Telling a story with a song: ‘Number 37’ by James Keelaghan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Number 37 is the third song on James Keelaghan’s 1999 album Road. It tells a story about natural horsemanship (like that in the 1998 film The Horse Whisperer). The insert on my CD says it was inspired by seeing a barrel racer one afternoon in June at the Elizabeth, Colorado Stampede. You can watch a four-minute YouTube video with it as the soundtrack. The lyrics say:

 

“She didn’t use a riding crop, she barely used her spurs,

She was hands and knees and she was gentle loving words…

 

And one thing that I learned that day, you can whip and you can curse

But you’ll get as good a ride if you use gentle loving words”

 

The barrel racing image by Montanabw is from Wikimedia Commons.

 

What can we learn about humor and speechwriting by looking at cartoons from 110 years ago?

 

At the Internet Archive I have been looking at old issues of the British weekly humor magazine, Punch (from 1912 and before). Much of the humor is about current topics like politics and fashions. But a few cartoons reveal universal humor, and teach us lessons about creativity.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One source for humor is putting two different ideas together, like the combination of a cowcatcher and escalator on the front of a double-decker motor bus shown above from an October 16, 1912 cartoon.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A second source for humor is misunderstanding a topic, like another cartoon from that same date showing how a picture framer put the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa upright.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A third source is thinking ahead about technology, like an August 21, 1912 cartoon on pocket wireless receivers (and how we also would like to talk back).  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A fourth source for humor is changing our perspective, like the skylight view of a store sale from January 29, 1902 that lets us see customers behavior.

 

 

 

A satirical one-minute video from The Onion with terrible advice on how to conquer a fear of public speaking

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Onion is a satirical phony newspaper. Back on February 27, 2017 they published a one-minute video with awful advice on How to Conquer a Fear of Public Speaking. The text (which you should ignore) says to:

 

“Fill the crowd with a few familiar faces who will lie to you about how it went. 

 

Never start a speech without tossing a few fun-size candy bars into the audience first to get them on your side.

 

Close your eyes and breathe deeply before each word during your speech.

 

Try to imagine everyone in the audience dead.

 

Take solace in knowing that no matter how your speech goes, it will be forgotten immediately upon its conclusion.”

 

A dictionary of gestures with over 880 entries

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gestures are an important part of nonverbal communication during public speaking. In the catalog for my local public library system I found an interesting 324-page book from 2018 by the late Francois Caradec (1924 to 2008) titled Dictionary of Gestures, and subtitled Expressive Comportments and Movements in Use around the World. The MIT Press description of this translation by Chris Clarke of a 2005 French original says it is:

 

“An illustrated guide to more than 850 gestures and their meanings around the world, from a nod of the head to a click of the heels.”

 

Those 884 gestures are divided into 37 chapters as follows:

 

Head 1.01 to 1.35

Temples 2.01 to 2.10

Ear 3.01 to 3.22

Forehead 4.01 to 4.19

Eyebrows and Eyelashes 5.01 to 5.07

Eye 6.01 to 6.26

Nose 7.01 to 7.43

Mouth 8.01 to 8.42

Lips 9.01 to 9.13

Tongue 10.01 to 10.13

Teeth 11.01 to 11.09

Cheeks 12.01 to 12.23

Chin 13.01 to 13.26

Neck 14.01 to 14.19

Shoulders 15.01 to 15.14

Armpits 16.01 to 16.03

Arm 17.01 to 17.45

Forearm 18.01 to 18.14

Elbow 19.01 to 19.09

Wrist 20.01 to 20.19

Fingernails 21.01 to 21.10

Hand 22.01 to 22.87c

Fist 22.88 to 22.112

Both Hands 23.01 to 23.84

Hand to Hand 24.01 to 24.24

Thumb 25.01 to 25.18

Thumb is Not Alone 25.19 to 25.42

Index Finger 26.01 to 26.68

Middle Finger 27.01 to 27.10

Ring Finger 28

Little Finger (Pinky) 29.01 to 29.06

Torso 30.01 to 30.04

Chest 31.01 to 31.29

Hips 32.01 to 32.06

Waist and Stomach 33.01 to 33.13

Buttocks 34.01 to 34.08

Groin, Genitals, Thighs 35.01 to 35.12

Knees, Legs 36.01 to 36.13

Foot 37.01 to 37.12

 

The largest category, with 112 gestures, is for the Hand and Fist.

