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Building Your Power of Expression Recalcitrant, adj., n. Pronunciation: rəˈkalsətrənt Meaning: This word describes having an obstinately uncooperative attitude toward authority or discipline. As a noun, it describes a person in possession of such an attitude. Usage: Unfortunately, I was given a class comprised of recalcitrant 15-year-olds. Tommy is a problem child in that he […]

When I was very young, a man would come around the neighborhood with a grindstone on his back ringing a large bell. He would settle on a corner and sharpen knives and scissors for five cents each. Women, of course, were home, and would send their kids down to provide the man with their blades […]

I was recently asked by someone to write my thoughts on the recent events that took place beginning on October 7th in Israel. I am not happy to do so, but I am willing to do so. We need to begin with an understanding of the origins of both Israel and the Jewish people. This […]

Questions are our most potent intellectual tool. They are the most significant arrows in our intellectual quiver. How questions are framed really matter. Change just a few words, modify the syntax, and you could get a very different answer. I credit Gordon Allport for this pithy story to illustrate this: Two Catholic Priests were engaged […]

Building Your Power of Expression Secretion, n. Pronunciation: səˈkriSH(ə)n Meaning: A process by which substances are produced and discharged from a cell, gland, or organ for a particular function in the organism or for excretion. I often use the term symbolically, in its non-scientific contexts. Usage: His endless blather was like the inky secretions of […]

I was speaking to a group of college students this week, and during part of my presentation, I did a Q&A. Lots of questions were coming my way, and all them were more or less thoughtful and intelligent questions. But my favorite question was this: “Knowing what you know now, what advice would you give […]

Something predictable happened recently, followed by something unfathomable. First, the predictable. A young man named Ryan Carson, a 31-year-old poet and community activist, found himself sitting on a bus stop bench in Brooklyn with his girlfriend, 32-year-old Claudia Morales. It was around 4:00 AM, and they had left a wedding reception they had attended on […]

Although I’ve never met her in person, I’ve gotten acquainted with a relatively young lady – quite a bit younger than myself – through social media. An artist by profession, she is extraordinarily talented at drawing and painting. I’ve literally been mesmerized by some of her work, and I’ve told her I plan to one […]

Building Your Power of Expression Apotheosis, n. Pronunciation: əˌpäTHēˈōsəs Meaning: In some circles, this word has a particular theological meaning. When speaking of divine things, apotheosis refers to the process of divine sanctification wherein a disciple of Christ, at some point in the next life, is elevated to the status of a divine being, a […]

Recently I was the opening speaker at a conference. I was to be followed by another speaker who would close out the conference. Happily, I was prepared. I had crafted a powerful message, had rehearsed it carefully, and when it came time to deliver it, I did so in a compelling manner. It was a […]

While Donald Trump, both as President of the United States, and also to the present day, has been the subject of multiple witch-hunts and hoxes perpetrated by Leftist-Democrats and the media ever since he announced his intent to run for President on June 16, 2015, and has been formally impeached by Congress not once but […]

A news item caught my eye this week. The incident in question took place on July 10th of this year; I’m writing about it now because an arrest took place just this week following an anonymous tip. Back in July, a man by the name of Marc Cohen, age 63, was taking his wife out […]

Building Your Power of Expression Parsimony, n. Pronunciation: ˈpärsəˌmōnē Meaning: Parsimony refers to a rather austere commitment to frugality, or an aversion to spending money or other resources. Usage: I think you need to have a little parsimony injected into your brain; your spending habits are out of control! A great tradition of public design […]

Most of us squander the most precious resource we have – our time. A lot of this is due to poor planning. Sometimes it is due to a lack of clarity around our sense of purpose. And both of those remain our own responsibility. Let’s start with the second one. Our life, our very existence, […]

In the previous issue of Uncommon Sense, I shared with you a letter I wrote to the Mary L. Stephens – Davis Branch Library up in Davis, California. If you recall, I was confronting a male librarian who had invited Sophia Lorey, a former college soccer player, to give a speech at the library about […]

