Would you like to start at the beginning of Manley’s book? Here’s how to do that.  And now for the sad news: this book has only six more chapters. – Indy

In 1977 Gary Gilmore chose to be executed by firing squad. When asked if he had any final words, he said, “Let’s do this.” Meanwhile, Professor Richard Evans of Houston was teaching skills about how to resist peer pressure and other social influences. His solution? “Just say no.” Nancy Reagan decided to champion that slogan and it […]

Attend from Home! These are live, online, interactive virtual workshops! Origin Stories. Participate in this workshop and craft your best ads EVER. January 26, 2021 Martinis and Marketing. Fast-paced, hard work, fun. THIS WEEK. Tuesday, January 12. Da Vinci & the 40 Answers. Every problem you will ever face can be solved by implementing one […]

https://www.mondaymorningmemo.com/50388-2/

Check out their little chapel on the prairie currently in progress at a place they’re building called The Brim. They have acquired about 30 acres, the same amount of land as Wizard Academy. They’re running short on funding, but hey, if you could see a clear path to the end from the beginning, then it wouldn’t […]

How ridiculously big is the U.S. economy? According to the Foundation for Economic Education, each of the states on the above map is named for a country whose GDP (Gross Domestic Product) they equal. EXAMPLE: California has a GDP equal to India. New York has a GDP equal to Canada. Pennsylvania has a GDP equal […]

The biggest story in tech no one’s talking about is Uber discovering they’d been defrauded out of $100M – or 2/3 of their ad spend. And all bc Sleeping Giants kept bugging them to block their ads on Breitbart. pic.twitter.com/SiS3MndewS — Nandini Jammi (@nandoodles) January 3, 2021

If you have questions for John, or if you would like to urge him to write more tunes for the rabbit hole, you can contact him at newdrjohn@gmail.com

Van Gogh painted Starry Night sometime between June 12 and June 18, 1889, from the east-facing window of his room at Saint-Paul-de-Mausole lunatic asylum in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, just before sunrise. The painting features rolling hills, a large cypress tree, a crescent moon and 10 bright stars in their correct positions, plus the planet Venus (near the horizon just […]

“I think it was the very first painting where it’s title is the background. Think about that. There’s a town there, there’s a Cypress tree, there’s a church steeple. It could have been called The Cypress Tree. It could have been called Sleepy Village. It could have been called Rolling Hills. But no, it’s called […]

Loyalty is the quality I value most in my friends. There’s not much to say after that. It’s pretty much a one word answer. I am a ‘quote collector’…..meaning I collect quotations on subjects that are important to me. Loyalty is important to me. I will share with you quotations about loyalty that are in […]

Quitting smoking is one of the most difficult things I’ve ever done. I quit smoking more than 45 years ago; before it was known to be bad for your health. It wasn’t until 1964 that the surgeongeneral’s famous report linked smoking to cancer.The tobacco industry refuted it for years. I only started smoking because I […]

Would you like to start at the beginning of Manley’s book? Here’s how to do that. Next week, Manley will take us to a whole new place. You’re going to like it. – Indy

Love and adoration for Indy continues to grow.  In 50 years, I never recall seeing a license plate declaring love for Ken….or Roy, but Indy’s following is unquestionably solid.  Fun fact – the structure in front of car is the ‘Lightning Racer’ dueling wooden roller coaster at the Hersheypark amusement park in Hershey, PA. Ken […]

In 1964, Ringo Starr snapped a photo of some high school students who had skipped class to see the Beatles during their first trip to the US. 50 years later, the group reunited to recreate the photo. (2014) “It appears that the media has determined that baby boomers are destined to relive our lives from 50 […]

CHAPTER THREE “Park here,” said Aloha. I looked at her. I looked at the water. I looked at her. I looked at the water. “But we’re 200 feet away from the water’s edge.” She replied, “High tide,” as she reached up and twisted the key to turn off the engine. “Stay in the truck for […]

Would you like to start at the beginning of Manley’s book? Here’s how to do that. Next week, Manley will begin the final chapters of this adventure. You’re going to love how it ends, I think. – Indy