 

An article about it at the CBC Radio program As It Happens on August 9, 2019 is titled ‘This book can save your life,’ says translator of French Dictionary of Gestures. It explains:

 

“For instance… there’s a gesture that, to us, means ‘halt’ or ‘stop,’ with the palm face-out. Abd if you curve those fingers you wind up with what [Caradec] describes as a Greek gesture called the ‘mountza,’ which came from public shamings where you would actually hurl refuse into the face of the person being shamed.

 

But with the flat palm out, [it’s] also an Arab greeting. So we had American GIs who were telling people coming up to a check point, ‘Stop, stop, stop.’ And the people though they were being greeted and waved on and so they just kept coming, and there were shootings.

 

That’s why one reviewer said, ‘This book can save your life,’ which is clearly a bit of hyperbole. But at the same time, you want to know the difference when you’re traveling in certain cases.”  

 

The cartoon came from page 5 of the April 29, 1916 issue of Puck magazine at the Internet Archive. 

 

UPDATE

There is an excerpt titled An Illustrated Guide to Mouth Gestures and Their Meaning Around the World. 

 

 

Donald Trump’s Organization got fired by his accountants

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This week the Trump Organization’s accountants, Mazars fired them (and destroyed their credibility). An article by Ilya Marritz at NPR on February 14, 2022 titled Trump’s longtime accountant says a decade of financial statements are unreliable reported their parting shot. A letter to Alan Garten, Chief Legal Officer of The Trump Organization began:

 

“Re: Statement of Financial Condition for Donald J. Trump – 2011-2020

 

We write to advise that the Statements of Financial Condition for Donald J. Trump for the years ending June 30, 2011 – June 30, 2020 should no longer be relied upon and you should inform any recipients thereof who are currently relying upon one or more of those documents that those documents should not be relied upon.”

 

As shown above, the plain English translation is that Trump’s financials really are just fairy tales. There are two good articles by Even Hurst about this situation on February 16 at the satirical Wonkette website, one titled Trump’s accounting firm breaks up with him just in time for Valentine’s Day and another titled Trump demands end to racist witch hunts against him and the accountants he loves.

 

The image was adapted from page 258 in the 1913 edition of Hans Andersen’s Fairy Tales found at the Internet Archive.

 

Tips for nailing your next presentation

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At Medium on February 15, 2021 there is an article by Shawna Malvini Redden titled 5 Tips for Nailing Your Next Presentation. It also appeared at her blog. Those excellent tips are:

 

1]  Remember your audience is friendly.

2]  Don’t try to cram an entire book into 10 minutes.

3]  Give us the goods – YOUR analysis and ideas.

4]  Practice your timing.

5]  Remember, you’re the expert. But it’s okay not to know, too.

 

But she opened with some startling statistics:

“It turns out, Jerry Seinfeld’s old joke about public speaking is close to spot on. He said: ‘According to most studies, people’s number one fear is public speaking. Number two is death. Death is number two. Does that sound right? This means to the average person, if you go to a funeral, you’re better off in the casket than doing the eulogy.’

The 2014 Chapman University American fears study confirmed that America’s top phobia is public speaking. (More recent versions of the study seem to reflect the current times. The top 2020-21 fears revolved around government corruption, death, COVID, school shootings, and natural disasters, although public speaking apparently still ranks as more scary than getting murdered by a stranger or being sexually assaulted.)

