I’m not even going to start on explaining how our language came to include the expression “Charley Horse” to describe a painful leg cramp, except to say that apparently it first came into use amongst baseball players in the 1880s. It used to be that voting involved dropping white or black marbles or beans into…
There isn’t a chance that you can get your calendar under control. To begin with, the calendar itself, even without your touching it, is a mess. Take November, for example, the eleventh month, whose name derives from the Latin novem, meaning “ninth”. In the same vein, September, October, and December respectively derive from septem, octo,…
Self-deprecating humor is a wonderful piece in the toolkit of any communicator. It can oil the gears in networking and win over an audience for the platform speaker. In general, it’s a powerful device for engagement. But yet. Self-deprecating humor, like any other tool, can cause more harm than good and should always be used…
Jonathan Liew, in the Guardian, January 9, 2023 wrote of the freshly retired Welsh football phenomenon Gareth Bale. Here’s part of what he said. Of course Bale always played to win. But in the 30-yard screamers and lightning bursts of speed, you can spot something else there too: a young man playing for the sake…
When I was growing up, Normand Trinder Bowley was my hero. He knew everything about everything, he was kind and generous, and it seemed every tradesperson in the community sought him out in his retirement because he could solve problems that had them baffled. And he was my grandfather. Except he wasn’t. I remember like…
I’m going for my PhD, and so should you. Soon enough, all of us can be Dr. Whosit. Let me explain. Back in the days of my first career, teaching school, we flunked kids. Fairly regularly. I was often the lucky guy to get a class full of latter-day scholars who needed a second run…
I don’t know about you, but I always feel like an amateur when it comes to capitalization in titles. I’m not sure it was taught when I was in school, or perhaps that was one of those lovely spring days when adventuring with chums took precedence over the academy. In any event, there are a…
It’s been a lot of years since I sat in the quiet circle of the Plymouth Brethren giving thanks for history’s most precious story, the story of divine sacrifice and redemption. A quiet, contemplative time of thanksgiving for spiritual healing, of hope for tomorrow and a resolve to live a life worthy of the gift…
John Babbacombe Lee was a bad boy, of that there was no doubt. By the time he was twenty he had seen service in the Royal Navy, but also had an extensive criminal record, mostly for thievery. When he was twenty-one, he got in serious trouble indeed. He had taken employment on the staff of…
Sarah Ferguson, “Fergie”, the Duchess of York, was especially close to Queen Elizabeth II, even after and notwithstanding the divorce from Prince Andrew. Her mother and Queen Elizabeth had been lifelong friends and Elizabeth had known Sarah her entire life and in many ways treated her more like a daughter than daughter-in-law. Sarah put it…