It is better to admit you walked through the wrong door than to spend your life in the wrong room

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I saw a LinkedIn post by Jade Bonacolta from a couple months ago which had a list of excellent aphorisms worth quoting from Colby Kultgen titled 20 Sentences in 60 Seconds That Will Change Your Life:

 

 1]  Your new self will cost your old self.

 2] Ambition without action becomes anxiety.

 3] You get 4,000 weeks if you’re lucky – stop waiting.

 4] The most dangerous addiction is the approval of other people.

 5] You teach people how to treat you by what you tolerate.

 6] Your worth isn’t tied to your productivity.

 7] ‘No’ is a complete sentence – you don’t have to justify yourself.

 8] The people who matter won’t leave you for having boundaries.

 9] ‘The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.’

10] Reach out to people just because they crossed your mind.

11] Vera Wang designed her first dress at age 40 – it’s never too late to start.

12] If it costs you your peace, it’s too expensive.

13] Discipline is choosing what you want most over what you want now.

14] Action creates motivation – not the other way around.

15] Don’t take criticism from someone you wouldn’t take advice from.

16] Fear doesn’t stop death – it stops life.

17] Notice the people who bring out your favorite version of yourself.

18] Be addicted to your passions, not your distractions.

19] If it’s out of your control, it deserves to be out of your mind.

20] It’s better to admit you walked through the wrong door than spend your life in the wrong room.

 

The twentieth also appeared as a sign on a post in the Public Speaking Group by Tony DeMeo.

 

The door was adapted from a cartoon at OpenClipArt.

 

The first sentence in Donald Trump’s Truth Social Post on Memorial Day stated a number that was a million times too large

 

 

 

 

An article by Laerke Christensen at Snopes on May 27, 2025 is titled Fact Check: Trump’s Memorial Day Message. He began by claiming in all caps (my italics):

 

“HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY TO ALL, INCLUDING THE SCUM THAT SPENT THE LAST FOUR YEARS TRYING TO DESTROY OUR COUNTRY THROUGH WARPED RADICAL LEFT MINDS, WHO ALLOWED 21,000,000 MILLION PEOPLE TO ILLEGALLY ENTER OUR COUNTRY, MANY OF THEM BEING CRIMINALS AND THE MENTALLY INSANE,THROUGH AN OPEN BORDER THAT ONLY AN INCOMPETENT PRESIDENT WOULD APPROVE, AND THROUGH JUDGES WHO ARE ON A MISSION TO KEEP MURDERERS, DRUG DEALERS, RAPISTS, GANG MEMBERS, AND RELEASED PRISONERS FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD, IN OUR COUNTRY SO THEY CAN ROB, MURDER, AND RAPE AGAIN — ALL PROTECTED BY THESE USA HATING JUDGES WHO SUFFER FROM AN IDEOLOGY THAT IS SICK, AND VERY DANGEROUS FOR OUR COUNTRY.”

 

He meant instead to say 21 million, as was previously discussed by Simonne Shah and Leslie Dickstein in TIME on December 11, 2024 in another article titled Fact-Checking What Donald Trump Said in His 2024 Person of the Year Interview With TIME. The extra factor of a million raised the number to 21,000,000,000,000 – which is 21 trillion. But the world population only is about eight billion, so the number he said is quite absurd and a consequence of not having proofread.

 

Billboards and the Glance Test for PowerPoint slides

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When I read a recent article or blog post I expect the author(s) to have done their homework and create something better than what had come before. But that is not always the case. At the Priori Orators blog from Nigeria on May 24, 2025 there is a post titled The Glance Test: The Secret to Visual Confidence in Public Speaking. They state that:

 

“The Glance Test is a tule of thumb used by top-tier speakers, professional communicators, and presentation designers around the world. Simply put:

 

‘If your audience can’t understand your visual aid in 3-5 seconds, it’s not ready.’ “

 

Later they discuss How to Build Glance-Test Proof Slides:

 

“One Idea per Slide

Boil it down. What’s the one thing you want your audience to take from this slide? Say that and design around it.

 

Visual Hierarchy

Use bold titles. Make key numbers or takeaways large. Guide the eye with alignment and spacing.

 

Minimal Text

A good slide has no more than 6 words per line and no more than 6 lines total. If it reads like an essay, delete, revise, repeat.   

 

Data That Speaks

Graphs? Use only what’s needed. Remove gridlines, axes if possible. Highlight just the trend or point that matters. Less is always more.

