People often cite that public speaking is the greatest fear, but it's not. It's a myth. Hey, I didn't see anyone at the party dressed up as a public speaker -- you know, the ones on the circuit with the creepy Botox, amazing dental work, and buttoned-down business garb.

We all might be creeped out by these kinds of public speakers, but no one's really scared of public speaking itself. Not really.

They're scared of what happens as a result of public speaking. Like me, they might be scared of being a social outcast or ostracized for something they say (or how they say it.) They might be afraid (like my buttoned-down party pal) of sounding unnatural and inhuman.

Those are some of the real fears behind the myth of the fear of public speaking. The oft-parroted "fear of public speaking" myth prevents folks from addressing their real fears.

Fun for Halloween and thoughtful. Follow the link to read the whole post.

Another interview that claims to be with the oldest Toastmaster in the world, but this one is engaging and entertaining, and it's well produced too. This interview should have made it to the Toastmasters podcast.

It's the birthday of Ezra Pound, (books by this author) born in Hailey, Idaho (1885). Pound was born within a few years of James Joyce, William Carlos Williams, D.H. Lawrence, Marianne Moore, Hilda Doolittle, and T.S. Eliot, and he was instrumental in promoting the careers of each one of these writers — as well as many, many others. He was a champion of modern poetry and prose; Richard Ellmann and Robert O'Clair proclaimed that it was Ezra Pound "more than anyone who made poets write modern verse, editors publish it, and readers read it." He was extraordinarily generous with his clout, often described as "the poet's poet." Pound's mantra was "Make it new."

Schmaltz is the Yiddish word for rendered chicken fat.   For Jews who keep kosher, schmaltz substitutes for butter when cooking meat.  That’s important because, as everyone knows, butter makes everything taste better.

And if your  “bubbeh” (Yiddish for grandmother; rhymes with tubby) wanted to give you something delicious, she would spread  salted schmaltz on a bagel (Don’t knock it if you haven’t tried it).  In other words, it adds flavor.

When I tell people to add schmaltz to a story, I mean that they need to add the flavoring that fills out the tale and makes it more interesting to the listener.

I have to admit the title got my attention first, but there's good advice here. Follow the link to see it all.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom. -Isaac Asimov, scientist and writer (1920-1992)