Archive for May 2014
Are toddlers really smarter than the elderly?
A friend of mine works in the healthcare industry helping people to quit smoking by providing strategies and incentives to those who are willing and able to quit. Using a breath sensor that attaches to the iPhone, he is able to remotely monitor a person’s respiration output and even determine if the person is being…
Read MoreThe fascinating history of Softsoap: A lesson in ingenuity and tenacity
Some people are simply more clever and tenacious than others, and this is why they are successful. In 1980, Robert R. Taylor began selling Softsoap through his company, Minnetonka Corp. Up until that time, soap had not been sold in a pump bottle, even though the design and patent of such a bottle had existed…
Read MoreThe secret to happiness is based upon perspective and expectation.
Shaquille O’Neal, the former basketball superstar, NBA champion, actor, and the MBA- and PhD-holding business impresario, offers his secret to happiness: My secret is waking up saying it could be worse. 85% of all athletes, three to five years after they’re playing, have nothing, no income, no nothing. I could be one of those guys.…
Read MoreUpcoming appearances
On Saturday, May 31, I’ll be speaking at the Barnes & Noble at the Buckland Hills Mall in Manchester, CT at 2:00 PM. My agent will be with me, so if you have any questions for her, I’m sure that we could pester her with a few. ________________________________ That same evening, Speak Up will be…
Read MoreStorytellers are important, but it’s within the audience that you find the true beauty of storytelling.
As Elysha and I celebrate our first anniversary of Speak Up, our Hartford based storytelling organization, we have many reasons to be thankful. Since May of last year, we have produced seven storytelling shows. We had about 150 people at our first show (about 100 more than we expected), and since we moved into a…
Read MoreI am happily clueless about many things. It seems to make people very angry.
More than a week after Jill Abramson’s firing as executive of the New York Times, This American Life’s host Ira Glass still hadn’t heard the news. This is surprising. The story of Abramson’s firing was covered by many media outlets for many, many reasons. I’ve been reading and listening to news about it all week.…
Read MoreSportsCenter anchor? No big deal. Actor in a 30 second commercial? AWE INSPIRING.
My friend, Bram Weinstein, is an ESPN anchor. When I first met him, I stood in awe of his occupation and talent. This is understandable. There was a time in my life when I wore a SportsCenter hat like others wear hats denoting their favorite sports teams. I was a SportsCenter junkie. But over the…
Read MoreDeathbed regrets revisited 2014
Three years ago, in response to a piece listing the most frequent death bed regrets of the dying, I listed what I thought would be my most likely death bed regrets. Two years later, I revised the list, removing “I did not get into enough fist fights” from the list after reading about the number…
Read MoreThe brief but surprising history of Uggs
A student recently asked me if Uggs were invented in colonial times. Good thing we started our colonial research recently. In researching the origins of Uggs, I found some interesting bits of information. Ugg boots originated in Australia and were originally designed solely for warmth. They were most often worn by Australian surfers during the…
Read MoreSmall boy. Big words. Enormous inspiration.
There have been many inspirational speeches throughout history. Knute Rockne’s “One for the Gipper” speech. The Saint Crispin’s Day speech from Shakespeare’s Henry V (which sounds surprisingly like the speech that the President gives before the final battle against the aliens on Independence Day). Winston Churchill’s address to the House of Commons following the evacuation…
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