Recent and definitive advice on preventing hoarseness (dysphonia)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hoarseness (known medically as dysphonia) can be a problem for speakers. What can we do? Gary Genard’s Speak for Success! Blog has a useful post on September 20, 2020 titled Public Speaking: 15 easy ways to keep your voice healthy. And there is an article at LinkedIn Pulse on May 12, 2022 titled Hoarse voice before a presentation? 7 powerful treatment secrets from singer, moderator & speaker Danja Bauer.

 

Wikipedia has an article on Hoarse voice with a long list of references. The twentieth is a long, definitive article by Robert J. Stachler et al in Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery onMarch 2018 (pages S1 to S42) titled Clinical Practice Guideline: Hoarseness (Dysphonia) (Update). The graphic shown above has one version of their recommendations from the Plain Language Summary. Another version, with what and what not to do, is provided in Table 9 on page 25:

 

HOW TO PREVENT HOARSENESS

 

THINGS TO DO:

Adequately hydrate by drinking water daily.

Use of amplification in large noisy spaces can help reduce voice strain.

Rest your voice briefly to prevent voice fatigue, straining, and overuse.

Provide indoor air humidification in dry, arid environments.

 

THINGS TO AVOID:

Smoking and second-hand smoke from cigarettes, cigars, and pipes that can irritate your airway, throat, nose, and mouth.

Overusing or straining your voice by yelling, shouting, speaking over loud noises, and whispering.

Excessive throat clearing and coughing.

Alcohol and caffeine consumption as it can dry the throat, resulting in mucous thickening.

Use of drying medications.

 

Similar advice appears in a brief 2021 publication (NIH 14-5160) by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders titled Taking Care of Your Voice. To find more about how your voice works, you can read another article by Zhaoyan Zhang in the Fall 2021 issue of Acoustics Today (Volume 17 number 3, pages 60-68) titled The physical aspects of vocal health. There is yet another article by Steven A. House and Eric L. Fisher in American Family Physician on December 1, 2017 titled Hoarseness in Adults.

 

 

 

Quotations from Vital Speeches of the Day: #6 – Steven Spielberg on how I Am Not Finished!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On February 22, 2023 Steven Spielberg accepted an honorary Golden Bear award for lifetime achievement at the Berlindale International Film Festival. He gave a speech titled I Am Not Finished! It was published in the April 2023 issue of Vital Speeches of the Day magazine on pages 91 and 92. Steven said that:

 

“….Time is really just a trick of the mind, and it’s a trick of the light. I’ve been directing a long time – six decades [sic] – but it feels to me like I directed Duel and Jaws last year. At 76 I know a lot more about moviemaking than I did when I was 25, and I directed my first feature film at 25. But the anxieties and the uncertainties and the fears that tormented me as I began shooting Duel have stayed vivid for 50 years, as if no time has passed.

 

….Now I also feel a little alarmed to be told I’ve lived a lifetime, because I’m not finished.

 

I’m not finished. I want to keep working, I want to keep learning and discovering and scaring the shit out of myself, and sometimes the shit out of you. I’ve got to get back to some of those earlier scarier movies, but that’s another story.

 

As long as there’s joy in it for me, and as long as my audience can find joy and other human values in my films, I’m reluctant to ever say that’s a wrap. I’d like to beat Manoel de Olivera’s record and direct my last film when I’m 106.”

 

There is another article by Ben Dalton at ScreenDaily on February 22, 2023 titled Steven Spielberg delivers memorable Berlin speech – read the full transcript.

 

I added the 1971 date to an image of the tank truck and car from Duel at Wikimedia Commons.

 

A memorable speech by Charlie Munger on How to Guarantee a Life of Misery

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Inspirational speeches (like commencement addresses) typically tell us how to be successful or happy. But on June 3, 1986 Charlie Munger, the Vice Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, instead gave a 2012 word speech titled How to Guarantee a Life of Misery. You can read a full transcript on James Clear’s web site. Assuming a speech rate of 125 words per minute, his speech would have a TED Talk length of 16 minutes.

 

There is an article by Polina Pompliano at The Profile on May 27, 2020 titled The Profile Dossier: Charlie Munger, the Master of Mental Models. It discusses his use of inversion – flipping things over. Also, there is another article by Christopher Dwyer at Psychology Today on July 27, 2023 titled Could inversion improve your decision-making?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On January 12, 2014 I published a blog post titled Don’t just get on the bandwagon! Find your own speech topic and approach. The third approach I listed was to Flip Things Over. As an example, I referred to a post on June 24, 2008 titled Don’t be a “Flip Chart Charlie” – where instead of a How-To, I described How-Not-To.

