P.T. Barnum’s Golden Money-Getting Rules for 22-year-olds

Greatest Showman P.T. Barnum wrote a book to share 21 sensible resolutions behind his circus business antics.

Twenty-one  golden rules for making money were coined by ‘the Greatest Showman’ P.T. Barnum. How many of them still work 150 years after he wrote them? I would add a 22nd point and put it first: i.e. Get an Education and never stop reading what better brains have written. Being humbled and stimulated by becoming aware of how much you don’t know will help you make better decisions on Barnum’s points that involve judgment. #3 is the most vital, important point. #9 is essential but not at the expense of not reading “for play” all the free classics available electronically through the Gutenberg project so you will be nobody’s fool.

1. Don’t mistake your vocation
2. Select the right location
3. Avoid debt
4. Persevere
5. Whatever you do, do it with all your might
6. Depend upon your own personal exertions
7. Use the Best Tools
8. Don’t get above your business. By living up to the motto ‘Excelsior’ (higher) there is no such word as ‘fail’.
9. Learn something useful
10. Let hope predominate, but don’t be too visionary
11. Do not scatter your powers
12. Be systematic
13. Read the newspapers
14. Beware of  ‘outside operations’ (get-rich-quick schemes)
15. Don’t endorse without security
16. Advertise your business
17. “Don’t read the other side”
18. Be polite and kind to your customers
19. Be charitable
20. Don’t blab
21. Preserve your integrity.
22. Never stop getting an education. He would have found a way to get a college scholarship. Google online to find out more and spend your time applying. MV

Have a Happy, Prosperous New Year with Abundant Reading & Writing

http://www.cozybookbasics.wordpress.com  www.margaretvirany.com  www.amazon.com/author/margaretvirany

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How I Sold Books at the Market

Prospects for selling my book at the Byward Market in Ottawa when I arrived at 10 a.m. Wednesday looked as dim as the thunderstorm forecast. Still, I bet myself I could sell enough copies (five) in the next six hours to buy tickets for a big treat. I defied the skies to clear in time for a picnic with our granddaughters and their parents before watching the preview performance of theater under the stars on the banks of the Rideau River that night. Work crews carrying partitions, shopkeepers rushing with arms full to set up for the day, twosomes and threesomes speaking languages other than English brushed past. Where were my buyers?

• The atmosphere enlivened at lunch time, with music and dancing in the adjacent square attracting a noisy, lively crowd. A quarrel between someone not quite in his right senses and a big truck disrupted the self improvement, creative atmosphere I was trying to inject.
• A dreary-eyed, homeless man with his bundles and bags slouched up against the bricks, heritage plaque and sesquicentennial posters on the market building facing me. Where were my readers?

It was discouraging and my devoted hubby of 61 years decided I was crazy and he might as well abandon ship and go home.  While he hesitated, I was ready with my elevator pitch to summarize my book in two sentences.

• Anyone drawn to the table for a closer look at my framed newspaper article headlined “Call of Love in the Wilderness” got it. An old toothless man mesmerized by a 1904 picture of my mother as a child in a sailor outfit stayed because he wanted to hear her full story.
• With a cheery “Hi Margaret!” up strode author Stevie Szabad, eager to buy two of my books and pick up advice from someone she perceived as having accomplished things she wanted to do. We plotted to sell together at the Galeries Aylmer Christmas market. 

Hubby stayed when I reminded him I was there to get my parents’ exemplary story out, not just sell the product. A take-out lunch of chicken sandwiches and smoothies fortified us both. 

• Then a ray of sunshine, a tourist from Vancouver, suddenly appeared. He wanted to know more about why I called my book “A Book of Kells” and gave me advice on genealogy. He bought a signed copy as a gift and souvenir of Canada’s 150th.
• A particularly friendly face came to the table confidently and I was able to engage her in conversation. For the next twenty minutes Tom and I found we had much to share with her and vice versa. Gale O’Brien is a lovely, avid reader who lives in Britannia by the Ottawa river. She now owns one copy of A Book of Kells and one of  Kathleen’s Cariole Ride which I hope she will enjoy reading.
• When Kelly Buell turned up because she had been following me online, Tom was getting the car because it was 4 p.m., time for us to pack up. Kelly and I chatted and hope to help each other in future as writers so often do.

