The Incident in the Yukon
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Untangling ‘Entanglement’: A Conversation About the Creative Life with George McDonald
George McDonald, who performs under the alias “George Trouble,” can’t separate his creative life into neat categories.
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The Giant Turkey that Ate My Thanksgiving
For me, Thanksgiving 2012 began in May, when I was dispatched to Galveston, Texas, to escort a contractor onboard Carnival Dream. The contractor had been hired by Carnival Cruise Line to create a giant inflatable turkey for a planned Thanksgiving public relations stunt.
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The Making of an Editor
In 1986 I realized I needed to finish the undergraduate degree I was supposed to have finished in 1979. My wife at the time, Terri Averette Banks, was art director at Pace Communications, a fledgling publisher of airline in-flight and business magazines. Terri had gotten me a gig demolishing some offices in the Pace building that were being remodeled. I was standing on top of a partition wall, busting up drywall with a sledgehammer when in walked Editor Melinda Stovall with a shoebox in hand — and changed the trajectory of my life.
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The Eagle Has Landed
The great actor and comedian W.C. Fields has a famous quote: “Never work with animals or children.” In my 30-year career in public relations, the closest I got to working with children was when the Olsen twins, Mary-Kate and Ashley, served as co-godmothers for Holland America Line. Then there was the time when we should have taken Fields’ warning to heart.
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What Is This Nonsense?
Good question. This website is a dumping ground for all kinds of stuff, from memories from my 30-year career as a public relations consultant to cruise lines and travel companies to miscellaneous writings, found things, photography, Banks family stuff and ephemera of all types. Hope you enjoy it.
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From ‘Beauty’ to ‘Booty’: A Satire
During the course of writing scores of press releases for new cruise ship introductions every year, one can get a little bored. While each new cruise ship brings some innovations and new twists, the process of informing the media about it is drearily repetitive. For instance, in 2002, Carnival Cruise Line introduced four new ships — its busiest year ever.
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The Tale of the (First) Great Pandemic Panic of 2020
“Grampy, please tell me the virus story again.”
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Giant Filly Goes to Philly
Following on the heels of setting a new Guinness World Record for the largest beach balls, in Dallas, Texas, Carnival Cruise Line took to the mean streets of Philadelphia for an even bigger feat — the unveiling of the world’s largest piñata in the shape of a 60-plus-foot-tall multicolored donkey.
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