Welcome to Wiser Now’s weekly email blast which reflects my eclectic interests and, I hope, yours. This week, my focus is on International Creativity Month and, as such, is more eclectic than usual. With innumerable possibilities for creativity, I contend that we are ALL creative in some way even if we haven’t recognized it in ourselves yet. After all, none of us has a script for the play of our life. We are creatively improvising every day. (Joyously, I hope.)

May you find these offerings fun, and perhaps even useful, and I welcome your feedback. (Kathy@WiserNow.com) And if you haven’t yet pressed the subscribe button so this newsletter doesn’t go to spam, please do so now.
The Quirky Quote
Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. ~ Steve Jobs
The Quirky Facts
The ability to “see something” – to imagine – is what Albert Einstein called true intelligence, and one of the delights of human ingenuity is its variety. For example, I would not have imagined any of the following, but having learned of them, all I can say is,
“Por qué, no?”
  • Ballet skiing as an Olympic sport – We won’t be seeing examples in Beijing this winter, but here are samples of what it used to look like when it was part of the Winter Olympics: Try this one or this one.

  • Goldfish can operate a vehicle: According to this widely distributed article, a research team taught goldfish to drive a Fish Operated Vehicle (FOV). It took a number of days, but when the fish learned to control the direction of the vehicle by the direction of their swimming toward a target, they received a food pellet reward. Nope, I would never have thought of that.

  • Sculpting a grain of rice: I have always been fascinated by miniature anything, but I confess I cannot imagine the patience or slip-ups likely in carving a grain of rice. But here’s how it’s done using a microscope by Russian jeweler Mikhail Myagkkov who got his inspiration from other practitioners. Wait! He’s not the only one?
  • Geometric cakes: As a child, I enjoyed being put in charge of the swirling to make a Duncan Hines marble cake. That’s about as fancy as I ever got. According to this article, The Malaysian kek lapis Sarawak cakes were a challenge even for the contestants on The Great British Baking Show. Do people have the nerve to eat these works of art?
  • Oh, you need a bench in that spot? This is one of two benches and 18 other creative designs in this article. It’s part of what became a controversial art installation known as the Blue Carpet outside the Laing Art Gallery in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. Created by Thomas Heatherwick, it was criticized in part because it wasn’t blue enough, but I think it’s clever.

The list goes on and on.
The Quirky Observations
I am, of course, gobsmacked (I love that word) by the formidable intellect that has brought us inventions like vaccines, the James Webb Space Telescope, plastic-eating enzymes, drones that plant trees, and every modern convenience I enjoy. (Yay for microwave ovens that disinfect sponges and do so much of my cooking!) But as subscribers, you are looking to me for odd stuff to marvel at and be grateful for. When I despair over the state of the world, it is all the quirkily creative people whose desire to make others smile and say, “Ahhh” who inspire me.
The Featured Product
In the book Creating Delight: Connecting Gratitude, Humor and Play, it is my premise that you can’t always change the environment of where you work, learn, or live, but you can change the atmosphere. The book discusses the intertwining benefits of humor, gratitude, and play, and provides instruction on how to both give and receive compliments. Most of all, it illustrates dozens of ideas for using those three elements in concrete ways to bring that delight to others, whoever they may be. Humor yourself and buy it here now.
The Shameless Request
WNW is an award-winning publication used by activity professionals, teachers, aging adults and their grandkids, and lots of people in between. Please share it, and if you represent an organization that would like a customized version or that would consider becoming a sponsor, send me a note at Kathy@WiserNow.com.
The Questions
  • What sort of creativity impresses you?
  • In what ways are you creative?
  • Do you know anyone who is quirkily creative? What does he or she do?
The quiz – Matching Words to Their Creative Definitions
Another way some people are both creative and humorous is in their ability to come up with new definitions for common words, sometimes called daffynitions. (Are you one of those people? Try it. It’s a great exercise for your brain.) Can you find the matches below?
1. manicurist
2. optimist
3. pessimist
4. relentless
5. shin
6. suburbia
7. volunteer
a. A person who smells smoke and gets out the marshmallows
b. Not allowing someone to borrow something a second time
c. Someone who does work that makes no cents
d. Someone who looks both ways before crossing a one-way street
e. Someone who makes money hand over fist
f. What you use to find furniture in the dark
g. Where they cut down trees and put in streets names after them
A second kind of daffynition is one where you make up both the word and its definition, such as bagonize, which is what you do when you are waiting anxiously for your suitcase at the airport baggage claim.
The Resources
  • I’ve embedded all the resources used within the content, but don’t hesitate to do your own Google search of creative people, inventions, products, or foods or of quirky anything.
  • And, as always, check out www.WiserNow.com.
Answers to the Quiz
1.e   2.a   3.d  4.b   5.f   6.g   7.c
My multiple goals are to amuse and inspire you, to share what I and people whom I admire are doing, to stimulate your curiosity and spur you to action. I hope you enjoyed this offering. You can access previous issues here. I welcome your feedback. (Kathy@WiserNow.com)