Hi ,

Checking last week's newsletter contents, it's funny how mood swings up and down. I felt blues-y most of the week, mostly the second half since Thursday. It did start with my father's birthday on Monday, the first since he died last year, and my nephew's birthday on Tuesday, though he passed years ago, it felt fresh again to think of both of them. I'm not necessarily big on rituals for loved ones no longer here, but I lit a candle and thought of them, it felt right to.I had a lovely afternoon catching up with a friend and wandering a part of Paris I rarely go to, great view from the Belvedere de Belleville, on the photo below.A couple of links in the opener before moving on to the next section:

• A new episode of the Ice Cream for Everyone podcast with the 4th part of my playing the solo tabletop roleplaying game Ironsworn

• And another excellent conversation for Teaching Tangents with James D'Souza last week, the question was: "How do you prepare for an internship interview in the US?" As usual, you can find the episodes in audio form.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend!Cheers,Willem

 Weekly Combo Typically a mix of playful and strategy flavours. 

Chipotle is a Criminal Entreprise Built on Exploitation 

(Jacobin, 7 min read)

It's also interesting to look at tension and issues between ongoing needs for a business like Chipotle to reduce their bottom line and at the same time show itself as an ethical one, being run with integrity. It seems there is quite a bit of distance between what's said and what's done. I'll also place this next to the results of a survey published by Mark Pollard from the Sweathead group he created and manages, of 550 strategists like me, and 68% of respondents said they feel conflicted about working in advertising, and one of those reasons for conflict being "Dubious client ethics." I often feel this kind of conflict too. I still love the Chipotle brand, so I can only hope they put more of their money where their mouth is.

The fictional action from the game we played on the podcast was set in 1930s Los Angeles, after the Great Depression, so I looked a bunch of photos up for inspiration, this is a nice blog post and collection to check out when you have a moment. Nearly a hundred years ago already! Worth a look when you have a few minutes to browse. In terms of linkage, while we could make parallels between the Great Depression and the way workers' are treated by Chipotle even now, I think it's good to point out global cities like New York are not only changing laws to improve conditions for workers, they also seem to be enforcing them.And if anyone has the idea of people as consumers "voting" with their wallets (or the other way round, boycotting), I'll copy this quote from the first article: "Last year, workers at the E. 161st Street store in the Bronx walked off the job when Chipotle refused to close their location, which was experiencing a COVID-19 outbreak. As Albert Morales, one of the store’s workers, told Jacobin at the time, they realized that “Chipotle isn’t going to do anything unless we attack them — and the way we attack them is by attacking their profits.” The company responded by closing the store for two weeks for cleaning and paid the workers to quarantine, a remarkable concession."