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.

The latest from The Innocence Project… 

When I was 17, I spent a week in a jail cell in Victorville, CA. It wasn’t pleasant. The cell was small. The meals were bad and skimpy. The treatment was denigrating. But the worst part was knowing that I could not leave. I promised myself that I would remember how that felt. And I did. And I remembered what I told myself then: Whatever it takes, don’t go back!

It seeded in my gut a respect for the serious punishment that incarceration is. And, more importantly, the awareness that putting an innocent person in jail is a terrible injustice, one that should not be taken lightly. As a result, I’ve always been inclined to support efforts to free unfairly imprisoned people. Thus, my ongoing support for The Innocence Project and similar non-profit programs.

Click here to learn about a man that was unjustly imprisoned for 27 years and is now working to keep others from having the same experience.

A cute spoof of one of the more absurd tenets of Wokeness…

Carole King had an interesting arc of celebrity. I always assumed it was based on her various relationships with more celebrated artists, like James Taylor and Mick Jagger. But in this clip, you can see how, back then, she had a very special voice…

Watch it here.

Motorcyclist who identifies as bicyclist sets cycling world record…

Ricky Gervais is a sometimes brilliant, often brave comedian. One of the few, along with Dave Chappelle, capable of staying brave and funny in the Orwellian social culture of today.

I didn’t know that The Office was his invention, based on working for seven years in an office. And prior to that, he was not a stand-up comedian, but a philosophy student.

Here he is at the beginning of his career with David Letterman. He’s so sweet and innocent. Yet his unique sense of humor is evident.

The world is going broke and culture is degrading faster than living flesh in acid. But there are still small, usually overlooked, acts of individual service and selflessness that remind us of what human goodness can be.

I’d like to believe that my social media use would be such that I would not have been fed this clip from “America’s Got Talent.” But I was. And although I suspect it was entirely planned to feel fortuitous, it got to me. I even teared up for a moment.

An amazing guitar solo…

Aw, shucks! Sometimes you need to see a little act of kindness to lighten up your day…