Seeing what is there that shouldn’t be

When I went to start up the irrigation system in our backyard, I got a lesson that can also be applied to speechwriting. Last fall I’d unscrewed and set aside the clear plastic canister for the filter just downstream of the centrifugal pump that draws water from our branch canal. When I picked it up to screw it back on, I noticed that there was an obvious crack (as shown above by the yellow arrow; click on the image to enlarge it) in the black rubber donut (O-ring) that should seal between it and the housing.

Then I took a closer look (at seven times higher magnification, as shown above) and found a whole network of small transverse cracks. The O-ring had self-destructed. So, I drove down to Grovers and bought a $3 replacement O-ring kit. I put the new O-ring on the filter canister, and screwed it back on. Then I proceeded to prime the pump and start the system.

This time I had to look carefully before I could see what was there that shouldn’t be. There’s no avoiding that speechwriting always needs editing. The last time I discussed our irrigation system in 2009 I had the opposite and harder problem of Seeing what is not there - but should be. Unless you’re an exceptional writer, you probably have one or both of those problems with your speech. Is there something unimportant that you should eliminate?

When I looked at a Troubleshooting Guide that illustrates ten common reasons for O-ring failure I found that this O-ring looked like it probably had some type of weathering or ozone cracking. Being stored outside might have been harder on it than being dunked in canal water.

Why do people still refer to a 39 year old survey?

This month marks the 39th anniversary of a survey done by R. H. Bruskin Associates and published in July 1973 as a report titled What Are Americans Afraid Of? It should have come with a lurid cover, which I’ve imagined above.

Most people have never heard of that report. Instead they have seen some results from it quoted third hand as being from a brief article, The 14 Worst Human Fears, published in The Book of Lists, which was printed back in 1977. Public speaking was feared by the most people (41%) while death was seventh (19%).

Two decades later (in 1993) comedian Jerry Seinfeld produced his revised version that switched from more people fear to people fear more and instead claimed:

“According to most studies, people’s number-one fear is public speaking. Number two is death. ‘Death’ is number two! Now, this means to the average person, if you have to go to a funeral, you’re better off in the casket than doing the eulogy.”

The Seinfeld version is quoted by some coaches. Ed Sykes mentioned it in an article which just was reposted this month.

The successor to Bruskin Associates, Bruskin-Goldring, did another survey in 1993 that is quoted far less often. In his book Confessions of a Public Speaker Scott Berkun confused things further by referring to the 1973 survey as having come from the Bruskin/Goldkin agency. 

Some Toastmasters clubs still quote The Book of Lists on their web sites. Their foolishness can be traced to an undated press release from the headquarters of Toastmasters International titled Teaching people to talk turkey without turning chicken that can be found on a Baylor University web site. The Balcone, Peachtree and Speakeasy clubs and District 52 and District 53 are a few examples. The undated press release opened with:

“Most people would rather die than give a speech, according to a survey reported in The Book of Lists. Fear of public speaking outranked the fear of death by a two-to-one margin!”

That article from the 1977 Book of Lists doesn’t appear in their later books, including the 2005 version called The New Book of Lists, which can be searched in Google under Books. On her web site Jane Jacobs incorrectly referred to it being there.

In March 2001 there was an article about a Gallup poll that instead found that Snakes Top List of Americans’ Fears. On September 11th of that year the World Trade Center in New York was destroyed. It was built back in 1973. 

Statistically, a survey done in the U.S. in 1973 now is less than a half-truth. The median age of our population reported in the 2010 census was 37.2 years, so half of them weren’t even around back when Bruskin asked their questions.

Continuing to refer to something 39 years old sends out a clear message - that you’re too lazy to do serious research. Instead you uncritically repeat what you’ve heard others say. Is the rest of your message equally superficial?

My imagined lurid report cover was derived from a 1903 Puck magazine cover.

Does the cost for public speaking training outweigh the benefits?

Last Thursday on Forbes.com Kristi Hedges had an incendiary article titled Confessions of a Former Public Speaking Trainer: Don’t Waste Your Money. She made the provocative claim that:

“...for most people, public speaking training is not worth the time nor the money.”

