How should we present a huge number like the two billion dollars earned by the Taylor Swift Eras tour?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is an interesting article by Carmine Gallo at Inc. on December 21, 2024 titled What Taylor Swift’s staggering tour numbers teach us about presenting data. He says:

 

“As you’ve probably heard, Taylor Swift has ended her two-year Eras Tour. Swift’s camp sent the final numbers to the New York Times, and the statistics are staggering: 149 shows over 21 months in 19 countries drew 10 million fans and generated just over $2 billion in ticket sales.”

 

And he notes that when compared with the previous biggest rock tour by Coldplay ($945 million) the Eras tour was more than twice as large. The AFL-CIO has a web page about the Highest paid CEOs 2023. At number one was Jon Winkelried of TPG who made $198.7 million – roughly a tenth of what the Eras tour earned.

 

Carmine makes another comparison:

 

“Swift’s longest engagement was a Wembley Stadium, where, over eight nights, she played for 750,000 people [an average of 93,750 per night]. That’s about the number of people who live in Seattle.”  

 

There is another article by Emma Keates at AVCLUB on December 9, 2024 titled Taylor Swift ends her Eras Tour era with $2 billion in earnings with more detailed numbers – a total of 10,168,008 attendees over 149 shows. That means each seat went for an average of $204. And over the whole tour there was an average of 68,242 people at each show.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 What is in it for me? The planet has a population of about 8.2 billion people, so we each paid Taylor an average of $0.24 – not quite a quarter. But to get a ticket ($204) those other folks paid 850 times more.

 

Back on July 12, 2016 I blogged about How to make statistics understandable.

 

Images of a quarter and a stack of dollars came from Openclipart.

 

 

“Brain Rot” is a phrase; Brainrot is a portmanteau word.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On December 2, 2024 there is an article from Oxford University Press titled ‘Brain rot’ named Oxford Word of the Year 2024. But those two words are a phrase. We could either hyphenate them to brain-rot, or make a single a portmanteau word – brainrot. Another article by Casper Grathwohl about the Oxford Word of the Year has a section titled Celebrating 20 years of Oxford Word of the Year. There were six other years where they had two words:

 

2007: carbon footprint

2008: credit crunch

2010: big society 

2011: squeezed middle

2019: climate emergency

2022: goblin mode

 

And there were two more with hyphenated words:

2006: carbon-neutral

2016: post-truth

 

A third article by Bill Chappell at NPR on December 2, 2024 is titled Writer Thoreau warned of brain rot in 1854. Now its’s the Oxford Word of 2024.

 

The terminal version of brain rot apparently is a ‘brain cloud.’ The Wikipedia page for the 1990 movie Joe Versus the Volcano describes it as follows (and see this YouTube video):

 

“Joyless, listless and chronically sick, Banks regularly visits doctors who can find nothing wrong with him. Finally, Dr. Ellison diagnoses an incurable disease called a ‘brain cloud’, which has no symptoms, but will kill him within five or six months.”

 

My cartoon was adapted from this one and that one at Openclipart.

 

 

A comic strip about flipping prefixes from ex- to in-

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On December 19, 2024 there is a Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal comic strip by Zack Weinersmith with the following dialogue:

 

“Discovery: Because the correct Latin-derived opposite of ex- is in-, there are thousands of words we can add to English immediately.

 

I see what you’re saying, and you’re inactly right.

 

Such exteresting points. The whole audience was exspired.

 

I read your novel. Incellent work! So much exvigorating action!

 

Of course before the Hebrews left Egypt they had to get to Egypt. Also known as the inodus.

 

My daughter doesn’t have any demons possessing her. We must summon the inorcist.”

 

Earlier this year I posted about switching prefixes. On January 10, 2024 I blogged about Should we have a con- and pro- pair of Words of the Day at a Toastmasters club meeting? And on February 25, 2024 I blogged about Should we have a pre- and post- pair of Words of the Day at a Toastmasters club meeting?