 

The miserable cartoon was adapted from here at Openclipart.  

 

Quotations from Vital Speeches of the Day: #5 – John McEnroe on how This is the Time to Take Your Shots

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

John McEnroe gave the commencement address at Stanford University on June 18, 2023. His speech, titled This is the time to take your shots, appeared in the August 2023 issue of Vital Speeches of the Day magazine on pages 184 to 186. John said:

 

“....For all the positive steps we’ve seen in caring for our mental health, we’re also seeing the flipside where people are attempting to eliminate stress or pain altogether. Which is impossible. It’s the ‘everyone geta a trophy’ kind of mentality. It’s ridiculous and, honestly, a little dangerous. Not everyone is meant to be good at everything. And it’s very important for people who are high-flying mental giants, like all of you, to realize taking risks, failing, and learning from your failures is essential to your development. And sometimes a loss is the best thing that can happen to you.

 

In 1980 Björn Borg and I played in what is considered one of the greatest Wimbledon finals of all time. After three hours and 55 minutes of some seriously intense tennis, I lost in five sets. Of course, I wanted to win. I gave it everything I had – but I wouldn’t trade that moment for anything.

 

The truth is most people don’t remember who won that match. And don’t care. I once had the privilege of meeting the great Nelson Mandela. He told me he listened to that match on a tiny radio from his prison cell on Robben Island. And that the whole prison hung on every point of that match. That we gave Mandela a brief respite from the excruciating hell of 27 years of political imprisonment meant more to me than any award I’ve ever won. The lesson here is you don’t have to win to be part of something that is truly magical.

 

A few years after that Wimbledon final Björn quit tennis at age 26. It was devastating to me and the rest of the sport. In the mid-80s, if you were on my path. I would destroy you. Top of my game. But I wasn’t truly happy. Why? Because being the best in the world wasn’t as good as playing with someone who pushed you to greatness. Which is why I BEGGED my biggest rival to come back to the sport.

 

At the time he said to me, ‘If you’re not #1, it doesn’t matter whether you’re #2 or #100.’ Even though I understood where he was coming from, I disagreed with him then and still do. Number 2 is pretty damn good. Sometimes, you have to appreciate where you’re at in life. If your mentality is ‘If it’s not success, then it’s failure,’ your life will be really, really hard. Success us another chance to keep plugging away at what we love to do. That’s all it really is.

 

….Graduates, this is the time to take your shots. Your life will go by fast. Give it your all. Stand up for yourself. Stay curious. Be a good citizen of the world. Don’t get crushed under the weight of your expectations. Know that the real victory in life is the long game - measure your success by how much you evolve, not necessarily how much you win. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. And for chrissakes, have the balls to say what you feel.”

 

John’s advice to be a good citizen differs from his earlier behavior. The Wikipedia article about him notes he was known for:

 

“his confrontational on-court behavior, which frequently landed him in trouble with umpires and tennis authorities.”

 

The image by Brett Weinstein came from Wikimedia Commons.

 

That zombie statistic that 77% of people fear public speaking is back - twice

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back on October 12, 2020 I blogged about Do 77% of Americans fear public speaking? No! That percentage described stage fright in Swedes who also had social anxiety disorder. And on January 29, 2022 I blogged again about A zombie statistic that 77% of the general population fears public speaking. That silly claim based on superficial research is back in a pair of blog posts.

 

A post by Lawrence Haywood at the AhaSlides blog on August 23, 2023 titled Fear of Public Speaking: 15 Tips to Beat Glossophobia in 2023 begins by claiming:

 

“We can say with some conviction that you are a sufferer of glossophobia – the fear of public speaking.

 

How? Well, yes, because you’re reading this article but also because all the stats point to it. According to one European study, an estimated 77% of people could suffer from a fear of public speaking.

 

That’s over 3/4 of the world who are just like you when they’re in front of a crowd. They shake, blush and quiver on stage. Their hearts go a mile a minute and their voice cracks under the pressure of being the sole person tasked to get a message across.”

 

And the study he linked to just has an abstract rather than the full text you can find here at PubMed Central.

