Collecting elongated coins

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I like to collect elongated coins as inexpensive souvenirs to remind me of my travels. Museums and other tourist attractions often have a penny press for squashing that coin to produce a pattern, as shown above. You typically insert 51 cents (two quarters and a penny) and then can obtain one of four designs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As shown above, usually you have to turn a crank. Other times there is a fancier press driven by a motor. On October 6, 2021 I blogged about the Best historical story about an inflatable prop – regarding the Spruce Goose at the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum.  

   

Three speechwriting tips to comfort and connect with your audiences

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At Ragan PR Daily on January 25, 2024 there is a brief article by Brian Pittman titled 3 speechwriting tips to comfort and connect with audiences. They are:

 

1] Make emotional connections to build trust.

  Eschew jargon and humanize ideas.

  Use specifics and illustrate with real people.

  Tell stories that provide solutions.

  Dare to get personal and never fake it.

 

2] Study successful stories and the anatomy of personal anecdotes.

 [According to consultant Nick Lanyi these include:]

  Hero or heroine

  Worthy goal

  Vivid details

  Emotional resonance

 

3] Be an avid reader – and think like a reporter.

 

There is another useful article by David Murray at Pro Rhetoric on January 11, 2024 titled No, Speeches Don’t Write Themselves. He refers to yet another article by Danny McDonald in the Boston Globe on January 8, 2024 titled “There’s Just Too Much to Say”: Before Michelle Wu’s biggest annual speech, meet her chief speechwriter.

 

A cartoon of a woman happily writing at her desktop computer was adapted from this one at Wikimedia Commons.  

 

Ten lessons from teaching the public about shark science and conservation

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At Southern Fried Science on January 18, 2024 there is a very interesting article by David Shiffman titled Lessons learned from teaching the public about shark science and conservation: Insights from my SICB Plenary. (SICB is the acronym of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology). David says that:

 

 1] Public science engagement is good for science, good for the public, and good for you … when done effectively.

 2] No one owes you their eyeballs.

 3] Storytelling is more effective than a list of dry facts … and while facts will always matter, an infodump cannot be the sole focus of your public engagement.

 4] Saying that your research is important (for conservation, or otherwise) does not make it so.

 5] Not every individual unit of science needs to be communicated to the public.

 6] Unilateral disarmament doesn’t win battles, but you do not have to participate in every fight you are invited to.

 7] Know (and use) the right tool for the job, but tools by themselves are not a strategy. You need a strategy.

 8] Treat your audience with respect. That includes how you carry yourself, how you respond to questions, and your word choice re: jargon.

 9] Sometimes the messenger matters as much as the message … or more.

10] Professional need not mean stuffy and boring. This stuff should be fun!

 

There is recent brief article at NOAA Fisheries on July 28, 2023 titled Debunking common shark myths. There also is long, earlier article (32 pages in pdf) by David S. Shiffman et al. at iScience on June 17, 2020 titled Inaccurate and biased global media coverage underlies public misunderstanding of shark conservation threats and solutions.

 

An image of a shark was adapted from this one by Diego Delso featured at Wikimedia Commons.

 

Learning from watching mistakes by other speakers

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A 2011 book from Dale Carnegie Training titled Stand and Deliver: How to Become a Masterful Communicator and Public Speaker contains the following quote from their founder, Dale:

 

“There are always three speeches for every one you actually give: The one you practiced, the one you gave, and the one you wish you'd given.”

 

At Toastmasters club meetings we have opportunities to learn by watching the ones that other speakers gave (and, as shown above, how they tripped). There is an article by Cathey Armillas on pages 16 to 19 in the October 2020 issue of Toastmaster magazine titled How to Rock Your Presentation which has the following list of Top Ten Mistakes:

 

 1]  Infowhelm

 2]  Being audience ignorant

 3]  The slow start

 4]  Over-explaining

 5]  Sameness

 6]  Ending on Q&A

 7]  Going over time

 8]  Dreadful visuals

 9]  I before you

10] The weak finish

 

I have been reading a 2023 book by Katharine Coldiron titled Junk Film: Why Bad Movies Matter. On page 75 she says that:

 

“Bad movies are teaching tools for making and studying good movies.”