In her article Kristi described how:

1. There’s not one right way to present

2. Great presenters don’t follow the rules

3. Authenticity overrides form

4. You already know how to do this

Back in July 2010 I blogged about how Public speaking training is a journey; You get to choose how to go. In that post I contrasted three options:

1. Taking an introductory public speaking class at a college or university is like going on a bus tour.

2. Attending a commercial workshop is like hiring a guide with a luxury car.

3. Joining a Toastmasters club is like driving your own 4 x 4 vehicle on a dirt road.

I didn’t include a fourth - using a speaking coach, which is like waving down and hiring a taxi. That is quick and may be very effective if you have limited time. It can get very expensive though, if you want to go far. Would you take a cab for 240 miles from Houston to Dallas, or would you fly?

Think both about what you need and how much time and money you can afford before you choose an option. The brass scale image came from Wikimedia Commons.

What five lessons can we learn about answering questions from a giant block of bean curd?

In his April 17th Savage Chickens cartoon on The Art of Conversation Doug Savage shows us what we can learn from Timmy Tofu in Lessons One to Five. (He often is confused with a desktop tower computer).

On April 26th he added Lesson Six - Be Interesting.

Almost incomprehensible

Occasionally when I research a topic for this blog with a Google search I wind up going “through the looking glass” to an article posted on a content mill.

Content mills are web sites with large collections of cheaply produced articles. Their revenue comes from advertisers, and their content often is mass produced like cheap sausage - by ill-paid writers running words from a master text through a thesaurus to produce multiple articles containing almost incomprehensible sentences.

 I ran across a gem posted on April 17th about Fear of Public Speaking: Physical and Mental Manifestations. It began by saying:

“This commodity addresses some of the key issues regarding abhorrence of accessible speaking. A careful reading of this actual could accomplish a big difference in how you anticipate about abhorrence of public speaking.”

Then It listed the following confusing symptoms:

"1. You accept collywobbles in your stomach. 

2. Your award are sweating.

3. Your easily are shaking. 

4. If you acquisition yourself abashed by what you’ve read to this point, don’t despair. Everything should be bright clear by the time you finish. 

5. Your knees are as well abashed and you feel as if your legs are about to collapse.

6. Your affection beats abundant faster than normal. 

7. You acquaintance a slight blackout or you have a “fainting” feeling. 

8. You accept a abdomen disorder. 

9. Your face is ablaze and your aperture is dry. 

10. You accept “cold sweat” all over. 

11. 'Panicky’ thoughts.'” 

Affection should be heart, and aperture should (more specifically) be your mouth. I’d hope that other apertures, like my nose would be dry.

The image of sausage stuffing came from the Library of Congress collection.

How to Overstuff a Video with Photos and Cartoons

Suppose that you’d just written a 650-word blog post on Storytelling and Public Speaking - The Power of Telling Stories in Your Speech. If you spoke at a rate of 140 words per minute, it would take 4 minutes and 38 seconds to speak it. That’s slightly shorter than the five minutes for an Ignite presentation, which uses 20 slides. How would you turn it into a video?

Would you use 20 still images, or would you cram in 50 of them? Would those images include ten cartoons? Would you overlay the address of your web site across the bottom of each image in white letters (like movie subtitles) and obscure the captions for some cartoons? Watch what Alex Ryan did back in September of 2008.



At 1:25 he says that no one likes PowerPoint presentations anymore, so if you’re using them you should stop doing so. Doesn’t this sequence of still images look very much like a PowerPoint Presentation?

At 4:00 when Alex talks about a short, stocky movie star - and mentions Danny Devito, he instead shows an image of a very tall television star, Rainn Wilson, who plays Dwight in The Office and is over six feet tall.

This video is an excellent example of how not to add visual aids to a speech. Ten cartoons is way too many stories to tell in less than five minutes (even if there had been time to read their captions and react).

Alex’s newer web site is here. His recent brief YouTube videos here and here are much better.  

The overstuffed image was modified from a 1900 Puck magazine cover.

Watching a pro work (5) - Mark Sanborn, CSP

Watch Mark Sanborn discuss How to provide extraordinary service: The Fred Factor, and How to Lead without a Title: Creating Leaders at Every Level. Mark was the 2003-2004 president of the National Speakers Association. These videos discuss ideas described in more detail in his concise books The Fred Factor and You Don’t Need a Title to be a Leader.

