Creative commentary plus crafty composition

Archive for December, 2015

TOP 10 New Year’s Resolutions: (revisited)

 

‘Out-of-the-box’ Goals to aim for in 2016:

  • Lose weight by trimming your bling
  • Organize your files in non-alphabetical order for a greater research challenge
  • Add ethereal, esoteric accreditations on your business card
  • Invent a new species and become its ruler (more…)

Clichés Upgraded – Part XLVIII

 

Time to celebrate the end of the year, and be ‘taken’ by more updated clichés (with originals in italics):

  • If your walkway needs more lift, take a step back from the stack in the garage and add it in front
  • Once you take care of your knitting a new yarn to tell the public, maybe they’ll give you some slack
  • Don’t let her have the satisfaction of taking it to the limit of your patience (more…)

Memorable Quotes: Tales of Screenwriters – Part Twenty-Seven

 

Minefields – the obstacle course:

(a) “There is a compartmentalized rejection, and it has to do with gender, and it has to do with age, and it has to do with ethnicity.  It’s very subtle, and it’s very unintended. Well-meaning people have a bias that they often aren’t aware of, because they won’t permit themselves to be aware of the bias. No one’s ever gonna fess up to it, and I wouldn’t expect them to.” (more…)

TOP 10 Little Known Holiday Season Traditions (revisited)

 

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

  • Sandwiches for Santa should be on rye bread because this is as close as he can get to liquor on his most important delivery day
  • In lieu of chimneys, Santa prefers a red silk chute through a side window
  • If children arise prior to 6:00 am, parents can withdraw one gift for every twenty minutes they attempt to get the household up earlier (more…)

TOP 10 Snowless Winter Sports

 

Adaptation, even with recreational activities, is a key life survival skill

–   Cross-country frozen field team pursuit

–   Synchronized over skis jumping

–   Leftover Christmas wrapping paper bowling

–   Black ice driving time trials (more…)

TOP 10 Joys of Holiday Shopping

 

Dedicated to the delirium of the occasion

  • Go on grand tours of parking areas
  • Items are ‘on sale’ for what you believe the regular price should be
  • You can never get too much holiday season music (more…)

TOP 10 Modern Ethereal Mysteries

 

There is still so much we don’t know

  • Why is the wind against you no matter what direction you are biking?
  • Who is prepared to prove no two snowflakes are the same?
  • Isn’t it time for artificial sweeteners to start helping the medicine go down? (more…)

This Has Been Edited

 

Try writing a piece of any length more than a few words, and see if it doesn’t benefit from editing.   Whether it’s improving the wording of an image, or trimming excess description in a paragraph, the net effect can improve the picture while moving the narrative along. (more…)

Culturally Aware Gift Giving  

 

When looking to give gifts in an international context, cultural sensitivity can make the difference between an appreciative reception and a strained one, as well as creating a positive memory enduring afterword.

Here are some examples, based on an internationalHRForum.com article worked into the December issue of Toastmaster magazine: (more…)

Clichés Upgraded – Part XLVII

 

We’re well into December, the grass is still green (not white), so time to sit back and enjoy more updated clichés (with originals in italics):

  • You can call it a sweetheart deal when the love of your life is a cheap date
  • Due to the giant detergent spill in the bay we were forced to swim against the Tide (more…)