 

That’s a more specific version of the old saw that no one is completely useless - since they always can serve as a bad example.

 

The tripping sign was adapted from one at Wikimedia Commons.

 

An arrogant Idaho GOP resolution to reduce freedom by making it harder to pass an initiative

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the Gem State Patriot News blog on January 13, 2024 there is a post by Dorothy Moon titled The Idaho GOP is Growing, as Conservative Idahoans Embrace Message of Faith, Family, and Freedom. But it really is about reducing the freedom of citizens. She states that:

 

“The first resolution seeks to raise the threshold needed to approve a citizen’s initiative. It takes a supermajority for your local school district to increase taxes, so why should major structural changes to our election system or billions of dollars in welfare be decided by a simple majority? This resolution asks the Legislature to codify a 2/3 supermajority for initiatives going forward.”

 

That is an unfair comparison because, as shown above it only takes a simple majority (half the votes) for the legislature. Why should an initiative have to get another 1/6th of the votes? The initiative is rarely used, but really serves as a useful safety valve - for citizens to accomplish what the legislature has chosen to avoid.

 

The supermajority requirement for bond elections recently was discussed at the Idaho Statesman both by Bryan Clark  on December 18, 2023 in an article titled Why the supermajority makes no sense: When a bond fails, it can cost taxpayers more | Opinion and a second article by Jason Mercier on December 20, 2023 titled Lowering the bond supermajority is worth discussing, but taxpayers need protection.

 

Ten quotes to motivate speaking in public – five of which are incorrect

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On January 8, 2024 there is a post by Rosemary Ravinal at her The Master Communicator Blog titled 10 timeless quotes to motivate your public speaking. But five are partly or completely incorrect. For a well-researched and real quotation, we can definitively describe (as shown above) Who said it, What he said, When he said it, and Where he said it.  

 

 

Quote #1, attributed to John F. Kennedy, is that:

 

“The only reason to give a speech is to change the world.”

 

It was featured in a post by John Zimmer at his Manner of Speaking blog on May 21, 2013 titled Quotes for Public Speakers (No. 164) – John Kennedy. He said it was often attributed to Kennedy. Nick Morgan said in a comment that he could not give a definitive reference. (Nick authored a 2005 book titled Give Your Speech, Change the World: How to Move Your Audience to Action).

 

 

Quote #2, attributed to Dale Carnegie, is:  

 

“Talk to someone about themselves, and they’ll listen for hours.”

 

Both the Who and What are wrong. A Google Books search finds the correct quote, from the 2022 edition of How to Win Friends and Influence People [originally published back in 1936] instead is:

 

“ ’Talk to people about themselves,’ said Disraeli, one of the shrewdest men who ever ruled the British Empire. ‘Talk to people about themselves and they will listen for hours.’ “

 

Benjamin Disraeli (1804 – 1881) died before Dale Carnegie (1888- 1955) was born.

 

 

 

Quote #3, attributed to Steve Jobs, is:  

 

“The most powerful person in the world is the storyteller. The storyteller sets the vision, values, and agenda of an entire generation that is to come.”

 

This one is correct. An article by Carlos Silva at Medium on July 27, 2021 titled The Most Powerful Person in the World – (According to Steve Jobs) says he stated it about Pixar in the summer of 1994 at NeXT. A longer version is:

 

“The most powerful person in the world is the storyteller. The storyteller sets the vision, values, and agenda of an entire generation that is to come. Disney has a monopoly on the storyteller business. And you know what? I am tired of that bullshit, I am going to be the next storyteller!”

 

 

Quote #4, attributed to Leonardo DiCaprio, is:  

 

“Don’t wait around for someone else to tell your story. Do it yourself by any means necessary.”

 

The Who is definitely wrong. When I did a Google search, I couldn’t any reference to that actor. Instead, it appeared in an article by Erica Lies at Vulture on March 11, 2014 titled Highlights from Lena Dunham’s Keynote Address at SXSW.

 

 

Quote #5, attributed to Chris Anderson, is:  

 

“Your number one task as a speaker is to transfer into your listeners’ minds an extraordinary gift – a strange and beautiful object that we call an idea.”

 

This one is correct. Those exact words appear a minute into his eight-minute video titled TED’s secret to great public speaking.