 

Consistent Style

Stick to 1-2 fonts, a clear color scheme, and consistent layout. Visual harmony helps cognitive ease.”

 

Back on April 6, 2015 I blogged about Billboards and the five-second rule for PowerPoint slides. Slides don’t need to be as simple as billboards, since the presenter is there to explain them. You can tell a complicated story via a series of slides, like a set of Burma Shave signs.

 

And on September 23, 2019 I blogged about How many words should be on a PowerPoint slide: 6, 12, 20, 25, 36, or 49? In that post I noted that we can read four words per second, so we can read twenty words on five seconds. Six words per line times six lines (36 words) is nine seconds rather than their previously stated limit of five.   

 

Also, back on February 19, 2014 I blogged about Michael Alley’s work in a post on slide design titled Assertion-Evidence PowerPoint slides are a visual alternative to bullet point lists.

 

Less isn’t always more. On March 14, 2010 I blogged about minimalism in a post titled Why less is more – or even less. I ended it by advising:

 

“Minimalism in all kinds of design involves an optimum, so ‘less is more’ is a half-truth. It really calls for cutting out the fat while leaving the meat. You cannot keep cutting and expect that a design with zero content would be infinitely effective. Instead it probably would be completely ineffective. So, really less is more – until it is less.”

 

Let’s look at how a build with five slides can be used for revealing a 2x2 table. A story about time management, which could make a five to seven minute Toastmasters speech, comes from an article at DecisionSkills on July 17, 2013 titled Using the Eisenhower Matrix. I blogged about it in a post on July 3, 2020 titled Is that 2x2 graphic a table, a chart, or a matrix? Should the axis go from left to right, or right to left? Each slide can stay up for about a minute, not just five seconds.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We start by showing the box for both Important and Urgent.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next we show the box for Important but Not Urgent.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then we show the box for Not Important but Urgent.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And fourth, we show the box for Not Important and Not Urgent. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally we show the entire colored-in table.

 

The cigarette billboard came from Wikimedia Commons

 

In his 2025 commencement address at the University of Maryland Kermit the Frog says to “leap together”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On May 22, 2025 the famous puppet Kermit the Frog spoke. (His creator, Jim Henson, was an alumnus of that university) He’s the ultimate speech prop! An article from The Associated Press at npr on May 23, 2025 is titled ‘Leap together,’ Kermit the Frog says in address at the University of Maryland graduation. His three main points are about:

 

1] Finding your people

2] Taking the leap together

3] Making connections

 

You can watch a fifteen-minute Youtube video at PBS NewsHour titled WATCH LIVE: Kermit the Frog delivers commencement speech at University of Maryland. And on May 23, 2025 The Baltimore Sun has another article titled Transcript: Read Kermit the Frog’s University of Maryland commencement speech.

 

Kermit is voiced by Matt Vogel, as described on June 6, 2023 in a nineteen-minute Youtube video at Webster University titled Matt Vogel | Webster University Commencement Speech |2023.

 

Dr. Joe Schwarcz clearly and succinctly explains what a molecule is

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dr. Joseph A. Schwarcz is a chemistry professor and the founding director of the McGill Office for Science and Society. He has an article at the McGill Office for Science and Society on May 21, 2025 titled What is a molecule? which clearly and succinctly explains that topic. He said:

 

“By making careful observations of chemical reactions, August Kekule concluded that atoms have a characteristic number of ‘hooks’ that they can use to join together, and that the carbon atom has four such hooks which came to be called ‘bonds.’ Then in 1874, August von Hofmann built the first ever model of a molecule using balls to represent atoms and sticks for bonds. His model of methane was a planar structure with a carbon atom joined to four hydrogen atoms. This was refined by van’t Hoff who concluded that molecules are three dimensional and the carbon in methane is at the center of a tetrahedron with the hydrogens at the four corners.

 

As shown above, a methane molecule, CH₄, consists of a carbon atom linked to four hydrogen atoms.  

 

He also mentions that Catharine Sugrue, an Ottawa-based holistic nutritionist, had claimed:

“margarine is about one molecule away from plastic”

 

Joe discussed that claim in an earlier article on March 20, 2017 titled A holistic nutritional rockstar’s rocky science.

 

On April 18, 2025 I blogged about A sticky story on the glue you lick to seal envelopes. And on April 10, 2023 I blogged about Quack Quack: the threat of pseudoscience, a 2022 book by Dr. Joe Schwarcz.

 

The ball model of methane came from here at Wikimedia Commons.

