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The Monday Morning Memo

What it Means to be Average

The first half of what I’m about to tell you, I have told you before. But you will understand why I chose to repeat it when you read the second half. – RHW The average person has 5 senses. We can see, hear, taste, touch, and smell.   We also have the ability to interpret […]

Suicide Hotline

Aloha shows a chart

July 3, 2023: “Our Hunger for Relationship”

Golden Gate

EXTRACTED FROM: Second Chances: ‘I survived jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge’ – ABC7 San Francisco SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — On Baker Beach, it appears a pair of tourists are talking like old friends, just trying to take a perfect selfie with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background. In fact, Kevin Hines and Ken […]

Stephen Semple in Beverly Hills

This is where to click if you want to read about Stephen or talk to him. He’s fun. – Indy

Leah Bumphrey

    This is the link you want to click.

Boz Skaggs

Lido missed the boat that day, he left the shackbut that was all he missed, and he ain’t comin’ back.At a tombstone bar in a juke joint car, he made a stopjust long enough to grab a handle off the top.Next stop, Chi-town, Lido put the money down, let it roll. He said, “One more […]

climate change

From NASA, In 1824, Joseph Fourier calculated that an Earth-sized planet, at our distance from the Sun, ought to be much colder. He suggested something in the atmosphere must be acting like an insulating blanket. In 1856, Eunice Foote discovered that blanket, showing that carbon dioxide and water vapor in Earth’s atmosphere trap escaping infrared (heat) radiation. In the […]

Death of Chatterton

“The Death of Chatterton” by Henry Wallis (1856) The Death of Chatterton was shown at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition with a quotation inscribed on the frame from the Tragedy of Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe: “Cut is the branch that might have grown full straight, And burned is Apollo’s laurel bough.” The famous writer, […]

Ozymandias with Tiny Tribe

A few years ago, the busted-up statue of Ozymandias was found (video below) and it is now assembled in a museum in Memphis, Egypt (2nd video below). Archaeologists believe eight-metre statue found in Cairo slum is of Pharaoh Ramses II, who ruled Egypt in 13th century BC. Ramses the Great or Ozymandias, ruled for 66 […]

Life is what you make it

Chatterton and Rowley

Everything I’m about to share with you happened in England and France during the lifetime of Thomas Jefferson, while America still had its “new baby” smell. The English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge gave us “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” in 1798, while Napoleon sailed to Egypt to fight the Battle of the Pyramids and […]

MMRadio Ricky Howard

Lieutenant Colonel Ricky Howard has handled more than $1 BILLION in purchase contracts, many of them with small businesses. His client is a reliable buyer, and once your company is selected as a vendor, you will likely remain a vendor for decades to come. Howard is an expert on how to win government contracts, from […]

Manley and Wehner

Manley Miller said, “Accepting guilt is hard. Finding justification is easy.” Peter Wehner said, “The greater the ethical compromises we make, the fiercer our justifications become — and the angrier and more frustrated we get at those who won’t go along for the ride.” And then John Kay piped in, “I am irresistible, I say, […]

Elevator

You’re in an elevator, moving from one level to another. Sometimes the elevator goes to a higher level.Sometimes it goes to a lower one.You won’t know until you get there. You are in that aimless time between one chapter of your life and the next.You are moving from a predictable past to an unpredictable future.You […]

James Dickey on stories

“Any time I get a little money that I can spend on myself, I buy another typewriter and put it in another room and start another project. It could be a novel, it could be a poem I’m working on, it could be a translation, it could be an essay, a literary criticism, it could […]

Manley talks about stories

When the founder of Hasidic Judaism, the great Rabbi Israel Shem Tov, saw a misfortune threatening the Jews, it was his custom to go into a certain part of the forest to meditate. There he would light a fire, say a special prayer, and the miracle would be accomplished and the misfortune averted. Later, when […]

The Great Beauty

“It is all settled beneath the chattering and the noise. Silence and sentiment. Emotion and fear. The haggard, inconstant splashes of beauty.” – Jep Gambardella, The Great Beauty How can you not watch a video that has racked up 1.3 Billion views?