In television comedies employees of the US Postal Service like Cliff Clavin on Cheers and Newman on Seinfeld are portrayed as incompetent or malevolent. Fred is a great counterexample. Mark tells great stories, with amusing details like at 5:15 in the second video when he comments that:

“I like USA Today. It’s the adult coloring book of newspapers.”

Mark has both a web site and a leadership blog.

I’ve had fun dredging through YouTube for these examples of five excellent public speakers amid acres of drivel.

Watching a pro work (4) - Kristin J. Arnold, CSP

Watch Kristin Arnold discuss using Inclusive Language (I, me, mine versus you, we, ours) and the Definition of a Facilitator. Kristin was the 2010-2011 president of the National Speakers Association. In 2010 I blogged about her most recent book, Boring to Bravo. You can download her ChangeThis manifesto on 15-1/2 Ideas to Make Your Presentation Go From Boring to Bravo.

She has both a general web site and one for Boring to Bravo. Kristin was one of the first women to graduate from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy (in 1982) and serve as an officer. You can watch a 9-minute promotional video about her as a High Stakes Meeting Facilitator. Another two-minute outdoor video on How to Personalize Your Presentation has great content, but illustrates that wind noise can become very intrusive. Hearing it through headphones reminded me of Wuthering Heights!

Watching a pro work (3) - Phillip Van Hooser, CSP

Watch Phillip Van Hooser discuss Exceptional Customer Service Strategies from Willie’s Way and The Fear of Failure. Although the video quality is marginal, his storytelling shines through.

He wrote a long article about How to Manage Fear, Embrace Change & Lead Employees in an Uncertain Economy. Willie’s Way was a book and you can read an excerpt. Mr. Van Hooser has a website and a blog. He was president of the National Speakers Association in 2009-2010. Ian Griffin interviewed him then.

Watching a pro work (2) - Laura Stack, CSP

Watch Laura Stack describe burnout from her Fast-Track Life, and The Trouble with Multitasking.

Currently Laura is president of the National Speakers Association. (You can watch her acceptance speech here). She has over a hundred videos posted on YouTube. Her business is called The Productivity Pro (R). Laura has written four books.

Laura has a separate blog with her NSA Presidential Updates. She has an excellent post on Supercompetent Speaking: Tips for Visuals.

Watching a pro work (1) - Izzy Gesell, CSP

Watch Izzy Gesell describe What is Multitasking. He uses gestures and appropriate pauses. Also, he tells relevant jokes. Izzy has another dozen videos posted at humorology on YouTube.  

If you want to see examples of excellent professional speakers, just look on YouTube and include the acronym CSP in the search box along with the topic you seek. In the U.S. the National Speakers Association (NSA) has an earned certification called Certified Speaking Professional (CSP).

Izzy has a web site, and has written two books. You can download his long article on The Uplifting Power of Play.

Learning clear communication from a storeroom clerk

Specific language is important in speechwriting and elsewhere in life. If you don’t tell people exactly what you want, then you are unlikely to get it.  At the beginning of the fall university term at Carnegie Mellon almost four decades ago, I got to watch a rite of passage for new graduate students. One of them walked up to the counter of the Metallurgy Department storeroom and innocently told the clerk:

“Bob, I need some copper wire.”

Mr. Miller then put two items down on the counter and replied:

“We’ve got #36 magnet wire (0.005-inch diameter, like coarse human hair) and we’ve also got #0 welding lead wire (0.325-inch diameter, like your ballpoint pen). There are many more sizes between those two. Which do you really want? Solid or stranded? Insulated or bare? Wire or cable?”

At that point the newcomer went away empty-handed to regroup, and looked in a handbook or two. He got an education on the American Wire Gauge (AWG) system, and how to choose a reasonable size based on allowable current. As shown above, #8 stranded (0.129-inch diameter) wire might be used in cables for jump starting a car, while #18 solid (0.040-inch diameter) is typical for hook-up wire. Often one or both ends of a wire are attached to connectors like alligator clips, banana plugs, phone plugs, and various NEMA plugs.
   
Lots of practical information including terminology and standards gets learned at a university but outside of a classroom. Students learn from other students, and from all the support staff - technicians, machinists, electricians, plumbers, and clerks.

Recovering from an introducer’s worst moment

Back in February the Australian broadcaster Ms. Fifi Box wrote a story that appeared in the Herald Sun on My Public Speaking Shame. She was hosting an outdoor event on a sunny day. Fifi was to introduce three speakers who she hadn’t met before. She used a highlighter to write their names down on a scrap of paper and held it in her hand.

