Alice in InfoLand

Guiding precepts from Mark S. Katz, creator of the Soundbite Institute:
“Humor is an underutilized tool in the arsenal of strategic and crisis communications. It’s about solving problems. There are things you can say, there are things that go unsaid and things that are unsayable,” he explained. “What humor does is move the unsaid into the said.” (from the Oct 30 NYTimes article on writing jokes for celebrity roasts)

Many years ago I was given an award (albeit in jest) that I still take very seriously. At the 10th Anniversary dinner of the *Professional Studies Department* of Rutgers University’s School of Communication, Information and Library Studies (aka PDS), Karen Novick presented me with the George Carlin Award for ‘that instructor who most effectively utilizes humor to educate.’
No, I don’t use all those words that George Carlin is famous for, but I do tell the truth about the realities of our work as educators. If I can get people to laugh, learn, and then hopefully look at new ways to accomplish what’s needed, then yes, it is all about moving the unsaid into the said to solve problems.