A TOM ROBBINS:“Everything in the universe is connected, of course. It’s just a matter of using imagination to discover the links, and language to expand and enliven them… I always start with three or four completely unrelated big ideas, and maybe a character or two who have ostensible connections neither to each other nor to any […]

  A CINDERELLA: Watch the short video below featuring Kurt Vonnegut and youwill understand the shapes of stories. When you are finished, click theimage of me, Indy Beagle, to advance to the next page. Six Narrative Arcs:• ‘Rags to riches’ (rise) • ‘Tragedy’, or ‘Riches to rags’ (fall)• ‘Man in a hole’ (fall-rise)• ‘Icarus’ (rise-fall)• ‘Cinderella’ (rise-fall-rise)• ‘Oedipus’ […]

THE WINDSHIELD WIPERS OF A VOLKSWAGEN JETTA: A CINDERELLA taught us the fundamental elements of stories are “rise” and “fall.” TWO ROADS THAT DIVERGE IN A YELLOW WOOD taught us the importance of taking an unanticipated path. TOM ROBBINS taught us to harness random things so that we might escape predictability. A PILE OF BRIDGES […]

Robert Kerbeck has had a long career as a highly paid corporate spy stealing private intelligence so detailed it would make the CIA proud. Business-on-business spying is a huge industry — full of deceit and lies — and this week Robert shares secrets of the dark art with roving reporter Rotbart. It’s always Monday morning […]

Capt. Renault: What in heavens name brought you to Casablanca?Rick: My health. I came to Casablanca for the waters.Capt. Renault: The waters? What waters? We’re in the desertRick: I was misinformed.

Jim Edwards has managed hundreds of employees and would grade himself a “B” as a manager. So why do business owners worldwide turn to Jim for recommendations on how they can improve as a leader? Jim says, “You don’t have to be a superstar to outperform your competitors.” That’s just one of the common sense, funny, blunt […]

Stupid People… I See Them Everywhere

“In 1962, 16-year-old Miguel fled Cuba wearing a jacket his mother had hand-stitched from cleaning rags. He arrived alone in America. ‘Hamburger’ was his only English word. Five years later Miguel married a teenage mother and adopted her 3-year-old son, little Jeffrey Jorgensen. Miguel gave Jeffrey the skill and confidence to survive and thrive. He […]

“In a bombing run over Kassel, Germany, Elmer Bendiner’s B-17 bomber was barraged by 20-millimeter shells which resulted in direct hits on their gas tanks. But none of the shells exploded. The next day, the maintenance chief found 11 shells inside the gas tanks, any one of which should have taken the plane down.  When […]

Todd Mitchell is a creativity sherpa that rescues writers, artists, musicians, actors, entrepreneurs, and innovators who are struggling with self-doubt and circling the drain in failure. You’re not down the drain yet! Raise your arm out of the water and let Todd Mitchell pull you back up into the air and sunlight where you belong. 

In 1933, Beryl Markham was a bush pilot in Kenya.Her stories of flying over Africa 90 years ago are remarkable. “To see ten thousand animals untamed and not branded with the symbols of human commerce is like scaling an unconquered mountain for the first time, or like finding a forest without roads or footpaths, or […]

Fifty Victorian lamps – spaced barely 50 feet apart – draw an inexplicable line of light through the wilderness that separates Wizard Academy from its neighbors. Hundreds of thousands of people will see these lights each year and wonder, “Who? What? Why?” The truly curious will discover that each Victorian Lamp has a little brass […]

  “If there were no schools to take the children away from home part of the time, the insane asylums would be filled with mothers.” – E.W. Howe

“It’s steel country, anthracite country, a place full of holes. Smokestacks fume and locomotives trundle back and forth on elevated conduits and leafless trees stand atop slag heaps like skeleton hands shoved up from the underworld.” – p 24 “Night falls, autumn in 1936, and Werner carries the radio downstairs and sets it on the […]

Every Wall Needs Lateral Support I lost touch with one of the Charlies in my life 46 years ago. We knew each other for only a couple of years. People say there are only 3 kinds of drunks: the happy drunk, the angry drunk, and the sad drunk. Charlie was a sad drunk. He was […]

Do you want to “Walk Around with Stephen Semple” for free? – Anni Elf       This will be the cover of “Walking Around with Stephen Semple, Volume 2”

 