 

Another blog post at GITNUX MARKET DATA on September 5, 2023 titled The Most Surprising Public Speaking Fear Statistics and Trends in 2023 similarly has a box titled The Most Important Statistics which begins:

 

“77% of people have a fear of public speaking, also known as glossophobia.

 

This statistic is a powerful reminder of the prevalence of glossophobia, and serves as a reminder of the importance of addressing this fear. It highlights the need for more resources and support for those who struggle with public speaking, and emphasizes the need for further research into the causes and treatment of this fear.”

 

The image of a zombie came from Openclipart.  

 

Don’t let a large Zoom meeting turn into a circus!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is an article by Sarah Clendenon at the Idaho Dispatch on September 13, 2023 titled Idaho Water Resource Board Meeting Rescheduled After Zoom Debacle. They attempted a public Zoom meeting on September 6, 2023. Sarah describes what happened:

 

“It was immediately obvious there were potential problems. When joining online, all cameras and microphones defaulted to the ‘on’ position for every person joining the meeting. Typically in a public meeting of this kind, the moderator is knowledgeable in Zoom settings and can restrict participation to keep order.    

 

Problems did arise, nearly immediately. Rowdy and disruptive participants wrote inappropriate statements in the chat window, shouted out offensive language, took control of the presentation screen, drew inappropriate doodles over the presenter’s slides, and verbally heckled acting Chairman Marc Gibbs.

 

The staff of the IDWR was able to quickly shut down the chat feature, but did not mute participants, did not find a way to stop hijacking of the screen, and could not stop the disruptions.”

 

This problem is commonly referred to as Zoombombing, and it has a page at Wikipedia. The ZOOM Blog has a post on July 26, 2021 titled How to keep uninvited guests out of your Zoom meeting. The problem also has been discussed by universities. One example at Indiana University, by their University Information Technology Services, is a web page titled Prevent Zoombombing using Zoom privacy and security features.

 

The circus image was derived from a Barnum & Bailey poster at Wikimedia Commons.

 

A silly political comparison of asparagus and potatoes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the Gem State Patriot News (blog) there is an article (post) by Bob ‘Nugie’ Neugebauer on September 9, 2023 titled Idaho ranks in Top 10 states that are least conservative. Bob links to a second article by Luke Rosiak in The Daily Wire on September 7, 2023 titled Dem lawmakers vote for leftism in lockstep, while Republicans routinely abandon conservatism, study shows. And Luke got his information from a third article at CPAC on September 7, 2023 titled Study of 150,000 lawmaker votes exposes Republicans as less committed to conservative policy than Democrats are to liberal policy. Mr. Neugebauer also embedded a YouTube video from Bryan Hyde at Idaho Freedom TV titled Nowhere to Hyde - - An invasive species of RINO. It parrots Luke Rosiak’s article.

 

But that analysis is flawed. If you wanted to make a comparison, then you should have looked at how Representatives and Senators in the Congress voted on the SAME issues. The CPAC article instead compared how state legislators voted on the DIFFERENT issues which arose. That’s like comparing asparagus (California) with potatoes (Idaho). The CPAC article has a graph showing how the Average Republican Score varies with the Percentage of Republicans in the [State] Legislature, and Mr. Rosiak reproduces it along with a list. Both the graph and list are missing Nebraska.  

 

Mr. Rosiak makes a big point of how liberal Idaho is. Here’s what he said [with the percentages added]:

 

“Ranking among the 10 states with the most liberal Republican lawmakers were Mississippi [#46 58%], Wyoming [#43 66%], South Dakota [#41 68%], and Idaho [#40 68%]. That’s despite Republicans holding strong majorities in those legislatures, and the state’s population overwhelmingly voting for Republicans in election after election.

 

As a group, Mississippi Republican lawmakers had an average conservative score of 58% [at #46], making them less conservative than Republicans in New Jersey [#45 59%], Maryland [#44 65%], and Oregon [#42 68%]. The state where Republicans voted most conservative was a swing state: Wisconsin [94%].”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A bar chart (shown above) has the entire list of 49 states from Rosiak’s article, where Idaho is #40. Note that he did not talk about three other states at the bottom: Alaska [#47 57%], Connecticut [#48 54%], Hawaii [#49 26%] – or why Nebraska was ignored.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And a second bar chart has the list from the CPAC article of The 50 State Legislatures Ranked from Most to Least Conservative. Here Idaho is #19 at 59% rather than #40.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The curious graph from that CPAC article showing how the Average Republican Score varies with the Percentage of Republicans in the [State] Legislature, and reproduced by Mr. Rosiak is shown above, along with a dotted green line I added indicating that five-eighths (62.5%) is the peak beyond which the Average Republican Scores decrease. Their smooth dotted gray line goes right through the point for Hawaii, which seems quite unlikely to me.