  

A hugely overstated claim that 95% of people in the Philippines fear public speaking

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is a one-minute TikTok video from March 19, 2025 by voice artist Richard Abalos with the following claim:

 

“Afraid of Public Speaking? Here’s the TRUTH. 95% of people fear speaking in front of an audience, but the 5% who can speak? They are likely to become better leaders and communicators in their respective field! Want to speak with confidence, own the stage, and turn every word into POWER? Join Toastmasters! We are a Public Speaking Organization where ordinary speakers become extraordinary leaders. Your voice DESERVES to be heard. Your story CAN change lives. Message us NOW to kickstart your public speaking. journey#PublicSpeaking#Toastmasters#LevelUp@ToastmastersPhillipines @Toastmasters International”

 

But, as shown above there are results for the Philippines from a 2010 Reader’s Digest Canada article. Just 18% of women and 15% of men feared speaking in public. I blogged about them in a post on April 9, 2012 titled Poll by Reader’s Digest Canada found fear of public speaking wasn’t ranked first in 15 of 16 countries.

 

Also, on December 1. 2024 I blogged about Does 95% of the population experience public speaking fear?

 

A brief useful little book about how to write a funny speech

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is a 2025 useful, brief (141 page) little book (5-1/4” wide by 7-3/4” high by 5/8” thick) by Carol Leifer and Rick Mitchell titled How to Write a Funny Speech … for a wedding, bar mitzvah, graduation & every other event you didn’t want to go to in the first place. A preview is at Google Books. An article about it by Carol Leifer and Rick Mitchell at Oprah Daily on March 11, 2025 is titled A Foolproof Guide to Writing The Perfect Wedding Speech.  Sections in the book are summarized by the following tips:

 

Getting Started Tips

Keep it short and sweet.

Think about the ‘where’ and ‘when.’

Keep it classy! You’re most likely giving your speech to a mixed crowd, so keep it G-rated.

 

The Beginning Tips

Let the crowd know who you are and your relationship to the honoree.

Share with the guests the story of how you first met.

Before or at the event, ask if you are going to be introduced.

 

The Middle Tips

Start by trying to list five personal attributes about the person – a good path to humor.

Personal Stories! About them! About the two of you together! That’s the gold.

Don’t talk about yourself unless it’s in relation to the honoree.

Parents? Don’t make your speech an obnoxious reading of your kid’s resume.

Don’t use cliches.

No detail is too small to get right.

 

The end tips

Speak from the heart briefly.

Raise a glass and toast your honoree(s).

Give them a warm embrace before going back to your seat.

 

There are five examples of speeches with helpful comments added:

 

Rick’s Speech for Charlie and Rachel’s Wedding (pages 50 to 53)

Betsy’s Real Speech for Jessica and Zack (pages 58 to 61)

Cousin Elliot’s Best Man Speech for His Brother Joel (pages 62 to 67)

Rick’s Speech for Ella and Jake’s Wedding (pages 68 to 71)

Carol’s Speech at Cousin Jay’s Memorial (pages 72 to 77).

 

This book also contains four very useful templates:

 

Wedding Speech Template (pages 94 to 97)

Retirement-Speech Template (pages 102 to 105)

Graduation-Speech Template (pages 107 to 110)

Bar Mitzvah-Speech Template (pages 111 to 114)

 

The wedding speech one is more useful than a July 2019 Toastmaster magazine article on page 8 titled Tips for the Perfect Wedding Toast. The template says:

 

Wedding Speech Template

“Hello, my name is [your name], and I’m [relationship to honoree (X)]. I remember when I first met [where and when you met (X)]. Now everybody knows that (X) is [a characteristic or quality of (X)]. And I saw this very clearly when [something (X) did to display this characteristic or quality].

 

[(X)’s new spouse (Y)? You’re lucky because (X) is a very good person. (X) once [something nice (X) did]. But of course, I’ve also got to tell you the funniest story about (X) [a funny or embarrassing story about (X)].

 

And then (X) met (Y). I’ll never forget when (X) told me [story (X) told you about meeting (Y)]. Now it’s plain to see that (Y) is [complimentary asset of (Y)]. And it’s clear to see that these two should be together because [obvious reason (X) and (Y) should be together].

 

(X) was a disaster as a single person! (X) once [funny or embrarrassing thing (X) did while single].

 

Today, we toast their marriage! (Y)? You’re going to have to get used to a lot of things about (X). [Three funny things about (X) that you are sure will drive (Y) crazy].

 

So let’s raise our glasses to (X) and (Y). I am honored that you asked me to speak on this monumental occasion and wish you nothing but the best from this day forward! Cheers!”

