OTTAWA -- That ill wind called Nortel , blowing for almost a decade, wafts the sweet scent of success to career coach Alan Kearns, who'll fill the hall at Carleton's Bell Theatre (cap 600) Feb. 19 at 19:00 to sell his brand of job find to those who need one, of which there are thousands these days, some just recently unemployed and some ineluctably so. Alan's very good at helping people find their way in the world of work. As he puts it, “we recognize that due to Nortel moving into bankruptcy protection, there will be no outplacement support provided by the organization. We also appreciate that many employees are contemplating a “Plan B” and that you want to consider your career options in this time of economic uncertainty.” Alan runs CareerJoy and if it's at all possible to wring joy out of the current depression, he’s as good a bet as anybody. But for a brilliant Plan B, even Alan is unlikely to top the outplacement success of Bruce and Melody Murison, proprietors of Standard Innovation Corp., a “research and design” firm. Mr. and Mrs. Murison (pictured accepting an award for their design) were both long-serving Nortel employees. Both laid off, they combined their engineering skills, business smarts and the pursuit of personal pleasure to research and design the “We-Vibe” vibrator (pictured right), an inspiration that came to them in answer to the question, “Why isn’t there a sex toy that fits between two people when they’re making love?” Perfectly good question and the We-Vibe is apparently a pretty good answer, since it’s leaping off the shelf at Ottawa’s premier sex shop, Venus Envy, and CBC reports that more than 55,000 units have been sold worldwide since it was released less than a year ago.

Tony Patterson
Scanning the Ontario Technology Corridor