"Your purpose is to make your audience see what you saw, hear what you heard, feel what you felt. Relevant detail, couched in concrete, colorful language, is the best way to recreate the incident as it happened and to picture it for the audience." ~ Dale Carnegie, 1888-1955, American Self-Improvement Writer and Lecturer

Good to see you on this back to work Monday, September 21, 2015. I think nearly anyone who has ever perused any of my writings know that I am a fan of colorful sayings, quips, adages, and clever axioms. They may not be that big of a deal to you but I enjoy reading them and as is my wont using them as a way of communicating. When someone decides to accept your invitation for them to tag along they might just come up with something like this: "Might as well. Can’t dance, never could sing, and it’s too wet to plow." When expressing his opinion on one particular fellow's honesty it might come out like this: "He knows more ways to take your money than a roomful of lawyers." On the other hand if someone wanted to champion their own truthfulness, this might be an appropriate description: "If I say a hen dips snuff, you can look under her wing for the can." Here's how a drought might be explained: "So dry the Baptists are sprinkling, the Methodists are spitting, and the Catholics are giving rain checks." In talking about a fellow who might be light in the sophistication area, it could be said: "He’s so country he thinks a seven-course meal is a possum and a six-pack." These were a few I had not seen in a while so I thought I would share them to get us up and running today. I located them on a listing of colorful Texas sayings on the internet. There are plenty on the list that I grew up hearing over there across the Sabine River, you know, some say that river divides up between good versus great football teams. I'll let you think about that one and come up with your own saying. Here's one you might recognize: Geaux Tigers!

I am aware that we do live in a world where people appear to be sitting on the edge of their chair waiting to be offended. That being said, this stupid program called The View made a number of disparaging remarks directed towards a Miss America contestant who did a monologue as her talent presentation. That monologue included her wearing her work uniform since she is a nurse. The way the remarks were phrased tended to denigrate the nursing profession as a whole. Wow! The response was immediate and overwhelming. There's nearly 3 million nurses in our nation and a whole lot of them and their supporters let The View know they were very unhappy with their critical comments about those who are in the nursing profession. You have to love liberals. After this firestorm, the two main offenders attempted something they called an apology. Here's a summary of what they said: "Sorry that you did not understand the humor we were attempting to portray. Next time try to do a better job of listening." This is my interpretation of what they said, not their exact words. It didn't surprise me. That's how they always do it. Meanwhile, two major sponsors withdrew their commercials as a protest. Regarding the initial show where these comments were made they, on that same show, took on and skewered a comedian for making fun of fat people. How ironic. They feel free to have open season on nurses and say it was their attempt at comedy but this other lady dare not do a video where she criticizes overweight people. Nurses have asked people to please boycott watching the program. I'm all for it. In fact, I've boycotted it from the get go and will do my best to continue doing so going forward. 

Tracking the comments of many of my Santa brothers on Facebook has been kind of fun. I know there are people who dearly love the Christmas season. I've got a fair amount of that sentiment in me as well. As a professional Santa I approach the season with anticipation, excitement, and a good measure of dread. The dread part comes from knowing how hectic it will be in terms of making our schedules work. My wife is a little more laid back and she helps keep me calm but working full-time and also trying to do a dozen are more appearances can be challenging. Don't get me wrong. When I am in the chair dealing with children of all ages there is no way to fully describe the happy happy happy that invades my being. When they lift a little one out of their wheel chair and place them in my lap and I see those eyes sparkling like the stars above, well, it is something to experience my friend, something indeed! It's the getting ready and getting there that can be arduous. The little countdown graphic was posted by a Santa who says he can hardly wait. He put it up last Friday. I used it because I had never seen that particular one before. I'm glad he is as excited as he is. There's also a fairly large number of brand new Santas and they are very nervous about it all. I well remember that. And, just so you know, I still get nervous before we make our entrance. Why? It has to do with wanting to do our very best for those who are anxious to see us. It's a different kind of nervousness than that when I first started but I think when I no longer feel any nervousness at all, well, it may be time to take my sleigh and head for the hills. Have a great rest of the day Monday and I will see you next time. May God bless. Amen. ....More later.