Archive for October, 2006

A Frenchman has been credited with observing that there may be some things better than sex and some things worse-but nothing exactly like it-to which he ardently added, “Vive le difference!” Sex sells books and makes movies but conversationally there are differences of opinion. Some movie moguls rate it tops for box office appeal while the Victorian cult of repressions frowns upon all modern ideas of sex freedom. These Victorians considered sex as something never to be discussed, yet their progeny seem to think that hardly anything else is worth discussing.

While it’s a healthful attitude to cast off some of the veils that shrouded the subject and let in the daylight-there’s quite a difference between letting in daylight and throwing a spotlight on it. Now that prudish people are in the minority, we speak more freely about the sensuous set. It’s a group that goes from saints to sinners; from the lovelorn lass who needs to be noticed-the young divorcee who feels like a new man; the sex kitten who cuts a wide swath; and the flirt who likes to lead men on-then fight them off.

Down the glamor trail saunters the hour-glass figured gal who shifts every minute; the sawdust doll as painted as an Easter egg; bar belles, play-for-pay girls, and rouged residents from houses of commercialized romance. Along the masculine side of the road there roams the housebroken husband who drowns his sorrows in some wink-side seat at a girlie show; the Don Juan who enjoys life, liberty and the happiness of pursuit (as girls run through his mind because they don’t dare walk); and sailors with a whirl everywhere in the world. Let’s not forget graying tomcats who covet young mice; wolves who know all the ankles; and tired old rakes who play stocks and blondes for a pastime.

In this same sensuous classification is the bearded bohem-ian with a penchant for chanting poetry to the tempo of bongo drums. Hand in hand with his leotarded unkempt chick by his side, his kind clutters the side streets of life a beat generation of sick young people plagued by their own insecurity. Withdrawn from the world of reality, they think they’re “real gone” when actually, they’re only half there.

Keywords: Public Speaking, Public Speakers, Public Speaking Tips, Public Seminar Speaking

Subjects of common and current interest are more stimulating than those of no general concern. Who but a scientist will enthuse about a new speck in the spectrum? And who but an accountant cares about some new bookkeeping procedure? The best results come from catering to the average man and not from straining your mental faculties in technical fields.

What makes up interesting speech material? Bear in mind first that people are gregarious, and other than people there’s nothing more interesting to them than more people. And then there’s always the weather!

When somebody says that it takes all kinds of people to make a world, he means people of assorted sizes-styles and standards-castes and clans-manners, means and meanness. Individuals fit into classifications according to types and kinds. Sociologists identify these groups as various prototypes and psychologists further define their distinctions as introverts or extroverts.

According to philosophers there are two kinds of people: the drudges (and drones) who are part of life’s problems; and the doers-who are part of the solution.

Color, creed, nationality and ability classify people even further. Occupations, aims and ambitions are additional indices, but there are perhaps seven primary types of people. The sensuous person seeking sensual and sexual pleasure enjoys plenty to eat and ample to drink in his daily life, for he lives to indulge his appetite. His passion is gratification. The egghead who lives by his mind, questions the whys and wherefores. He mingles with his own intellectual level -scientists, sociologists, philosophers-the Phi Beta Kappa crowd. Yet this category embraces also men without benefit of higher education; their yen for knowledge and truth puts them on common ground. The passion of these people is to know the why of things.

Among the aesthetics, we have the artists, entertainers, stylists, all responsive to the senses-in neither carnal nor sensuous ways, but influenced by an intense interest in every form of art and nature. Their passion is for beauty and feeling. People characterized as practical-who get down to the bottom of things-are the ones who make the big decisions; they are the earth-movers, the manufacturers, the builders of dams, roads and bridges. They are the men who get things done. Their passion is the how of things.

Among the righteous people we find preachers, reformers and fanatics … a group embracing even saints and martyrs who so often sit in judgment on the rest of us. Their passion is righteousness. We also have the acquisitive type-the financiers and bankers-people best typified by those who successfully amass fortunes in money and property for themselves; their passion lies in the material things. And then there are the old reliables-that vast army that shuns decisions but carefully and efficiently executes the necessary programs. Numerically this grouping far exceeds all others for it includes the office force, and the working personnel.

Keywords: Public Speaking, Public Speakers, Public Speaking Tips, Public Seminar Speaking

Addled Adages

Adages are short sentences based upon long experience. These have grown so addled with age that they’ve lost all pride of authorship.

