Alas, they’re here and I plan on using them.

Much has been said about the benefits of writing things down; I’ve talked about it on my Substack before — December 6, 2025 edition of The Saturday List — and I even shared a screengrab from a Scientific American article on the same subject.

(Yes, I’ve wondered if I’m related to either of the authors; No, I’m not sure how two folks with Low Country last names ended in in Norway.)

It used to be easier to be “the guy with the notebook” because you didn’t stand out. Now, you bring a notebook to a meeting or you have one at the coffee shop and people wonder about you.

Turns out, I’m somewhat high in Conscientiousness, one of the Big Five Personality Traits.

The Big Five

Psychologists use the Big Five Personality Traits to help figure people out. You can use the word “OCEAN” to remember them:

• Openness
• Conscientiousness
• Extroversion
• Agreeableness
• Neuroticism

We’re all somewhere from 1 to 100 on each and that’s part of what makes each of us unique. And once you understand where you are on each, you can have a better idea of where you might be able to grow.

I mentioned above that I’m somewhat high in Conscientiousness, so a using those notebooks with a plan (more on that below) is something I do pretty often; I’m also somewhat high in Neuroticism. (I need paper and pen sitting nearby to write lists down.) Note that both can explain the fact that I am almost never late for meetings. (Unless my gallbladder is being removed; even though I sent a note and asked to move that particular job interview, I ended up being removed from consideration. Oh well.)

And, I’m pretty high in Openness, so I’m — get this! — open to new experiences. I’m (allegedly) imaginative, and adventurous, and creative!

Understanding WHAT makes you tick and HOW you tick are both pretty important. Here’s more…

Taking Notes? Journaling? Writing An Actual Book?

A couple months ago, I sat down with Megy Karydes for my Podcast, The Vandy Program. The full interview is below and Megy actually wrote a book that helps you minimize stress in your life, called 50 Ways to More Calm, Less Stress.

ONE of those 50 ways — and one that she religiously follows — is daily journaling. That’s right, setting aside time in the morning with your coffee (or tea) and making it a ritual.

It doesn’t have to be formal; it could be venting, or it could be making lists of things that are on your mind. Or poetry. Anything. But make it a ritual and, behold, you’re in Growth Mode.

One reason I ordered three notebooks of my own is that I’ve got one for Personal and one for Business. And the extra one is in case I come up with another Big Idea (for a book or something else). (Or if I exhaust the Personal or Business one and find myself needing to rip one open because I can’t wait.) But I’m the type of person who can benefit from daily journaling, and from taking notes when I watch videos or am reading an interesting book or article.

All Five Traits and Your Learning Style

So if I’m open to new experiences, and I’m conscientious and a little neurotic — in a good way, I promise! — what does that say about Activating Growth Mode?

Well, you can’t be High in all five traits, so there’s got to be a little give and take.

Take a gander at the photo below of the books that are on my nightstand.

I’m definitely open to new things, and like to read and make a habit of it AND take lots of notes, so High in Openness and Medium-to-High in both Conscientiousness and Neuroticism.

That means that I might be…less agreeable about points of view. (Honestly, I’m probably right in the middle on Agreeableness. Depends on the situation.) So that’s a place where I need to grow. AND I’m definitely an introvert, so Extraversion would be a low score for me. Assignments: get out of my shell and challenge my assumptions.

Is ‘Growth Mode’ Just ‘Learning Mode’ In Disguise?

One advantage of hosting a podcast is the ability to learn from a variety of people. About a variety of topics. (I know, I know…”Pick a Lane!”) Reaching out to people and then having them say “yes, I’ll go on your show” is actually a bit of a thrill…THEN doing more research on who they are and what they do and what makes them tick is quite fun. (Working on increasing the Extroversion score and moderating my Agreeableness so that it’s situationally appropriate.)

FINALLY, once I’m sitting down with the guest, the discussion can open up a whole host of possibilities. (I guess my job as the interviewer is to help guide the discussion in the right direction; and if *I* learn something new about the topic, then, hopefully, the viewer or listener will, too.)