When I first met the organizer of the Byward marketing team and showed her my book, she told me she is a ‘Kell’ on her mother’s side. I was able to inform lovely, competent Megan Sartori that we are second cousins twice removed. 

By the way, the outdoor performance in Strathcona Park was superb. My granddaughters, aged 10 to 16 were absolutely thrilled with The Amorous Servant by Carl Goldoni staged by Odyssey theater. Grandpa and Grandma enjoyed its humor and sensible advice for all ages, too.

www.cozybookbasics.wordpress.com  www.amazon.com/author/margaretvirany  www.margaretvirany.com

Happy Reading & Writing from Cozy Book Basics until We Meet Again!

Hero-Inspired Teens Clap for Cops, Peers, Drs., Teachers

http://www.observer-reporter.com/20170127/peters_student_honored_for_lifesaving_cpr_on_friend

Heroes don’t exist everywhere, everyday but they can spring up anywhere, anytime. One of them could even be  you. Eighteen hundred grade-ten students learned this lesson last week at a joyous assembly in a Pittsburgh school auditorium. Two of their classmates, 15-year-old Parker and Walter, had played real-life roles of  survivor and hero in a fateful disastrous instant in October.

The Fateful Event

• The two best friends were sitting side by side on a bleacher in the local skate park on a Saturday morning. Suddenly Parker turned to Walter and said, “My heart stopped.” When he dropped his phone and collapsed onto the concrete below Walter knew he wasn’t joking.
• He screamed his head off for help from bystanders and a call was made to 911. Walter told the dispatcher Parker’s nose and lips were blue and the dispatcher said he needed CPR right away. Walter said, “I can do that. I learned it in health class last year.”
• For 10 minutes he gave Parker CPR and kept talking to him until the police and emergency workers arrived and took over. With Parker on a stretcher and Walter in a panic, the ambulance carried them off.
• En route Walter phoned his father who rushed to join him at the hospital. Parker was induced into a coma and airlifted to a trauma center. Walter wanted to go with his friend but a nurse convinced him he had done all he could. His father dropped him off at his mother’s to find consolation.
• With the help of surgery to attach an AED (automated electronic defibrillator), and rest, Parker recovered and was back at school within weeks. His heart is strong; the cause of his cardiac arrest is unknown. He looks forward to resuming playing soccer.

The Commendation

• Emergency workers and police at the scene and doctors and nurses at the hospital showered praise on Walter for his presence of mind under pressure and trying circumstances.
• Teacher John Valvala who had taught him CPR was “thrilled” by what Walter had done, thanked and congratulated him.
• The chief of the Allegheny County Police department saw this as a chance to show heart and strengthen community. It could be used to inspire other teenagers to play the important bystander role which is as vital as any other to a patient’s survival.
• He announced in January that Walter would receive a Citizen Service Award. The commendation ceremony would be at the school in co-operation with everyone else who had been involved.
• This event would attract the attention of the community through the media. It was a rare opportunity to put the police in a good light, pointing out what people do that is right, not just what they do that is wrong.
• The St. Clair hospital announced it would give Walter a Health Hero Award at the same ceremony.

The Heroic Drama & Inspiration

• It was an exceedingly happy, inspiring occasion. A roar of thunderous applause and cheers went up from the student body and family members as police and doctors presented the awards and shoulder patches.
• Parker and Walter modestly thanked everyone else, from friends to GoFund donors, in their speeches.
• Audience happiness got noisier with each inspiring speech aimed at them. It was deafening when the three personal wellness (health) teachers were called up on stage.
• Police superintendent Coleman McDonough said Walter’s extraordinary act “changed his life forever and changed all of us. One person who is here wouldn’t be.”
• “It is important for all of you to see one of your peers being honored. It was a service rendered to the citizens of the county. His actions are a credit to himself and all citizens,” McDonough said.
• Surgeon Kevin Friend said he had been inspired to go into medicine after a classmate saved his life by applying the Heimlich maneuver. He choked on a hot dog he was eating while exerting himself as the anchor man in a school tug of war contest. Ironically, up until then he didn’t like the boy who saved  him  — they had a crush on the same girl.
• Assistant principal Lesnett got the last round of applause as he challenged the students to  “Be alert. A moment can make a difference. You can make a difference. Don’t just let things happen.”