After fifteen minutes the first speaker was wrapping up, so she glanced at her cheat sheet for the name of the second - the CEO of the company holding the event. Oops! Her profusely sweating palm had washed away most of the writing, and left only an indecipherable smudge. Did it say ‘Matthew, “Montgomery’, or ‘Michael”? So, she told the audience to:

“Please, put your hands together and welcome to the stage your esteemed leader and CEO [mumbling like the microphone had malfunctioned].”  

They already knew exactly who she was talking about, so Fifi got away with it. She vowed to stay away from highlighters in the future though.

Poll by Reader’s Digest Canada found fear of public speaking wasn’t ranked first in 15 of 16 countries surveyed

You may have read that public speaking is the world’s greatest fear. Is there evidence from a recent survey to support that claim?

In October 2010 the web site for Reader’s Digest Canada had an article titled Around the World with One Question: What’s Your Greatest Fear? It reported the results of an online poll conducted between May 25th and June 16. The corresponding magazine article had appeared on page 8 of their October issue They asked 150 people each in 16 different countries a single, multiple choice question:

What is your greatest fear?

1. Losing my looks.
2. Going broke.
3. Speaking in public.
4. Being alone.

They reported the percent of women and men that chose each answer. Presumably the sample of 150 was evenly split between women and men. Then the margin of error would be a relatively large plus or minus 11 percent. (A 2001 Gallup poll in the US used a sample of 1016 people, which resulted in a smaller margin of error of plus or minus 3 percent).

Rankings for those four fears in the 16 countries are summarized in two tables shown above (click to enlarge). For women, most commonly fear of being alone was first, and fear of going broke was second. For men fears of being alone and going broke tied for first, and fear of going broke came second. For women most commonly fear of speaking in public was third, and fear of losing my looks was fourth. For men most commonly fear of losing my looks was third, and fear of speaking in public was fourth. (There were some ties reported - for German, Russian, and Indian women, and US, Malaysian and Mexican men).

Speaking in public only was ranked first in one country out of 16, France, by both women and men. So, these results are generally quite different from the number one fear claims made by speaking coaches or trainers.

First let’s look at detailed results for the Western Hemisphere (Brazil, Canada, Mexico, and the United States). In the bar chart shown above (click to enlarge it) fears are ranked by the results for women.

For Brazilian women being alone (55%) was first, going broke (18%) was second, speaking in public (16%) was third, and losing my looks (11%) was fourth (the same order as for US and Mexican women). For Brazilian men going broke (38%) was first, being alone (36%) was second, losing my looks (15%) was third, and speaking in public (11%) was fourth.

For Canadian women going broke (33%) was first, being alone (30%) was second, speaking in public (27%) was third, and losing my looks (10%) was fourth. For Canadian men going broke (47%) was first, being alone (25%) was second, losing my looks (17%) was third, and speaking in public (10%) was fourth.

For Mexican women being alone (49%) was first, going broke (23%) was second, speaking in public (20%) was third, and losing my looks (8%) was fourth (the same order as for US women). For Mexican men being alone (51%) was first, going broke (26%) was second, and speaking in public and losing my looks (12%) tied for third.

For US women being alone (33%) was first, going broke (32%) was second, speaking in public (27%) was third, and losing my looks (8%) was fourth. For US men going broke (52%) was first, being alone and public speaking (22%) tied for second, and and losing my looks (5%) was third. These results are different from a recently reposted old Zig Ziglar article that claimed (contrary to that 2001 Gallup poll):

“According to Reader’s Digest, public speaking is the No. 1 fear in America...”

Second, let’s look at detailed results for Europe (France, Germany, Netherlands, Spain, Russia, United Kingdom).

For French women speaking in public (41%) was first, going broke (34%) was second, being alone (18%) was third, and losing my looks (7%) was fourth. For French men speaking in public (40%) was first, going broke (29%) was second, being alone (19%) was third, and losing my looks (12%) was fourth (the same order as for the women). France was the only country where speaking in public was first.   
 
For German women being alone (37%) was first, going broke (27%) was second,  speaking in public and losing my looks (18%) tied for third. For German men going broke (36%) was first, losing my looks (26%) was second, being alone (25%) was third, and speaking in public (12%) was fourth.