As a communication professor and speech teacher, I’m baffled by these statistics but even I admit, I get the jitters before every public speaking event. EVERY public speaking event, including and especially, the first day of school and making presentations at conferences.”

I am not baffled by those statistics (and also am tired of hearing the Seinfeld joke). The 2014 Chapman survey did not ask its questions consistently. The later six surveys did, covered a larger number of fears, and the rank for fear of public speaking dropped. However, the percentage of people who were afraid or very afraid was relatively steady (a range from 23.3 to 31.2%). On January 10, 2022 I blogged about how The opening paragraph of an article on public speaking earns two pinocchios for telling us lies. And on December 6, 2021 I blogged about how Most Americans are not terrified by public speaking.

 

The image was adapted from this one at Wikimedia Commons.

 

Joseph Gobbles and the Gazpacho Police

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you don’t proofread what you write, you can look very foolish – particularly when you bring up Nazis. Here in Boise the last sentence in the first paragraph of an article by Bob “Nugie” Neugebauer at the Gem State Patriot News on January 30, 2022 titled Will America Ever be Great Again? meant to bring up Joseph Goebbels but instead claimed:

 

“We have not seen propaganda like this since Joseph Gobbles in World War II.”

 

I commented:

 

“Learn to proofread. Joseph Gobbles is a name for a Thanksgiving turkey.”

 

Gestapo is an abbreviation for the notorious Gehime Staatpolozei (Secret State Police) of Nazi Germany. But recently U.S. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene instead referred to gazpacho police. Annother article by Rick Rouan at USA Today on February 10, 2022 is titled ‘Gazpacho police’: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s word soup launches social media frenzy.  

 

The cartoon turkey was modified from an image at Wikimedia Commons.

   

Does your voice project well enough to fill the room?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One definition in the Merriam-Webster dictionary says projection is:

 

“control of the volume, clarity, and distinctness of a voice to gain greater audibility”

 

At LinkedIn Pulse on February 8, 2022 there is a good article by Sandra McKnight titled Projection - Your Most Powerful Public Speaking Tool. But she starts her second paragraph by claiming:

 

“The problem is, nobody really tells you how to do it.”

 

That simply is not true. For example, the Toastmasters International publication titled Your Speaking Voice, from June 2011 (their Item 199) which can be downloaded as a 22-page .pdf file, discusses projecting your voice on pages 9 and 10.

 

A guest post by Kate Peters at the Six Minutes blog on March 24, 2010 is titled Speak Up! A Guide to Voice Projection. An article by Lisa Braithwaite at Speak Schmeak on July 22, 2010 is titled 4 tips for better vocal projection. A second article by Lisa B. Marshall at Quick and Dirty Tips on April 25, 2014 is titled How to Project Your Voice. A third article by Tina Blake on October 31, 2016 is titled How to be heard: Voice projection. A fourth article by Bill Rosenthal at Communispond on December 20, 2018 is titled Voice projection: Where presentation confidence starts. A fifth article by Gale McCreary at WikiHow on September 15, 2021 is titled How to project your normal speaking voice.

 

And a 2012 book by Judy Apps titled Voice and Speaking Skills for Dummies has a section in Chapter 7 on Volume and Speed titled Projecting Your Voice.  

 

The image was adapted from a cartoon titled Untimely Suggestion on page 10 in the November 3 1909 issue of Puck magazine found at the Internet Archive.

 

Is the fear of public speaking second only to the fear of death?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not really. But I found nine articles and four books with that claim. When I looked for what they had to document it, I came up empty. None had any details and references or links to the surveys or studies they mentioned (when and where they were done, or even what percentages had those two fears).

 

An article by Anita Chaudhuri in the February 5, 2006 Sunday Times titled Everything is possible claimed:

 

“People often list speaking in public as their biggest fear, second only to death.”