 

My cartoon was derived from happy-day and generic-book cartoons at OpenClipArt.

 

Ignoring your audience is truly terrible advice

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back on February 1, 2018 at X entrepreneur Naval Ravikant claimed that:

 

“The secret of public speaking is to speak as if you were alone.”

 

And he repeated that at Naval Ravikant Quotes on December 27, 2021 and Naval Ravinkant bot on May 20, 2025. Ignoring your audience obviously is terrible advice!

 

An audience image was cropped from here at Wikimedia Commons.

 

Viewing a coral reef from a glass bottom boat and a submarine

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you aren’t a scuba diver, then a glass bottom boat or a submarine are the best options for viewing a coastal coral reef. On the afternoon of April 29, 2025 at Kailua Kona, Hawaii my wife and I did both. We took the Kona Glass Bottom Boat Tour and the Atlantis X submarine tour. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The glass bottom boat gave an overview of the fish and reef (depth about 100 feet).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Atlantis submarines are discussed at Tripadvisor. The 48-passenger submarine gives a close-up view of the reef from a depth of 80 feet. Better views of coral and bottom feeding fish.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is a wreck of the Predator – a World War II landing craft that was refitted as a dive boat with a crane for a shark cage, as shown above in two images. An article by Brett Eldridge at Wrecked in My Revo on February 15, 2022 is titled Predator Landing Craft (Kona Hawaii – 90 FSW). There also is a brief YouTube video by Todd Hackett from February 4, 2024 on Diving the Predator.

 

Using Tender Boats on Quantum of the Seas

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For Honolulu and Vancouver the Quantum of the Seas docked. But on April 29 at Kailua Kona, Hawaii it anchored offshore and used tender boats (motor lifeboats) to ferry passengers to the dock for shore excursions. That ship has sixteen boats, each with a length of 41 feet and a width of 18 feet. An article by Susan Moynihan and Marissa Wright at Cruise Critic on December 3, 2024 titled What is a tender boat on a cruise? What is a tender port? discusses tenders.

 

The Certainty Illusion: What you don’t know and why it matters

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is an interesting 2025 book by Timothy Caulfield on separating nonsense from sense titled The Certainty Illusion: What you don’t know and why it matters. A preview is at Google Books. This book is divided in three parts:

Part I: The Science Illusion

Part II: The Goodness Illusion

Part III: The Opinion Illusion

 

In Part I, in a section on The Predator Problem on page 63 he discusses predatory journals:

 

“Predatory journals profit by charging researchers a fee to publish – which many legitimate publications also do (sometimes the fee is more than $10,000!), especially journals that are open access. But predatory journals have a lax peer-review process or almost none at all. They’ll publish just about anything. Their editorial boards – the entities meant to apply rigorous standards to decide what gets published – are often padded with questionable ‘experts.’ For example, Dr. Olivia Doll sat on the editorial board of seven academic journals. She is, or so it has been claimed, a celebrated authority in ‘avian propinquity to canines in metropolitan suburbs’ and ‘the benefits of abdominal massage for medium-sized canines.’ No surprise, as Dr. Olivia Doll is a Staffordshire terrier named Ollie. Chasing birds and belly rubs are central to her career agenda. Despite these passions, she has found time to review manuscripts for journals like Global Journal of Addiction & Rehabilitation Medicine and Psychiatry and Mental Disorders. She did that. Good doggie! And she has published a few articles herself, including co-authoring a piece with Alice Wuenderlandt from Lutenblag University in Molvania…

 

Ollie’s career as an editor was the brainchild of professor Mike Daube, a public health researcher at Curtin University in Australia. He wanted to demonstrate how these journals lacked credibility. Mission accomplished. The credentials of Dr. Olivia Doll, also known as Ollie the dog, were accepted by all these publications, despite the fact that, as Professor Daube has noted, ‘it would take a five-year-old one click to expose this. In fact, one journal told Ollie that they were ‘delighted to have such an eminent person as yourself.’ Woof.”

 

Dr. Doll is discussed by Ryan Cross in a Science article on May 24, 2017 titled Australian dog serves on the editorial boards of seven medical journals and another article by Kelsey Kennedy at Atlas Obscura on May 25, 2017 titled This Dog Sits on Seven Editorial Boards.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And in Part II: The Goodness Illusion, starting on page 101 he discusses The Devious Dozen buzzword terms, which are: Natural, Holistic, Healthy, Organic, Non-GMO, Gluten-Free, Chemical-Free, Toxin-Free, Locally Grown, The Colour Green, Immune-Boosting, and Personalized. Another three honorable mentions: are Low-Fat, Sugar-Free, and Protein.