A Couple Examples

My friend Jennifer Brown is a two-time guest on the pod; I find I always learn something about people when I speak with her. “Canadian Steve” teaches me something about Canada and how they view Americans each time I speak with him. (Links to recent episodes with both are below.)

So This Post Is About…What?

No, I’m not just here to post about my podcast or my “High in Openness” personality.

I’m here to, hopefully, ask you to figure out how to maximize Growth Mode for yourself.

Are you open to new experiences? If not, you are possibly higher in another personality trait; your conscientiousness might mean you’re the type of person who could sit down with a guitar, fire up some online lessons, and become kinda self-taught in an afternoon.

OR you might have the “High in Neuroticism” trait — again, Neuroticism is not *necessarily* a bad thing — that could make you the type of person who could get the temperature conditions exactly right in your home kitchen to make a perfect loaf of fresh bread.

In any event, keep at it. Whatever “it” is…

The post Understand Your Personality and Activate Growth Mode appeared first on Area 224 Ltd..

Hello there!

I recently read that, of the estimated 4.5 million podcasts in the world, only 300,000 have released a new episode in the past 30 days.

Since I’ve aimed for Systems Over Goals, especially here in 2026, I thought I’d point to not 1, not 2, but 3 recent podcast interviews. So I’m in the good category, I guess; All three videos I’m sharing here are ones that have been conducted in the past 30 days.

The channel link is here: The Vandy Program.

Vandy Talks with Marc Moschetto (Jan. 29)

Marc is a long-time friend (who I met on X, of course; his handle is Boston Writer) and a consultant. Kickmotor is his company, and he has the bona fides to talk about where HR and tech intersect with common sense. Fun interview.

Vandy Talks with Liam Gallegos (Feb. 5)

Liam is the self-proclaimed “King of LinkedIn Live” and has amazing energy; and a heck of a studio setup, too. We had a fun conversation.

Vandy Talks with Stephen Barrigar (Feb. 18)

Finally, my most-recent discussion — and a long-time friend, former colleague, and resident Canadian — was with Stephen Barrigar. It was the fourth time chatting with Stephen on camera.

Take a look, be sure to subscribe. Thanks, and be on the lookout for more!

The post Sharing Some Recent Interviews on The Vandy Program appeared first on Area 224 Ltd..

On December 1, I vowed to share content every day for a month. Here, on Day 31, I look back at what I’ve learned.

First Up: ‘The What’

The content I shared — for the first 30 days, not counting today — fell into three categories:

• Business and Advice: 11 posts
• Music: 8 posts
• The Saturday List: 4
• Podcast Interviews/Summaries of Shows: 4
• Inspirational: 2
• Creativity: 2

Next: ‘The Where’

25 of the 30 posts were on the Area 224 blog (that’s where you are right now!) and the other 5 were posted on my Substack.

In most cases, the content was re-shared by me on LinkedIn; and some of the posts were also reshared on X, which I’m still calling “Twitter.”

Best-Performing Posts?

Six of my posts stand out as performing better than the others, at least when it comes to views; Four on Substack and two on the blog:

• Five Business Book Recommendations (Substack)
• The Saturday List, December 20 (Substack)
• The Saturday List, December 6 (Substack)
• The Saturday List, December 27 (Substack)
• Just How Vulnerable? (Blog)
• On Christmas Eve (Blog)

To be fair to myself: I had spent a year or so curating my Substack much more than my blog, so, the combination of a built-in audience and the consistency of The Saturday List would both be factors leading to its (relative) success.

It’s also been suggested — fairly, I might add — that I should add a Subscribe Button to the blog. So here’s one.

The LinkedIn Factor

I will be completely direct here: LinkedIn is not my favorite tool. Sure, everyone thinks that “Followers” and “Connections” and the like are great. But it’s clunky, its newsletter publisher is pretty bad and doesn’t allow links, and views don’t lead to any real activities.

LinkedIn has a REAL algorithm problem: posts are still being delivered to the feed that are 2-plus weeks old, so the jury may be out on whether some of the above posts might still move up or down my rankings.

Finally, and this is big, even with Premium, the analytics are…poor. I can’t tell you which of my posts on LinkedIn performed well, or not well, if they are more than seven days old. Each passing month leads me to question why I pay for Premium.

