Greetings Indy,   I felt the need to share this with you. I have determined as I have gotten older that finding and sharing authentic thoughts and feelings about people I admire or have done good things for me is good for my soul. Hopefully good for theirs as well.   There are many impressive […]

Several decades ago, when treating substance abuse problems, psychologists developed a technique called motivational interviewing. The central premise: Instead of trying to force other people to change, you’re better off helping them find their own intrinsic motivation to change. You do that by interviewing them — asking open-ended questions and listening carefully — and holding […]

Da Vinci and the 40 Answers (Virtual) – February 2, 2021 $750 (Academy alumni receive a 50 percent discount.) To Sell the Truth (Virtual) – February 16, 2021 Online Workshop$750 (Academy alumni receive a 50 percent discount.) If you participate in one of these workshops, you will become an Academy Alumnus and forever thereafter receive […]

Wow. Only 3 chapters left. And you are going to love the big, sad, optimistic, New Orleans ending. Can you believe we started this book 32 weeks ago? If you want to go back and refresh your memories of the earlier chapters, this is your ticket to get there. – Indy Beagle

When you see a less-expensive, but hard-to-find wine from a vineyard known for high-end wines, that wine will usually be a second pressing. If a first pressing yields 100 gallons of juice, the second pressing will yield maybe 10, hence the “hard-to-find.” The characteristic of a second pressing is that it tastes “juicier” due to […]

Greetings from the west coast of Scotland. I wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed last week’s memo about twilight – also my favourite time of day.  I had the privilege of attending a course at the Wizard Academy in 2016 and joining in the workshop on eclipse day in Nashville the following year. […]

Keep Right on to the End of the Road Ev’ry road thro’ life is a long, long road, Fill’d with joys and sorrows too, As you journey on how your heart will yearn For the things most dear to you. With wealth and love ’tis so, But onward we must go. Keep right on to the end of the road, Keep […]

You own the conclusion you arrive at. “Q managed to make us feel special, that we were being given very critical information that basically was going to save all that is good in the world and the United States. We felt we were coming from a place of moral superiority. We were part of a […]

“Why is it that so many ghosts prefer to travel the halls of night? Ask the living and they will tell you that these spirits either have some unquenched desire or an unaddressed grievance that stirs them from their sleep and sends them out into the world in search of solace. But the living are […]

My friends and colleagues who have reached the age of 70 or beyond appear to have little interest in the topic of death. I’m a different kind of guy. It might be because twice in my last eight years, I thought I was making a grand exit. For me, neither time was a scary experience. […]

When you start pressing the grapes, the juice that gushes out easily is the first pressing. Squeeze the grapes tighter and you break into that small, inner chamber of the grape where a different kind of juice is gathered around the seeds.

“Giving a microphone to every human being is the worst mistake we have made in human history.” ME: Are you saying social media was a mistake? “When dealing with people, remember you are not dealing with creatures of logic, but with creatures of emotion, creatures bristling with prejudice and motivated by pride and vanity.” ­– Dale […]

We were sitting in my backyard sharing a $600 bottle of wine he had brought. He said, “I got all 250 of my employees together on a Zoom call and told them, ‘You can disagree passionately and share your opinion while we are in the discussion phase, but when a decision has been made, you […]

It was a Saturday afternoon in September 1989, and I was home alone unpacking boxes when the phone rang. And a woman that I did not know started to interrogate me. “Are you Dr. Lombardi?  Are you Dr. George Lombardi?  Are you an infectious disease specialist?  Did you live and work and do research in East Africa?  Are you considered to […]

“In Niteroi it is possible to smell a sea breeze that carries neither suntan lotion nor the stench of caffeine. Are you thinking that caffeine is odorless? Ask a dog. Be warned, however, that the dogs here speak only Portuguese.” – Mark Helprin, Memoir From Antproof Case, p.9

https://youtu.be/sZdXi9BfZAc?t=5 Want to read “Those Glorious Creative Handcuffs”?

This isn’t a photoshop fake! It really happened! Click here to read the story.

Last Warning: If you click this link it will take you to a webpage where you will see a 7-min video that will freak you out. The footage is real and 81 years old. It shows exactly what happened the last time the pendulum was in this position. When you’re finished, back-click to this page and thenclick my hat to go to the next […]

Origin Stories (Virtual) – January 26, 2021 $750 (Academy alumni receive a 50 percent discount.) Da Vinci and the 40 Answers (Virtual) – February 2, 2021 $750 (Academy alumni receive a 50 percent discount.) To Sell the Truth (Virtual) – February 16, 2021 Online Workshop$750 (Academy alumni receive a 50 percent discount.) If you participate […]

The Twilight of Consciousness I have long been fascinated by twilight. In fact, I often use that word to describe flavors that are complex and muted.  But what is twilight, really? “Twilight is the illumination of the lower atmosphere when the Sun is not directly visible because it is below the horizon. Twilight is produced by sunlight scattering in the upper atmosphere, illuminating the […]

A beautiful photo, right? Let’s talk about why. First, notice where each person is looking. Second, look at the positions of their legs and feet. Third, the slanted horizon, blue waves at the left, trees at the right with water-blue clouds, low over the trees. But these are the kinds of things you can see […]

Would you like to start at the beginning of Manley’s book? Here’s how to do that.  Do you realize this marvelous book has only 5 more chapters? – Indy

“There is a strange duality in the human which makes for an ethical paradox. We have definitions of good qualities and of bad. Of the good, we always think of wisdom, tolerance, kindliness, generosity, humility; and the qualities of cruelty, greed, self-interest, graspingness, and rapacity are universally considered undesirable. And yet in our structure of […]

An old man meets a young man who asks: “Do you remember me?” And the old man says no. Then the young man tells him he was his student, And the teacher asks: “What do you do, what do you do in life?” The young man answers: “Well, I became a teacher.” “ah, how good, […]

I am a game designer with experience in a very small niche. I create and research games designed to be played in reality. I’ve worked in Alternate Reality Games (ARGs), LARPs, experience fiction, interactive theater, and “serious games”. Stories and games that can start on a computer, and finish in the real world. Fictions designed […]

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 […]