You might be familiar with the television cartoon character, Bullwinkle J. Moose, who says to his best friend, Rocket J. Squirrel, every single Saturday morning, “Hey, Rocky. Watch me pull a rabbit outta my hat. Nothing up my sleeve.” The TV series originally aired in 1959, was recast in 2018,…
There are 3,782 emojis in the Unicode Standard, according to emojipedia.org. Until approximately 10 minutes ago, I didn’t know there was an “official” standard index. I also learned, about five minutes ago, that a Senior Emoji Lexicographer writes the definitions. Yes, it’s a real, and highly valued, position. The Unicode…
Most of us wear things which provide subtle clues about our personalities. Maybe it’s a favorite band tee, or the company logo emblazoned across a polo shirt. Our preferred brand of jeans or a shirt advertising where we’ve been are also communicators of who we are as people. I got…
Your co-worker’s email read: “See you tomorrow.” You naturally assumed you would see them at the meeting. It was going to involve a critical discussion. So, when they went MIA and were nowhere to be found, you panicked. Turns out, your colleague was at the meeting. Virtually. We all make…
Go on… say it out loud! Edit. Your. Oral. Now, say it faster. I’m going for a bit of a play on words here. Editorial. Edit. Your. Oral. Cheeky? Get to the point?! An editorial is defined as a newspaper article written by or on behalf of an editor that…
Is it Time to Say No More? It goes without saying that bad communications decisions almost always result in negative consequences. (Oh wait, I just said it.) Communications are usually the first thing that a client will complain about when things don’t go as expected. At a minimum, frustration. Ultimately,…
It’s NBA playoff time. Our favorite teams are defending, rebounding, and shooting from the paint on courts across the country, hoping to make enough buckets to head into the finals. It was widely reported in 2023 that each playoff game had an average of 5.47 million viewers, making it the…
“We eat first with our eyes,” according to Marcus Gavius Apicius, a First Century Roman famous in his time for his love of food (and authoring a cookbook). In fact, researchers long ago learned that our brains gain information about the foods we eat simply by looking at them. Color…
Rolling Stone magazine is considered by communications professionals to be an incredibly creative publication. Creativity is often featured as a topic of conversation on their own pages. 1 Founded in 1967, it is telling that Rolling Stone has remained viable. Interestingly, while newspapers have struggled, the magazine industry as a whole…
For decades, scientists believed the average reading rate to be about 300 words per minute, twice the average speaking rate. That was, however, until a new study found that most adults read closer to 240 words in a minute. Do a word count on the most recent communication you put…