Category Archives: Problem Practices

Communication behavior or analysis that is often counter-productive

At the State Department the Calibri Font is Apparently the Devil’s Work

Problem Practices, Rhetorical Mastery, , , , , ,

Goudy Stout might be an even better choice for the administration.

Given all of the crises that the current administration is creating or attempting to manage, it was a puzzle to see Secretary of State Marco Rubio take the time at the end of 2025 to issue a memo calling on employees to not use the Calibri font in documents. Calibri is what typographers would call a “clean” font. It uses a “sans” style (no extraneous tails) designed to be easily read: a help for less-than-perfect eyes. Some muddled thinking from the Secretary determined that it’s continued use might be seen as a gesture to the discredited values of diversity, equity, and inclusion that we used to celebrate. Better to stay with Times New Roman, which had been the department’s official typeface until what members of the current administration must have seen as an alarming update to Calibri in 2023.

It takes an active imagination to find a “woke” political ideology at work in Calibri. And it’s a puzzle that a man in the midst of putting his thumb in the eye of former European allies would spend his time this way. According to Rubio “Calibri achieved nothing except the degradation of the department’s official correspondence.”

Really? What an interesting descent into magical thinking. Causing so onerous an effect as human degradation is a lot to put on this widely admired typeface. Luckily the nation has been spared of a decision to revert to a typeface that resembles what is on my ancient L.C. Smith typewriter, which can handle Middle English.

If we really want to read intention in fonts, my suggestion is to go all the way to a typeface that better mirrors the administration: something that shouts rather than merely announces. GOUDY STOUT is found in some comic books, pre-schools, and garish advertising. As its appearance suggests, it has perhaps put on a little too much weight. But it is perfect for narcissists because it doesn’t require exclamation points. It also looks homemade and manages to hog space on a page, suggesting a smirk embedded in any message for which it might be used.

Times New Roman snuffs out any hint of adapting to readers who struggle to read small print: all the better to shoot down any gestures that could be understood as inclusive. In addition, if there’s news from the State Department that it wishes to play down, perhaps Times New Roman in grey and tiny eight point type would be the perfect standard.

 

The Kingdom of Cowardice

Problem Practices, Rhetorical Mastery, , , , , ,

In this dangerous political moment where is the necessary and countervailing assertiveness from the nation’s corporate leadership and those sitting in the co-equal branch of the Congress?

It is revealing that a culture ostensibly immersed in the values of individual initiative and freedom of thought—virtues celebrated endlessly in the cowboy mythologies of popular entertainment—we would see its actual corporate and political leaders wither in the face of serious government malfeasance. Where is the assertiveness of the nation’s industrial powerhouses and the once co-equal Congress? With some notable exceptions most news giants have also folded and retreated into safe compliance with gag orders and payoffs to appease this president. All of this is happening in the face of a blizzard of presidential attempts to sabotage once secure American values and policies. Where are fearless figures like Indiana Jones when we need them?

Trump has destroyed the nation’s once historic leadership of former allies and democracies.  Now they feel threatened by America’s new and growing rogue status. We are not Russia, but the comparisons are more apt. We clearly have many new billionaires who have sold their souls for photo ops with the President and the chance to profit from his absurd whims. In the years to come the silence of leaders at Apple, Amazon, Paramount and other tech giants is going to make them look ruthlessly opportunistic and small.

And while there are some signs that some in the Senate and house are rousing themselves, it is not fair that octogenarian Bernie Sanders should stull be the most effective advocate question Donald Trump’s real and threatened raids on other nations. There are too few profiles in courage from the supposedly dominant party in Congress. Most members of the GOP seem to be doing everything except hiding under their desks to avoid calling out the unamerican actions of their political leader. Politicizing federal agencies and violating international law by kidnapping the leader of Venezuela represent the latest offenses against the Constitution that stack up weekly like a midwinter supply of cordwood. In lieu of the silence of the Speaker of the House and most tech and news chiefs we look to look to older seniors with handmade signs standing on street corners who have taken up the cause against administrative malfeasance.

The irony is that political and commercial “leaders” who have thrown their support to this President seem to be ignoring evidence of Trump’s clear unpopularity with the American public. Their indifference to their own constituents and customers does not bode well for our future.