 

The vegetables graphic came from Openclipart.

 

More about the Toastmasters Pathways Level 2 project on Understanding Your Communication Style

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On February 4, 2020 I blogged about The Toastmasters Pathways Level 2 project on Understanding Your Communication Style. Then I was working in the Presentation Mastery path. Now I’m working on Visionary Communication, and doing the styles project once again. The project has a twelve-item quiz for determining how you rank on the four communication styles shown above – Direct, Analytical, Initiating, or Supportive. I’ve shown them with a character from the original Star Trek TV series who displays that style. You can remember them via the acronym DAIS (which also is the term for a raised platform larger than a podium). The division into styles is a useful tool for thinking about how you communicate, but it should not be taken too seriously.

 

Recently there have been two articles in Toastmaster magazine about this project. The first, by Bill Brown, is on page 9 of the May 2022 issue, and is titled Understanding Your Communication Style. The second, by Greg Glasgow, is on pages 20 to 23 of the June 2022 issue and is titled Direct, Initiating, Supportive, or Analytical? Mr. Glasgow’s article has a section titled A Short Style History which begins with a paragraph stating:

 

“The concept of communication styles has been around for a long time. In 1928 the American psychologist William Moulton Marston published Emotions of Normal People, a book in which he described four primary behavioral styles: dominance, influence, steadiness, and compliance. From this book a world of different communication style families was born.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But he omits stating the acronym DISC, which is how these styles currently are described, or telling us that there are doubts about them. My blog post discussed more history, and referred to a New York Times article on September 17, 2019 by Emma Goldberg is titled Personality Tests Are the Astrology of the Office, and subtitled Psychometric tests like Color Code, Myers-Briggs and DiSC have become a goofy part of corporate life. There is another article by David Burkus on April 6, 2020 titled Personality Tests are Useless (Most of them anyway). He also has a thirteen-minute YouTube video titled Personality Tests Are Useless | DISC, Myers-Briggs(MBTI), Enneagram and almost all the others.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The division into four styles used by the Pathways project is not the worst classification. That dubious honor goes to the one in the Wikipedia article on Behavioral communication. As shown above, it says the four styles are Assertive, Aggressive, Passive, and Passive-Aggressive. Assertive is the only desirable one. They must never have heard the Sesame Street song One of These Things (Is Not Like the Others). This classification also turned up in an article by Julia Martins at Asana on June 6, 2023 titled The 4 communication styles every manager should know.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Even worse there is another version with five styles in an article by Don Weber at Entrepreneur on February 2, 2023 titled How your communication style affects your sales performance. As shown above, it adds a Manipulative style and renames Passive as Submissive.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The three or four styles other than Assertive surely would be summarized by Daffy Duck with his famous catchphrase - that You’re Despicable. (The image of Daffy came from Wikimedia Commons).  

 

Colon cleansing just is a pile of poop

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the website of the McGill Office for Science and Society I saw an excellent article by Ada McVean on September 1, 2023 titled Debunking Detox: Your Colon Doesn’t Need Cleansing and subtitled The slew of colon-unplugging products are not supported by science and may even do more harm than good. She noted that peddlers of detox products tell us that we are carrying around pounds of impacted fecal matter. That article is part of an earlier one in the Skeptical Inquirer on May 3, 2023 titled The fact and fiction of physiological phenomena: Volume 1 which has the following four section headings:

 

Pee after sex to avoid a UTI: fiction

Avoid dairy when you’re sick: fiction

Stress can cause gray hair: fact

Colons need to be generally cleansed: fiction

 

There is another great article by Michael F. Picco at the MAYO CLINIC titled Is colon cleansing a good way to eliminate toxins from your body? It obeys Betteridge’s law of headlines, which is:

 

“Any headline that ends in a question mark can be answered by the word no.”

 

There is a long article by David Gorski at Science-Based Medicine on April 7, 2008 titled Colon “cleanses”: A load of you know what…

 I’m old enough to have had colonoscopies, for which the preparation involved drinking huge amounts of fluid, and then NOT pooping out pounds of impacted fecal matter.

 

An image of a digestive system was adapted from this one at Wikimedia Commons.

