In the musical Gypsy by Jule Styne, Stephen Sondheim, and Arthur Laurents, the title character Rose finds herself in a Burlesque company and is advised by three of the dancers that "You Gotta Have A Gimmick!" It is a fun…
I am often surprised by how uncomfortable we are really looking at people. By that, I don't mean looking people in the eye, that is a bit more complicated. I mean looking around the room and seeing the people. Every…
Sibilance is the hissing, sticky sound of fricative consonants such as /s/ /z/ /dʒ/ and /sh/. They can be problematic if they become too sticky and affect adjacent sounds, but I love them. They embrace the flow of air in…
Ah, spacers. We do love to hate them. At some point, it became a mark of good speech to be free of um, so, and like in all verbal interactions. In a way, we have taken this a bit far…
At the beginning of the week it isn't uncommon to take a moment and look ahead at the schedule. Listing out appointments, and obligations as we chart a path forward. Today, I want to invite you to decide how you…
How often do you allow yourself to just sit and think. Not about problems or what you need to do but about what you believe, what you know, what you care about. I've developed a habit over many years of…
By the time human babies begin to speak, they are masters of adapting the sounds they hear into the electric signals that create them. They do this by listening, practicing, and gauging our response. It's pretty cool. In a recent…
Memes. Those sometimes amusing, sometimes annoying, snippets that get copied and shared on the internet via social media. Even the most resistant among us has shared one. Our speaking has a similar issue though more localized. We hear phrases or…