to the farmers market for us. It was always Car Talk in the morning. It didn’t take long for me to become a fan, and now I keep up with Click and Clack in my local newspaper. So when Chronicle decided to publish Ask Click and Clack, I was excited to see what strange and wonderful installments I may have missed. This collection is a perfect survey of the great questions and even better answers that Ray and Tom have dealt in their columns.

Marketing manager Lisa Anne Logan and I wanted to fly out to Boston for a week or two and interview Tom and Ray about the book in-between trips to the museums and fancy dining establishments. Our bosses got hip to our trip and told us to go a more affordable route. And what could be more in-line with “prudent financial decisions” than having one of Car Talk’s lackeys do the interview for us? Without further ado, here’s an interview with Tom and Ray.

Car Talk Literary Critic Al Ligori talks with Tom and Ray about Ask Click and Clack

April Whitney
Entertainment Publicist

Popularity: 4% [?]