 

  

Quote #6, attributed to Maya Angelou, is:  

 

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

 

She did not say that first, as was discussed by Garson O’Toole at Quote Investigator on April 6, 2014 in an article titled They may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel.

 

 

Quote #7, attributed to Eleanor Roosevelt, is:  

 

“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.”

 

It was discussed by Garson O’Toole at Quote Investigator abbreviated as QI, on April 30, 2012 in another article titled No one can make you feel inferior without your consent. He stated:

 

“In conclusion, QI believes that Eleanor Roosevelt can be credited with expressing the core idea of this saying by 1935. Within five years the graceful modern version of the maxim was synthesized [ on page 84 in the September 1940 Reader’s Digest]. QI does not know if Roosevelt or someone else was responsible for this. But QI does believe Roosevelt’s words were the most likely inspiration.”

 

 

Quote #8, attributed to Jerry Seinfeld, is:  

 

“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’d be better off in the casket than doing the eulogy”

 

 

That’s not quite what Jerry said. He didn’t say “Does that sound right?” I blogged about that quote on April 8, 2018 in a post titled Misquoting Jerry Seinfeld and inflating fear five times. What he really said in his show on May 20, 1993 instead (and also appears at IMDB) was:

 

“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.”

 

There is another later version on YouTube from the 1998 DVD Jerry Seinfeld [Live on Broadway] I’m telling you for the last time which instead says:

 

“I saw a thing, actually a study that said speaking in front of a crowd is considered the number one fear of the average person. I found that amazing. Number two was death. Death is number two? This means to the average person, if you have to be at a funeral, you would rather be in the casket than doing the eulogy.“

 

 

 Quote #9, attributed to Mark Twain, is:  

 

“There are two types of speakers: those that are nervous and those that are liars.”

 

Mark Twain didn’t say that. Yet another article by Garson O’Toole at Quote Investigator on March 5, 2020 titled There are two types of speakers: Those who are nervous and those who are liars discussed how the quote first appeared in 1998, although Twain had died back in 1910. I discussed it in a May 12, 2020 blog post titled Did Mark Twain really say there were just nervous speakers or liars? I found another reference from 1984.

 

 

Quote #10, attributed to Oprah Winfrey, is:  

 

“What’s the most important message you want to leave your audience with – and why should they care? Every listener instinctively wants to know one thing: What’s in this for me?”

 

That is a correct quote, which appeared at the Oprah web site in an article titled How to Talk to a crowd that Rosemary linked to.

 

 

The Joy of 2x2 tables, or charts, or matrixes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2x2 graphics are very useful for all sorts of planning. They are the next level beyond a one-dimensional description where typically ‘more is better.’ On July 3, 2020 I blogged about Is that 2x2 graphic a table, a chart, or a matrix? Should the axis go from left to right or right to left? And then on July 5, 2020 I blogged about Is that 2x2 graphic a chart, or a matrix? How many quadrants are there?

 

More recently, starting on November 13, 2023 I blogged about many different 2x2 graphics, as are shown above. If you want to learn much more, then look at a 348-page book from two decades ago (2004) by Alex Lowy and Phil Hood titled The Power of the 2x2 Matrix: Using 2x2 thinking to solve business problems and make better decisions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How can you decide when you need a 2x2 chart? As shown above, there is a 2x2 chart for that from Jeremiah Owyang at flickr on November 12, 2009 titled Matrix: Do You Need a 2x2 Matrix. The Magic 8 Ball is discussed in a Wikipedia page. It contains a floating icosahedron that has 20 answers, ten affirmative, five negative, and five non-committal.

 

 

A cost versus value 2x2 chart for project management

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At a web site by Nils Davis for his book, The Secret Project Manager Handbook, there is an article titled The prioritization 2x2 that is the first in a series titled How to Prioritize: Top 6 Prioritization Techniques. He shows a cost vs. value 2x2 chart (low and high) with cost as the horizontal axis, and value as the vertical axis – as shown above. The two blue boxes (which I connected by an arrow) have the normal sequence (blue) where low cost goes with low value and high cost with high value. The upper left green box (low cost and high value) is an excellent surprise, but the lower right red box (high cost and low value) is something to avoid. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At Savio there is another article by Kareem Mayan titled What is the Value vs Effort Matrix? Explanation, guide and how to avoid its pitfalls. As shown above, he plots value on the value horizontal axis and more generally effort (like cost) on the vertical axis. He discusses five weaknesses for this approach:

 

We’re not good at estimating value.

