As most people know, there are agreed upon nonverbal signals ranging from fairly minor – like the “okay” signal or an eye roll to communicate an “Oh, brother” reaction – to very important non-verbal distress signals. *** But the truth is, there are an incredible number of situations in which non-verbal communication is crucial.  Here […]

For the school where I work, this past weekend was prom – that magical night when a girl’s dreams come true.  Assuming her dreams involve trying to walk in 5-inch heels, not eating your expensive dinner because the dress is too tight, and then listening to deafening music with a guy who thinks he’s the […]

So the other day I was explaining hyperbole to someone.  I said, “For example, ‘I will love you ‘til the seas run dry.’ Gross overstatement for effect.”  The person said, “Oh, of course – because of the prefix ‘hyper.’” And said that I supposed then you could also use hypobole – gross understatement for effect.  […]

The George W. Bush Presidential library opened last week, and the Good Dog, Carl jokes flowed like wine.  But it wasn’t all people thought.  Some of the surprises awaiting people? Justification For Invading Iraq mad libs! When you reach the end of the first chapter of any book in the library, there’s a “Ta-da!” chime, confetti, […]

By now, odds are, you’ve seen or heard about Dove’s “Real Beauty” sketches, in which women are asked to describe themselves for a sketch artist, and then compare those drawings to descriptions of them by another person. If not, here’s the video: It’s an interesting campaign, and one that clearly took a lot of time […]