 

A self-paced course on active listening with eleven learning modules

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On December 1, 2022 the Defense Technical Information Center published a self-paced course with 11 learning modules on active listening as a 75-page .pdf file titled Active Listening Learning Resource. It was prepared by psychologists at South Dakota State University. The eleven modules are:

 

Active Listener Characteristics

Attending Behaviors

Effective Questioning Techniques

Reflection of Content

Reflection of Feeling

Empathetic Listening

Reflection of Meaning

Confrontation

Using Immediacy

Self-disclosure

Providing Supportive, Critical Feedback

 

Toastmasters may want to look at this course. On October 19, 2024 I posted regarding More about active listening.  

 

The cartoon ear was captioned from one at Openclipart.

 

Whose Bible should we use in Idaho schools?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the Idaho Statesman on November 27, 2024 there is a guest opinion from Blaine Conzatti of the Idaho Family Policy Center (repeated from their web site) titled The Bible should be read in Idaho’s public schools. History and tradition support it.

 

Then, on November 29, 2024 there was a reply from The Rev. Joseph Farne titled Episcopal rector: Which Bible will we put in Idaho classrooms? They aren’t the same | Opinion. As shown above, there are three Deuterocanonical books included in both the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox versions which were left out of the Protestant one.

 

Trumpists likely would tell us to use the Protestant God Bless the U.S.A. Bible, also known as the Trump Bible (King James version) which, of course, poses a major problem – it being from a foreign state religion (Church of England). Catholics will feel left out. And what about the quarter or so of the Idaho population who are LDS, and thus might want us to also read from the Book of Mormon?

 

A free 52-page e-book on How to Give a Great Speech or Presentation

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the web site for the Association of Fundraising Professionals there is a useful and free 52-page e-book from 2019 by Wayne Olson on How to Give a Great Speech or Presentation. Its ten sections are:

 

To Speak Well – page 1

Elements of a Great Speech – page 7

Prepare for Success – Page 19

The Point in PowerPoint – Page 23

Putting It Together – Page 27

Appendix A [Sample Speaker Biography] – Page 29

Appendix B [Speechwriting Checklist] – Page 33

Appendix C [Day-of-Speech Checklist] – Page 35

Appendix D [PowerPoint (Keynote) Checklist] – Page 37

Bibliography and Sources for Further Reading – Page 39

 

The image was adapted from one at Openclipart.

 

Useful videos about writing speeches from Jon Favreau – President Obama’s first Director of Speechwriting

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jon Favreau was Barack Obama’s first White House Director of Speechwriting from January 20, 2009 to March 1, 2013. There is a series of brief YouTube videos of him from the Oxford Union on March 4, 2016.

 

One (2:39) is titled What Makes a Great Speech? He says that he most important job of a speech is to tell a story from beginning to end, and to put together a logical argument. A second (3:16) is titled Writing The State of the Union Speech.  A third (3:18) is titled Political Correctness in Speechwriting. A fourth (1:39) is titled Politicians Are Afraid To Be Themselves. A fifth (3:04) is titled Marco Rubio Comment “Insane”. And a sixth (1:52) is titled Obama Never Got Angry. Contrast that with Donald Trump, who never stopped being angry. 

 

Mr. Favreaus’s entire presentation at the Oxford Union(1 h 2 min) is titled Jon Favreau | Life as Obama’s Speechwriter | Full Address.

 

There also are videos from University College Dublin (UCD) – a 12-minute one titled What I learned from President Obama | Jon Favreau (speechwriter) | UCD Literary & Historical Society and a 55-minute one titled Jon Favreau – former chief speechwriter for President Obama | Q&A with UCD L & H Society.

 

And there also is a 45-minute video at Life Stories titled Jon Favreau Interview: Redefining Patriotism through Obama’s Speeches (part of the HBO documentary Obama: In Pursuit of a More Perfect Union).

 

The Obama portrait came from Openclipart.