Psychology 101

  I sat on my college dorm floor with a set of watercolors, trying to paint a simple Christmas tree.  In my head, I saw a series of elegant green strokes forming a beautiful fir outline.  Guys.  When I started painting, it was like, cartoonishly bad.  Like something you’d see tacked on corkboard strips in…

The lights glared in my face, but I could still see the couple hundred photographers assembled.  I love that first moment of giving a speech. “How many of you have, on your computer at home, at least one class that you’ve paid for, but haven’t finished?” A collective whoosh as everyone in the room raises…

Let’s pretend that you take up swimming as a sport. You show up at the pool every morning, practicing your strokes and lowering your times.  You’re feeling pretty good about how it’s going and can see lots of improvement!  You get up the confidence to join a local swimming league, and sign up for a…

Here’s the dialogue in a scene from one of my favorite movies. See if you can spot what bugs me about it: —– Kathleen: Do you want the West Side to become one gigantic strip mall? Crowd: No! Kathleen: Do you want to get off the subway at 72nd and Broadway, and not even know…