Did You Hear the One About the Sand Dollar, or the Trash Collector at Disneyland?
There's an ancient, hackneyed story in the speaking profession that every poor speaker "steals" and uses. Basically, it's about a stonemason who's asked what he's doing and replies, "I'm laying stones." When a second stonemason is asked the same question,
Service Standards
Last evening I stopped my car in an illegal space for a moment to see if the "no reservations" restaurant had room. They did, and when I returned to the car the valet from another restaurant across the street had
Marching Orders
I work with a lot of different people, and of course they fall into some common patterns. Those who tend to be the easiest to work with, most accountable, most disciplined in applying what we discuss…….are former military officers. It’s not
To Everything There Is A Season
I'm packing away the "winter stuff": snow scrapers, snow shovels, humidifiers, outdoor heating mats, and so forth. I've also been packing away and discarding all the old ideas about "normal" and "best practices." What we need today are aggressiveness and innovation
The Difference Between Memes and Memories
My grandmother made amazing pickles. She refused to tell my wife how. But they were incredible. One day my wife was sent to fetch more pickles for the table from an unopened jar, but found she couldn't open the pickle
Every Time, Every Opportunity
A lot of upsets in the "March Madness" NCAA basketball tournament. Some are startling. But the fact is that individual players can have great or poor nights based on a wide variety of factors. Maybe the best team wins three
We Can All Dance but We Don’t All Enjoy It
It doesn't matter, in terms of your happiness, if you're a good dancer or a lousy dancer. It does matter if you're concerned about whether other people think you're a good dancer or a lousy dancer. The former allows you to
Showing Up
Church services last evening (Vigil Mass) were cancelled because of the blizzard, and this morning's 8 am Mass had about 20 people in a church seating 600. The priest walked by me and said, "The few and the faithful!" And so
In the Still of the Night
Fred Paris has died at 85. He was the lead singer of the classic Doo-Wop group, The Five Satins. He wrote and performed, with them, "In the Still of the Night," one of my top five songs of the genre
When A License Needs A Paw Print
There is a story in today's newspapers about a Shiloh Shepherd (German Shepherd/Malamute mix) who ran a mile down an interstate on the Vermont/New Hampshire border which attracted the state police. The dog kept running from them back to where