It’s Memorial Day! Traditionally, this is a day to honor fallen soldiers, those who died in service to their country. Over time, this holiday has expanded to include honoring the memory of loved ones who are no longer with us. I remember when I was a child going with my Mom to put flowers on [...]

Last year on President’s Day, I talked about the history of this day and about the power of this position – being President of the United States. As I don’t want to repeat myself, today I decided to talk about holidays and work. For example, although today is a Federal holiday, not everyone who has [...]

Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the United States. This day was legally declared a federal holiday in 1983 and first celebrated in 1986. According to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King,_Jr._Day), “at first, some states resisted observing the holiday as such… It was officially observed in all 50 states for the first time in 2000.” For [...]

Today is Thanksgiving in the United States, the fourth Thursday in November. According to History.com (www.history.com/content/thanksgiving/the-first-thanksgiving), it was a long-standing tradition among both the English colonists and the First Nation people to have an autumn harvest feast to celebrate the end of the growing season and give thanks for an abundant harvest. In 1621, the [...]

This Saturday, October 31 is Halloween. Most of us associate this holiday with trick or treating, costume parties, jack-o’-lanterns, ghosts, etc. But what is the history of this holiday? Where did all this “tradition” come from? According to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween) the origins of Halloween can be found in an ancient Celtic festival called Samhain (a [...]

Today is Labor Day, the first Monday in September in the United States. I looked up this holiday in Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labor_Day) and learned several things about this holiday. First, it started in Canada in the 1870s as parades demonstrating support for union activities. In 1882, a U.S. labor leader saw one of these events and [...]

I just completed my four-day improvisational theater training intensive. It was great fun! People attended from all over the U.S. and from several other countries as well! It was more focused on actual theater work than other improvisational trainings I have taken in the past. The primary focus was on work with various scenes and [...]

Independence Day is this coming Saturday. It is a national holiday in the United States that celebrates the declaration of independence of the American colonies from Great Britain. However, per Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independence_Day_(United_States), “the legal separation of the American colonies from Great Britain occurred on July 2, 1776, when the Second Continental Congress voted to approve [...]

Today is Memorial Day, a national holiday in the United States. So I decided to do a little investigating into its history and traditions. Here is what I found. This holiday was originally known as Decoration Day (a day for decorating the graves of fallen soldiers). According to www.usmemorialday.org/backgrnd.html, “Memorial Day was officially proclaimed on [...]

At a seminar I attended recently, I was required to present a one-to-two minute monologue as part of the training experience. When I saw the requirement on the course outline, I knew immediately what monologue I wanted to present. I first saw this presented on a TV show in February 1998 and it has stuck [...]