Subscribe to Our Blog

30 Jan 2012

Working, as I do, with a communication skills training company, I’ve learned the value of good communication. And being a dog, by ‘value’ I mean what’s in it for me. My needs are modest and pretty well known to my correspondents, so it...

23 Jan 2012

At one time the standard response to expressions of gratitude was “You’re welcome.” This seems to have gone out of favor. Like many good, plain words and phrases, this one is frequently replaced by a variety of substitutes: “No problem” “Sure” “Yep” “That’s fine” “No worries” “It’s nothing” And the more...

16 Jan 2012

Agnes suffered a reprimand from her boss. Angry and embarrassed, she spent her lunch date with Lonnie blasting her unfair, unreasonable, mean, and spiteful boss. Lonnie felt her pain, encouraged a dessert, and reminded her of her wonderful qualities. The next day she told Lonnie that...

09 Jan 2012

Your aunt is coming to town and you’d like to take her to dinner. You have 2 restaurants in mind so you ask a friend what he knows about them. He prefaces his positive statements about one restaurant with strongly negative statements about the other,...

02 Jan 2012

Vocabulary improvement might not be one of the favorites of the New Year Resolution crowd, but for those who like words maybe it should be. Like money management and weight loss, two of the most popular resolutions, vocab improvement does a lot for one’s self-image...

19 Dec 2011

The Holiday Grinch concedes that while Purchasing and Acquiring seem to be the stars of the show this month, there are other roles in the play which are worth noting, and which save the show from collapsing into total commercial gloom. The Grinch refers to...