Big Winner: The Daily Habit of Writing

If you watch enough cooking videos or you talk to those in some sort of performance industry — sportscasters, professional speakers, actors — you know how big it is to get “reps.” Your first four ribeyes cooked on the steel pan will be okay, the next four will get better, and, by the ninth ribeye, you are finally able to cook for others.

Writing is similar; and, given the combination of work priorities and life priorities taking over, I had not really flexed any writing muscles of note in a long, long time.

But I did write every single day.

There were days I was able to pull together a couple blog posts, and there were other days where I felt like all I got was a neat little paragraph that shaped blog post or the next week’s Saturday List.

And, The Next Steps For Me (There Are Two)

A December goal was to do as much of this content creation as I could WITHOUT any AI tools. In fact, other than my post on GEO vs SEO, or my piece on AI-driven “creativity,” I stayed away from AI. (So yes, I wrote all the words myself.)

I don’t plan on issuing another 31-day content challenge to myself for January; however, I do plan on doing a few deeper-dive looks at AI tools and how to use them. Look for more of that in January.

The other January goal: MORE INTERVIEWS. Yes, that’s right, I plan on ramping up discussions on The Vandy Program. I only did ONE of them in December; the only gauntlet I’ll throw down for a busy January is to do…THREE.

(Here’s the one that I did in December.)

So yeah, that’s actually a blatant pitch for interesting podcast guests. If there’s someone YOU want to hear from, let me know in the comments…even if that person is you.

Finally, My Thanks

Back in journalism school, they would tell you to imagine that you’re talking to a friend or family member before you went on air. Trite? Maybe. But that’s been the thing that kept me going during December. And it’ll keep me going through 2026, come what may.

My sincere thanks for coming along for the ride.

The post 31 Days of Content: Here’s What I Learned appeared first on Area 224 Ltd..

Is 2026 going to be The Year of Vulnerability? If so, we probably need to set some ground rules.

When someone is “in the soup,” they are in trouble. Trouble of some sort, trouble that may or may not be with a capital “T;” You may or may not want or need to know exactly what they’re going through, but you do need to at least be aware that they…are going through it.

The idiom goes way back to earlier times — I saw it mentioned as I rewatch the show Deadwood — and I have heard it quite a few times this year, in a variety of instances. In each case, I didn’t ask for details, just knew that I needed to show a little compassion.

So, if you are currently “In The Soup,” I see you.

Levels of Vulnerability

Let’s talk, first, about the job search world. No industry seems to be immune to cutbacks, layoffs, job losses; the rise of not just “AI” but the “AI is gonna take your job” phrase adds nothing but anxiety. There’s a real chance that you know a few people “In The Soup.”

If you spend any time at all on LinkedIn — oh, I’m there A LOT — you’ll see one debate among job searchers, hiring managers, and everyone in between: do you use the dreaded “Green Circle?”

You can use a Green Circle to telegraph to the world that you are “Open to Work.” To some, it’s important: You have a lot to offer an employer, and they need to know that you can help fill a need of theirs.

To others, it’s too vulnerable by half.

Here Again, Your Mileage May Vary

Advice for the jobless — or ANYONE going through any significant life change — is everywhere. Apply to all the jobs! Only apply to those that are a really good fit! Only apply if you have someone on the inside! And so on, and so forth.

The challenge for YOU, Dear Reader: understand just how vulnerable you want to be. Can you deal with all of the advice? Do you want help from well-meaning strangers?

Maybe Quiet Confidence Is ‘The Way’

Here’s the thing: EVERYONE is in some sort of soup. Is it lower-case “soup” or “THE SOUP ” in ALL CAPS AND BOLD ITALICS?

We’re all human, we can’t avoid the realities of life; challenges will always find us. Some people may get more than they can apparently handle, some may seem to skate by. But everyone is dealing with some sort of soup.

The Crisis Communicator in All of Us

I worked at a place a decade or so ago where we dealt with our share of crises; most of them were out of the public eye. (Part of my job was to KEEP THEM OUT OF THE PUBLIC EYE.) On my last day, as I left for greener pastures, one of my colleagues said “wow, you always seemed cool under pressure when everything was out of control.” (Yes, that old saw about men receiving compliments so infrequently that they remember them always…it’s true.)

