I had a good laugh watching this video of Ben Shapiro’s reaction to Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO) politically correct prayer at the opening of the 1st session of the 117th Congress on Sunday.

In case you missed it, Cleaver (who is an ordained minister) ended the prayer by saying, “Amen. And A-women.”

Cleaver was making a playful reference to Nancy Pelosi and James McGovern’s proposal of a new rules package regarding the use of “gender-inclusive language” in the House. But Shapiro took him seriously and called it the single stupidest thing he’d ever heard. He explained that the word “amen” is derived from Hebrew via Greek and Latin, and its meaning has nothing to do with men. What he did not explain is that the words “man” and “men” are derived from Old English, have their roots in German, and meant, even back then, “person” and “people.”

The war on words has had a long history of incredibly stupid causes – every bit as stupid as a-woman. That’s because the war on words is a political war, a war for power. And if you are a politician ,you must abide by the golden rule of politics: The ends justify the means.

Number Two Son made fun of my laughter, saying, “Boy, you Conservatives are like snowflakes when it comes to language.”

I said, “As you know from reading your George Orwell, words matter. Words matter because words influence thought. And thought influences political ideas. And political ideas are the keys to power.”

3 Facts, 3 Numbers, 3 Thoughts 

THE FACTS 

* The song typically sung on New Year’s Eve/Day, Auld Lang Syne, was written by the Scottish poet Robert Burns and published in 1796. The literal translation of the Scottish Gaelic title is “old long since,” meaning “times gone by” or “for old times’ sake.”

* Five months into WWI, soldiers from opposing sides on the Western Front took a break from fighting to celebrate the holiday together. The British and German soldiers mingled, exchanged gifts, swapped prisoners, held joint burials, and even played football. Hostilities resumed a few hours later, but the remarkable event, known as the Christmas Truce of 1914, has become a symbol of the potential for peace on earth.

* According to the National Insurance Crime Bureau, more vehicles were stolen on New Year’s Day than on any other holiday in 2018 and 2019.

THE NUMBERS 

* 21 million ‒ the number of guns purchased in 2020, according to FBI background check data. This was a 73% increase from 2019.

* 338 ‒ the number of days between the date the Chinese media reported the first death from COVID-19 and the date an effective vaccine was first administered to the public in the US (December 14).

* 864 ‒ the number of civilians fatally shot by police in 2020, according to the most recent data from Statista. Of the 864, 370 were White, 192 were Black, 128 were Hispanic, and the rest were classified as “Other” or “Unknown.”

THE THOUGHTS 

* “What a wonderful thought it is that some of the best days of our lives haven’t even happened yet.” ‒ Anne Frank

* “No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another.” ‒ Charles Dickens

* “There is no habit more conducive to happiness than an engaging smile.” ‒ Michael Masterson

3 Facts, 3 Numbers, 3 Thoughts 

THE FACTS 

* Have you heard that the stress of the holidays causes suicide rates to surge during Christmastime? It’s not true. According to years of CDC data, suicides are usually at their lowest levels in December.

* The story of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer was created as a marketing gimmick in 1939 by Robert May, a copywriter working for the department store Montgomery Ward. Before deciding on Rudolph for the character’s name, he considered Reginald, Rodney, Romeo, and Rollo.

* Modern marketing is also behind the familiar image of Santa Claus with a big belly, white beard, and rosy cheeks. In 1931, illustrator Haddon Sundblom was commissioned to produce a series of “Santa” ads for Coca-Cola’s  “Thirst Knows No Season” campaign. Painting while looking into a mirror, he used himself as his model.

THE NUMBERS 

* 200 million ‒ the budget for the most expensive holiday movie ever made: Disney’s 2009 animated version of A Christmas Carol.

* 3.6 to 5.2 ‒ as a percentage, the increase in holiday sales that the National Retail Federation expects to see this year over last year. In 2019, consumers spent $729 billion. This year, the NRF predicts Christmas sales will range between $755 billion and $767 billion.

* 50 million ‒ the number of copies of Bing Crosby’s “White Christmas” that have been sold worldwide. According to The Guinness Book of World Records, that makes it not only the best-selling holiday single, but the best-selling single of all time.