The absurd beauty of it all

“Bats can hear shapes. Plants can eat light. Bees can dance maps. We can hold all these ideas at once and feel both heavy and weightless with the absurd beauty of it all.” – CryptoNaturalist

I died when I was 5

Tucker and the preschool Vikings

The Vikings invaded the UK about 1,500 years ago and then continued to raid and plunder for a few centuries until they finally just blended into the people who are now the United Kingdom. Over a glass of wine, Ian Rogers shared 24-seconds worth of thoughts about the different nations that comprise the UK, then […]

Genes New Book and Manley

Hi, I’m Gene Naftulyev, one of the newest of the Wizard of Ads partners. When Roy told me what Manley texted and told me that Indy wanted to put it in the rabbit hole, I said, “Tell Indy that I’ll mail a free copy to any of his rabbit readers who wants one” To get […]

MMRadio Mickey Kennedy

Dateline: Austin, Texas Headline: Mickey Kennedy Has Spent 25 Years Helping Small Businesses Write and Distribute News Releases Body:  Mickey Kennedy believes small businesses should not have to pay exorbitant prices to write or distribute news releases. In October 1998, he launched a news release service that has since provided hundreds of thousands of small […]

Kindergarten in Indonesia

Kindergarten, in Indonesia, is as expensive as college, but it gives kids whose parents can afford it a huge advantage that stays with them for life, allowing them to outperform the poorer kids year after year. Kindergarten for their child is the impossible dream of every poor parent. Roy and Pennie have known Misi since […]

Happiness Research

In the Harvard Grant Study, the world’s longest running and most comprehensive psychological study, the five most mature, healthy defense mechanisms associated with higher life satisfaction were: 1. Altruism: focusing on others’ wellbeing 2. Humor: making light of difficult or stressful events or experiences 3. Sublimation: turning anger or frustration into productive energy 4. Anticipation: […]

Tom Bodett CBS Sunday Morning

According to a comprehensive study conducted by Yale University and published in the journal Social Science and Medicine, people who read books more than 3.5 hours a week live a full 23 months longer than the people who didn’t read at all. That extended lifespan applied to all book-reading participants, regardless of “gender, wealth, education or […]

Water Metaphors

Cat in the Hat Rap

  Savannah Drew was in a wilderness camp when she met Bosco, the camp dog, a lifelong friend of mine. When she saw the hat, Savannah suspected that Bosco might be a dog I knew, so she sent me this photo to see if she was right. Savannah would have asked him if he knew […]

Rap the Raven

“Does the chemical composition of Jägermeister cause a craving for string beans? Is there some property of string beans that becomes addictive on those rare occasions when they’re consumed with Jägermeister? I asked myself these questions as I shoveled string beans into my mouth, huge crunchy forkfuls, and watched TV – weird cable shows, most […]

Hais House Bambi

MMRadio Mac Lackey

President John F. Kennedy said, “The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining.” Mac Lackey says something similar, “The time to think about selling your business is long before you plan to sell.” Having founded and sold six companies, Mac is something of an expert on entrepreneurial exits. Two of his […]

Scurvy and confirmation bias

“On a three-year voyage in the 1740s, a British naval expedition under the command of commodore George Anson lost fourteen hundred men out of two thousand who sailed. Four were killed by enemy action; virtually all the rest died of scurvy… In roughly the same period, James Lind, a naval surgeon, conducted a scientifically rigorous […]

Two Opposed Ideas_Fitzgerald

“Before I go on with this short history, let me make a general observation – the test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function. One should, for example, be able to see that things are hopeless, yet […]

Nazis are a bad sign

Brian Played Guitar

Brian played guitar.He wasn’t very good,That was his charm.And he swore he’d be an indie god by 23.Now he’s 25 and living on Long Island.And I called him up, to finally do some catching up,And that’s when he said to me,Listen carefully… “I was just a kid then.Money makes the world spinAnd if they tell […]