 

Sylvia McLaren-Tishler’s 2008 book Public Speaking for the Terrified! Pocket Tips says:

 

“Hello and welcome to Public Speaking for the Terrified! Did you know that public speaking ranks as the number one human fear, second only to death!”

 

A second article by Barbara Quint in the September/October 2014 issue of Online Searcher titled

Playing to your strengths claimed:

 

“While studies have shown that a major­ity of people consider public speaking a horror second only to death—and some even push death down into the Miss Congeniality slot— there are still people like a cousin of mine.”

 

A third article by Cameron Kahler at Business 2 Community on October 21, 2014 titled The 5 Cs' of Powerful Presentations stated that:

 

“In fact public speaking is the second most feared thing after death!”

 

A 2014 book by Sharon Lowe titled The Mind Makeover: The answers to becoming the best you yet says:

 

“Researchers tell us that public speaking is second on the list of what people fear most (number one is death).”

 

A fourth article by Amy Lemire at LinkedIn Pulse on March 13, 2017 titled What some fear more than death: public speaking: 5 of my top 10 ‘world class’ presentation skills tips states that:

 

“It has often been said that some people list 'death' as their #1 fear, and their #2 fear is public speaking.”

 

The fifth paragraph in a fifth article by Ben James at LinkedIn Pulse on November 18, 2019 titled How to improve your public speaking preparation claimed:

 

“Research tells us that public speaking is the second biggest fear for the general public, second only to death!”

 

Chapter 1 in a 2020 book by Amy Lemire Simatos titled From Zero to Speaker Hero: how to achieve fame, fortune, and fun as a speaker and presenter begins:

 

“What is your top fear? I ask this question at every presentation skills workshop I deliver within the first five minutes. As I add the audience responses to the flipchart, I hear laughter. Some of it is the nervous type when you are feeling awkward. Other participants say their responses amidst the others. It always seems to be the same responses, or a variation in some way.

 

As I write the responses they come up as:

#1 – The fear of death

#2 – The fear of public speaking

 

The other responses commonly are: heights, snakes, and spiders. I inform the audience they are right according to recent studies. The fear of public speaking is ranked #2 of our greatest fears, and the fear of death is #1. Yes, according to most public surveys, people fear death almost as much as they fear public speaking. To this day, I have never had anyone in my audience challenge me on that conclusion.”   

 

A sixth article by Julie Bobell at Speak with Purpose on November 17, 2020 titled Being able to speak in front of others is a learned skill states that:

 

“It is true that public speaking is the second most feared phobia, after the fear of death.”

 

Chapter 5 of a 2021 book by Michael D. Butler titled Finding the Speaker’s Edge has the heading:

 

“The Second-Most Feared Thing in the World is Public Speaking, Surpassed Only by the Fear of Death.”

 A seventh article by Sue Ludwig at the NANT Blog from the National Association of Neonatal Therapists on June 12, 2021 titled The secret sauce for public speaking: there’s only one you says:

 

“I was understandably nervous the first time I spoke in front of an audience. There’s a reason the fear of public speaking is second only to death.”

 

The first sentence in an eighth article by Michael O’Keefe on November 28, 2021 titled Public speaking for teachers states that:

 

“Public speaking, it is commonly said, is one of the most pervasive fears (in some surveys, second only to death).”

 

A ninth article by Michael Pollick at Wisegeek on January 27, 2022 titled What Are Some Public Speaking Tips? begins:

 

“For many people, only the fear of death trumps the fear of public speaking.”

 

What’s going on here? Why do people think fear of death is #1 and fear of public speaking is #2? I am unaware of any recent studies (or surveys) that list fear of death at #1 and fear of public speaking at #2. In his Seinfeld TV show on May 20, 1993 Jerry had told this joke:

 

“…. 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.”

