Today is the traditional date of Shakespeare’s birthday. I almost did a double take when I saw this news item from the BBC last week: Kyrgyz mayor dons fake beard to tour city in disguise The mayor of Kyrgyzstan’s capital Bishkek says that he sometimes tours the city in disguise so that he can see […]
Yesterday’s Advent Calendar entry was a lovely, simple winter picture called “Wintersonne“, “Winter Sun”. Today’s treat is a wonderful poem by Martin Greif (1839 – 1911). I admit, as an American Protestant, I had no idea what a St. Barbara’s Branch is. There’s not even an English Wikipedia entry, here are a few sections from […]
Today’s Advent Calendar entry has a catch: it already has a translation. This is an adaptation of Aesop’s fable by August Gottlieb Meißner (1753–1807).
There’s a terrific online German-English dictionary at LEO.org. I’m very excited that I’ve discovered a Christmas tradition of theirs: posting an online Advents-Kalender, with one poem for each of the 24 days leading up to Christmas.
Warning: this post contains spoilers! One of the many, many reasons I love Halloween is that it reminds me to watch a scary movie. Horror isn’t usually my genre of choice. In the big picture, I love having a time of year when it’s all right to be spooky, to be scared, and to be […]
Last week, I got back from a trip to Iowa City, Iowa, where I presented at The Examined Life Conference (there’s a whole post of my thoughts on the conference over at my medical narrative blog, MeaningWell). I traveled to Iowa City via Chicago and Princeton, my hometown(s). Not only was it cheaper to fly […]
Megan and I are in Los Angeles this week for her research. I saw this when I went to get ice: For a long time, I’ve wondered about images and storytelling. It seems like a big question: “Can an image tell a story?” We talk about a story as a series of events unfolding in […]
In our current political climate, it seems like a long, long time ago that Pepsi got into hot water for its “protest” ad featuring Kendall Jenner. Let’s rewind to last week, though, and go through the details of that ad.
I picked up a copy of Getting To Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In, by Roger Fisher and William Ury. I had heard of it, and thought it sounded like it might have a few interesting tips. I was surprised that the main points of the book are an application of storytelling structure. I probably […]
I’ve always heard a lot about Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich, one of the most successful self-help books of all time. I was planning to write a review of it, but most of what I would have included was already written in a review few years ago.