Abraham Martin and John

Anybody here seen my old friend Abraham?Can you tell me where he’s gone?He freed a lotta people but it seems the good they die young.You know, I just looked around and he’s gone. Anybody here seen my old friend John?Can you tell me where he’s gone?He freed a lotta people but it seems the good […]

Ruth Goetz

“Why do millions of people buy James Michener’s books and why does every bed lamp shine down on his newest title? Isn’t it because he has spent 40 years coming back from far journeys and difficult languages, to tell us about other people’s other ways of life? Other challenges and other lives survived?” – Ruth […]

Sinatra_My Way

Einstein Talks About Art

lake 80 miles from Santa Fe

  I’m still parked out by the lakeEighty miles from Santa Fe.And I’m sittin’ here, just parked out by the lake.   If you’re wonderin’ where I parked,I’m out parked by the lake.It’s the lake that’s eighty miles from Santa Fe.   And I’m parked out by the lakeEighty miles from Santa Fe.It’s the lake […]

MMRadio Michael Lenox

Dr. Michael Lenox is an expert on artificial intelligence, blockchain, and cryptocurrency. He knows the opportunities and the dangers of digital technology. Dr. Lenox advises business people on how to prepare for 2024, a year in which more data will be generated than in all previous years combined. Dr. Lenox is interviewed today by roving […]

Postman saw the coming whirlwind

Paul C

      “An art which isn’t based on feeling isn’t an art at all.”– Paul Cézanne  

Gould

  “The purpose of art is not the release of a momentary ejection of adrenalin but is, rather, the gradual, lifelong construction of a state of wonder and serenity.” – Glenn Gould, concert pianist  

Klimt 1907

The identity of the lady with the fan on the previous page remains a mystery, although there have been suggestions that it is Johanna Staude, a friend of Klimt who modeled for him. But the mystery of her identity reveals how he felt about the people he painted. They were never the entire point of […]

Klimpt

“And God said, ‘Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds—livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.’ And it was so.” – Genesis ch. 1 “Don’t be misled… You will always harvest what you plant.”– Galatians ch. 6 IMAGE: Dame Mit Fächer (Lady With a Fan), […]

Why Write

Why Write? “Last week, I was in a classroom in Austin, Texas, where a girl who was apparently going through a really rough spell at home wrote a poem that was definitely tragic and comic, both, about — everybody was yelling at her in the poem, from all directions. She was just kind of suffering […]

MMRadio Joanne Lipman

Joanne Lipman was the first woman to become a deputy managing editor at The Wall Street Journal. She was the founding editor-in chief-of Condé Nast’s Portfolio magazine. She served as editor-in-chief of USA Today and chief content officer of its parent company, Gannett. Currently, Joanne is a regular contributor to CNBC and a lecturer at Yale University. In her […]

Seinfeld on Sports

You see this handful of sand? Could you imagine counting every grain? Could you imagine how many grains of sand there are on this entire planet? Our best estimate is that for every grain of sand here on earth, there are 10,000 stars in the universe. It is probably more likely that we don’t really […]

Flatland with Carl Sagan

Height is a vertical line.Width is a horizontal line.When you have both height and width, you can create a 2-dimensional image.Depth is the 3rd dimension. Combine these first 3 dimensions – height, width, and depth – and you have created volume: space. The 4th dimension is Time. These first 4 dimensions encompass our physical reality, often […]

Grand Unified Theory

Why Write? “Last week, I was in a classroom in Austin, Texas, where a girl who was apparently going through a really rough spell at home wrote a poem that was definitely tragic and comic, both, about — everybody was yelling at her in the poem, from all directions. She was just kind of suffering […]

1927 Solvay Conference

Mosquito in Amber Jurassic Park

Take a look at Richie’s store.