A Day at the Zoo People in museums stop to look at paintings that have people in them, but walk past paintings that have no people. Ninety percent of the books sold each year are fiction. Ninety percent of the books written each year are non-fiction. The same is true in movies and television: fiction […]

“But words are things, and a small drop of ink,falling like dew, upon a thought, producesthat which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think.” – Lord Byron

  Richard CoryBY EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON Whenever Richard Cory went down town, We people on the pavement looked at him: He was a gentleman from sole to crown, Clean favored, and imperially slim.   And he was always quietly arrayed, And he was always human when he talked; But still he fluttered pulses when he said, […]

“He said, ‘There is no way for me to express the pleasure I received from listening to the old radio programs. In my mind, those wonderful heroes were magnificent. No movie, no television program, not even real-life could have equated what my imagination could conjure up. Amazingly, all of those heroes’ he says, ‘looked a […]

Rob Lohman was sitting in jail facing a 13-year prison sentence. Alcohol and drug addiction, gambling, bankruptcies, and a suicide attempt were just scenery along the road that brought him there. Rob was released from prison after less than a year. He has turned his life around and used savvy marketing to build a business guiding […]

I have seen friends walk away from relationships, jobs, and promising careers when all they really needed was some time and space to gather their thoughts, slow their heart rate, and rediscover their joy. I’m not saying you should always, “hang on one more day at a time and wait for things to get better.” […]

If you have paid taxes, borrowed money, invested, or bought anything, Janet Yellen has had more influence over your wallet than any other person on earth. No other person in American history has served as Chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisors, then Chair of the Federal Reserve, and now, Secretary of the […]

This email arrived today from the English teacher of my 13-year-old daughter. She took Peter and Gary’s Young Writer’s Workshop at Wizard Academy this summer. – Tim Miles

“Alchemy is the power to change or create things in a way that seems mysterious and magical, transmuting a common substance, usually of little value, into a substance of great value. Through the creation of handcrafted cocktails, fresh coffees, and indulgent desserts, the same process will be experienced in ALCHEMY.” “You will experience the mystery […]

Many business owners and company employees find their younger colleagues irritating. Guess what? The feeling is mutual, as Millennials and Gen-Z often lack respect for their older co-workers. Chris DeSantis has studied generational differences for 18 years and believes the generational friction that is so prevalent these days can be leveraged to the benefit of […]

“STAY AWAY FROM MY SISTER, YOU’VE ALREADY DIED ONCE. GET THE HINT!” You might be confused, let me explain. It was a rather boring day at Meadowlands high. Normally Philip Loon, the English teacher’s son, makes something explode in science class. Or Molly Billsborough goes around selling free homework answers. But today, the silence was deafening. It was […]

“World class cereal-eating is a dance of fine compromises. The giant heaping bowl of sodden cereal, awash in milk, is the mark of the novice. Ideally one wants the bone-dry cereal nuggets and the cryogenic milk to enter the mouth with minimal contact and for the entire reaction between them to take place in the […]

“People who see the world as a dark and scary place with conspiracies under every doorstep and the world on the edge of collapse owe this worldview to the social media 24/7 news-cycle. Hollywood has turned Fear Mongering into a high-dollar industry.  No matter how amazing our world becomes, it will still be filled with anxious, […]

The written word has no meaning until it has been translated into the spoken word in the mind. Listening to the repetitive notes in the music of Johann Sebastian Bach inspired Ernest Hemingway to write A Farewell to Arms. Listening to Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 inspired James Michener to write 20 or 30 pages before […]

ROYGBIV: A Pixar Supercut from Rishi Kaneria on Vimeo.

“I painted it around, I guess, 1993 when I met Don Freed [her boyfriend] for the first time. He said, ‘How are you?’ And I said, ‘Undervalued.’ [Laughs.] And I was. I was very frustrated because the normal outlets for getting your product marketed in my business, those doors had been closed to me, and […]

GEORGE LUCAS: This scene is set in the roughest bar you can imagine, filled with violent scumbags who will cut your arm off if you look at them sideways. JOHN WILLIAMS: What kind of music will they be playing? GEORGE LUCAS: Light jazz

“When Glenn left the house, the sky was a satin Spinnaker Blue with White Feather clouds, the still-moist lawn and street were glossy Sunlit Glade and Bastion Grey, and, contemplating the to-do list jotted on Ivory Cream notepaper as he started the Sundance Yellow hatchback, Glenn knew he would go flat Condition Red berserk if […]

