Author: Uncle John

8 Habits of Lousy Listeners

How many of these bad listening habits do YOU have? (We asked Uncle John and, in between moments of plucking his nose hairs, he said, “I knew you were going to say that, and I knew the worst listener of all time when I lived in New York. I had a house in New York once, it was really something. Had doors and windows and everything.” Then he walked into the bathroom and locked the door.)

Please list your own bad listening habits in the comments.

Most people know that one of the keys to success in relationships is good listening.

Experts tell us to use “active” listening, “I messages,” and open-ended questions. Articles urge us to stop talking when someone speaks, to use our body language effectively to encourage the other guy, and to work to understand what is meant as well as what is said. We’ve been told that men are from Mars and women are from Venus and we’ve been taught how to translate the gender languages. Yet despite all that, developing good listening skills continues to be a challenge for some people.

1. Lousy listeners are attending to other things when you are speaking. Proud of their ability to multitask, they continue to scan the newspaper, pick up the living room, text, or clean their desk while being addressed. An occasional ‘uh-huh’ is supposed to cue you that, really, they are with you. They’re not — or at least not totally. Their mind is distracted. Chances are they miss important pieces of your message — even if they protest that they don’t.

Congratulations, Ryder Cup Teams

The Americans made a heck of a comeback today, and it came down to the final holes of the finals singles match—but the European team held on for the win – 14-1/2 to 13-1/2. Congrats, Europe, and well played, Americans. What a tournament.

If you’re wondering who Ryder is and why everyone seems to want his cup—we did the history in Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Tee’s Off on Golf (page 223).

Here’s an excerpt:

Brits and Yanks
The Ryder Cup is the biennial competition between the best professional American and European golfers. They play for no prize money, but simply for the chance to win the cup, which they then get to keep for two years. Its popularity has gone up and down through the decades, but reached a new high in the 1990s, thanks to some excellent play—and a growing rivalry between the two teams.

Happy Birthday, Charlie Brown!

Tomorrow is the 60th anniversary of very first appearance of Charles M. Schulz’s iconic comic strip, Peanuts. Good Ol’ Jay, of BRI “Brainteaser” fame, wrote the definitive BRI history of the strip in Uncle John’s Triumphant 20th Bathroom Reader just a few years ago. In honor of good Charles’ comic strip birthday, here’s a good, lengthy excerpt, telling the story behind the strip’s characters:

Shoo Fly By the Light of the Moon: Songmanteaus

Is there a word for how a song can, once rattling along in your head, suddenly become another song? It keeps happening to me—maybe it’s an age thing? This morning I woke up with this in my head:

Shoo fly, don’t bother me / Shoo fly, don’t bother me / Shoo fly, don’t bother me — and dance by the light of the moon.

For those of you not familiar with ancient Americana songs, that’s a nonsensical combination of lyrics from “Shoo Fly, Don’t Bother Me,” and “Buffalo Gals.” It’s happened in a hundred different ways. Once it was this:

Sneak peak of our newest title: Can you spot it?

Yippee! We just received advance copies of the newest, greatest Big John. Can you spot the newest title in this shelf of books? Post your answer (title of book) on the blog/Facebook/Twitter. All correct answers will be entered in a random drawing to win your own advance copy of the book. You have till midnight tonight (9/28) to post your answer. We will reveal the cover design tomorrow.

And remember, the book will hit stores in November and it is never too early to pre-order.

Ledes We Love

Here’s another edition of “Ledes We Love,” accounts of openings to news stories that are so good you hardly have to read any further—but you’re going to. Because you must. Today’s entry:

Manitoban Janis Ollson and family are in magazine ads for the esteemed Mayo Clinic for a very good reason: she’s the first person surgeons cut in half, removed much of a cancerous midsection, then put back together with a happy ending.

Help the BRI With a Story!

Howdy, BRI fans, we’re busy working on our next book, Uncle John’s Tunes Into TV, and I’ve got a request: I’m working on an article about the history of closed captioning—the subtitle-like text that allow’s you to read, rather than listen to, a show’s dialogue. It’s a surprisingly fascinating subject. Just imagine, for example, that millions of deaf or hard-of-hearing people were not able to fully enjoy that most ubiquitous of modern life experiences—watching the television—until the 1970s, and that it didn’t become truly widely available until the 1980s.

Fish Regurgitation Banned at Sydney Circus

The Aussies just say no to Puke My Fish Up:

Circus-goers in Australia hoping to see a woman swallow and then regurgitate a live fish will be disappointed, as authorities decided it was cruel to the fish.

Now just what the heck is going on in the world when a person can’t get the kids together, put ’em in the station wagon, and take them down to the circus to watch a lady swallow a live fish and then throw it back up again, still alive? What kind of a world? Next we’ll hear you can’t throw kittens in trash bins! “It was fun,” for goodness sake!

Mens Rooms and Hens Rooms?

Mana the Magnificentand BRI fan Ken Lerner send us to The Society Pages, where we get a look at how male and female are symbolized on public restroom doors around the world:

As such, washroom signs are very telling of the way societies construct gender. They identify the male as the universal and the female as the variation.

An example we all recognize:

The most common type of washroom sign, pictured at the top of this post, is another example. Typically, these signs depict men as people, and women as people in skirts.

Or men as naked and women as dressed?

Anyway, do go give it a look. It’s a thought-provoking post, and there are a bunch of examples, many funny and some just strange. One more:

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