Do you want to smell like teen spirit or good grammar??

Perfection: Not all it’s cracked up to be.

… but never call them by their American name. 😉

Tuesday Trivia: Apparently, it’s almost impossible for Germans to pronounce the English word “squirrel.”
Watch ten of them try …. then try to pronounce the German word for squirrel, “eichhörnchen.” Turnabout is fair play!!

*No Germans were harmed in the recording of this video, and it’s ok for me to post a video harmlessly poking fun at Germans, as I’m of mostly Germanic descent myself.*

Someone’s “life’s moments” are different than mine!!  #learningkerning

Don’t write off good handwriting yet, y’all! Apparently, penmanship still matters – especially to your brain.

In “What’s Lost as Handwriting Fades,” the New York Times reports that neurologists and psychologists alike are finding new evidence suggesting that the connections between handwriting and broader educational development run deep:

“Children not only learn to read more quickly when they first learn to write by hand, but they also remain better able to generate ideas and retain information.”

And – get this – cursive [remember cursive, anyone?] writing and printing look like they might activate separate brain networks and engage more cognitive resources together than printing alone does. But regardless of the letter-loopiness …

“… the benefits of writing by hand extend beyond childhood. For adults, typing may be a fast and efficient alternative to longhand, but that very efficiency may diminish our ability to process new information. Not only do we learn letters better when we commit them to memory through writing, but memory and learning ability in general may benefit.”

Now go write someone a lovely, longhand note!

The former is a necessity.
The latter is a blessing.
Both are preferable for penultimate marketing.

Here endeth today’s marketing moment. 😉

Officially adding Text Hacker to my list of things you can call me.
‘Cause, you know, I’m cool like that, y’all.

RIP, Dr. Maya Angelou.
Poet. Author. Activist. Artist. Hero.
1928 – 2014.

Truth: I’m much more excited than my children are about this week’s opening of Disney’s new movie Maleficent.

Her name alone is awesome. Eat her dirt, Evil Queen [a title, dearie, not a name] and Lady Tremaine [seriously, how wicked can one be with a name like that?]. Only Cruella de Vil holds a creepy candle in the name department.

Maleficent has been my favorite villain [favorite villain – that’s a thing, right?] since I first saw Disney’s 1959 animated Sleeping Beauty as a child. I’m not sure why – something about her horns or her dragon-morphing or her use of the succinct-yet-scalding catchphrase, “Fools!” … I don’t know. I guess I find her elegant, in a badass, Mistress-of-All-Evil sort of way.

So the new telling of Maleficent’s backstory – complete with pointy prosthetic cheekbones and imitation goat-eye contact lenses – has me thrilling, no lie. And the previews [of which I might have seen all, many times over] are visually stunning. Now I just hope the original script holds up to the art direction.

I mean, those wings? Fairy, please.

I think, I like the, Shatner comma, more.
Happy, Friday everyone – have, a wonderful, weekend!!