“What did I miss?” asked Alfie as he hopped down from the glovebox lid onto the seat between Bali and Ha’i. Bali answered, “Look out back.” Alfie scrambled up and peered over the seatback to see Floyd singing Row-Row-Row Your Boat in rounds with the seven blondes. “….merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, life is but a […]

“It is books, poems and paintings which often give us the confidence to take seriously feelings in ourselves that we might otherwise never have thought to acknowledge. Oscar Wilde referred to this phenomenon when he quipped that there was no fog in London before Whistler started painting the Thames.”– Alain de Botton, The Architecture of […]

“In medieval Japan, poets and priests directed the Japanese toward cherry blossoms, deformed pieces of pottery, raked gravel, moss, rain falling on leaves, autumn skies, roof tiles and unvarnished wood. A word emerged, wabi, of which no Western language, tellingly, has a direct equivalent, which identified beauty with unpretentious, simple, unfinished, transient things. There was […]

I’ve been looking into “prefiguring” in the Bible.  Isaac as Jesus because the son was sacrificed and carried his own wood. Joseph as Jesus because he was betrayed for silver, and the cupbearer and baker were prefigures of communion and the two thieves on the cross. Cupbearer forgot him. Jesus told the thief he wouldn’t […]

Indy’s Day Off by Indy Beagle Spraytan and Boxwine arrived in a white Cadillac convertible fringed in blondes.  Boxwine slid out the convertible’s passenger door and reached for the nozzle while I was filling up my new Hudson pickup on the other side of the pump. I gave him a steady stare. “What have you […]

The Bounce: How High? How Long? The 2021 we’ve all been waiting for has not yet begun. I was reminded of this when I received a meme from a friend. It said, “Omg, what’s the first thing you’re gonna do when YOU get the vaccine shot?? You’re gonna go back home, wait a month, get […]

Spraytan and Boxwine arrived in a white Cadillac convertible fringed in blondes.  Boxwine slid out the convertible’s passenger door and reached for the nozzle while I was filling up my new Hudson pickup on the other side of the pump. I gave him a steady stare. “What have you done?” “We’re headed to the lake. […]

Change Management, Fri. Jan 8th.Things are definitely changing. One option for dealing with change is to flail your arms like a drowner. Another option is to manage change with the grace of a synchronized swimmer.– Dr. Richard D. Grant Martinis & Marketing, Tues. Jan 12thHurl your enterprise forward in one epic, hard working day – you’ll […]

Devin “Spraytan” Wright with Ozzy Osbourne, when Devin was in the Navy. (Or was this when he sang with The Village People?)

Yes, my heart has been broken. Bet you think I’m going to tell you about the man who broke my heart. No, it was not a man who broke my heart. It was my best friend. I thought she was my best friend for many years. When we were younger she asked to come live […]

Read “Glenn Beck’s Regrets” in the January, 2017 issue of The Atlantic. The wizard began teaching this stuff in seminars in January, 2004, and began writing Pendulum in 2010. If you want to skip ahead to where we are now, begin reading at page 236. Keep in mind that the zenith of the “We” (and […]

The wizard began teaching this stuff in seminars in January, 2004, and began writing Pendulum in 2010. If you want to skip ahead to where we are now, begin reading at page 236. Keep in mind that the zenith of the “We” (and the beginning of the 20-year downswing toward the beginning of the “Me”) […]

Friends of mine, Deacon Blue (after Donald and Walter of Steely Dan), wrote this song during lockdown. I’m not entirely sure that Glasgow is the City of Love but I guess it works for wherever you come from. Apparently the video is phenomenal if you are high. 128 BPM… great for playing air drums and […]

I guess you could say that I taught myself how to drive. It was in a ‘49 Ford pickup truck, standard shift. It was Mama’s pickup and Dad’s extra duty pickup. We only had pickups. Dad said if you couldn’t haul ice in it, it had no place at our house. I don’t remember exactly […]

A gentleman who possessed a large personal library was asked a too-familiar question by a visitor to his home. A question so often posed to those who own a lot of books – “And have you read them all?” But this wise collector faced his visitor with an astonished look and simply replied: “No, and […]

