If you have to think about the answer, it’s no – because if you’ve ever had a honeybell orange, it’s not something you ever forget.

Honeybell is the 21st century name for a tangelo. It’s a hybrid of a tangerine and (probably) a grapefruit. But they look like the most perfect orange you’ve ever seen. They are available in January and into early February, and then they are gone. They peel easily, and once peeled, seem to be about 98% juice – sweet juice. There is the occasional seed, but little pulp. It’s one of the great fruits anywhere. The company from which I order my honeybells even sends bibs (think “lobster bib”) with its orders.

My honeybell connection is Cushman’s Fruit Company. Cushman’s is a great company. They communicate just the right amount and deliver as promised.

This year, when my honeybells arrived, I did what I always do. I opened the box, pulled out an orange and ate it. Unfortunately, the first orange I pulled out was overripe, almost rotting. I consider ordering fruit a bit of a crapshoot – getting a rotted piece is not an impeachable act. I threw the orange away and selected another which was perfect – very juicy and tasty. Later in the day, I selected another and it was also overripe. Two out of three less than perfect honeybells. Nothing like this had ever happened before. Hmm. I started looking into the box and a number of the fruit were in fairly poor condition.

So, I did what I always do. I went to Cushman’s website and sent a message about the fruit. I applauded the company and its product, but expressed my disappointment at the quality this shipment. (It bears repeating that this had never happened before.)

Within 24 hours I had an email promising a replacement shipment.

That’s the way you do business. Offer a unique product, deliver as promised and correct your mistakes when you make them.

Hurry – you can still order your honeybells. But February’s coming…

“Tonight, I tried to place an order for the above item (priced $121.96) on your website. When I hit the “Add to Cart” button, I was directed to a page that read, “There are currently no items in your cart.” So I went back, created an account, launched from my new account page to the item, hit “Add to Cart” and it directed me back to the same page that read, “There are currently no items in your cart.” Unshaken, I returned to my account page, changed the quantity to 10 (for a new order total of $1,219.60) and hit the “Add to Cart” button. I was directed to a page that read, “There are currently no items in your cart.”

At that point, I copied the description of the item from your website, went to Google and searched it, and found the same item at Staples for $69.99 with free shipping.

So I don’t have a complaint at all. If your website worked properly, I would have purchased from you and paid a lot more. Instead, you made me a smarter shopper. Thanks!”

I remember the first time I ever laid my eyes on a Macintosh. A 128K. Not GB. Not even MB. K. It was 1984. The year of the novel. The year of the commercial. It was in the office of Bob Morgan, a copywriter at Garden Way, Inc. I was fascinated beyond words, and had no idea that it would be the first in a lifetime’s worth of WOWs that would be given to me by a guy named Steve Jobs.

I never got to meet Steve Jobs. But I feel like I know him. If the truth be known, I actually think of him as my friend – primarily because there is no one outside of my immediate circle of family and friends who has had a greater impact on who I am, what I have done and what I love more than him. So as I try to write this tribute, I find myself at a certain loss for words.

You see Apple (the company Steve Jobs founded, grew, was driven from, returned to in its darkest hour and proceeded to grow into the largest company in the United States and one of the most influential companies in the world) is a continuous thread running throughout my career and, to a larger extent, my entire adult life.

It was eight years from the time I saw the first Macintosh before I bought my first Macintosh – a IIsi. I used it to start a company that, although it’s not Apple by a long shot, is still in business, run by my wife Aprill, and still providing for my family.

It was on a Macintosh that I learned to be a graphic designer. Having been trained in the fundamentals of what makes good promotional design but with no freehand art skills at all, I needed a tool – a good tool – to move ideas from my head to something a little more production-oriented. Macs are the best tools. With a series of units that included a Quadra 605, PowerMac G3, iMac and Powerbook Titanium G4, I was, for 10 years, a designer by trade, working on countless logos, brochures, direct mail pieces, billboards, emails and websites.

As a musician, I’ve been a performer, vocalist and producer of four CDs, each recorded on a Mac with ProTools. My voice has been auto-tuned by a Mac, and never sounded better!

When I was in college, I moved mountains of albums and stereo equipment back and forth from home to school more times than I want to remember. If I had just had an iPod I would have had all my music in the palm of my hand. Now, it’s 9,000 songs and climbing. And many of them were purchased at the iTunes store which transformed not just consumer behavior but entire industries. (When I made my first purchase there, I said, “this is cool, but it’ll never replace the satisfaction of going into a CD/record store and just looking.” I haven’t thumbed through CDs in so many years I cannot remember the last time.)

Aprill and I traveled throughout the U.S. for 6 months in 2005 giving mission reports to churches that supported the City of Children. My presentation was loaded onto an iPod Photo. I plugged it into a projector, ran it with clicks, and then answered the question “what were you using for your slideshow?” more than I ever answered “where do the children go to school?”

I talk on an iPhone. And text and tweet, play games, send email, listen to the radio, plan worship, take pictures, read the Bible.

I read the newspaper on an iPad. And watch television and movies, read books, get the weather, plan worship, purchase plane tickets, book hotels, play my guitar and even record music. In 2010, I used an app on my iPad to lose 16 pounds and in 2011, I used it to keep it off.