 

Some didn’t realize that he was joking, and had changed death to #2 from the #7 in a survey reported in the 1977 Book of Lists.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think the authors of those dozen articles or books mentioned above were confused. They had flipped the joke over to claim that death is #1 and public speaking is #2. That’s what happens when you don’t do careful research. Back on July 30, 2012 I blogged about Is fear of public speaking the greatest fear in the entire galaxy? In that post I mentioned fifteen surveys. Public speaking was first in five. Death never came first – the highest it came was third.

 

The headstand Y image was adapted from a print at Wikimedia Commons.

 

Are there jokes so ancient they were carved on stone tablets?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Maybe. The fourth century Greek Philogelos (a laugh addict) with 265 jokes was written on a scroll. The stone tablet with a Young Wife’s Biscuit Joke shown above was made up for a February 7, 1906 cartoon in the weekly American humor magazine Puck.

 

There is an article by Erik Van Rheenen in Mental Floss on August 3, 2019 titled 15 Jokes from the world’s oldest joke book, and another by Bill Bostock at Insider on August 17, 2019 titled These are the 10 oldest jokes in human history – and they prove that people have been laughing about their animals and sex lives for 4,000 years.

 

I looked up the William Berg translation of Philogelos and found there were jokes specifically on residents of three places: 29 about Kymeans, 18 about Abderites, and 12 about Sidonians.

 

Joke #173 says:

 

“A guy from Kyme is selling honey. Someone comes along, gives it a taste, and exclaims, ‘Hey, that’s good honey.’ ‘Yeah,’ says the Kymean, ‘and if that mouse hadn’t fallen into it, I wouldn’t be selling it now.’ “

 

There are three jokes about lamps, but not one about how many men it takes to refill one (the ancestor for how many it takes to screw in a light bulb).

 

Cold Missouri Waters – a folk song by James Keelaghan about a smokejumper tragedy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The tragic Mann Gulch Fire happened back on August 5, 1949 in Montana. 13 of 15 U. S. Forest Service smokejumpers who parachuted in to fight it were killed when the fire surrounded them. Norman Maclean (who had written the novella A River Runs Through It that became a 1992 film) wrote a whole posthumously published book about it titled Young Men and Fire.

 

The U. S. Forest Service video about it, Mann Gulch: The Wrath of Nature, takes ten minutes to describe what happened. Could you tell that story in a five-to-seven-minute speech at a Toastmasters club? To do so you would need to pick a viewpoint, and eliminate lots of details. James Keelaghan did it in a folk song titled Cold Missouri Waters, originally on his 1995 album A Recent Future. He told it in just five verses, as a confession by the foreman, Wag Dodge hospitalized with terminal Hodgkin’s lymphoma. At YouTube you can watch a 5- 1/ 2 minute lyric video of that song it by Wolf Loescher, and another 10-minute lyric video by the Fiddlin’ Foresters.

 

The image of a sign came from Wikimedia Commons.

 

Using a leg gesture to point out a direction

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gestures commonly use hands or arms rather than feet or legs. But, as shown above in a cartoon from page 11 of Puck magazine back on October 13, 1880 is also is possible to point out a direction using a leg.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By the usual convention with time going from left to right, it also is possible to use a leg to point forward or back (as shown above).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

An article on page 5 in the July 9, 1892 issue of Scientific American described a very elaborate system of gestures for showing numbers from 1 to 9999 using both arms and legs. It was called Homogenetic Enumeration. That topic was discussed again in Scientific American by Marty Karmelek on May 31, 2011 in an article titled Homogenetic Enumeration: A Numerical System Guaranteed to Move You.

 

My image was modified from the da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man at Wikimedia Commons.  

  

Good advice on gestures from 125 years ago

 

At the Internet Archive I found an 1897 public speaking book titled The Progressive Speaker. It begins with a discussion of elocution that contains the following advice:

 

“GESTURE

 

Second only to vocal gymnastics comprising articulation, pitch, force and time – which have been discussed in the preceding chapter is gesture.

 

Gesture is the science of interpretating and emphasizing by the various postures and motions of the face, head, shoulders, trunk, arms, hands, fingers, legs and feet the words which are spoken.  

