It pays to be smart. I mean high-IQ smart. People with an above-average IQ do better in just about everything from career status to income to net worth – and even to health and happiness. Then there are the super-smart people. People with 150+ IQs.

One such person, Marilyn vos Savant, said to have the highest IQ ever recorded, has been writing the “Ask Marilyn” column for Parade magazine since 1986. She is perhaps most famous for her Sept. 9, 1990 column, where she came up with the answer to a brain teaser that has become known as the “Monty Hall problem”…

A fascinating short lecture by Jordan Peterson on the evolutionary importance of thinking – actual thinking – and why it’s now more important than ever.

Watch it here.

In business and Jiu Jitsu, strength helps, but without technique it is often a net negative. Apparently, the same is true for bull riding.

Baryshnikov was right. Fred Astaire may have been the best dancer who ever lived. And Rita Hayworth wasn’t bad either!

Watch it here.

I don’t know how I feel about this little film. It’s interesting. Thought-provoking. And touching. But then I did the math: only 300 hook removals in 25 years? That’s less than one a month! Who’s paying her… and why?

When Mr. Bean is talking against cancel culture, something is wrong.

I scored 8 out of 10 on this quiz about cult movies. Can you do better? Click here.

Michael Jackson invented his own style of dancing that’s been emulated ad nauseam. SC sent me this clip of James Brown doing his unique way of dancing – some called it “happy feet.” It occurred to me that no one I know has ever even tried to learn it!

Watch it here.

Omeleto, a four-year-old YouTube channel, advertises itself as a “home for the next generation of great filmmakers.” The channel features a wide range of genres and even some notable celebrity cameos, including Maisie Williams, Amanda Seyfried, Nick Offerman, and the legendary Danny DeVito.

I’ve seen several of the short films on Omeleto already, and have become an enthusiastic viewer. Here’s a good example, a story about “how a man’s life begins to unravel when a chatting stranger disturbs his peace”…

I was talking to a book-club friend last night about how pace – the speed at which a story is told – is so important in the success of fiction and drama. By sheer coincidence, soon after that discussion, another friend sent this clip of Norm McDonald telling a very standard, very juvenile, and otherwise not particularly funny “Dirty Johnny” joke. Except it worked brilliantly because of his genius for pacing. Check it out.