The KellyGram

Published by Bob Kelly

Resident Wordsmith and Quotemeister

WordCrafters, Inc.

www.wordcrafters.info

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In This Issue:

• Fun with Words
• The Quote Corner (Christmas)
• News You Can Use?
• The 60-120 Rule
• Smile Awhile
• Odds and Ends
• The Last Word

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FUN WITH WORDS

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With Christmas carols filling the airwaves at this season of the year, we decided to see how many you can identify by the acronyms for their titles:

DTHWBOH

JTTW

HTHAS

OCAYF

DYHWIH

OLTOB

AIAM

GTIOTM

AWHHOH

Youll find the correct answers elsewhere in this issue.

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THE QUOTE CORNER (Christmas)

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Because its impossible these days to avoid the annual hype on television, radio and in the newspapers about the coming Christmas season, we decided to once again feature quotations about the real meaning of Christmas, as weve done in two previous December issues.

In the hustle and bustle, amidst the trappings and the wrappings, its good to pause and reflect on the real reason for the Christmas season. As we rush to buy our gifts, lets remember what happened on that first Christmas morn. The trappings were a stable in Bethlehem, and the wrappings were swaddling clothes that became the royal garments of the Infant King. The gift: Jesus Christ, the Son of God, made flesh.

While this is the third time weve featured Christmas quotes, the selections that follow are completely different than those we used in 2003 or last year. Subscribers whod like to read those earlier editions (or, for that matter, any others weve published during the past five years) will find them on our website: www.wordcrafters.info.

Christmas day is a day of joy and charity. May God make you very rich in both.
      Phillips Brooks

It is good to be children sometimes, and never better than at Christmas, when its mighty Founder was a child Himself.
      Charles Dickens

Christmas happens everywhere every time someone reaches out to touch another life with love.
      Carol Duerksen

It is Christmas in the heart that puts Christmas in the air.
      W. T. Ellis

Christmas is based on an exchange of gifts: the gift of God to manHis Son; and the gift of man to God whenwe first give ourselves to God.
      Vance Havner

When we celebrate Christmas, we are celebrating that amazing time when the Word that shouted all the galaxies into being limited all power and, for love of us, came to us in the powerless body of a human baby.
      Madeleine LEngle

You will never know deep joy without knowing the meaning of the very first Christmas. A Savior was born. A King was given. He is the best gift you will ever receive.
      Ellie Lofaro

The Christmas message is that there is hope for a ruined humanityhope of pardon, hope of peace with God, hope of glorybecause at the Fathers will, Jesus Christ became poor, and was born in a stable so that 30 years later He might hang on a cross.
      J.I. Packer

Its only in finding and living the eternal meaning of the Nativity that we can be truly happy, truly at peace, truly home.
      Ronald Reagan

Christmas my child, is love in action...When you love someone, you give to them, as God gives to us. The greatest gift He ever gave was the Person of His Son, sent to us in human form so that we might know what God the Father is really  like! Every time we love, every time we give, it's Christmas.
      Dale Evans Rogers

Christmasthat magic blanket that wraps itself about us, that something so intangible it is like a fragrance. It may weave a spell of nostalgia. Christmas may be a day of feasting, or of prayer, but always it will be a day of remembrancea day in which we think of everything we have ever loved.
      Augusta E. Rundel

In the din and roar of this busy worlds call for attention, will we, like the innkeeper of old, be too busy to see the star and hear the chorus of angels, and worship the Christ Child?
      John Waldo Schindler

Somehow not only for Christmas
But all the long year through,
The joy that you give to others
Is the joy that comes back to you.
      Elwyn Brooks White

Under most Christmas trees on December 25 there will be many gifts. On Calvarys tree there was only one gift but it included all others Gods gift of his only begotten Son.
      Anonymous

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NEWS YOU CAN USE?

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Well, those lexicographers at Oxford University Press have done it again. According to a recent media release, theyve just chosen their New Oxford American Dictionary Word of the Year for 2007. It must have been a difficult decision for them, having to pick a winner from among such terms as: aging in place; bacn; previvor; upcycling; and mumblecore.

But they did it! In what must certainly have been a hotly debated contest, the lexies choice for the 2007 Word of the Year is (May I have the envelope, please.) locavore!

You knew it all the time, right? Seeing how often were using it these days, it seemed like a slam dunk.

What? You havent heard it before? You must be traveling in the wrong circles. Its been at least two years since the word was coined by a group of four women in San Francisco. Their goal was to urge local residents to "try to eat only food grown or produced within a 100-mile radius."

According to Ben Zimmer, editor for American dictionaries at Oxford University Press, "The word locavore shows how food lovers can enjoy what they eat while still appreciating the impact they have on the environment. Its significant in that it brings together eating and ecology in a new way."

Well, that seems like a worthy cause, but couldnt they have come up with a more catchy name to describe it?

I dont know how one goes about submitting names for consideration as Word of the Year, but I hope youll join me in a groundswell of support for my 2008 nomination: loco-vore. Its derived from the old slang term "loco," defined as "mentally disordered," and describes those who have nothing better to do than invent weird new words.

Come to think of it, I guess Id be included in that category. I probably should have quit while I was ahead.

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SPEAKER INTRODUCTIONS: THE 60-120 RULE

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According to Bill Johnson, Certified Speaking Professional (CSP), a speakers introduction should never exceed the 60-120 Rule: "It should be limited to 60 seconds or 120 words, whichever comes first."

In Bills words, "A strong introduction conveys only what the speaker has accomplished or experienced that gives him or her the right to take up the audiences time. Theyre turned off when the introduction includes flowery and irrelevant information!"

Bills advice is well worth heeding. A veteran of more than a thousand speeches nationally and internationally, he also specializes in coaching other speakers and in conducting seminars on speaking and presentation skills. The first executive vice president of National Speakers Association, he was named in 2003 as one of five "Legends of the Speaking Profession."

Bill is also "a purveyor of tools for speakers." If youd like to know more about his services, visit his web sites at www.BillJohnson.com or www.SpeakerTools.com, or call him at (602) 870-3333.

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SMILE AWHILE

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The tribal wisdom of the Dakota Indians, passed down through generations, says that when you discover youre riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount.

However, in modern business, because of the heavy investment factors to consider, other strategies have to be tried with dead horses, including the following:

1. Buying a stronger whip.

2. Changing riders.

3. Threatening the horse with termination.

4. Appointing a committee to study the horse.

5. Arranging to visit other sites to see how they ride dead horses.

6. Reclassifying the dead horse as "living-impaired."

7. Hiring outside contractors to ride the dead horse.

8. Harnessing several dead horses together for increased speed.

9. Donating the dead horse to a recognized charity, and deducting its full original cost.

10. Doing a time management study to see if lighter riders would improve productivity.

11. Declaring a dead horse has lower overhead and therefore performs better.

12. Promoting the dead horse to a supervisory position.

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ODDS AND ENDS

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Back Issues:

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Comments/Questions:

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Answer to Fun with Words:

DTHWBOH Deck the Halls with Boughs of Holly

JTTW Joy to the World

HTHAS Hark the Herald Angels Sing

OCAYF O Come All Ye Faithful

DYHWIH Do You Hear What I Hear?

OLTOB O Little Town of Bethlehem

AIAM Away In A Manger

GTIOTM Go Tell It on the Mountain

AWHHOH Angels We Have Heard on High

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THE LAST WORD

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"Let this Christmas season be a renewing of the mind of Christ in our thinking, and a cleansing of our lives by his pure presence. Let his joy come to our weary world through us."

(Gerald Kennedy)

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© 2007 by Bob Kelly. All rights reserved.