We tend to underestimate effort

Some features are important even if they won’t provide value.

Scores aren’t static.

Doesn’t directly tie scores to customer needs.

 

 

SWOT analysis is a strategic planning and management tool using a 2x2 chart

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (acronym SWOT) is a tool for strategic planning and management using a 2x2 chart, as shown above. There is a succinct three-page pdf article about it at the American Academy of Nurse Anesthesiology, and a Wikipedia page.

 

Also, there is another  longer article by Joseph Ferriolo at WiseBusinessPlans on November 29, 2023 titled SWOT Analysis: What it is and how to do it correctly with examples. Finally, there is a 33-page e-book you can download for free as a pdf from West Virginia University titled SWOT Analysis – strategy skills.

 

A 2x2 crosshairs pie chart describing four realms for how people process experience

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have been reading the 2023 book by James C. Maxwell titled The 16 Undeniable Laws of Communication. On page 117, in a section of the sixth chapter titled Put the Body on the Bones, he displays a 2x2 crosshairs pie chart from another book, which is shown above in my colorized version. The text says that:

 

“B. Joseph Pine II and James H. Gilmore, who wrote The Experience Economy, describe the way people process experiences based on whether they are active or passive and whether they ‘absorb’ the experience or are immersed in it. They describe what they call the four experience realms: entertainment, educational, escapist, and esthetic…  

 

Entertainment occurs when people passively absorb the experience, such as watching a concert or reading a book. An educational experience also focuses on absorbing an experience, but in addition, the participants are actively engaged in mind, body, or both. People learning skills in a classroom or on a field learning to play soccer have this experience. An escapist experience is both immersive and active, such as when people visit theme parks, gamble in casinos, or play computer games. Esthetic experiences are immersive but passive, leaving no physical effect on their environment. Examples include gazing at the Grand Canyon or viewing an art exhibit.

 

…The richest experiences encompass aspects of all four realms. These center on the ‘sweet spot’ in the middle of the framework.”

 

Those four realms of experience also are in the earlier, 1999 book, titled The Experience Economy – Work Is Theatre and Every Business a Stage.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And they began with an article by Pine and Gilmore in the July August 1998 issue of the Harvard Business Review titled Welcome to the Experience Economy. But, back then, as shown above in my colorized version, the graphic was a donut chart rather than a pie chart. That was despite stating:

 

“Generally, we find that the richest experiences—such as going to Disney World or gambling in a Las Vegas casino—encompass aspects of all four realms, forming a ‘sweet spot’ around the area where the spectra meet.”

 

Love songs and Likert scales

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At xkcd on December 20, 2023 there is a webcomic titled Love Songs, shown above in my colorized version of that 2x2 chart. The horizontal scale is for Do I Like You?, while the vertical scale is for Do You Like Me? Both scales have these five levels:

 

No!!                            [1]

 

No                              [2]

 

Unclear or Neutral    [3]

 

Yes                             [4]

 

Yes!!                          [5]

 

There is an article by Gail M. Sullivan and Anthony R. Artino, Jr. on pages 541 and 542 in the December 2013 issue of the Journal of Graduate Medical Education titled Analyzing and Interpreting Data from Likert-Type Scales. It says:

 

“Developed in 1932 by Rensis Likert to measure attitudes, the typical Likert scale is a 5- or 7-point ordinal scale used by respondents to rate the degree to which they agree or disagree with a statement.”

 

Of course, there also is a detailed Wikipedia article, and a 22-page pdf article by Jan Losby and Anne Wetmore from February 14, 2012 titled CDC Coffee Break: Using Likert Scales in Evaluation Survey Work.

 

The love songs range from strong mutual disliking (You Oughta Know) to strong mutual liking (Teenage Dream). An article at EXPLAIN xkcd lists the artists for all 19 of them.

