I’m 21 years old but my thinning hair makes me look about 30. I consider this to be my greatest asset. I walk the retail sidewalks, looking in windows, deciding if I will go in. A peddler goes door to door unthinkingly, playing the odds, tossing his pitch to anyone who will catch it like […]

I like Brian’s poem, don’t you? It reminds me of something I read once:“Books, like friends, should be carefully chosen. They influence you even when you don’t think they do.” – Indy Beagle

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When Water Falls from the Sky What if we had no word for rain? What if, generation after generation, we simply called it water-falling-from-the-sky? “Words. I’m surrounded by thousands of words. Maybe millions. Words have swirled around me like snowflakes – each one delicate and different, each one melting untouched in my hands. Deep within me, […]

According to a story at TheStreet.com, “Movie-theater chain AMC  will no longer screen films made by Comcast-owned Universal Pictures after Universal opted to bypass theaters and release its ‘Trolls: World Tour’ animated movie directly to consumers amid the coronavirus pandemic and global lockdown.” “Effectively immediately AMC will no longer play any Universal movies in any of […]

Wanna hear something else that’s kind of interesting? Just a few hours after the wizard wrote about Paul Giamatti’s Dad for today’s Monday Morning Memo, Paul Giamatti showed up on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

Tessa in the winds of La Mancha

Hoots and Thomas are wonderful Wizard of Ads partners and they are magical when it comes to fundraising. Read Donoricity by Steve Thomas.

In 1842, Fred Barnett Miller of New Orleans – an employee of the Federal government – was told to relocate “out west” to a little settlement called Rillo.  So Fred made the trip to Rillo and immediately went to the telegraph office. Upon his arrival he paid the telegraph operator to respond to all telegraphs sent […]

John Engelbrecht handed me a sealed envelope 13 years ago and said, “Someday I’ll be gone. When that happens, give this to my son.” The time has come for me to give that envelope to his son. John Engelbrecht, in good spirits, died unexpectedly of a massive heart attack on Saturday, April 18. I liked […]

The Wisdom of Early Reinvention A few years ago, Yvon Chouinard was asked, “How do you know if you’re making the right move? He said, “It’s a lot of gut instinct. If you study something to death, if you wait for the customer to tell you what he wants, you’re going to be too late, especially […]

I love the smell of wood burning fires, rainy days and salt air. I love my gardens, birds on my feeder, Critters in my yard …and my cats. I love my friends and neighbors and my family. Listening to music, beautiful things, children’s laughter, Reading a book in the sunroom…in my favorite chair. I love […]

Thanks, Geno! You’re right. That guy is amazing. He takes things that don’t belong together, and then makes them fit. Which is the point the wizard always tries to make during Day Three of Magical Worlds.  Do you remember what you wrote in Chaotic Ad Writing? A lot of people remember years later because of […]

I love thick novels and biographiesGetting lost in a good story.Spending time in nature.Deep conversations with good friends. I love rock-climbing with my daughters,Hiking and running and camping.I love being forgivenAnd being married to my best friend. I love traveling and seeing new places.People-watching in airports And immigration queues When I choose wisely. I love […]

Indy,Here’s my list: I love gadgets when they work,Unexpected perks, Walking dogs at noon…And tunes.​ I love the blue in my wife’s eyes, Road trips in July, Counting off the miles…​And smiles.​ ​And I love you, too.​​ I love Sunday Afternoons, Sunny days in June, Not using the word like…​And bikes.​ I love helping out […]

The last Keeper of the Light got up to snuff it out. No candle can rival the sun when it shines, even if it doesn’t often shine at this end of the world. Still young, the candle had only been lit for one night. The hand that held the flame was young, too, with barely […]

I noticed you put “Dust in the Wind” in last week’s rabbit hole. That song has been in my head since Tuesday evening when my youngest brother called to tell me that our Mom had died. Mom got her first pair of shoes from the welfare lady when she was seven years old. She said they […]

“The house has grown into a knowledgeable witness. It has been party to early seductions, it has watched homework being written, it has observed swaddled babies freshly arrived from hospital, it has been surprised in the middle of the night by whispered conferences in the kitchen. It has experienced winter evenings when its windows were […]

Your Mama told me you’ve been troubled.Your Mama told me you’ve been sad. Your Mama told me you’ve been worried;That things are lookin’ pretty bad. I told your Mama not to worry.I told your Mama not to cry.I told your Mama we’d come through this.We’re invincible, you and I. She said to tell you that she […]

“Enjoyed the show, Ryan is BRILLIANT … might i recommend you invite an IDIOT for the next show so you two can SPARKLE … it’s similar to why you hang out with fat friends, it’s so you look skinny. Yes, i would volunteer but i can’t drive 1000 + miles just to make you two look […]

A new article in Popular Science asks, “Did Uranus get smacked so hard it spun sideways?” Charlie Wood’s opening paragraph tells us: “Like other giant planets, Uranus has a set of rings and more than a dozen moons that make it resemble a miniature solar system unto itself. But unlike its king-sized neighbors (and the rest […]

How a Thing Becomes Special Meats and vegetables are ordinary, but put them on a stick and it’s Shish Kabob.Frozen Kool-Aid is frozen Kool-Aid; put it on a stick and it’s a popsicle. A marshmallow is one thing, but a marshmallow on a stick means a campfire.A frankfurter is a weenie, but a frankfurter on a […]

Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain! Are you thinking about writing something? Does it have you scared spitless? Does it make you doubt yourself? Good. You’ll fit right in here. I’m work starting on my 10th novel and here’s the dirty little secret. It’s just as hard, just as nerve-wracking, just as […]

“The weather had somewhat lightened, and the clouds massed in squadron; but the fierce wind still hunted them through heaven, and cast great ungainly splashes of sunlight and shadow over the scene.” – Robert Louis Stevenson, Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes (1878) p. 52

A Voluntary Death Father Giuseppe Berardelli was a Catholic priest who served in Casnigo, a small village not far from Milan. He was 72 when he died of the novel coronavirus. But he wasn’t the first. Catholic officials tell us more than 50 priests have died so far.  Yet it is notable that Father Berardelli’s small-village parishoners […]

“To live sanely in Los Angeles (or, I suppose, in any other large American city) you have to cultivate the art of staying awake. You must learn to resist (firmly but not tensely) the unceasing hypnotic suggestions of the radio, the billboards, the movies and the newspapers; those demon voices which are forever whispering in […]

“Bear hunting is not a spur-of-the-moment activity. If you are in the woods and see a bear, and then decide, ‘I am hunting bear,’ you are at a distinct disadvantage. You probably won’t have the proper equipment at hand. It is another matter altogether if a bear suddenly sees you and decides, ‘I am hunting […]