But I also had to do the “chameleon” thing while there: couldn’t tell everyone everything that was going on, lest it jeopardize my long-term prospects.

Vulnerability could lead to victimhood if you take it too far. You could get taken advantage of. And so on.

Advice, Then, For 2026

I write this post having just celebrated a birthday. (Yes, I realize I don’t look THAT old. Thank you.) I’ve dealt with my share of soup — my favorite story is how, a few years ago, I had “16-and-a-half inches of my colon removed” and how I asked to have the piece of colon freeze-dried so I can wear it around my neck as a symbol of my vanquished opponent; that request was denied — and anyone who has spouses or kids or pets knows that various soups, stews, and chowders surround you 24/7.

You may have had more of your colon removed, or may have had a worse problem befall you.

OR you may have had a really crappy job loss and it may have been way too long since you’ve had a job that matched your skills and abilities.

And you can tease this out in any other aspect of life: We’re all In The Soup.

Share as you see fit. Or don’t share at all. Quietly ping a friend and let them know they are on your mind. Hop on a call with an old friend; or, even better, do the IRL thing as often as you can.

Make it a wonderful 2026.

The post Just How Vulnerable? appeared first on Area 224 Ltd..

As I plan for 2026, one of the things I want to do is conduct more long-form interviews on YouTube.

As a result, I’ve spent much of the year — and especially the last three months — watching a ton of long-form interviews. I’ve got a few favorite interviewers: folks who put together a combination of interview subjects and their own ability to ask questions (and to let the guests talk).

So, while I plot my own next steps, allow me to share some of the best videos I’ve watched during 2025. (And there are two bonuses at the end: a couple good interviews that I conducted.) Here goes:

Triggernometry Interviews Richard Miniter

I’ve gone from “hey these guys are pretty good” to “OMG, ANOTHER VIDEO? I HAVE TO STOP EVERYTHING AND WATCH.” Francis Foster and Konstantin Kisin know what they’re doing when they interview someone. So I have three of their chats on this list…

This first one was actually crazy memorable for me; I was shocked that a couple British folks wanted to talk with Richard about America.

The interview is a discussion of how America became…America. Big fun.

It’s great, I’ve watched it at least twice all the way through.

Triggernometry Interviews Jonathan Wilson

The subject, “The Real History of Football.” This is fun and *weird*, IMHO. As opposed to a discussion of American Football, this analysis of how football became “FOOTBALL” is really something.

It also just dropped within the past couple days, proving that sometimes they have a “run, don’t walk” subject. A propos as we enter a World Cup year.

Triggernometry Interviews Dr. Peter Attia

Dr. Peter Attia’s “Outlive” sits on my nightstand. It’s because of his work that I’ve tried to incorporate a combination of exercise, diet, and genetic predispositions — I just learned I’m A LOT MORE Italian than I had originally been told; I grew up being told I’m 0% Italian, so 20% is quite a lot more — to my own health journey.

I’m also now closer to 60 than I am to 50; so I’m hopeful that I can lean more on the part of the family that lived into its 80s (Mom just turned 80) than on the part of the family where the men die in their 60s (Grandpa was 61, Dad lived to 65). This is going to take a combination of…exercise — which Dr. Attia champions throughout his work — and diet; perhaps a few other medications can help me to ward off bad health.

Jordan Peterson Interviews Scott Adams

This becomes even better under the sober light of day: Jordan and Scott have both had some significant health challenges this year, so it is even more illuminating.

Chris Williamson Interviews Peter Zeihan

With the title of “The New World Order Is Here,” we get to listen to Peter Zeihan as he waxes poetic about the state of the world.

It’s all about demographics: and China’s demographics — and those of Russia and South Korea, too — are not good.

Chris Williamson Interviews Dave Ramsey

Big fans of both. But it’s real cool to watch a long-form interviewer (Chris) talk to someone who is used to five-to-ten-minute calls (Dave) over and over.