Hais House Chess Boy

MMRadio Dave Albin

Dave Albin helps business executives and employees face and overcome their fears. But that’s nothing special. What makes Dave a legend among corporate coaches are the methods he employs. Dave is the #1 firewalk instructor in America, having cajoled more than one-half million people to walk, barefoot, over a bed of hot coals exceeding 1,000 […]

Ramsey’s Billboard

Edison Report on Radio

Seinfeld talks Charm Bracelets

Jerry Seinfeld was once thinking about golf announcers whispering. He then found something in his notebook about how people whisper when they talk about tipping.  When you notice a commonality between two or more things, Seinfeld explains, “You say, ‘Oh there’s something there.’ And now we make what’s called a charm bracelet: You take these […]

Reminiscing_Patrick

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Robert Pirosh copy writer

Dear Sir: I like words. I like fat buttery words, such as ooze, turpitude, glutinous, toady. I like solemn, angular, creaky words, such as straitlaced, cantankerous, pecunious, valedictory. I like spurious, black-is-white words, such as mortician, liquidate, tonsorial, demi-monde. I like suave “v” words, such as Svengali, svelte, bravura, verve. I like crunchy, brittle, crackly […]

Sean Connery and John Lennon

Friar Duck is Missing

Reminiscing with Ryan

My friend Ryan Deiss wrote: “Since I believe we’re entering into/already in a recessionary phase, I’m going back and reading memos from 2007 and 2008. Lots of applications for today (or maybe that’s just my confirmation bias speaking). Either way, it was a fun walk down memory lane. Do you ever read your old stuff?” […]

God Only Knows_Beach Boys

“‘God Only Knows’ is one of the few songs that reduces me to tears every time I hear it. It’s really just a love song, but it’s brilliantly done. It shows the genius of Brian. I’ve actually performed it with him, and I’m afraid to say that during the soundcheck, I broke down. It was just […]

Underwater Girl_1

      We have art so that we shall not die of reality. – Friedrich Nietzsche

Kurt Vonnegut Letter

Fake Dog Breeds

Amy Dockser Marcus_MMRadio

Amy Dockser Marcus won the Pulitzer Prize because she can clearly explain things that are deeply confusing to so many of us. Amy understands – and can explain – the complex relationships between economics, society, health, and medicine. In a meticulously researched book, she talks about the remarkable accomplishments of “citizen scientists” – ordinary individuals who […]

Dont follow your passion

These are the good old days

If you can keep your head when all about you        Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,    If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;        If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;    If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster     And treat those two impostors just the same;    […]

Foghorn Leghorn

Lemonade Lane

The wizard rarely voices ads anymore, but he wrote and recorded these for his longtime friend, Sean Jones. Penticton is wine country, the Napa Valley of Canada. Okanagan Falls is very near Penticton. If you ever get a chance to visit, you should. The Tiny Tribe is there now and will have a full report […]

Bob Johansen

  Bob Johansen has been forecasting the future for the past five decades. He and his colleagues get it right 60% to 80% of the time. Bob is no pointy hat, crystal-ball-gazing fortuneteller. In addition to helping clients like Procter & Gamble, Walmart, and McKinsey, he is an instructor at the Army War College. Bob […]

Asteroid City

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But some things are NOT a matter of perspective

But Some Things are NOT a Matter of Perspective. “Perhaps you’ve heard it said that if you want to form a new habit—say, flossing your teeth or exercising regularly—all you have to do is perform that act for 21 days in a row, and presto! The desired behavior becomes automatic.” “That, my friend, is a […]

Meisje and the little nut that held its ground

Venn diagram of communication

Rosita Diaz ia Awesome

Bryan Eisenberg knows I am concerned about mental decline. Not my own. Everyone else’s. Bryan’s awareness of my concern caused him to think of me when he read this from Rosita Diaz: My husband and I went through the McDonald’s driveway window and I gave the cashier a $5 bill. Our total was $4.25, so […]

Craig Arthur and his Monet Photo

“I took this photo 6 years ago and turned it into a Monet.” – Craig Arthur You have a gift with the camera, Craig.