 

Graceful and appropriate gesture renders vocal delivery far more pleasing and effective. Hence its cultivation is of primary importance to those who are ambitious of accomplishment in elocution. Without discussing this subject at length, we will, by a few simple illustrations, endeavor to show the favorable and unfavorable postures of the body, and afterwards proceed to show the different attitudes for expressing various emotions and sentiments. In the first place, let it be remembered that the orator or reader should stand upon his feet, and never lounge or loll in an ungraceful attitude. If a speaker should lie on the stand before him, or hang on to a chair or table, he will not be likely to deliver himself with energy or effect.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The above illustrations show a few of the improper positions often assumed, in contrast with proper or graceful attitudes.

 

The Head, the Eyes, the Arm, and Hand

 

As the head gives the chief grace to the person, so does it principally contribute to the  expression of grace, in delivery. The head should be held in an erect and natural posture; for when hung down, it expresses humility, or diffidence; when thrown back, arrogance; and when inclined to one side, languor or indifference. The movements of the head should be suited to the character of delivery; they should accord with the gesture, and fall in with the actions of the hands and the motions of the body.

 

The head is capable of many appropriate expressions. Besides those nods which signify assent or approbation and rejection, there are motions of the head, known and common to all, which express modesty, doubt, admiration, and indignation. But to use the gesture of the head alone, unaccompanied by any other gesture, is considered faulty. It is also a fault to shake or nod the head frequently, to toss it violently, or to agitate the hair, by rolling it about.

 

The eyes should look the sentiment expressed. Every gesture will be strengthened or weakened by the expression of the eye. This, like other gestures, should be practiced before a mirror. But to give the proper expression and power to the eye, the speaker must feel the sentiments he would put into his look and words.  

 

The arm, the fore-arm, the hand, and fingers form the grand instruments of gesture; or as Cicero calls them, ‘the weapons of the orator.’ Altogether they form a compound instrument, the centre of which is in the shoulder, but each separate joint often becomes a new centre of motion for the portion between it and the extremity. In gesticulating, this complex instrument does not continue long in one direct line, but changes every moment. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The most common positions of the hands are illustrated by the accompanying cuts. They may be memorized by the student in a few minutes, and a little practice will make them familiar. Here, again, the mirror will help. Look first at the illustration; then reproduce it in the glass.    

 

The Stroke and Time of Gesture

 

The stroke of gesture is analogous to the emphasis of the voice; and they should both fall exactly on the accented syllable of the emphatic word. In this way the emphatic force of the voice, and the stroke of the gesture, co-operate in presenting the idea in the most lively manner, to the eye as well as to the ear.

 

In all discourse, whether calm or impassioned, the words and gestures should accompany each other. As, in beating time in music, the beat is made on the accented part of the measure, so in speaking, the stroke of the gesture should fall on the accented syllable of the emphatic word. The emotion which calls forth the word, at the same moment, prompts the gesture. Hence, the muscles of gesticulation should move synchronously and harmoniously with those of the voice.

 

When gesture is not marked by the precision of the stroke, in the proper places, it is very offensive. The arms, like those of a person groping in the dark, seem to wander about in quest of some uncertain object; and the action is of the faulty kind which is called sawing the air. Even graceful motions, unmarked by the precision of the stroke of the gesture, as sometimes seen, lose much of their force, and very soon cease to afford pleasure. All the unmeaning motions of public speakers are attended with the same ill effect as a mouthing and canting tone of declamation, which lays no emphasis with just discrimination, but swells and falls with a vain affectation of feeling, and with absolute deficiency both in taste and judgment.

 

WHOLE FIGURE GESTURES AND ATTITUDES

 

The following illustrations will assist the student in assuming the proper attitudes and making the proper gestures for the expression of the feelings and sentiments indicated. It would be well to memorize and practice before a mirror, until confidence, ease and grace are acquired in executing them.”