 

A bad article at the Gem State Patriot News - inspired by notorious quack Dr. Joseph Mercola

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the Gem State Patriot News blog on September 4, 2023 there is a bad article (post) by their publisher, Bob ‘Nugie’ Neugebauer, titled The Manipulation of America and subtitled Social Media Platforms & Google are turning us into a Banana Republic. It’s typical ‘Viewing with Alarm,’ and it obviously wasn’t proofread. His first paragraph opens by claiming that:

 

“Wikipedia describes Manipulation (psychology) as the action of manipulating someone in a clever or unscrupulous way Crowd manipulation — the use of crowd psychology to direct the behavior of a crowd toward a specific action Internet manipulation — the co-opting of digital technology (algorithms, automated scripts) for commercial, social, or political purpose. So you have to ask the question, is this happening in our country today, how bad is it and how long has it been going on?”

 

That first run-on sentence that doesn’t match what Wikipedia says. Their page on Manipulation (psychology) actually says it is a:

 

“subterfuge designed to influence or control another, usually in a manner which facilitates one’s personal aims.”

 

Bob instead had referred to the generic page on Manipulation, which under Crowd Manipulation lists categories of Internet manipulation, Media manipulation and Market manipulation.

 

His second paragraph begins with this sentence that misspelled Larry Sanger as Larry Sager:

 

“According to a recent interview on Rumble by Glenn Greenwald with Larry Sager Wikipedia’s founder, manipulation of Wikipedia has been going on since around 2006 when we saw the establishment take exception to and become dismissive of the relative value of eastern/natural medicine compared to today’s establishment science.”

 

And his fourth paragraph misspells cues as ques.

 

Bob says he was inspired by Dr. Joseph Mercola, and links to this article at the AMERICA FIRST Report on September 2, 2023 titled Wikipedia Is an Information Warfare Tool. It has an embedded YouTube video from Glenn Greenwald titled Wikipedia Co-Founder Condemns It: “Most Biased Encyclopedia in History | SYSTEM UPDATE.

 

But Dr. Mercola is a notorious jerk, and always should be ignored. There is a page about him at the Encyclopedia of American Loons way back on December 31, 2011. That’s not a good sign. And the page about him at the RationalWiki begins by stating that:

 

“Joseph Mercola (1954-) is an American anti-vaxer, conspiracy theorist, pseudoscience promoter and absolute quack, best known for making false and misleading health claims.”

 

One of those claims cost him millions of dollars. There is a press release from the Federal Trade Commission on April 14, 2016 titled Marketers of Indoor Tanning Systems to Pay Refunds to Consumers.

 

More recently there is an article by David Gorski at Science-Based Medicine on July 28, 2021 titled Joe Mercola: An antivaccine quack tycoon pivots effortlessly to profit from spreading COVID-19 misinformation. There also is another article by Joe Schwarcz at the Montreal Gazette on August 20, 2021 titled The Right Chemistry: Beware of these examples of COVID quackery.

 

My graphic was assembled from a rubber duck and a flag donut at Openclipart.  

 

Bad storytelling about product recalls

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I recently read about a product recall involving steering in some recent Nissan Sentra compact cars. One article at AP on August 19, 2023 is titled Nissan recalling more than 236,000 cars to fix a problem that can cause loss of steering control. It contains the following description:

 

“Nissan is recalling more than 236,000 small cars in the U.S. because the tire rods in front suspension can bend and break, possibly causing drivers to lose steering control. The recall covers certain Sentra compact cars from the 2020 through 2022 model years. Tie rods help vehicles move the wheels for steering. Nissan says in documents posted Saturday by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that if tie rods become bent, they can break and affect the steering, increasing the risk of a crash.”

 

As is shown above via a schematic (revised from one at Wikimedia Commons), inner tie rods connect between the steering wheel and vehicle front wheels. They don’t just ‘help’ move them. Another article by Keith Barry at Consumer Reports on August 21, 2023 titled Nissan Sentra sedans recalled again to fix steering issues also talks about tie rods just helping:

 

“Nissan is recalling over 236,000 Sentra sedans from the 2020 through 2022 model years because of a faulty part that could make it more difficult to steer. In serious cases, the driver may lose control of the vehicle…

 

The problem has to do with the vehicle’s tie rod, which is a part that helps connect a vehicle’s steering system to its drive wheels. On the recalled Sentras, the tie rod can bend too easily after experiencing a high-impact force such as hitting a curb, which can cause vibration and an off-center steering wheel. If the tie rod breaks, the driver could lose some steering control.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission on July 6, 2023 there is a recall notice titled Husqvarna Recalls Residential 300 Series Snow Blowers Due to Injury Hazard. These snow blowers are self-propelled and the description for Incidents/Injuries says:

 

“The firm has received 22 reports where the auger pulley bolt loosened and the drive unexpectedly became engaged. No injuries have been reported.”