For women in the Netherlands going broke (39%) was first, being alone (35%) was second, speaking in public (14%) was third, and losing my looks (12%) was fourth. For men in the Netherlands being alone (36%) was first, going broke (32%) was second, losing my looks (24%) was third, and speaking in public (8%) was fourth.

For Spanish women being alone (43%) was first, going broke (29%) was second, losing my looks (17%) was third, and speaking in public (11%) was fourth. For Spanish men losing my looks (29%) was first, going broke (27%) was second, being alone (26%) was third, and speaking in public (18%) was fourth.

For Russian women being alone (61%) was first, losing my looks and speaking in public (14%) tied for second, and going broke (11%) was third. For Russian men being alone (51%) also was first, going broke (27%) was second, speaking in public (15%) was third, and losing my looks (7%) was fourth.

For women in the United Kingdom going broke (38%) was first, being alone (31%) was second, speaking in public (21%) was third, and losing my looks (11%) was fourth. For men in the United Kingdom going broke (49%) was first, being alone (22%) was second,    losing my looks (16%) was third, and speaking in public (13%) was fourth.

Third, let’s look at detailed results for Australia, Asia (China, India, Malaysia, Philippines), and South Africa.

For Australian women being alone (31%) was first, speaking in public (28%) was second, going broke (25%) was third, and losing my looks (16%) was fourth. For Australian men going broke (40%) was first, being alone (26%) was second, speaking in public (21%) was third, and losing my looks (13%) was fourth.

For Chinese women being alone (52%) was first, losing my looks (29%) was second,  going broke (13%) was third, and speaking in public (6%) was fourth. For Chinese men being alone (53%) also was first, going broke (23%) was second, losing my looks (18%) was third, and speaking in public (6%) was fourth.

For Indian women being alone and going broke (32%) tied for first, speaking in public (20%) was second, and losing my looks (16%) was third. For Indian men being alone (36%) was first, speaking in public (28%) was second, losing my looks (19%) was third, and going broke (17%) was fourth.

For Malaysian women being alone (30%) was first, going broke (29%) was second, speaking in public (24%) was third, and losing my looks (18%) was fourth. For Malaysian men being alone also was first (36%), going broke and speaking in public (29%) tied for second, and losing my looks (7%) was third.

For women in the Philippines going broke (37%) was first, being alone (33%) was second, speaking in public (18%) was third, and losing my looks (13%) was fourth. For
men in the Philippines being alone (43%) was first, going broke (33%) was second, speaking in public (15%) was third, and losing my looks (9%) was fourth.

For South African women going broke (41%) was first, being alone (26%) was second, speaking in public (24%) was third, and losing my looks (9%) was fourth.For South African men going broke (50%) also was first, being alone (31%) also was second, speaking in public (13%) also was third, and losing my looks (7%) also was fourth.

Another four situations people would rather avoid than speaking in public

In March of each year the American Association of Endodontists (AAE) has a Root Canal Awareness Week. This year they put out a press release about how:

“While 63 percent of Americans would like to avoid getting a root canal, even more, 69 percent, want to avoid losing a permanent tooth—something a root canal procedure can help to prevent. A January survey of 1,014 U.S. adults by the American Association of Endodontists found that Americans want to avoid losing a permanent tooth more than getting the flu, paying taxes or speaking in public.”

I contacted their public relations coordinator, Meredith Friedman, and she provided additional details, which I’ve shown above in a bar chart. (Click on it for an enlarged version.) The phone survey of 1014 adults in the US (505 women and 509 men) was done for AAE by CARAVAN between January 12 and 15. People were asked how much they would like to avoid five situations. They were told to rate them on a scale from 1=not at all to 5= very much, and the percents shown are for the top two categories (4 and 5).

They also did a similar survey from January 13 to 16, 2011, with similar results as shown above.

On March 29th I blogged about another survey done in 2010 where 33% wanted to avoid getting a root canal, 23% wanted to avoid cold calls, 18% didn't want to give up sex, 15% wanted to avoid the reality TV appearance, but only 13% wanted to avoid speaking in public.

Clearly public speaking isn’t what the most people would prefer to avoid - despite what speaking coaches might try to tell you based on quoting old surveys.

The 1890 stereo card image of a dentist pulling a tooth came from the Library of Congress.