Follow-up for Walter

• I had a front seat at this milestone event for our family. We have been fractured by divorce proceedings for four years. This proud happy occasion brought both sides together unexpectedly.
• Stepbrother Derek joked with brother Robert (both older than Walter), “You and I are just ‘the other brothers’ now”.
• Father Leslie said, “I think I deserve a little bit of the credit here. I always told my boys to listen to what their teachers said.”
• Two years ago Walter started an entertaining YouTube channel of videos about “whatever interests me.” It has a growing following among his peers. His ambition is to become an actor or film director. He is a good enough student to take any direction he chooses.  But, most of all, he wants to  make people laugh.
• Thank you, Walter. You have succeeded.

http://www.amazon.com/author/margaretvirany

http://www.margaretvirany.com

Children Ace 19-Point Quiz on Reading Classics

Your child’s self image and empowerment can grow because of one young woman’s sharing of her early and lifelong passion for reading good books. Here’s a video clip of the Classics Excellence award quiz at teacher/author Fiza Pathan’s launch of How We Can Encourage Children to Read the Classics. Test yourself to see if you know as much as the kids. It’s a long video, so start watching from 46:30 and then follow to the end.

http://insaneowl.com/2015/02/09/video-of-book-launch-classics-how-we-can-encourage-children-to-read-them-17th-january-2015/

Fiza Pathan’s 19-Point Quiz on Classic Books

1. Who wrote Alice in Wonderland?
2. Who wrote The Jungle Book?
3.  Who wrote Oliver Twist?
4. Who wrote The Time Machine?
5. In what book does the main character say, “Please, sir, I want some more”
6. Name one book by Jules Verne
7. Name one book by Jack London
8. What classic has a white whale as its main character?
9. What classic is narrated by a horse?
10.  What is the sequel to Alice in Wonderland?
11. What is the sequel to The Three Musketeers?
12. What revolution is highlighted in A Christmas Carol?
13. What revolution is highlighted in A Tale of Two Cities?
14. Name the man in 19th century England who couldn’t find work as a doctor and so he became the world’s most famous detective story writer
15. Name the man in the 19th century who wrote books which were all failures except one.
16. Name the funniest classic of the late 19th century
17.  Name the 19th century classic also known as A Tale of the Christ.
18. Name three books written by Jules Verne.
19. Name three books written by H.G. Wells

Answers: (1) Lewis Carroll (2) Rudyard Kipling (3) Charles Dickens (4) H.G. Wells (5) Oliver Twist (6) Around the World in Eighty Days (7) The Call of the Wild (8) Moby Dick (9) Black Beauty (10) Through the Looking Glass (11) The Man in the Iron Mask (12) Industrial Revolution (13) French Revolution (14) Sherlock Holmes (15) Bram Stoker (16)Three Men in a Boat (17) Ben Hur (18) Journey to the Centre of the Earth, Around the World in Eighty Days, A Thousand Leagues under the Sea (19) The Time Machine, War of the Worlds, The First Man on the Moon (There could be other answers to (18) and (19) since these authors wrote a number of books.)

Thank you for dropping by. This blog for all lovers of life and language aims to be useful and entertaining. Topics vary from how to build a canoe to how my mom moved from “prince to preacher and fog to bog” as a war bride after world war one. Writing advice is squeezed in between. Find out more about A Book of Kells: Growing Up in an Ego Void, Kathleen’s Cariole Rideand Eating at Church on Amazon, Goodreads or my website.

Happy Reading from Cozy Book Basics!