Today starts with words, and we love them – Dr. John McWhorter (Ph.D.) talks about them and lightens them up.  After that, four simple words from Fiona Apple from a 90s award show acceptance speech that sums up a rough day in the office preparing for upcoming tax deadlines.  We wonder if the IRS would take Fiona's speech as a possible deduction 😎.  We finish today with overscheduling and blurring lines between business and personal life and endangered tigers that don’t know they are engendered. 

For many Christian Faiths, tomorrow is Good Friday, the recent Jewish Passover, and the current month of Muslim Ramadan.  It is an excellent time to reflect and, when possible, to believe. 

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A sweet story posted on Nice News and linked to a press release by Chester Zoo in the U.K. Two Sumatran tiger cubs have started to venture out of the indoor enclosure into the outdoor section for some play.  Sumatran tigers are listed on the critical engendered list, and less than 500 are known to still exist.  Momma tiger Kasarna keeps an eye on both her daughters, and they play with each other as all cubs do.

John McWhorter is an author, professor, and frequent guest on several talk shows.  A true lover of language and well-spoken regarding writing, language, and messaging topics.  Today he thinks aloud about the words that tend to trip us up, the origins of some of those words, and wonders if it's time to change a few things.  One of the benefits of being a professor of "words, is" you tend to be an excellent writer, and McWhorter is an amazing writer.  He argues for relaxing some of the words and tone of language in our writing.

As with most things, it's a balance between some who would have us go back to proper English of Shakespearian times and the other extreme of talk-to-text and no use of grammar.  If the story captivates and the writer puts something out that is a good read, it's a win.  Excellent writing cannot make a bad story less bad; bad writing can make a good story less good.  Check out more of McWhorter's books here.

From the archives, but up on this week’s algorithm, a 2-minute speech from Fiona Apple. Sometimes, the truth stings a bit.

Sometimes the only difference between your home life and your work life is the screen(s) you are looking at.  At work, for many of us, it's a monitor, laptop, or tablet – at home, a TV, laptop, tablet, and phone.  It would be tough to argue spending this much time in front of screens is healthy.  What happens when your work apps bleed over to apps that can improve your personal life?  Prominent examples could be using Gmail for both personal and professional, primarily if you use Google Calendar.  The NYT has a fascinating article on how several people do just that, use the tools to enhance a personal life.

One creative or OCD person included trips to the pub with the discussion topics in his calendar.  As we moved from human scheduling assistants to digital ones, the calendars and emails started coming home with us, and eventually, they all ended up on a device we could put in our pockets.  The lines blurred until the bar was gone, with it a percentage of spontaneity.  Unless you put spontaneity on your calendar, that is.

Technology has made it too easy to do a lot of things.  How many photos are in your phone or cloud account(s)?  I now pay for expanded storage space in an Apple iCloud account, and I have a backup copy of all those photos in Dropbox, and the worst part, I have yet to look at 75% of the photos taken?  The same could be said for task tech and calendars; it's become so easy to record every thought, every task, and every potential appointment and it's better to get the info out of our brains, but are we collecting charges like digital pictures and is it all too much?

Two bass players!

Click on the Apple Music image to listen to the song on Apple Music or on the Spotify Image to listen to Spotify.

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Thank you for spending a few minutes with us. Here’s one for the road!

With A Shout newsletter is written by Johnny Christian with the support of a thousand idea bits and the help of many people.

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