Fundamentally, I am a teacher. That entails my acquiring knowledge from many sources and dispensing that disparate knowledge in coherent ways to unformed minds. Teachers make contributions to society only indirectly. We don’t directly build bridges, create new technologies, or provide landscaping services. We don’t heal people using pharmaceuticals, nor do we judge legal cases, […]

Building Your Power of Expression Blinkered, adj. Pronunciation: ˈbliNGkərd Meaning: Those in the equestrian world might refer to a blinker as something that serves as a blinder for a horse. More broadly, it can refer to a person who has a narrow or limited outlook on a situation. Usage: I consider your approach both small-minded […]

There are forces all around us that pull us into the vortex of mediocrity and slothfulness. I call this tendency The Boiled Frog Syndrome. Most of you have heard about this metaphor. The short version is that if a healthy frog is dropped in a pot of boiling water, that frog with take immediate, decisive […]

Recently a library up in northern California invited a woman named Sophia Lorey, a former college athlete, to come to their library and deliver a speech about what it’s like being a college athlete. Ms. Lorey graciously accepted the invitation, but during her speech, she made a comment about how men who pretend they are […]

What’s with the new fad of claiming one is a Digital Creator? What are they creating, apart from a persona? What does it even mean? At first, I thought it sounded kind of unique: “What do you for a living?” “Oh, I’m a Digital Creator. . .” “A what?!” But I’ve begun to notice that […]

Building Your Power of Expression Intuit, v. Pronunciation: inˈt(y)o͞oət Meaning: To intuit is to understand, comprehend, or work out by instinct. Usage: I intuited his real identity. I need to do a little more intuiting before I can decide on a proper course. Please revisit the documents and see what you can intuit from them.

When asked how it is possible to know how to launch rockets into space, Elon Musk responded, “I read books.” I like his answer. A large portion of what I know came from reading books. Let me spell out for you what it is you are encountering when you read a valuable book. First, you […]

So if you missed the previous issue of Uncommon Sense (#288) you will want to go back to that issue first and read the Elephant in the Room column before you read this column, which represent Part 2 of 2. In fact, you may want to go back and read Part 1 just to reorient […]

I picked up a really great book at my local Barnes & Noble this week. In fact, I also picked up an equally great book at the same Barnes & Noble the week before. But this journal entry is not about the books. It’s about something strange I noticed. In fact, I have been going […]

Building Your Power of Expression Paramour, n. Pronunciation: ˈperəˌmo͝or Meaning: Please don’t be a paramour. And please don’t acquire a paramour. A paramour is a lover – typically, however, a lover who is involved with someone married to someone else. If you are a married man and you have a paramour, you have a mistress. […]

I had some productive coaching sessions with two different individuals recently that made a huge impact on their financial life. They do not know each other, but they had something in common. They both possessed several credit cards and, as a result, had a lot of credit card debt. One had around $33,000 in credit […]

I am a news junkie. I admit it. I’m hooked. But very little that I read in the news surprises me. Most of what I read, much of it falling in the category of bad news, is actually rather predictable. Indoctrinating children about Trans madness? Typical. Mass shootings? No surprise there. Climate change hysteria? Duh! […]

“It is possible that we have adapted ourselves to disinformation, to Newspeak, to public-relations hype, to imagery disguised as thought, to picture newspapers and magazines, to religion revealed in the form of entertainment, to politics in the form of a thirty-second television commercial.” – Neil Postman It was from Neil Postman that I first learned […]

Building Your Power of Expression Variegated, adj. Pronunciation: ˈver(ē)əˌɡādəd Meaning: Exhibiting different colors, especially as irregular patches or streaks. The word can also denote something that is marked by variety. Usage: The end result was a collection of variegated yellow bricks I was captivated by his variegated and amusing observations. The teenager’s variegated hair glowed […]

I want to alert you to 5 individuals I am deeply drawn to. Let me describe them. Person #1 is an individual that is sinking in the mire of extreme poverty. Being impoverished and destitute, he is unable to even afford to attend school and is dependent on being self-taught to gain any measure of […]