THE THOUGHTS 

* “There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.” ‒ Edith Wharton

* “After 45 years of research and study, the best advice I can give to people is to be a little kinder to each other.” ‒ Aldous Huxley

* “We lose what we keep. We keep what we give away.” ‒ Michael Masterson

3 Facts, 3 Numbers, 3 Thoughts 

THE FACTS  

* New Mexico is testing a unique way to encourage drivers to slow down: A stretch of Route 66 – the “Musical Highway” – contains rumble strips that play “America the Beautiful” when a car passes over them at the legal limit of 45 mph.

  * A new CDC study (published in the Journal of Clinical Infectious Diseases) revealed that in December of last year, about 2% of all blood donated on the West Coast contained COVID-19 antibodies. This suggests the virus had found its way to the US before China alerted the world, and a month before the first case was identified in the US.

* Koala fingerprints are so similar to human fingerprints that they could easily be confused. “Although it’s extremely unlikely that koala prints would be found at the scene of a crime, police should at least be aware of the possibility,” says Maciej Henneberg, a biological anthropologist and forensic scientist at the University of Adelaide in Australia. At press time, Amaru did not know whether Professor Henneberg was joking.

THE NUMBERS 

* 35 – the number of dollars paid to graphic design student Carolyn Davidson in 1971 to design Nike’s “Swoosh” logo – a symbol of what has become the most valuable apparel brand in the world. (According to The Motley Fool, the brand is worth $34.8 billion.)

* 65 – the percent of global Bitcoin mining power that is located in China. Crypto mining is the process by which specialized computers are used to support, encode, and protect digital currency transactions. It is also the only way to acquire cryptocurrencies (e.g., Bitcoin) without putting any money down. China’s domination of the Bitcoin market stands to further their push to become the world’s dominant economic power by backing their Yuan with gold and Bitcoin, potentially replacing the dollar in the future.

* 3.75 billion – the number of years it will take for the Andromeda galaxy to collide with our own. According to NASA, the Andromeda is on a collision course with the Milky Way at a rate of 68 miles per second.

THE THOUGHTS 

* “The higher we soar, the smaller we appear to those who cannot fly.” – Friedrich Nietzsche

* “To thrive in life you need three bones. A wishbone. A backbone. And a funny bone.” – Reba McEntire

* “Our culture is fast becoming one that rewards failure rather than success, luck rather than skill, weakness rather than strength, neediness rather than deservedness, and arrogance rather than humility.” – Michael Masterson

3 Facts, 3 Numbers, 3 Thoughts 

THE FACTS 

* In Thailand, texters use 555 the way we use LOL. The number 5 is pronounced “ha” – which makes 555 “hahaha.”

* When an actor is in character, his brain patterns change. A study by Canada’s McMaster University had actors connected to brain-scanning equipment answer questions as themselves and as the characters they were currently playing. The results showed a significant difference depending on who was answering the question.

* A pangram is a sentence that uses every letter of the alphabet. It’s commonly used to test equipment and to develop skills in handwriting, calligraphy, and typing. The most famous pangram: “The quick brown fox jumps over a lazy dog.” Another one: “The five boxing wizards jump quickly.” And another one: “Pack my box with five dozen liquor jugs.”

THE NUMBERS 

* 2,107 – the number of antisemitic incidents in the United States last year, according to the Anti-Defamation League. This was not only a 12% increase from the year before, but the highest number since the ADL began tracking the incidents in 1979.

* 96% – the amount of value (compared to gold) that the US dollar has lost since the Federal Reserve took over the US banking system in 1913.

* 6.55 trillion – the number of dollars spent by the government from October 2019 to September 30 of this year. Only half of that was offset by revenue, leaving us with a deficit of $3.13 trillion.

THE THOUGHTS 

* “Reading can teach you the best of what others already know. Reflection can teach you the best of what only you can know.” – James Clear

* “Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel.” – Socrates

* “The end result of long and difficult practice is the appearance of natural ease.” – Michael Masterson

What Favorite Movies Can Tell You About Other People 

When the lights came on I noticed that my partner and his wife were seated just two rows behind us. They were both laughing.

“So, you liked it?” I asked.

“No!” he shouted, still laughing. “We hated it!”

The laughing didn’t make sense to me, but the fact that we had polar opposite reactions to the movie did.