What keeps me from dressing like that 24/7? JeanLuc Godard said, ‘All you need for a movie is a gun and a girl.’ Men are fascinated by girls and by guns.Girls: bringers of life.Guns: bringers of death. For what purpose does the gun exist – even the humble .22 hunting rifle – if not for delivering […]

“After shooting the bastard, the girls debated where to bury the body. But neither of ’em had the foresight to bring a shovel.” – caption proposed by Tom Grimes of Amarillo

“People who see the world as a dark and scary place with conspiracies under every doorstep and the world on the edge of collapse owe their worldview to the social media 24/7 news-cycle. Hollywood has turned Fear Mongering into a high-dollar $$$ industry.  No matter how amazing our world becomes, it will still be filled with […]

“For around 15 minutes in the early eighties I visited with Sam Walton in Broken Arrow inside a Walmart store. The inside lining of his old sport coat was coming out. He asked an associate for needle and thread so he himself could sew it up. We had a fun visit. Only wish I had a […]

The first is a thought that I’ve long held and it has served me well. The second is a derivation that hit me today and I find pretty damming of our healthcare systems. 1) Information gaps are easily filled with paranoia. 2) Healthcare gaps are filled with quackery. – Tim (Eye of the) Storm

Get out your piggy bank… A Chinese company is looking to sell three major U.S. resort hotels at a combined price tag of $1.3 billion, seeking to cash out these holdings during a powerful surge in leisure travel and resort business.  Dajia Insurance Group Co. is putting up for sale the Montage in Laguna Beach, […]

I recently spent $10,000 on a registered Black Angus bull. I put him out with the herd but he just ate grass and wouldn’t even look at a cow. I was beginning to think I had paid more for that bull than he was worth. Anyway, I had the vet come and take a look […]

How did Newton Minow ruin television?

“You can take one of the greatest of all cosmic perspectives that exist, and it’s the revelation that emerged – mid 20th century – that the atoms of our body are traceable to the crucibles in the centers of stars, that then later exploded, scattering that enrichment into pristine gas clouds that then formed star […]

Hunter S. Thompson to Richard Nixon: “Let me ask you a question, sir: what is this country doing for the doomed? There are two kinds of people in this country, the doomed and the screwheads. […] I was never really frightened by the bopheads, and the potheads with their silliness never really frightened me either, […]

“My, but it’s nice an’ cold this mornin’! The thermometer’s done fell up to zero! Mrs. Wiggs made the statement as cheerfully as if her elbows were not sticking out through the boy’s coat that she wore, or her teeth chattering in her head like a pair of castanets. But, then, Mrs. Wiggs was a […]

Steve Curtin has been officially ranked as one of the top 30 customer service experts in the world. His clients include Carnival Cruise Line, NAPA Auto Parts, and TJ Maxx. Steve believes every owner and every manager needs to have “the conversation” with every employee about why their job matters, and why their company matters. […]

Roy and Pennie, Talya and I are visiting with Avital and Ben in St. Thomas. It is lovely here.   I’m sending the Oct 3 MMR description now, so that I don’t inadvertently overlook it during the hectic week to come. (We are supposed to leave for Florida mid-week, but Hurricane Ian may beat us there.) […]

“Columbus’s real achievement was managing to cross the ocean successfully in both directions. Though an accomplished enough mariner, he was not terribly good at a great deal else, especially geography, the skill that would seem most vital in an explorer. It would be hard to name any figure in history who has achieved more lasting […]

Why it’s Important to Take Chances by Gideon Williams (12) Have you ever had a dream, a dream where you’re on a vast stage in front of an audience waiting to present yourself? Well I have every night since I was seven years old, and so I started performing on stage presenting myself for who […]

Indy, a few Memo’s back you mentioned Andrew Carnegie of Carnegie Steel. He dedicated his life to give the profits of his company away, more than $300,000,000. Later he sold Carnegie Steel to J.P. Morgan for $350,000,000 making him the richest man in the world. Carnegie’s philanthropy built libraries all over America, some big towns but primarily small […]

Six times a year, Jonathan Dahl produces a magazine that reaches 1.8 million global executives and business owners. He also publishes a weekly online newsletter that has gets more than 3.5 million annual page views. Jonathan generates dazzling corporate content for a privately held consulting firm. “Whether your company has 5 employees or 5,000,” Jonathan […]