Membership in Toastmasters International is not free, but at $10 per month is an excellent value

 

 

 

 

 

At rollingout on April 14, 2024 there is an article by Mr. Digital Fingers titled 4 clubs or groups to join free to improve your public speaking.

 

He lists the following four:

 

1] Toastmasters International

2] Meetup Public Speaking Groups

3] Online Public Speaking Communities

4] Local Libraries and Community Centers

 

But he is wrong about that first item. Toastmasters International is not free, although it is an excellent value. Their web page on How to Join says that there is a cost of $60 for semi-annual international dues, plus a $20 new member fee. That continuing $60, or just $10 per month is inexpensive. (There also may be additional club dues. At the Pioneer Club I belong to in Boise they are another $6 semi-annually, or $1 per month.)

 

Back on July 15, 2010 I blogged about how Public speaking training is a journey; You get to choose how to go.

 

An image of dollar bills was cropped from one at Openclipart.

 

Greater Communication Space is amazing business jargon

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

David Murray, who edits the magazine Vital Speeches of the Day, writes a blog called Writing Boots. His post on April 9, 2024 is titled In the communication space, we think outside the dots when it comes to the language piece. He said:

 

“Generally, businesspeople never use a specific term when a vague one is available. It keeps people from pinning us down.

 

‘Business’ itself was once a hazy enough term, until someone thought to call it ‘space.’ So, I’m no longer in the communication business, I’m in the ‘communication space.’ It doesn’t get any more far out than that, man.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But you can get even more far out. The University of Southern California (USC) has a web page for their USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism about their Master of Arts program titled Public Relations and Advertising (MA) Fall 2024 which bombastically states:

 

“The MA in Public Relations and Advertising provides students with applied knowledge and skills for a career in the greater communication space, including, but not limited to, public relations, advertising, digital communication, influencer relations, brand activations, corporate communications, etc.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

However, there also is a very specific engineering meaning for the similar term Communications Space. I found it on a web page at NextMileTech titled One-Touch Make-Ready:

 

“The National Electrical Safety Code (NESC) is the American National Standard for the safety of power and communication utility systems. The fundamental safety recommendation by the NESC is the separation of the power space and communications spaces on utility poles.

 

The communications space is a section of a utility pole’s usable space, allowing low-voltage attachments such as fiber, broadband, telephone, copper, and coaxial cables. The communications space is the lowest space on the pole, located forty inches below the lowest attachment of the supply space.”

 

An image of a utility pole came from HighVoltage 5576 at Wikimedia Commons.

 

Undelivered is a book by Jeff Nussbaum on the never-heard speeches that would have rewritten history

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jess Nussbaum has been a senior speechwriter for President Joe Biden. At my local public library I recently found his 374-page book from 2022, Undelivered, which is subtitled The Never-Heard Speeches That Would Have Rewritten History. At C-SPAN CLASSROOM there is an article on Lesson Plan: Speeches Undelivered [with Jeff Nussbaum]. There is a book review by Priya Satiya at the New Republic on May 20, 2022 titled Would These Undelivered Speeches Really Have Changed History?

 

There also is an hour-and-twenty-minute YouTube video discussion at the JFK Library titled Undelivered: The Never-Heard Speeches That Would Have Rewritten History. And there is a 39-minute podcast on YouTube from the JFK Library Foundation titled Undelivered: Speeches That Could Have Rewritten History.

 

One brief example (on page 147) is General Dwight D. Eisenhower’s apology for if the D-Day invasion of France on June 6, 1944 had failed. You can find it at DDAY OVERLORD in a web page titled General Eisenhower’s drafted message. And it is discussed by Scott Simon at NPR on June 8, 2013 in an article titled The speech Eisenhower never gave on the Normandy invasion. General Eisenhower simply says that:

 

“Our landings in the Cherbourg-Havre area have failed to gain a satisfactory foothold and I have withdrawn the troops. My decision to attack at this time and place was based on the best information available. The troops, the air and the Navy did all that bravery and devotion to duty could do. If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt it is mine alone.”

 

An article by Christopher Klein at History.com on March 13, 2024 titled Fooling Hitler: The Elaborate Ruse Behind D-Day discusses how the Allies mislead the Germans into believing the invasion would occur 150 miles away from where it did, at the Pas de Calais, and would be led by George Patton’s First Army Group.

 

The image was adapted from a silhouette of a public speaker at Openclipart.

 

An extremely peculiar homeopathic remedy for stage fright

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I recently found an article by Vikas Sharma at DrHomeo titled Want to get rid of stage fright? Try these homeopathic remedies. He lists the following eight:

 

Argentum Nitricum – top recommended medicine

Gelsemium – for stage fright with fear of appearing in public

Lycopodium -for fear occurring on starting stage presentation but afterwards it goes well

Silicea – for stage fright with a fear of failure

Aconite – for stage fright with marked anxiety and panic attacks

Arsenic Album – for anxiety with marked restlessness

Medorrhinum – for stage fright, anxiety with anticipation

Ambra Grisea – for shy people having fear of people

 

I have previously blogged about five of them: Argentum Nitricum, Gelsemium, Lycopodium, Silicea, and Ambra Grisea.

 

But what the heck is Medorrhinum? I had not ever seen it before. There is another article by Vikas Sharma at DrHomeo titled Medorrhinum: Homeopathic Medicine – Its Use, Indications And Dosage. He says it is recommended in high potencies but gives no specific dosage, only that this medicine should not be repeated frequently. And Sharma claims:

 

“It is magnificent medicine to manage cases of fear, anxiety, and panic attacks. Main fears that are present in those who require it include fear of dark, enclosed spaces (claustrophobia), misfortune, cancer, and sexually transmitted diseases. Those who need it are anxious, sensitive, nervous by their very nature. They are always in great hurry.”  