I’ve often said that one of the primary but unrecognized purposes of the arts is to allow people to sort themselves into affinity groups that are not apparent from, say, a casual conversation. So I was greatly interested in a fascinating essay in Taki’s Magazine by its residential movie critic, Steve Sailer.

In “Are We What We Watch?” Sailer discusses a study that surveyed Facebook users and cross-referenced their responses with the movie preferences listed on their Facebook profiles. The researchers then categorized the information to assemble a personality profile for each participant based on the OCEAN model – an acronym for Openness to experience, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism.

The study is surprisingly deep. Sailer looks at how a preference for certain movies can denote chauvinism or even the average age/gender of a movie’s fanbase. He goes on to explain how these attributes are calculated (there’s a lot more calculation involved than you’d think) and how an overall personality profile is constructed. You might even find yourself thinking “that makes sense” while learning, for example, that sports movies rank high in extraversion while Winona Ryder movies rank high in neuroticism.

The research is fascinating, and Sailer’s analysis is very insightful (given his movie knowledge). I encourage anyone with even a passing interest in movies and/or psychology to check out his article HERE.

3 Facts, 3 Numbers, 3 Thoughts 

THE FACTS 

* To look up at stars in the night sky is to look back in time. Space is incredibly vast and stars are very far away – which means that it takes a long time for their light to reach us. It’s very likely that many of the stars you’re looking at burned out millions of years ago. If you were to look at Earth from the nearest planetary system (Alpha Centauri), which sits just over 4 light years away, you would be watching the last election and mourning the death of the Starman himself, David Bowie.

* The oil drained from a car during the average oil change – a little over a gallon – is enough to pollute a million gallons of drinking water.

* If dogs used iPhones, they’d unlock them with their noses. Every dog has a unique nose print, just as every person has unique fingerprints. The Canadian Kennel Club has kept a dog nose print database since 1938. And Megvii, a Chinese technology company, recently developed a digital dog nose print identification system that could help find lost dogs (and finally put an end to all those unsolved canine-led bank robberies).

THE NUMBERS 

* 51 million – the number of dollars that Netflix offered to buy Blockbuster in 2000. In 2010, Blockbuster filed for bankruptcy. In 2020, Netflix was worth $196 billion.

* 55 million – the number of dollars that lesser-known Apple co-founder Ronald Wayne’s share would be worth today if he hadn’t sold his 10% stake in the company for $800 two weeks after its founding in 1976.

*183 million – the record-setting number of albums by the Beatles that have been sold in the US alone. Runners-up are Garth Brooks with 156 million, followed closely by Elvis Presley with 146.5 million. Before being signed by EMI in 1962, the Beatles had been turned down by at least 4 recording companies, including Decca. “Guitar groups are on the way out, Mr. Epstein,” the Decca exec famously told the Beatles’ manager.

THE THOUGHTS 

* “When you have a hole in your soul, you will let others fill it with whatever extra baggage they want to get rid of.” – Michael Masterson

* “If you live for having it all, what you have is never enough.” – Vicki Robin

* “What consumerism really is, at its worst, is getting people to buy things that don’t actually improve their lives.” – Jeff Bezos

“An optimist is a person who starts a new diet on Thanksgiving Day.” – Irv Kupcinet

What You Probably Didn’t Know About Thanksgiving

Some interesting things to ponder while enjoying your leftovers…

Backflow Friday

You know that Black Friday is a particularly hectic day for retail workers, but you may not know about another heavily affected industry – plumbing. According to Roto-Rooter, the Friday after Thanksgiving is their busiest day of the year. They attribute this to two things: (1) mishandled grease that finds its way into drains and garbage disposals and causes clogs, and (2) large gatherings of people that lead to bathroom overuse that stresses the system.

Same Old, Same Old… Only Different

Whether it’s for actual viewing or pleasant background noise, about 50 million Americans tune in to the annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade – an extravaganza that is estimated to cost between $11 million and $13 million each year. Another 3.5 million people usually brave the New York cold to watch it in person – some arriving as early as 6 am to get a good spot along the parade route, But this year, that’s not what happened. The only way to watch the parade was on TV. Yes, it had balloons and floats and celebrities and musical/theatrical performances, but (to avoid drawing crowds) there was no “parade route.” The action was centered around the Macy’s store at Herald Square, and much of it was pre-filmed.

