I guess I was too otherwise involved watching the games during the NLCS to notice that—just like Carlos Beltran—if Hewlett-Packard had a chance to do it all over again, it may have done it differently. My husband pointed out that the technology company’s “Personality Profiles” promotion—which has been running throughout the playoffs and gives details of players likes and dislikes—cuts uncomfortably close given that HP is embroiled in controversy for spying on company directors and journalists. (This first person account of being spied upon, by Wall Street Journal reporter Pui-Wing Tam, says the company even figured out where she and her husband were engaged.) Of course, the promo was planned to bolster HP's “The Computer Is Personal Again” campaign (a rather funny, in retrospect, visual from it is at right). Maybe the tagline should be amended to say “really personal.”

—Posted by Catharine P. Taylor