 

And it also says:

 

“Hazard: The recalled 300 series snow blowers can unexpectedly go into drive mode and collide with a consumer, posing an injury hazard.”

 

I assembled the cartoon shown above from Openclipart images of a snow blower and a running man, showing him being chased through the snow. If he fell, then it could turn into a version of the infamous wood chipper scene from Fargo.

 

Quotations from Vital Speeches of the Day: #4 - Richard Trumka on what labor wants

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Since it is Labor Day, I’m going to quote the conclusion of a speech by Richard Trumka (July 24, 1949 – August 5, 2021), who was President of the AFL-CIO from 2009 to 2021. He gave it on October 22, 2019 at the Alabama AFL-CIO convention in Montgomery and it was titled United we win, divided we fall:

 

“This labor movement is tired of giving in. And we are going to win a new day. We’ll march for it. We’ll organize for it. We’ll fight for it. Brothers and sisters, are you ready to fight? Are you ready to fight?

 

We’re going to fight for higher pay. We’re going to fight for better health care. We’re going to fight for a secure retirement. And we’re going to fight for an economy where every worker – every single worker – has the freedom to form a union and bargain collectively.

 

We’ve earned it, brothers and sisters. We teach, heal and make. We package, print, and bake. We put food on the table. We care for the sick. We build the cars and mine the coal. We serve our nation with dignity and pride. We stand tall. We don’t run and hide. We wake our country up every single day, and we tuck her into bed at night!

 

We are the American labor movement and we will not – we will not – be denied! Thank you, brothers and sisters! God bless you!”

 

That speech was published on pages 332 to 335 in the December 2019 issue of Vital Speeches of the Day magazine.

 

The 1910 image of strike pickets came from the Library of Congress.

 

 

The National Speakers Association stopped publishing the free print version of their bimonthly Speaker magazine. The last issue was for January-February 2023.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In her song, Big Yellow Taxi, Joni Mitchell lamented:

 

“Don’t it always seem to go

 that you don’t know what you’ve got

 till it’s gone”

 

That sentiment applies to the Speaker magazine by the National Speakers Association, which is subtitled The Art and Business of Professional Speaking. In the January-February 2023 issue they announced going digital only. It now apparently is in their members-only Digital Vault.

 

 But there still is a five-and-a-half-year archive where you can download issues for free. I blogged about it in a couple of posts. On January 5, 2020 one described how Toastmasters may also enjoy reading articles in another bimonthly magazine, and on January 15, 2021 another described how Toastmasters also is for professional speakers like NSA members.

 

The image was modified from one of a courthouse safe.

 

On August 26, 2023 this blog had a gigantic spike in page views, with 27.6 times the annual average

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Because this blog is not commercial, I don’t look hard at the number of page views I’m getting each day. But on August 26th something quite amazing happened. As shown above, there were 12,295 views – which is 27.6 times the annual average of 446 per day. What on earth had happened?

 

On August 25th I had blogged about how Preaching is a very special form of public speaking. As is usual, I had put that post at the Public Speaking group on LinkedIn (my only ‘advertising’ for the blog). The group owner, James Feudo, recommended it – which meant it was featured pinned at the top of the page rather than moving down after newer posts appeared. It has received over 134 impressions. That presumably led a lot of people to my blog. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What about the long term? As shown above, there only have been two months, June 2016 and July 2023 when this blog has averaged over 2000 page views per day.

 

I started Joyful Public Speaking after I joined Toastmasters International. As I learned about public speaking, I wanted to reach further than the ~20 people in a typical club. Just on August 26th the blog reached ~615 times that number of people.

 

On June 7, 2021 I blogged about how Your speech has more reach than you think. In that post I discussed John Zimmer’s notion that you should multiply the time for your speech by the number of people in your audience. I called it the reach, in units of person-minutes. LinkedIn estimated the reading time for my blog post on preaching at 2 minutes, so its reach would similarly be 24,590 person-minutes or 409.8 person-hours, or 17.08 person-days.