The Great Balloon Massacre

Speaking of the Macy’s parade…

Originally, there was no limit to the size of the balloons in the parade – and they grew and grew. Strict regulations were put in place after strong winds damaged or demolished about 20 of the balloons in the 1997 event. The Pink Panther (one of the balloons that was subsequently banned from making future appearances) kept knocking over its handlers and had to be stabbed by the police to bring it down. Barney the Dinosaur flattened a tree, went out of control at 51st Street, and had to be stomped to death. And the Cat in The Hat – in what has been described as the worst accident in parade history – broke into the crowd, injuring 4 people, including one who was in a coma for a month.

Dutch Courage?

The commonly spouted Thanksgiving  “story” is that the pilgrims fled England to escape religious persecution. The truth is, they embarked on their journey from the highly tolerant country of Holland, where they had been living free from religious persecution (and the Church of England). Their mission was to remove their progeny from the materialism of Dutch culture and establish an ideal Christian commonwealth.

No Harm, [Probably] No Fowl

Another common narrative is that the pilgrims ended up oppressing and destroying the indigenous people whose settlement they stole upon arrival in 1621. In reality, the pilgrims came upon a nearly empty settlement that had already been destroyed by disease. One of the settlement’s survivors, Tisquantum (Squanto), would ultimately help the settlers cultivate crops and negotiate trades with the local Wampanoag chief Massasoit. Pilgrim governor William Bradford would even go on to call Squanto a “special instrument sent of God.” Their “Thanksgiving” was a three-day event (inspired by the Biblical holiday of Sukkot) celebrated by the settlers and Wampanoag, one that historians believe likely didn’t have turkey on the menu.

The First First Thanksgiving

Speaking of the first Thanksgiving…

Some historians tell us that the first Thanksgiving actually took place in Florida more than 50 years before the pilgrims got here. It happened on September 8, 1565 in St. Augustine – the day the Spanish settlers that founded the city came onshore, celebrated with a Thanksgiving Mass, and shared a meal with members of the local Seloy tribe. The food likely consisted of provisions that the settlers had brought with them on their ship (salted pork, garbanzo beans, hard biscuits, and wine), along with whatever the Seloy may have contributed (venison, tortoise, squash, fish… and maybe turkey).

Holy-Day? No Way!

On October 3, 1789, George Washington signed a proclamation designating Thursday, November 26 as a national day of thanks. But the proclamation was good only for that year. John Adams and James Madison, too, signed one-year-only proclamations. (Thomas Jefferson notably refused to acknowledge the day because he believed the religious connotations to be a direct violation of the First Amendment.) From then on, it was left up to the individual states. It wasn’t until 1863, when Abraham Lincoln proclaimed the last Thursday of November to be “a Day of Thanksgiving and Praise,” that it officially become an annual federal holiday.

The So-Called “Mother of Thanksgiving”

So who do we have to thank for Lincoln’s decision to make Thanksgiving a national holiday? Sarah Hale gets the credit, as she spent almost 40 years campaigning for it until she finally won over the president. As part of her campaign, Hale, the editor of Godey’s Lady’s Book, promoted the idea to her readers by publishing Thanksgiving-themed stories and poems and recipes for such things as roast turkey and pumpkin pie. (By the way, she is also credited with writing the poem that became the nursery rhyme “Mary Had a Little Lamb.”)

Our (Almost) National Bird

Following a congressional hearing in 1782, the Bald Eagle was selected as the national bird and symbol of the United States. But if Benjamin Franklin had his way, it would have been the turkey. Franklin admired the turkey’s territorial tenacity and had contempt for the eagle’s tendency to steal food from other animals. As he said in a letter to his daughter, “I wish the Bad Eagle had not been chosen…. He is a bird of bad moral character. He does not get his living honestly.”

It’s Not Just the Turkey That’s Stuffed

 Conking out on the couch after Thanksgiving dinner is almost a part of the tradition itself. We blame this so-called “turkey coma” on the mistaken belief that turkey is especially high in tryptophan, a sleep-inducing amino acid. The truth is, there just isn’t enough tryptophan in turkey to make you drowsy. (In fact, there’s more in chicken.) Chances are, you couldn’t keep your eyes open after dinner simply because you ate far too much of everything.