Steve Jobs was the driving force behind all of it. And as he thought and innovated, he turned Apple into America’s R&D department. All of the players…from Microsoft to Google to HP and beyond…owe much of what everyone sees and uses today to Steve Jobs. So even if you don’t own one Apple product, he’s impacted your life beyond what you even realize.

But it isn’t just the function that marked his work. It is the attention to detail. It is the aesthetic of the Apple product line. It’s one thing to be innovative and transform ideas in your head into functional tools. It’s quite another to make them beautiful at the same time. Steve Jobs always strove for products that performed flawlessly and looked impeccable. He was both master technologist and accomplished artist. His products are off-the-chain tools and works of art.

Other products and platforms will continue to perform functions. But those same products and platforms do not now (nor will they ever) possess the aesthetic that Apple products have had. And the reason is that there have been few – scarce few – titans of industry who have placed as much value in and had the ability to deliver the aesthetics in product design that Steve Jobs has. When the final results are in, that may be what I will come to miss about him the most.

We won’t notice it for awhile. My guess is that the Apple products they dazzle us with in the next couple of years will at least have the thumbprint of Steve Jobs.

But in 2014, thirty years from the day I first saw that Macintosh 128K, I fear things may be different.

“Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me. Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful…that’s what matters to me.” (Steve Jobs)

Thanks, my friend. It was a life well lived.

Today, our choice was San Antonio in the South Park area of Charlotte. San Antonio is the newest restaurant from Frank Manzetti. For years, Manzetti’s was one of the best restaurants in Charlotte. We ate there often, and were never disappointed. (One of my best memories of living in Charlotte’s was being at Manzetti’s the night before the Panthers/Cowboys playoff game in 2003.)

San Antonio follows in the tradition. Great food, and a good atmosphere.

But there is one thing that San Antonio does that I find aggravating. Why offer chips the size of an oak leaf if you’re gonna offer a bowl of salsa with a 1 1/2 inch rim? Do the math! Try it out. I have to break each chip 3 times to dip into that salsa.

If my mom were here she’d say “there are people who would give anything for chips and salsa” and she’s right. But think…think…about the customer experience.

It’s everything that goes before that is complicated. When it comes to haircuts, I’m pretty cost-conscious. I could probably find a salon, make an appointment, walk in and be out in 15 minutes at a cost of $35 or $40. But that requires me to schedule the appointment (I don’t schedule things well – I’m a bit more spur of the moment), remember the appointment (without my iPhone, I’m junk at remembering where I’m supposed to be and when), still have time for the appointment (my schedule is pretty fluid), and then pay too high a premium (at $40 for a cut, that’s 53 cents per hair).

Enter Great Clips, and customer service at a new level. Great Clips is a walk-in salon. No appointment necessary. There is one less than a mile from my house. Check. Clean, personable staff. Check. Good mix of men’s and women’s magazines. Check.

My first trip to Great Clips was pretty standard (or so I thought). Walked in. No wait. Good cut. Fair price. But what happened at the end changed the game. “Do you have a smartphone? If you do, you can use it to schedule your appointments. In fact, if you’ll give me your phone number, I’ll put you in our system and you’ll be set.” Done. I’m in.

A few weeks later, I needed another cut. I had not downloaded the app, but I did and was immediately amazed. It’s database driven with locations specifics. It allowed me to use my current location, then gave me all of the Great Clips locations near me. Of course, the one I had gone to was closest, so I clicked on it. It told me there was no wait, and asked me if I wanted to schedule an appointment. I entered my name and phone number, and selected “now” as my time.

I got in my car and drove to the location, and what happened then was absolutely over the top. I walked in, and the woman at the front said, “hello, are you Chuck?” “Yes,” I replied, and she said, “right this way.” I walked to an open chair, sat down and she said something that I never, ever expected her to say.

“#5 guard, blend to the top. Is that still what you want?”

Hook, line and sinker – I’m now 100% in. On my second visit ever to Great Clips I stopped being a customer and became an evangelist. Make it easy (and even a little fun), call me by name, and after one visit, know exactly what I want. It turns out that if I am in Schenectady, NY, need a haircut, schedule through the nearest Great Clip, I’ll walk in and they’ll have that information as well.

You should go to Great Clips, too. At least download the app just to see what it means to care – really care – about a customer.

But now, I almost always have my music handy because I have Rhapsody. I was always a naysayer to music subscription services. “Why rent music when you can own it?” Well, I now know that renting it is much better than owning it. What a collection I now have – at my fingertips at home, in my office or even when I walk the dog. It streams in – my favorites like Jackson Browne, Steely Dan, Josh Kelley, Adele and Jared Anderson. And I can try out new artists like Zee Avi (who is really good, by the way) with one click.

All for $9.95 per month. Unlimited play. Always works. A great company.

Find a place on a map you’d like to live, draw a circle around it and it’ll give you all the available properties within the circle. That is impressive!

Check it out buy clicking here.

http://mashable.com/2011/09/19/31-of-u-s-adults-prefer-to-be-reached-by-text-message-study/

It all changed this year with ESPN‘s release of one of the great iPad apps of them all. It’s called “Watch Live,” and with the blessings of certain cable providers (mine, Time Warner Cable, being one), those of us required to be away from our sets on Saturdays in autumn have hope…and college football…once again.

The only thing I cannot understand is why they delete the commercials during the breaks. That just doesn’t make any sense!