If you enjoy the sound of wine pouring into your cup from the hand of a friend, call or email Daniel@WizardAcademy.org – 512-720-8801 – and let him know of your plan to donate a case of wine to Wizard Academy. The easiest thing to do is donate the dollars by credit card and we’ll pick […]

This one minute of inexplicable weirdness will lure the two hemispheres of your brain into a head-on collision. Your logical, rational, sequential, deductive-reasoning (and verbal) left brain will struggle to make sense of the speaking man while your intuitive, open and musical right brain will want to go sailing in Currucucu Paloma with Caetano Veloso.  You will be […]

When Pennie told me Prince had died my thoughts immediately fled to Bono. I was 12 when Jimi Hendrix died, suddenly and all at once. I was 19 when Elvis died at the snap of a finger. Elvis was 42. Michael Jackson and I were exactly the same age when he checked out at 50. Prince – […]

Famous magician Brian Brushwood talked about old-fashioned card games while hanging out at The Toad and Ostrich.

The wizard spent 2 years recruiting this young writer. Asia Gregg is the newest (and youngest) of the 46 Wizard of Ads partners. Asia had been trying to sell a piccolo on Craigslist for 7 months. Finally, she got frustrated and decided to go all Chuck Norris on that piccolo. Take a look below at what […]

Roll with me on this one. It’s a two-parter. This first video clip – less than 2 minutes long – is from the opening scene of Guardians of the Galaxy, one of the great feel-good movies of recent years. Pay special attention to the music, then click the Mirth banner and I’ll give you Part […]

The rock cistern in the background collects rainwater for Dorothy Parker’s swimming pool. Dorothy Parker is the mink who lives in Tuscan Court on the campus of Wizard Academy.

During Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s visit to Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics a few days ago, a journalist jokingly asked the Prime Minister to explain quantum computing. He called their bluff with a spot-on explanation. This is a very cool 1-minute video.

You can become a member for $40/mo or $100/mo. Get the details.

Steinbeck and Charley closed each of their days on the road with some whiskey in a coffee. Here’s an example of that tradition in Steinbeck’s inimitable voice: The climate changed quickly to cold and the trees burst into color, the reds and yellows you can’t believe. It isn’t only color but a glowing, as though the leaves gobbled […]

Grant Cooper was the first person to stay in Rocinante, the John Steinbeck look-alike truck from his famous travelogue Travels With Charley. Charley was the standard size poodle who traveled shoulder-to-shoulder with him. According to Steinbeck, As he sat in the seat beside me, his head was almost as high as mine. He put his nose […]

Mabel’s Foundling Mabel is a widow deep in poverty with two hungry children of her own. Washing other people’s laundry ten hours a day, Mabel earns barely enough money to keep them fed. To keep a roof over their heads, she works for a real estate man who moves her and the children from shack […]

“Hi, my name’s Roy Williams and I’d like to include the letter you wrote to Admiral David McDonald in a book I’ve written that’s about to go to press. May I have your permission to do that, sir?” “Where you calling from?” “Austin, Texas.” “I was in Austin recently.” “I wish I had known. Maybe […]

While traveling in France, the naval officer in the photo on the right witnessed an incident involving an American sailor that touched him so deeply he sent the following letter to the chief of naval operations in Washington, D.C. The letter is taken from the amazing book, Letters of a Nation, edited by our pal, Andrew Carroll. […]

  [crickets SFX. Trucks pulling by] ANNCR: These are the owners of Allbritten Heating and Air Conditioning. JERRY: Umm. Andrea? ANDREA: Yes Dad? JERRY: Why are you …uh… dressed up like a fire woman? ANDREA: Because at Allbritten, we’re here to help people. We come to the RESCUE! JERRY: Yeah, with their furnace problem. ANDREA: […]

ORIGINAL (GRADE LEVEL 19.5 THAT’S 3.5 YEARS OF GRAD SCHOOL): The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen United States of America When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate […]

PDF   Cervantes_1613_The_Conversation_of_the_Dogs_IndyBeagle If you plan to rewrite the story, you’ll want to begin with the editable Word doc below. Cervantes_1613_The_Conversation_of_the_Dogs The goal is to tell the complete story in fewer words using simpler language. Don’t worry about the grade level of your writing. Just make it simple and fun to read and do your […]

A developer is someone who wants to build a house in the woods. An environmentalist is someone who already has a house in the woods.” – Dennis Miller We think everyone else sees what we see. How could they not? And we think everyone else would believe what we believe if only we could explain […]

The sidewalk on the right leads to the Jane DeDecker sculpture of Santiago and his marlin from The Old Man and The Sea (by Ernest Hemingway,) where, if you turn left, you can proceed down the underground approach to the tower. The ramp leading upwards on the left takes you to the ground floor of the […]

Engelbrecht House viewed from Chapel Dulcinea, Spring, 2016

Your Own Personal Reality We think everyone else sees what we see. How could they not? And we think everyone else would believe what we believe if only we could explain it to them clearly. But this is almost never true. Two people stand shoulder-to-shoulder observing a scene. One person sees pain and injustice and […]

Cognoscenti Jeff Sylvestre thought you should see this and I agree.  – Indy

Hi Steve, Roy & Daniel- Quick note to let you all know that last March’s Public Speaking class has been amazing for me. I’ve used it countless times in the past 12 months. On Sunday it will be on full display in front of 80 of the smartest retail, brand and agency executives at the […]

Roy, I think God loves me. I met with Xxxxxx Xxxxxxxx today in New York. It was a very productive 4 hour meeting. In the meeting they asked me to include in my monthly contract things I’m not good at. But I thought to myself that I have a partner in Phoenix named Austin Leonard (copied […]

Inside the Outside It hit me. “I’ve become an eavesdropper, listening to the conversations of strangers.” It’s 5:00AM and I’m sitting at the bar of an all-night café on the wrong side of town eating a three-dollar breakfast, listening to the smelly, funny stories of downtrodden people who know each other well. Their sparkling banter gives […]

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Check out the embroidery on the first cake and the cool cacti on the cake behind me. Princess Pennie had an Open House on campus last week and these goodies were brought by Sara Mayes of My Sweet Austin.

What a great day to enroll in Wizard Academy’s American Small Business Institute!

What good is sitting alone in your room? Come hear the music play. Life is a Cabaret, old chum, Come to the Cabaret. Put down the knitting, The book and the broom. Time for a holiday. Life is Cabaret, old chum, Come to the Cabaret. Come taste the wine, Come hear the band. Come blow […]

 

This is an extremely very good day to enroll in Wizard Academy’s American Small Business Institute.

The Princess planted some wildflowers last autumn. That’s when you have to do it.

 

EPISODE 4 – How to Hate Your Visit to Russia: Don’t Carry Small Change, Try to Pay for Things With Large Notes. I should have known better. I’ve been living here in St Petersburg for 12 years now. In a sense, I have no excuse. But you see, the sun was shining. That Spring smell of […]

This is that awesome rant I told you about in the PS of today’s Monday Morning Memo. “Leaders and The Committee.” Here’s how you can reach Mick and the rest of the Wizard of Ads Partners. Mick Torbay: I need to talk to you about leaders and the committee, and what each brings to the table. I’m going […]

The meeting places of the Worthless Bastards is a rapidly growing list! We now have gatherings in Austin, Tucson, Loveland, CO, Columbia, MO, and Kona, Hawaii.