Don’t treat your audience like they’re just little children

They probably will resent being ordered to Write This Down! If an item is very important, please put it on a handout and give it to your audience before you begin. Then suggest that they might want to circle it.

In April 2010 Lisa Braithwaite blogged about how telling folks to Write This Down! was treating the audience like they were children rather than responsible adults. It made her defiantly refuse to obey. She also brought up this topic in a comment on a post by Nick Morgan about his Top 10 List of Audience Abuse. I feel the same way.

Watch this video of an interview with Fred E. Miller. He says to Write This Down! after 17 seconds, but doesn’t pause then so they could. I don’t think saying that phrase to your audience is effective. It takes me back to elementary school, and reminds me of other variations from teachers like:

“This is very important!” or “This will be on the test!”

The 1937 schoolroom image is from the U. S. Farm Security Administration.

What can we learn about speechwriting from two cartoons about customer service?

How a speech gets written will differ depending on the intended audience. Last month I found a pair of cartoons with very different approaches to the same topic. Both talked about navigating the customer service maze, but otherwise they were wildly different.

One cartoon was in Dave Kellett’s Sheldon: It’s Time to Play the Customer Service Call Center Game. The other was in Matthew Inman’s Oatmeal: Why I’d Rather Be Punched in the Testicles than Call Customer Service.

Dave’s cartoon is light hearted and brief. If it were a movie, it would have a G (General audiences, all ages) rating. Matthew’s is serious and lengthy; he doesn’t suffer fools gladly. If it were a movie, it would have an R (Restricted, children under 17 must be accompanied by a parent) rating. Perhaps some of the difference in attitude is that Dave lives in sunny Los Angeles, while Matthew lives in gray, rainy Seattle.

Another difference between Dave’s and Matthew’s cartoons is that Dave just takes you around a circle, but Matthew eventually gets his problem resolved. He has to put up with a lot of crap first though, like being asked:

“...Can I get your
first name
phone number
address
date of birth
favorite planet in the solar system
and least favorite African mammal.
I won’t actually log this information,
mind you, so you’ll have to repeat it
to every other operator I forward you to.”

There’s another Oatmeal cartoon on How to Make Your Shopping Cart Suck Less.

The board image originally was titled Game of the District Messenger Boy.

Has fear of being called a racist overtaken the fears of death and public speaking?

On June 19th, 2011 Jim Rose, who blogs as Libertarian Popinjay, claimed:

“....Being called a racist has become a bigger fear than death and public speaking combined.”

On March 31st, 2012 he said again:

“....I dare say the fear of being called a racist has overtaken the fear of death and public speaking in America.”

Is there any data to back that up? The first place you’d expect to find it would be in a survey of what students in a public university fear. They presumably are influenced by liberal professors with an agenda emphasizing political correctness. Seim and Spates did such a survey, and on August 1, 2010 I blogged about What do US college students fear most? Is it snakes, spiders, or public speaking?

The bar chart shown above lists their results. (Click on it to see a larger version). Spiders came first, followed by public speaking. Neither death nor being called a racist were on their list of questions. They also asked students to write in any additional fears they were bothered by. Their most common five were:

1.5% - Fear of clowns
1.4% - Fear of the dark
1.2% - Fear of failing school
0.7% - Fear of being sexually assaulted
0.5% - Fears related to vomiting

Death and being called a racist evidently weren’t on student’s minds, and presumably were at less that 0.5% versus 19% for public speaking. So, that survey doesn’t support Mr. Rose’s claim at all.

The image of a man pointing was modified from an old poster.

What can we learn about public speaking from a cartoon about Easter candy?

We can see from this March 28th xkcd cartoon (click to enlarge it) that comparing something unfamiliar (invisible sugar dissolved in a container of soda) with something currently on our minds (Cadbury Easter eggs) makes it real to our audience. However, not everyone may view that comparison the way we intended. Other comparisons showing a stack of sugar cubes in front of a container are less effective.

Daily calories from that dissolved sugar add up to produce weight gain. Last August the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) posted an article suggesting you Rethink Your Drink that also showed there are lots of calories in liquids like fruit juces, coffee drinks, and sweetened iced tea.

I really enjoy Randall Munroe’s xkcd cartoons. Some other recent examples are So it has come to this, Error code 41, Plastic bags, and Drinking fountains. Sometimes he has amazing graphics, like for Money and Movie narrative charts.