See if this revs up your engine... In 1939, General Motors unveiled one of the most unusual cars in manufacturing history. Named the Pontiac Ghost Car, the first completely transparent car made in America, ended up amazing everyone by allowing everything in the car to be seen. The car was built [...]

In my last email, I shared with you a famous Zig Ziglar story. A woman asked to meet with him for some advice before a presentation in Birmingham, Alabama - and Zig obliged. The woman was miserable in her job, and she wanted Zig to fix it. He asked if she’d [...]

An old Saturday Night Live skit from 1978 featured John Belushi, Dan Ackroyd, and Bill Murray as workers at the Olympia Restaurant. No matter what the patrons ordered, there were only three items they could get. Cheeseburger, chips, and Pepsi. The skit’s humor came from the workers constantly yelling, “Cheeseburger, cheeseburger, [...]

No, not the ‘Rona. An “attitude of gratitude.” Years ago, the motivational speaking legend, Zig Ziglar, coined the term. He was one of the most grateful people you’d ever meet. He has a well-known story that I’ll share, in condensed form. Zig was scheduled to speak in Birmingham, Alabama, and a [...]

No, I’m not referring to President Gerald R. Ford, Jr. I’m talking about car tycoon Henry Ford. Did you know he came close to becoming the president of the United States in 1924? Indeed, he did—but the unexpected and suspicious death of his opponent stopped him. The incumbent president, Warren Harding, [...]

Believe it or not, Superman almost didn’t happen. The cartoonists who created Superman (that’s Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster for the uninitiated) got rejected by New York publishers for four years. Siegel was only 20 when he came up with the Superman legend. After a sleepless night in 1934, he drafted [...]

Sometimes, a person’s stubbornness can cause all kinds of trouble. Take, for instance, a stubborn homeowner in the Guangdong province in China. Because she refused the government’s offer to buy her home for a development project, they had no choice but move ahead in another way. They built their bridge over [...]

Ready for a mental pause? This British phrase has been running through my mind lately: Keep calm and carry on. I checked out the origins of the phrase since many have adapted it to fit a variety of memes. Some favorites: Keep Calm and Carry On My Wayward Son Keep Calm [...]

In one of the funnier moments in the film GoodFellas, Henry Hill (Ray Liotta) explains how Paulie, the local Mafia boss, “protects” a local business. If the business owner has any problems with the operation of his business, he calls Paulie. And Paulie gets it done. But if the business owner [...]

At the end of some movies, you’ll see a series of deleted clips called “bloopers.” Well, now we have “Zoopers,” where embarrassing and awkward moments happen during a school or work Zoom meeting. The pandemic has transformed many aspects of our lives, including meetings. Since schools and businesses can’t meet face-to-face, [...]