One of life’s puzzles is how a fool and his money got together in the first place.
One robin doesn’t make a spring, nor does one lark bring a fall.
One good turn usually gets most of the blanket.
A watched pot means somebody forgot to ante.
A house divided doesn’t fall; it rents for twice as much.
He who chickens out then runs away-lays an egg another day.
Little things count-especially when they get their allowances.
Who said life’s a bowl of cherries? It’s a bunch of raisins -raisin’ kids, raisin’ money, raisin’ hell.
Opportunity knocks but once for a man; it whistles all the time for a pretty girl.
A change of lipstick now and then is relished by the best of men.
Too many martinis spoil the broth.
Out of the mouths of babes come words parents shouldn’t have said in the first place.
People in glass houses shouldn’t live within a stone’s throw of each other.
A bird in hand is the best way to eat chicken.
The woman’s work that’s never done is what she left for her husband.
What’s good for the goose is often grabbed by the gander.
Muddy waters sometimes conceal a shallow bottom.
Live by the golden rule and give unto others the advice you can’t use.
Early to bed and early to rise until you have enough cash to do otherwise.
If at first you don’t succeed, you’re like everybody else.
Just when you convince the kids they can’t put more into a container than it will hold-along comes a woman in slacks.
The average man doesn’t want to paddle his own canoe -he wants to buy a motor boat.
Instead of crying over spilt milk-go get another cow.
When you sit on top of the world, remember it turns over once a day.
Just when his doctor said to keep his mind young-his wife told him to act his age.
If at first you don’t succeed-forget it.
If you think practice makes perfect, it’s because you don’t live near a youngster taking violin lessons.
Hell hath no fury like a woman with a broken zipper.
A wild goose never lays a tame egg.
Hard work never hurt a man wealthy enough to hire somebody to do it.
If it goes up it has to come down-unless it goes into orbit.
If the shoe fits-a woman tries one smaller.
The water that drives the mill-decays it.
Don’t take life too seriously-you won’t get out of it alive.

That’s the trouble with adages-start fooling around with them and they are apt to turn out no truer than a toupee.
Adages seldom prove a point because all too often one adage has another counterpoint; a modern motto says “Get in the groove”-while an old adage cautions “Don’t get in a rut!”

Lawyers are accused of being verbose, and often are asked why one simple statement can’t cover every situation. The answer to that one is simple: It’s because (as any woman will tell you) men approach the same proposition in different ways. Divergent views make adages just an ancient, lazy way of giving free advice.

Keywords: Public Speaking, Public Speakers, Public Speaking Tips, Public Seminar Speaking

Colloquialisms can clarify distance better than dignified metes and bounds:

Just a dog’s bark away.
Within a gallon of gas.
In hootin’ and hollerin’ range.
Far as the eye could see-and beyond.

Colloquial English oftentimes defines a thought to a finer degree than does elementary English, but many linguists condemn resorting to the vernacular under any conditions. When a colloquial comment cannot be grasped readily, their criticism may be justified; but when the vernacular clarifies your ideas, why let dignity interfere with a desire to put your thought across?

Linguists likewise like long words, but the average man employs short terms. The last Presidential election was described on the night of the returns as “a cliff hanger,” and the best among the commentators quickly seized upon this pat description. It might be set out as an axiom that a short word should be used in preference to a long term since no less an authority than the Bard of Avon supported the idea. Shakespeare could compress words into monosyllables. “To be or not to be” is man’s largest question put into man’s smallest and simplest words.

Your audience gathered to hear you speak convincingly on a subject, not to listen to a pious patriarch trying to put over his pomposity. In many instances a foreign word or phrase has a connotation that has no exact English counterpart. The German expression “Gemutlichkeit” would employ a whole paragraph of English to cast the same spell. The Greeks had a word for it; the French do too. The high-collar crowd that disdains ordinary American colloquialisms, readily resorts to foreign words to accomplish the same purpose as the common man’s use of English vernacular. The genial Irishman who wishes you “The top o’ the mornin’ from the bottom o’ me heart” conveys more warm-hearted cordiality than a pompous old poser who dishes out some sophisticated salutation.

A cowpoke who’d just seen a wide-eyed maiden with her tousled hair falling down over her face, said that she reminded him of a heifer poking its head through the brush. To my mind, his description was more fitting than any comments of a tonsorial artist about her coy coiffure. When Vice President Lyndon Johnson and his Lady Bird were on a whistle-stop campaign in Texas, his greetings went like this: “We’re mighty glad you come out to howdy and shake with us”; “Mighty glad to press the flesh and get that glint in your eye.” The approval of the local voters registered even before he had time to say, “You make me feel like I’m in pretty tall cotton”. Needless to say, Senator Johnson was elected and one contributing factor might well be that he didn’t let dignity interfere with his desire to put a thought across.