 

Mark Levin should not have called his book The Democrat Party Hates America

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last year Mark Levin published a book titled The Democrat Party Hates America. The disparaging epithet in his title is unoriginal. In 2019 there was another book by Clarence Mason Weaver, The Democrat Party Hates America: The Truth Between the Lies. On March 5, 2021 I blogged about The Democrat party and the Poohblican party. I said:

 

“Names matter. Refusing to use the name of the opposing political party is arrogant. It also is stupid if you call the Democratic Party the Democrat Party. Democratic is an adjective; Democrat is a noun, and if you’re smarter than a fifth-grader then you know those are different parts of speech.”

 

Mark R. Levin is a loudmouth, assclown radio show host. There is a web page on Mark Reed Levin from January 18, 2014 at the Encyclopedia of American Loons. I can’t stand listening to his radio show for more than three minutes at a time. He sounds perpetually angry - like there is a cylindrical cactus stuck up his butt. And Mark still refers to his executive producer Richard Sementa just as Mr. Producer, although Richard worked there for over twenty years. Mr. Levin has a law degree from Temple University, so he once was taught how to use language carefully and precisely.

 

At the web site for his radio show Levin has used Democrat Party in the titles for recent articles. Two examples are:

 

December 28, 2023 - Levin: Hamas Wing of The Democrat Party Is A Problem

December 29, 2023 - Mark Levin: What Does The Democrat Party Love About America?

      

But when you look back further, he also has referred to the Democratic Party. Three examples are:

 

July 5, 2023 - Levin: Welcome to Totalitarianism, Democratic Party Style

November 7, 2023 - Levin: The Democratic Party Has No Soul, No Principle

December 14, 2023 - Levin: All Colleges And Universities Go Through The Democratic Party

 

Mr. Levin’s recent refusal to refer correctly to the Democratic Party (as the Republican Party Platform from 2016 and kept in 2020 does) reminded me of the famous country song You Never Even Called Me By My Name, performed popularly by David Allan Coe.

 

There is an article by Craig Shirley at the Washington Times on September 28, 2023 titled BOOK REVIEW: ‘The Democrat Party Hates America’. You can watch Mark discuss his book at the Ronald Reagan Library in an hour and twenty-minute CSPAN video on October 21, 2023.

 

My blacked-out cartoon donkey was adapted from the Democratic Party Flag at Wikimedia Commons.

 

Should we have a con- and pro- pair of Words of the Day at a Toastmasters club meeting?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Toastmasters club meetings have a role called the Grammarian. As discussed on a page at the Toastmasters International web site, that person keeps track of language and grammar usage. There is an article by Kate McClare on page 13 of the October 2020 issue of Toastmaster magazine titled The Grammarian’s Gift.

 

To improve vocabulary, the Grammarian optionally can introduce a Word of the Day (or Week) for members to use, and keep track of its usage. Another article by Mitch Mirkin on pages 28 and 29 in the July 2015 Toastmaster magazine is titled What’s the Word. A second article by Kalle Lundahl on page 29 in the April 2017 Toastmaster is titled A Word of the Week to the Wise. And a third article by Bill Brown on page 12 in the March 2021 Toastmaster is titled A Word About the Word of the Day. The easySPEAK software for Toastmasters clubs has a web page providing a Word of the Day.

 

At some clubs, like my Pioneer Club in Boise, the role is combined with that of the Ah-Counter and called the Ah Grammarian. That person introduces a word of the day, which is shown on a sheet of paper in front of the lectern.  

 

On April 20, 2018 I blogged about Playing with words: PRO or Con? That post suggested we might broaden to having a pair of potentially opposite words prefixed with pro- and con-. The table shown above lists twelve pairs taken from a list that began by writing down twenty. Those shown in red didn’t make it into dictionaries.

 

The 5Ws and 1H (or Kipling Method) for planning public speaking or other communication

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some ideas are so old they have gotten different names. For example, there is a Wikipedia article on the Five Ws (really Five Ws and one H) questions shown above which says they can be traced back to Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics:

 

“For in acts we must take note of who did it, by what aids or instruments he did it (with), what he did, where he did it, why he did it, how and when he did it.”

 

That also is known as the Kipling Method, based on his poem The Elephant’s Child from the 1902 book of Just So Stories which opens with:

 

“I keep six honest serving men: 

(they taught me all I knew).

Their names are What and Where

and When and How and Why and Who.