You want to start at the beginning of Manley’s book? Here’s how to do that. Next week, Manley is going to give us #7 of The Seven Things Worth Tattooing Inside Your Forearm.  – Indy

I have combined the questions: “What is the hardest thing you have ever done?”and “What was your wedding like?” They are closely related. For my wedding we eloped to Pauls Valley, OK. He was 18 years old. I had been 16 years of age for two months. After locating the Justice of the Peace in […]

For the past several years, I have been teaching that our ‘thought’ determines our ‘beliefs,’ which determine our ‘decisions,’ which determine our ‘actions,’ which determine our ‘consequences/results.’   My question has become, “If ‘thought’ is the basis of our results, WHO is doing the thinking?”   For the vast majority of people, it is their […]

Most people who talk about community building want to romanticize it, or worse, they want to make it into a series of actionable “steps” without heart. Laís de Oliveira explains the required actions in amazing detail, but she does it with a sensitivity and a wisdom that can only come from experience. Here’s a perfect […]

Just in case you skipped this video earlier, I’m going to give you a second chance. – Indy Mary nodded Pa rum pum pum pum The ox and lamb kept time Pa rum pum pum pum I played my drum for him Pa rum pum pum pum I played my best for him Pa rum […]

    Roy and James, December 28, 1976

Change Management, Fri. Jan 8th.Things are definitely changing. One option for dealing with change is to flail your arms like a drowner. Another option is to manage change with the grace of a synchronized swimmer.– Dr. Richard D. Grant Martinis & Marketing, Tues. Jan 12thHurl your enterprise forward in one epic, hard working day – you’ll […]

  Wizard Academy’s Crowded Barrel distillery was mentioned in Forbes last week! Crowded Barrel was the world’s first distillery to make whiskey from crowdsourced recipes. The self-selected Whiskey Tribe votes on what to do, and then the Crowded Barrel does it!

You want to start at the beginning of Manley’s book? Here’s how to do that. Next week, Manley is going to give us #6 of The Seven Things Worth Tattooing Inside Your Forearm.  – Indy

Mama Py had a vegetable garden. Bright rays of color would shine from her kitchen windows as she prepared tomatoes, okra and corn on the cob with bowls of beans and fried potatoes. Her kitchen table glimmered like a leprechaun’s pot of gold. Then Daddy Py would arrive with a tinfoil bundle and two mysterious […]

My trip to China is the farthest I have traveled. I was super excited to go to China. I am partial to Chinese and Japanese art and have several pieces. If I didn’t know better, I might wonder if I had Chinese or Japanese ancestors. When I arrived in Beijing, the city was getting ready […]

I, for sure, would prefer to have an adventure than to read about one. One of my best adventures was a trip to Egypt when many chose not to go. I went to Egypt in late February, 2003. President George W. Bush, had given Iraq a deadline of March 19 before attacking. None of my […]

Reading the title of this essay, “What Would You Have Me Do?” might cause you to imagine me defending myself, saying in effect, “I had no choice.” But I want you to hear those words in an entirely different tone of voice. “What would you have me do?” is a quiet question that I often […]

Give this video its full 2 and 1/2 minutes and you will experience the persistence of memory. Sent to us by Wizard of Ads partner Monica Ballard. Mary nodded Pa rum pum pum pum  The ox and lamb kept time Pa rum pum pum pum I played my drum for him Pa rum pum pum pum I played my best for […]

There is a point in the book, near the end, when Bendiner has finished his tour but not yet been allowed to leave the aerodrome: “How stupid, how cruel to let me stay alive and safe among those who are still hostages to death. No surgeon would leave an amputated limb near the living patient.” […]

“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 […]

‘Out, Out—’BY ROBERT FROST The buzz saw snarled and rattled in the yard And made dust and dropped stove-length sticks of wood, Sweet-scented stuff when the breeze drew across it. And from there those that lifted eyes could count Five mountain ranges one behind the other Under the sunset far into Vermont. And the saw […]

  In manufacturing — especially when I was a production manager — the big craze was “lean.”  Lean manufacturing as a spin-off from the Toyota Production System was all about eliminating waste from the system.    Waste in the form of defective products. Waste in terms of WIP (Work In Progress). Waste in terms of […]