Keywords: Public Speaking, Public Speakers, Public Speaking Tips, Public Seminar Speaking

Colloquialisms

The King’s English gets kicked around between the stilted style of His Lordship and the cusswords of a cavalryman. Language needs a lot of loop to cover both Adlai Stevenson’s eloquence and the lingo of a court clerk telling the bailiff:

“You got a bite on the whozit. It was a dame. She wouldn’t come clean so I says you was corkin’ some rats in the bride.” That’s quite a colorful way to relay a telephone message about a girl who wouldn’t leave her name, so she was told that her friend was busy incarcerating prisoners at the Bridewell prison.

Between the grammarian’s formal style and the foregoing lingo there is a means of communication called colloquial English, which mean the language used in speaking. Earlier prejudices against this colloquial English are passe since the American College Dictionary now says: “That English is good English which communicates well the thought of a given speaker to a given audience.”

For effective public speaking, simple shirt-sleeve words are better than fancy expressions because shirt-sleeve, colloquial English is the language most folks use in speaking privately and it is the language they are most likely to grasp. Today shirt-sleeve English is used in writing as well as in speaking; many an author swells with pride when he’s told that he has an easy breezy style because he writes as he talks. Shirt-sleeve English sticks to simple words and expressions, and makes much of popular idioms and very little of grammatical rules.

Keywords: Public Speaking, Public Speakers, Public Speaking Tips, Public Seminar Speaking

Imitators-Copy-Cats

Let’s try to avoid being an imitator of a popular speaker or copy-catting his style. These tactics can result in an embarrassing boomerang. Even in a cafe, imitators and copy cats are common. One diner sees something served that another has ordered, and wants the same thing. Keenly aware of this human frailty, a clinic waiting room cautions: “Ladies, please refrain from exchanging symptoms; they confuse the doctor.”

One day a copy-cat on the lookout for something unusual in a knitting pattern, found herself intrigued by the characters on a Chinese menu. She took the menu home, devoted days to her needlework, and finished a handsome black slipover with white characters from shoulder to waist. She ran into a friend who was familiar with the Chinese language and he roared with laughter because she’d skillfully worked in wool, “This dish is cheap but most delicious!”

Cull Cliches

Don’t clutter your speech with cliches.

Why say “hotter than a depot stove” when a great many people today have never seen a depot stove? Explaining something as “sizzling hot” expresses the same thing and uses fewer words. Don’t establish guilt by association with that old one about “Birds that flock together” .. . when you must turn to the birds, put a new wrapper on that banal bromide, something for instance like “Birds vot haf de zame kind ob fedders fly in bunches togedder by demselves sometimes.” Cliches give the audience an impression that you lack originality; substitute instead some clear-cut colloquial saying or an addled adage.

Keywords: Public Speaking, Public Speakers, Public Speaking Tips, Public Seminar Speaking

Speech Taboos

The language you employ in putting over your speech depends upon a great many imponderables the type of listeners your own style of speaking-the nature of your subject. One perfect pill to cover every special speech cannot be pestled. Only a very few generalities apply in every instance.

Don’t talk down to your listeners

An audience is quick to sense any air of superiority, and just as quickly asks “Who does this High and Mighty think he is”? This resentment just as soon shows through their polite veneer.

Don’t talk up to your listeners

An audience is likewise quick to catch on to any inferior behavior and identify it as a phoney air. Once these listeners feel that you’re a phoney you’re through!

Let In a Little Laughter

Never consider either your subject or yourself in such a serious vein that you can’t let in a little laughter! Your listeners will remember your talk longer if you remember to let them laugh a little. A small touch of training can make your talk more entertaining. Making people laugh not only brightens your talk, it also brightens your listeners. The same recipe that puts humor into your speech, blends it into your conversation and your correspondence as well. Just a bit of wit is all you need. Since “eatin’” and “speakin’” often are part of the same program, these cafe comments might be fitting condiments: Heavy eating can make a man thick at his stomach. Waiters turn your check face down to keep you from choking to death.

Conservative men avoid fancy restaurants; the food is richer than they are. When a customer complained about his breakfast eggs, the waitress told him: “Don’t blame me, Sir, I only laid the table”. Uncle Willie doesn’t put peas on his knife; he sets them inside a celery stalk and lets ‘em roll down. When the “piece d’resistance” is tough as a Longhorn loin, it’s well named. It even resists the knife.

These snappy definitions have been noted in restaurants:
Snack: The pause that re-fleshes.
Banquet: A fete to the finish.
Club Steak: One that’s been clubbed into tenderness.
Palate Poetry: Food that makes your taste buds defeat the calorie count.

Keywords: Public Speaking, Public Speakers, Public Speaking Tips, Public Seminar Speaking