I send the over land and sea, I send them east and west;

but after they have worked for me, I give them all a rest.”

 

Those six questions are in an article by Carma Spence at PublicSpeakingSuperPowers on December 1, 2010 titled The 5 Ws and an H of Public Speaking. They also are in a second article at Speak2Impress on June 10, 2019 titled The “5 Ws and 1 H” of Public Speaking. And, they appear in a third article by Danish Khan Yousafzai at LinkedIn Pulse on February 22, 2023 titled Mastering Communication with the 5W1H Rule.

 

Wikipedia has another article on the Five Whys for problem solving, which came from Taiichi Ohno of Toyota Motor Corporation. There is yet another article by Jon Miller at THE MANUFACTURER on November 17, 2009 titled The Kipling Method vs the Ohno Method.

 

Recent emails that falsely claimed to have come from Netflix

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the past month I have received a couple dozen fairly clumsy phishing emails that claimed they were from Netflix and warned me that “Your account will be suspended!” – unless I clicked a box to UPDATE ACCOUNT NOW. Of course, I did not.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As shown above via an example, they did not have the correct logo (all capital letters with a curved bottom). Also, rather than Netflix they came from obviously incorrect addresses, ending in .org rather than .com.

 

Netflix has a Help Center web page where you can get instructions on where to forward such phishing emails. On August 28, 2020 I blogged about Another fraudulent ‘Nutflix’ email, and on November 12, 2019 I blogged about Not a warning from Netflix.

 

The Tully Message Box is a 2x2 ‘Us versus Them’ Table

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In my previous post on January 3, 2024 I described Using a Message Box for planning a presentation. When I was searching for articles, I ran across another Message Box, prefixed with the name Tully. As shown above, it is a 2x2 “Us versus Them” table. An article by Joe Fuld at The Campaign Workshop on  May 7, 2020 titled Tully Message Box: Use it for your political campaign discusses it. Paul Tully was a strategist for the Democratic Party. There is an obituary for him by Robin Toner at the New York Times on September 25, 1992 titled Paul Tully Is Dead at 48; Top Democratic Strategist.

 

The earliest reference I found about the Tully Message Box is on page 54 of a 2004 book by Bradford Fitch titled Media Relations Handbook: For Agencies, Associations, Nonprofits and Congress – The Big Blue Book. It also is discussed on page 51 of a 2008 book by Jeff Blodgett and Bill Lofy titled Winning Your Election the Wellstone Way, which can be downloaded for free.

 

There is a long article by Joanna P. Kimbell and Alison Berry on pages 311 to 336 in the Fall 2018 issue of the Southern Law Journal titled The Tully Message Box as a heuristic for modeling legal argumentation and detecting covert advocacy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Retitled as the Perception Box and presented even more tersely, as shown above, it appears in yet another article by Ian Marovic at Beautiful Trouble titled Perception Box Methodology. You also can download his 2018 book The Path of Most Resistance, where it appears on page 51.

 

I also found the Tully Message Box discussed by Mike McCurry at The Washington Post on July 27, 2012 in an article titled Book review: ‘The Candidate’ by Samuel Popkin. He says:

 

“A good campaign begins, Popkin says, with the development of a message box, a big piece of paper divided into four quadrants. The upper left is for what the campaign/candidate will say about itself; to the right is what the campaign/candidate will say about its opponent. The bottom half is the reverse – what the opponent says about its own campaign/candidate and what it says about you. This box is familiar to every Democratic campaign operative, although we traditionally associate it with the late and legendary Paul Tully, who taught the technique to most of us.

 

Political director for the Democratic National Committee during the 1992 campaign cycle, Popkin is a veteran of most Democratic presidential campaigns going back to Robert Kennedy’s in 1968. Curiously, he does not credit Tully with making the box a standard feature of campaign strategy, but I suspect there is a longer story there. It could be that Popkin introduced the box to Tully, although the author makes no such immodest claim. That is worth some follow-up, given how ubiquitous the message box is in current campaign strategy, at least on the Democratic side. (I have heard that Republican campaigns have their own version of this, too).”  

 

The Republican version was discussed by Patrick “PC” Sweeney at LinkedIn Pulse on January 12, 2017 in still another article titled What can libraries learn from using a Message Box like Kellyanne Conway?