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3 Facts, 3 Words, 3 Thoughts 

THE FACTS 

* The Invention of the TV Dinner 

Like so many other life-improving inventions, the frozen TV dinner began as a mistake. 1n 1953, an employee of Swanson & Sons mistakenly ordered 260 tons of fresh turkey for the Thanksgiving holidays. This was way, way more than was needed. To get rid of the excess, salesman Gerry Thomas came up with a plan: They cooked the birds; ordered 5000 aluminum trays; filled them with turkey, mashed potatoes, and peas; and froze the whole thing. It saved the day. The following year Swanson sold 10 million frozen TV turkey trays at 98 cents each – a windfall of $9.8 million (over $94 million today)!

* The Best Kind of Investor 

In 2014, the Fidelity Mutual Funds group looked at records of its investors by age, sex, and account size to determine which ones had made the most money. They found that the only thing the best performers had in common was that they were all dead – and many of them had been dead for decades – though their accounts had not yet been closed. In other words, the best investment strategy seemed to be: Do nothing.

* The First Telephone Book 

In 1878, two years after Bell introduced the telephone to the public, the New Haven Telephone Company published a directory of its subscribers – a cardboard sheet with the names of 50 people and businesses that owned phones. It had no phone numbers, because people resisted the idea of dialing the numbers themselves. They much preferred talking to the company’s switchboard operator and having them connect the call. A copy of this directory sold in 2008 for $170,500.

THE WORDS 

* mien (noun) 

Mien (MEEN) is a person’s look or manner, especially one that indicates their character or mood.

Example: “Falsehood always endeavors to copy the mien and attitude of truth.” – Samuel Johnson

* bonhomie (noun) 

Bonhomie (bahn-uh-ME) – from the French for good (bon) + man (homme) – is geniality; cheerful friendliness.

Example: “John Stuart Mill, / By a mighty effort of will, / Overcame his natural bonhomie / And wrote ‘Principles of Political Economy.’” – Edmund Clerihew Bentley

* kawaii (noun or adjective) 

Kawaii (kuh-WHY or kuh-why-EE) – which roughly translates as lovable or adorable – is the Japanese pop culture of celebrating cuteness. As an adjective, the word can be associated with just about anything that is endearing, shy, and childlike. (Think “Hello Kitty” – perhaps the most famous kawaii character.)

Example (from Avril Lavigne’s song “Hello Kitty”):

Min’na saiko arigato, k-k-k-kawaii! (Thank you everyone, cute!)
K-k-k-kawaii.
Mom’s not home tonight
So we can roll around, have a pillow fight…

 THE THOUGHTS

(from Michael Masterson)  

* “You can’t be knowledgeable about everything. Choose what you want to know and what you are willing to be ignorant about. I choose to be ignorant about sports, because it seems trivial. And music, because I don’t think knowledge enhances my experience of it.”

* “In marriage and other important relationships, politeness is at least as important as passion.”

* “Having without sharing is having less than half.”

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Justin Goff on the “Chain of Belief” 

The first important skill I studied when I began my career in publishing was how to write a sales letter. Back then – in the early ‘80s – there weren’t any expert teachers available. (Today, there are hundreds. Probably thousands.) There were a few great books on brand advertising (Ogilvy on Advertising and Scientific Advertising come to mind), but I wasn’t aware of them. I learned by reading copy, imitating it, and having my work repeatedly torn up by JSN, my marketing-genius-but-nonwriting boss at the time.

My first sales letter made me a millionaire. That gave me the confidence to keep going.

In the mid ‘90s, I began working with BB. He had an entirely different (and more sophisticated) approach to copywriting. I learned from him. And we began what I think was the first school of copywriting in our industry. We spent a year teaching about a dozen smart young people what we knew. In teaching, you often take your learning to another level.

In the late ‘90s, I joined up with former protégés and started AWAI (American Writers & Artists Institute), a business devoted to teaching copywriting to beginners. That, too, was a terrific learning experience. It helped me understand how to explain some complicated concepts clearly, but it also gave me the opportunity to work with some of the best copywriters in the world at that time.

All of this to say that I am still surprised and delighted to be learning new things at this late period of my copywriting career.

Here’s a post from Justin Goff, a copywriting coach whose blog posts are always insightful, based on something he learned from Dan Kennedy, one of the most influential copywriting coaches of our time.

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