 

The cartoon was adapted from this one at OpenClipArt.  

  

Traveling from the U.S. mainland to Oahu and back by plane and cruise ship

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My wife Elaine and I recently went on half-month vacation trip. We flew from Boise to Honolulu on April 24 and spent three days in Waikiki. Then on April 28 we boarded the Royal Caribbean liner Quantum of the Seas which went to Hawaii for a day and then cruised from April 30 to May 6 to Vancouver. We stayed in Vancouver for three days, and then flew back to Boise pm May 9. When we flew to Hawaii on an Airbus A320 it was at 500 mph, versus the sea cruise at 20 mph – 25 times slower and a very different experience.  

 

This was the end of a repositioning cruise where Quantum of the Seas changed from Australia to Alaska. There were still several satellite TV channels from Australia including the ‘other ABC.’ On April 28 I came down with a bad cold, so I spent the ocean cruise mostly in the stateroom watching TV and listening to my iPod.  

 

Back on October 28, 2023 I blogged about My first ocean cruise to Alaska via the Inside Passage on Ovation of the Seas.

 

Images of a plane, ship, and Oahu came from Wikimedia Commons.

 

A self-contradictory warning sign on a fence

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On a recent visit to Hawaii I saw the self-contradictory sign shown above warning there should be NO SIGNS ON FENCE. At flickr there was another that also referred to Section 264 of the Hawaii Revised Statutes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That contradiction can be removed by noting an exception, as is shown above. Back on March 27, 2027 I blogged about A little lie that many book publishers tell, which is book pages marked THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK.

 

A stunning sculpture by Bill Reid at the Museum of Anthropology in Vancouver

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On May 8, 2025 I visited the Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. I saw a stunning sculpture by Haida artist Bill Reid which I had previously used in a blog post back on September 20, 2014 titled More great stories from Canadian family physicians. The caption says that:

 

The Raven and the First Men

 

“ ‘The great flood, which had covered the earth for so long, had at last receded and the sand of Rose Spit, Haida Gwaii, laid dry. Raven walked along the sand, eyes and ears alert for any unusual sight or sound to break the monotony. A flash of white light caught his eye and there, right at his feet, half buried in the sand, was a gigantic clamshell. He looked more closely and saw that the shell was full of little creatures cowering in terror in his enormous shadow. He leaned his great head close and, with his smooth trickster’s tongue, coaxed and cajoled and coerced them to come out and play in his wonderful new shiny world. These little dwellers were the original Haidas, the first humans.’   

 

Haida artist Bill Reid first interpreted this origin story in a small boxwood carving. The Raven Discovering Mankind in a Clam Shell in 1970 (displayed in a wall case in this gallery)[and shown second]. Ten years later, he completed the monumental sculpture of laminated white cedar, The Raven and the First Men.

 

This is the first large, modern sculpture by a Northwest Coast First Nations artist to depart from the tradition of totem pole or mortuary monument carving. Here Reid has blended Haida form and mythic content with Western naturalism, bringing expressiveness and movement to the raven and human forms.

 

Many people helped in the realization of this work. It was commissioned by Walter and Marianne Koerner of Vancouver. Sculptors George Norris, Guujaaw, George Rammell, Jim Hart, and Reg Davidson all participated in various phases of the carving.

 

The Raven and the First Men was created over a period of several years, and unveiled by His Royal Highness, the Prince of Wales on April 1, 1980. It was celebrated on June 5, 1980 by the Haida people of Haida Gwaii (the Queen Charlotte Islands).”

 

Brain freezes while giving TED talks taught two speakers about vulnerability

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is a useful article at Fast Company on May 6, 2025 by Jamie Woolf and Scott Simon titled We both froze while giving TED talks. Here’s what it taught us about vulnerability.

 

Jamie forgot her meticulously researched open line and instead whispered an expletive right into the microphone.

 

And Scott was a minute and fifty seconds into his talk when he realized that he’d left the presentation remote backstage. He did a sideways slide off of the red circle to retrieve it.

 

Because they began with high credibility their unplanned moments became strong points of human connection with their audiences. They discuss these five points:

 

Create intentional “vulnerability loops.”

Transform mistakes into growth narratives.

Create structural support for imperfection.

Create equitable spaces for vulnerability.

Know your audience.

 

The cartoon ice block and brain came from OpenClipArt.