lexicography.com

I know that Seth Godin is well read in the blogosphere, but I do have to note, for myself as this place is for me, that he is a genius:

Many people have dropped me a line about JetBlue. Here’s my simple prescription:

Potlatch.

This is a Native American term for a ceremony involving dancing, feasting, and the most memorable part: giving someone too much. If I ran JetBlue, I’d go to each of the people affected (and it’s not that many) and give each person 40 free round trip tickets. Or maybe 50. More than any person could use for a long, long while. Let them fly with as many friends as they like until they’ve used up 50 seats.

Of course. Today, now, millions of people are focused on the perfidy of JetBlue. A marketing budget of trillions would not gain such attention in such a wide audience. So . . . perform. Fifty free first class tickets for every person who suffered 10 hours on the tarmac would cost less than a one minute major network ad and it would register 100% better in recall and brand identity. Interviews with customers so pleased to be able to fly their friends and relatives around (totally forgiving the error) would air for hours. After such an event when you think of JetBlue you would thing of a company that made everything right.

A weak person who yields to the temptation of denying himself a pleasure. A total abstainer is one who abstains from everything but abstention, and especially from inactivity in the affairs of others.

Said a man to a crapulent youth: “I thought
You a total abstainer, my son.”
“So I am, so I am,” said the scrapgrace caught —
“But not, sir, a bigoted one.”

By the way:

crap·u·lence (krpy-lns)
n.
1. Sickness caused by excessive eating or drinking.
2. Excessive indulgence; intemperance.

scape·grace
–noun a complete rogue or rascal; a habitually unscrupulous person; scamp