The Quirky Facts
A while ago I was interviewed for a Texas newspaper article by Mary Jacobs, a freelance writer who wanted input on humor and aging. I turned the conversation toward curiosity and my personal emphasis on being curious about the quirky, whimsical, and humorous. She recommended the book A Curious Mind by movie producer Brian Grazer. I have written an article for LinkedIn which you can access here about his views and mine, but here is a quick synopsis:

Brian Grazer has focused his lifelong curiosity on people, quoting Brené Brown: “Connection gives meaning to our lives. Connection is why we’re here.” As a producer (Splash, Apollo 13, A Beautiful Mind) and decades long collaborator with director Ron Howard, he has had access to (and specifically sought out) hundreds of amazing people with whom he has had what he calls “curiosity conversations.” He describes himself as “emotionally curious,” i.e., someone interested in what makes people tick. “I want to see if I can connect a person’s attitude and personality with their work, with their challenges and accomplishments.” But he is adamant that we can all use his simple technique of respectfully asking questions to become truly engaged with them.

Mr. Grazer is also a crusader for giving curiosity the respect it deserves. When we say, “that’s curious,” or “That’s a curious question,” we tend to mean odd, weird, or inappropriate. We are comfortable with the words “creativity” and “innovation,” but don’t tie them to curiosity even though nothing creative or innovative would happen if someone didn’t have the curiosity to say,
“What if . . .?”

Brian Grazer wrote his book to “start a conversation . . . about why such an important quality is so little valued, taught, and cultivated today.” Good question.

The Quirky Observations
While I agree with Brian Grazer on the importance of curiosity as a life tool for better human connections, as noted above, for me it’s just as much fun to be curious about odd things I don’t know. Here are just a few samples of what I consider appealing bedtime reading:

• Basically anything by MentalFloss.com. They have produced little books like Instant Knowledge and What’s the Difference, have a free daily e-newsletter, and other riches. Want to know the difference between jetsam and flotsam? Both concern shipwrecks, but jetsam is what is jettisoned overboard before the wreck and flotsam is what’s left floating or run aground after the wreck including parts of the ship itself.
   
• Heavy paperbacks but very light reading: anything in the Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader series. Sample fact: “Among mammals, the rule of thumb is, the colder the climate, the shorter the legs.” But beware that this series quotes no sources, and there are certainly exceptions to this rule.

• The Book of General Ignorance, pocket edition. This book also fails to cite sources but does provide interesting explanations. To the question, “What colour was the sky in ancient Greece?” the authors answer “bronze,” by which they explain Homer meant “dazzling bright” because there was no word for blue in ancient Greek. They then go on to explain more about colors in other languages.

There are hundreds of books of quirky information to stimulate – and satisfy – your curiosity, but in spite of the fact that one of my readers called me “a deep thinker,” I tend to avoid the complex. The renowned psychologist and neuroscientist Robert R. Provine wrote a book called Curious Behavior, Yawning, Laughing, Hiccupping and Beyond in which he describes “buttspeak” as a “communication medium.” While I see the possibility for amusement in this topic, I am unable to wade through the paragraph that begins with this explanation of the “acoustic structure of” passing gas: “The bottom trace is a sound spectrum that shows a harmonic structure as shown in the regular stack of frequency bands that are multiples of a fundamental frequency of around 150 Hz at mid-burst.”

Hearty Thanks and a New Shameless Request
Thank you to all who congratulated me for winning a National Mature Media Award as announced on LinkedIn and the Wiser Now Facebook page. My main goal now is to increase my readership. Ways to do that are through nice things readers have said that I can put on the Wiser Now website, (some are there now), finding a sponsor or media syndicate, and offering shorter, customized versions to companies. If you can help on any of those fronts, please send me a note or kind words at Kathy@WiserNow.com.

The Questions

• What are you curious about?
• Do you value curiosity in yourself and others?
• Do you think curiosity needs more nurturing?

The Featured Product
Each month for many years now, I have been providing live Zoom training webinars for activity professionals in long-term care settings that are customized for a specific client. I now have a range of over 60 topics, including the upcoming one pictured on positive news stories in our turbulent times. It’s not quite an A to Z list, but definitely A (Art) through W (Weekend and evening programming).  I put a great deal of effort into making them as practical and engaging as possible, and it would please me to present a variation for other clients. Again, contact me at Kathy@WiserNow.com if you would like to learn more. I make it easy to learn and earn CEUs.