{"id":9392,"date":"2017-05-02T20:07:18","date_gmt":"2017-05-03T00:07:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=9392"},"modified":"2017-05-02T20:07:18","modified_gmt":"2017-05-03T00:07:18","slug":"well-spoken","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=9392","title":{"rendered":"Well spoken"},"content":{"rendered":"

An unanticipated good time.<\/strong> That was what I had last night.<\/p>\n

Well, a good time by my rather low standards.<\/p>\n

The first thing that needs to be understood was that I felt lousy. It\u2019s become my custom to get a very bad cold in the spring, and then again in the fall. These colds invariably plunge into my lungs and there, in the darkness, foment sedition and unrest. In the end I generally have to go to the doctor for antibiotics. Which, of course, mess up my digestion.<\/p>\n

I was in the midst of that cycle, having started sniffing and coughing several days ago. Yesterday I took the day off work and went to my doctor for my bread mold prescription.<\/p>\n

But I was worried about the Lecture<\/em>. Months ago I\u2019d agreed to lecture, on May 1, to Fjell Syn Lodge of the Sons of Norway, in Mounds View, Minnesota. My subject would be the Viking Sagas. I\u2019d lectured to them before, a year ago, and they treated me well. I wanted to do right by those good people.<\/p>\n

My fear was that I\u2019d cough through the presentation, spread contagion to immune-suppressed attendees, and be so hoarse I\u2019d be unintelligible.<\/p>\n

The weather was miserable. It was one of those chill spring evenings when winter is still holding on, and having run out of snowballs to throw at you, just spits. I wore a heavy parka over my Viking costume going to and from the car. All nature seemed to portend failure and miserable death.<\/p>\n

Instead, it went quite well. The audience was appreciative, and seemed to understand when I needed to pause now and then for a sip of water. There are times when you just resonate with a crowd \u2013 they laugh in all the right places, and longer than you expected. They nod and smile and you know they\u2019re following with interest and pleasure. This was one of those nights. I enjoyed it a lot, and hope they ask me back yet again.<\/p>\n

Plus, several of them bought books, which is impressive when you\u2019re dealing with a group you\u2019ve sold books to before.<\/p>\n

Thank you, Fjell Syn Lodge!<\/p>\n

I even felt better today (went back to work, sort of on a flyer), and I give them the credit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An unanticipated good time. That was what I had last night. Well, a good time by my rather low standards. The first thing that needs to be understood was that I felt lousy. It\u2019s become my custom to get a very bad cold in the spring, and then again in the fall. These colds invariably … Continue reading Well spoken<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[1183,2276,2623],"class_list":["post-9392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-health","tag-public-speaking","tag-sons-of-norway"],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9392\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}