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Here's an interesting article that offers interesting suggestions for  Responding to Rudeness  which should work well in a class in the discussion of conversation or a variety of other interpersonal topics. Among the suggestions offered are how to respond to catcalls, unwanted and negative comments on your appearance, or friends who reveal personal information.  It would be interesting to see how students would deal with each of these several issues and if there's a gender or age difference in the responses.

I want to bring to your attention a new book by a friend of mine; we went to graduate school together at the U of I.  The book— Lydia Pinkham: The Face that Launched a Thousand Ads by Sammy R. Danna (Rowman & Littlefield, 2015)--is about Lydia Pinkham, her vegetable compound (which is still being sold), and the revolution in marketing and advertising of which she was a major part.  Congratulations Sam; you did a wonderful job!

According to some research published in the Archives of Sexual Behavior (DOI 10.1007/s10508-014-0422-z; http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10508-014-0422-z#page-1)-- summarized briefly in Psychology Today (April 2015)--a woman wearing high heels is perceived as more attractive than a women with low heels. In a series of studies by Nicolas Gueguen, it was found that:  (1)  Men were more apt to help a woman if she was wearing high heels than low heels. For example, when a women dropped a glove, a man behind her was more likely to pick it up if she was wearing high heels. Sixty-two percent of men picked up the glove of the woman with no heels but 93 percent picked up the glove of the woman in 3 ½ inch heels. Heel height, however, made no difference in terms of another woman’s helping behavior.  ( 2)    Men were also more likely to approach a woman if she was wearing high heels. With no heels, it took 13 ½ minutes for a man to approach her. But, with 3 ½ i...

Here’s an interesting article in the current issue of Psychology Today (April, 2015): Gay Love, Straight Sense: 5 Lessons Everyone Can Learn from Same-Sex Couples. The lessons are these: 1.       “Create fluid roles.” Because same-sex couples don’t have to divide roles by gender, they are free to discuss roles and to more effectively share roles. The roles are negotiated, rather than set down by society. 2.       “Sexual experimentation is good.” Same-sex couples are more likely to talk about sexual preferences and desires and are not bound by “rules” often found in opposite-sex relationships. 3.       “Keep calm amid conflict.” Apparently, same-sex couples engage in conflict in a “less accusatory, less belligerent, less domineering” manner. 4.       “We’re all surrounded by attractive others; deal with it.” Unlike same-sex couples, gay men and lesbians have same-sex friends and regularly...

In searching for communication issues we don’t normally talk about in our introductory textbooks, that of talking to cancer patients about their cancer is one of the most important and the most difficult. Here are a few suggestions for making communication with a person diagnosed with cancer—what you might say and what you should NOT say--a bit easier—not easy, just a bit easier. http://www.today.com/health/what-say-not-say-cancer-patient-2D80213767 https://www.caring.com/articles/never-say-to-someone-with-cancer http://www.health.com/health/gallery/0,,20851340,00.html http://lisabadams.com/2013/02/27/the-stupid-things-people-say-to-people-with-cancertheir-families/

In looking over the literature on dealing with pubic speaking apprehension, I searched for less likely sources than NCA journals. Here are some of the things I found, not surprisingly, not that different from what we have in our textbooks: From an article in Forbes: 1.       Begin small, with baby steps. 2.       Organize what you want to say. 3.       Slow down. From Psychology Today : 1.       Don’t expect perfection. 2.       Don’t think of public speaking as a measure of your self-worth. 3.       Avoid getting nervous over nervousness—a wonderful lesson I learned from General Semantics 4.       Don’t memorize. 5.       Don’t read. From WebMD : 1.       Visualize yourself speaking successfully. 2.       Practice. 3.       ...

Here is the TOC for a new book by Sharon Drew Morgen who asked me to post this and to alert readers of this coming book. I'm happy to do so. The book is called What? Did you really say what I think I heard?   The book will be out in December at which time I'll try to post the first chapter. Foreword 1 Author’s notes 3 Introduction 4 Section 1: How do we hear others? 16 Chapter 1: What do we hear? 17 Chapter 2: How we mishear: the role of filters 23 Chapter 3: The components of communication 36 Chapter 4: Filling in the communication gaps: noticing what’s missing 52 Chapter 5: The elements of a conversation: case study 67 Section 1 summary 82 SECTION 2: How to have conversations without bias or misinterpretation 84 Chapter 6: The skills of conscious choice 85 Chapter 7: What to listen for 109 Chapter 8: Preparing for conversations 123 Chapter 9: Conversations that went wrong 138 Chapter 10: Final thoughts: what good is good communication? 155 Section 2 summary 161 Bibliography 1...