 

But Sharma does not say how it is prepared. There is another recent article by Dr. Mahima Rastogi at LinkedIn Pulse on November 5, 2023 titled Unlocking the healing potential of homeopathic Medorrhinum. Mr. Rastogi explains that:

 

“Medorrhinum is a nosode, which is a type of homeopathic remedy prepared from the discharge, secretions, or diseased tissue of a person or animal suffering from a particular disease. In this case, Medorrhinum is derived from the discharge of a person with gonorrhea. It is important to note that nosodes are highly diluted and succussed (shaken vigorously) in a series of steps to create a potent yet safe homeopathic remedy.”

  

There also is yet another article by Edzard Ernst on May 8, 2018 titled Medorrhinum: another surprising homeopathic remedy. He says more specifically the remedy comes from the urethral discharge of a male patient suffering from gonorrhea, and adds that none of the claims about it are supported by evidence.

 

Still another article by Vikas Sharma at DrHomeo is titled Top 5 Natural Homeopathic Remedies for Anxiety. These and their recommended dosages [in brackets] are:

 

Aconitum Napellus – top remedy for anxiety [30C]

Arsenic Album – for anxiety with chest constriction, difficult breathing and restlessness [30C]

Argentum Nitricum – for anxiety from anticipation (anticipatory anxiety) [30C]

Kali Phos – for anxiety, nervousness, fear [6X aka 3C]

Gelsemium Sempervirens – for anxiety about public appearance (social anxiety) [30C]

 

Note that the Homeopathic dilution of 3C for Kali Phos is a gigantic factor of 27C different from the 30C for the other four. C means a dilution by a factor of a hundred. At dilutions of 13C and above no molecules of the original substance remain, so any effect at 30C is purely as a placebo.  

 

The Gonorrhea cartoon was modified from this one at Wikimedia Commons.

 

The lovely Japanese Tea Garden in San Antonio began as a rock quarry

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On April 11, 2024 I blogged about Viewing a total solar eclipse on a cloudy day in Boerne, Texas. The day before my wife and I met my sisters and their husbands at the lovely Japanese Tea Garden in San Antonio (as shown above). Their web site and the Wikipedia page explain that it originally had been a limestone quarry and cement factory. During World War II, when we were at war with Japan, it was renamed the Chinese Tea Garden.

 

On October 14, 2023 I had posted about Visiting Buchart Gardens near Victoria, British Columbia on September 28, 2023. Those gardens also had begun as a quarry.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next to the parking lot is the Barbed Wire BBQ restaurant, where we had an excellent lunch. 

 

 

Viewing a total solar eclipse on a cloudy day in Boerne, Texas

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back on August 21, 2017 my wife and I viewed a total solar eclipse in Idaho from a golf course on the shore of Lake Cascade. We had a perfect view with no interfering cloud cover. I blogged about it on August 30, 2017 in a post titled An event that will not soon be eclipsed. That post ended by stating that the next one is is 2024 and perhaps we will see it down in Texas.

 

On April 8, 2024 we glimpsed the total eclipse from the City Park in Boerne, Texas as shown above. We had flown down to San Antonio. Our original plan was to drive northwest about 55 miles to Kerrville where totality would be at about 1:30 PM and last for almost four and a half minutes. But Interstate 10 was clogged by so much traffic that by 12:30 we were only about halfway there. After around 25 miles we stopped at a gas station in Boerne, used the rest room, and found their City Park via a Google search. We drove there and parked at one end in a fenced-in lawn by their Agricultural Museum, which has a large collection of vintage farm equipment. Then we had our lunch while sitting at a picnic table and waited.

 

As we approached totality, the sky was almost completely cloudy. There were only a few seconds where we got to see the moon obscuring the sun. But we saw confused birds land in trees. At totality it got dark as a late night – which still was very impressive. Some folks set off fireworks to celebrate.

 

For the 2017 eclipse we had felt a sudden drastic drop in the temperature. With the clouds in 2024 there was no drastic drop. We drove slowly back to San Antonio on Texas 46 to Bulverde and then US 281 - rather than Interstate 10.    

 

Michael Knowles didn’t like Beyoncé's revised version of the Dolly Parton song Jolene

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Michael Knowles didn’t like Beyoncé's version of the Dolly Parton song, Jolene. He tweeted:

 

“Beyoncé's ‘Jolene’ cover is BAD.”

 

But it wasn’t just a cover - it was a revision. At YouTube you can watch lyric videos of both Dolly’s version, and Beyoncé's version. And at NME on April 1, 2024 there is an article by Hollie Geraghty titled Beyonce gives Dolly Parton sole songwriting credit on ‘Jolene’ that is subtitled The country icon previously gave Beyoncé's new version her seal of approval.

 

I don’t think we should we pay much attention to a negative evaluation by a political commentator like Mr. Knowles. He’s not an expert on music or songwriting. His review reminded me of my December 28, 2012 blog post titled Soapbox Guru is a web site for posting videos of speeches or presentations and receiving evaluations. In it I mentioned that back on January 23, 2010 consulting expert Alan Weiss had panned Taylor Swift’s live performance on the Help for Haiti telethon. A week later Taylor won four Grammy Awards – Album of the Year and Best Country Album for Fearless, and Best Country Song and Best Female Country Vocal Performance for White Horse.

 

The thumbs down was adapted from this image at Wikimedia Commons.