Michele and the Photo in the Desert

  “Happy Thursday to you and Pennie, from midway on the hike to Pinnacle Peak.” What a photo!– RHW “The desert makes it easy.” 😁 – Michele

Jack Heald_Love is Stronger

“Once upon a time, I lost a friend because I thought facts beat feelings. Nope, lesson learned. When someone loves you, they trust you all the way – and facts can’t melt hearts. That’s why I learned to write ads that help people fall in love with you, not just trade money for stuff. Love: it’s stronger […]

Hais House oversized rims

Hais House Air Mattress

MMRadio Nick Loper

Nick Loper has helped tens of thousands of people bring home some serious extra cash on top of what they earn in their day jobs. In fact, Nick’s podcast, which offers a steady diet of “side hustle” ideas, has been downloaded more than 25 million times. Nick is a fountain of money-making ideas. Near the […]

Indy Explains Perspectives

Indy Explains Perspectives

Nielsen Q&A_3

Nielsen Q&A_2

QUESTION: In your summary, you said, “No daypart can cross 6A, 7P, or Midnight.” Why? I’LL BEGIN MY ANSWER WITH A QUESTION: When you ask Nielsen to calculate the Reach & Frequency of ads scheduled 6A to Midnight – (Remember: Frequency is REPETITION; the number of times an individual in your NET REACH will hear […]

Nielsen Q&A_1

SUMMARY 1. Make sure you have great ads.2. Buy a 1-week schedule with a 3-frequency. (You can go as low as a 2.5, but not 2.4.)3. No daypart can cross 6A, 7P, or Midnight.4. Buy the largest 1-week NET REACH you can afford. If you’re using more than 1 station, the Master R&F cannot drop […]

Split Brain Squirrel

Bryan Eisenberg knows I am concerned about mental decline. Not my own. Everyone else’s. Bryan’s awareness of my concern caused him to think of me when he read this from Rosita Diaz: My husband and I went through the McDonald’s driveway window and I gave the cashier a $5 bill. Our total was $4.25, so I […]

tick_tick_tick

MMRadio_Mintzberg

Dr. Henry Mintzberg has written more books than the Beatles had #1 records. He is an organization and management rock star. Dr. Mintzberg says many organizations – for-profit and nonprofit – are making a big mistake when they embrace a one-size-fits-all approach to structuring their operations. Listen as Dr. Mintzberg – who has received a whopping […]

Certified and Bona Fide Certificate

Banner for Perceptual Reality

I would like to thank the great Oogimauskii for nudging me to write to you once again about Perceptual Reality, one of my favorite topics, and an extremely important one. The cognoscenti of the Magical Worlds Workshop will remember a brief discussion of Perceptual Reality at the beginning of class.  “Each of you will sit in this […]

Peanuts Dancing

pic.twitter.com/CabnDimhgb

Roy at 11

“Paris. April. Twilight. A few flat clouds folded themselves like crepes over fillings of apricot sky. Pompadours of supper-time smoke billowed from chimneys, separating into girlish pigtails as the breeze combed them out, above the slate rooftops. Chestnut blossoms, weary from having been admired all day, wore faint smiles of anticipation with the approach of […]

Luis the digital specialist

  Luis Castañeda is a Wizard of Ads Digital Marketing Specialist, expert in B2B, Google ads, and Web Analytics. You REALLY want to read what he posted on the Wizard of Ads partner blog this week. – Indy Beagle

Craig Andrews, May 5, 2023

“Google laid off 12,000 employees. Then they bought back $70B in stock. And then they gave Sundar Pichai a big raise that raised his total compensation to $226M. And now Google is discovering that their employees are upset.” – Craig Andrews, April 5, 2023 NOTE: Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet, receives a $2 million […]

The Wizard Asks His Friends

The wizard texted the most knowledgeable tech-scientists within his circle of friends. “I’m quoting a few people in the rabbit hole on Monday. I’d like you to be one of them: What is your read on this internal Google memo? 1: is it real, or propaganda? 2: What are the implications?” These are a few […]

Teenage Boys

The mortality rate for young men in society is six times what it is for young women, from violence and from accidents, just the stupid stuff that young men do; jumping off of things they shouldn’t jump off of, lighting things on fire they shouldn’t light on fire, I mean, you know what I’m talking […]

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