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Tattle tails cause even more problems

When you complain about a colleague’s behavior to a supervisor with the intention or even suspicion that the boss will then speak to your colleague about the complaint, you’ve done a very stupid thing. Exceptions to this rule exist, of course. Criminal, unethical, and threatening behavior should always be reported, and employees should feel safe…

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A back bend changed my life

I told the story of my first backbend at Speak Up last night. If you missed the show, you missed a good one. Here’s what I wrote on May 5, 2018, about the moment, including photographic proof of the moment: _____________________________________ I did the impossible this week. I did a backbend. Maybe you know me…

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Benjamins

A fact that astounds me: There are more $100 bills in circulation today than $1 bills. Also: Of the total value of all currency in circulation today, 80 percent are $100 bills. Admittedly, cash is quickly disappearing as we evolve into a cashless society, so this is skewing things a bit, but the $100 note…

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Academy Awards for other people

I think the Academy Awards are great. Acting is great. The movies are great. Even movie popcorn is great. I love it all. Truly. My life is better because of great filmmaking. Yet I also can’t help but think: The Academy Awards are really just “The Best Person Pretending to be Another Person, Filmed Entirely…

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Crocuses are back!

First crocuses of the spring. Every year they emerge from the same spot on our front lawn. I adore these tiny purple flowers. They are lovely. but it’s what they symbolize that I love most: The emerging of spring. A return to long, warm days. Baseball. Golf. The promise of summer. Renewal. A few years…

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Opportunity taken. Outcome outstanding.

This is a parking sign in the lot behind TheaterWorks in Hartford, CT, where I performed my solo show this summer and last week in “Matt and Jeni Are Unprepared.” I love this sign. I love it for obvious reasons, but I also love it because when we choose to communicate in any form, we…

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Star Trek stinks

Sometimes I encounter a person who claims Star Trek is better than Star Wars. While there are many, many ways to refute this utterly ridiculous claim, I like to point to this video clip. It says it all.

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Confidence is key. Also elusive.

The more I work with people—students and adults—the more convinced I’ve become that confidence is the most important quality a person can possess. Confidence is often the difference between performing well and stumbling along. It’s the difference between being able to defend your idea with force and skill and faltering under pressure. It’s the difference…

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Museum of Endangered Sounds

The Museum of Endangered Sounds is a website dedicated to preserving the sounds made famous by my favorite old technologies and electronic equipment. Dot matrix printers. Dial-up internet. The Windows 95 startup music. All the sounds of my past, as well as the sounds of pasts before my time. Clever idea. I’m happy that someone…

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Backronyms!

I learned a new word this week thanks to one of my favorite newsletters, Numlock News: Backronym Definition: An acronym deliberately formed from a phrase whose initial letters spell out a particular word or words to create a memorable name In other words, you name the thing to create the memorable backronym instead of the…

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