Dave Van de Walle (that’s me!) Interviews Stephen Barrigar

I interviewed Stephen three times in 2025, but this one was my favorite; partly because of the wide-eyed innocence we both had. Neither of us could have predicted how much impact the Trump tariffs would have had on Canadian politics — Stephen went so far as to say that Pierre Poilievre would be the next prime minister, and I didn’t dispute that assertion — but here we are.

Worth a watch to see just how wrong we both were.

Dave Van de Walle Interviews Jennifer Brown

Jennifer is a fun interview; the fact that she’s in Minnesota and, as I write this, news of possible widespread Somali fraud is making the rounds makes it all the more interesting and timely.

Also, the low number of views is a testament to me as a marketer, not her as an interview subject. SO WATCH, WILL YA???

See you in 2026. (And don’t forget to Like and Subscribe over at The Vandy Program.)

The post The Best Long-Form Videos of 2025 appeared first on Area 224 Ltd..

I’ve followed the work of Scott Adams for years. Decades, actually; as I just found this calendar in a box of stuff I’ve kept.

Flipping through it is actually quite illuminating, as 2000 marked the start of a six-year run at a large insurance brokerage (and human capital consultant) that you’ve heard of. And it’s inside the calendar that I’m finding a ton of evidence to one of Scott’s key messages: “Systems Over Goals.”

Creating the System

My time at Aon started in the human capital consulting arm, then known as Aon Consulting. For a young-ish guy like me, it was a tremendous opportunity: I had the chance to build a system that could best be described as “Marketing Communications.” It was also a system that had somewhat stagnated under my predecessor, and it needed a combination of a clear mandate and some good old fashioned hard work.

And, looking back at my calendar — which looked less like a journal and more like a combination of Post-It notes and birthday reminders and appointments and out-of-town trip summaries — I can see just how effective our “system” was.

Explaining Myself Further

One of the challenges of Systems Thinking vs. Goals Thinking is figuring out why you are building the system in the first place. I mean, it sounds counter-intuitive: you need to know the direction you’re headed and you have to have a general idea of what you’re trying to achieve. BUT…

To use our example, we were trying, as my then-boss was saying, to be “on the shelf of the mind” when companies — specifically, their HR leaders — were looking for an employee benefits consultant. (Back then, pre-ACA, “health and welfare” consulting was our bread-and-butter, with 401(k) consulting and pension actuarial work coming in second; HR outsourcing, a distant third, would take up a large portion of future revenues as the organization’s priorities shifted.)

To do this, we could have come up with any number of goals, but those would have had to change a couple times, at least, while we built the system.

In this case, the system needed to include a few things:

• An understanding of the issues that drive buyer behavior
• A sense of who in our company could speak to these issues; i.e. “thought leaders”
• A full mapping of the products and services that we had in the pipeline that could help clients and prospects
• And a cadence of messages — news releases, product brochures, speaking opportunities — airdropped throughout the calendar year.

We Did Pretty Well

I looked back at another Post-It that tells me that our little team actually produced 15 news releases that year; it was a variety that zig-zagged between product announcements and thought leadership pieces tied to a key piece of research that we conducted.

The news releases weren’t all, of course; and none of this was done in a vacuum. The company had a research arm in Ann Arbor, Michigan — the long-since shuttered “Loyalty Institute” — and their research was centered around what kept employees committed to their employer and what employee benefits and HR practices were (and weren’t) drivers of workforce commitment.

So we had research reports to share, and we had brochures that told our prospects how we could help them.

And we also had a bit of a chip on our shoulder; as an underdog, we were acting like a challenger brand. We were fifth- or sixth-largest in the market at the time.

Systems Are Better Than New Year’s Resolutions

There’s a point to this post: I didn’t see any New Year’s Resolutions — I normally don’t do them — and I didn’t see any goals, either.

I did see, however, the beginnings of a System.

The System for you and me today will of course be WAY DIFFERENT than the System I helped to build in 2000. So much has changed no matter the industry.

But my advice for you is to build that System for 2026:

• What PROCESSES are you good at creating, or following?
• What SKILLS can you use in order to build…A team? A business? An audience?
• What TALENTS do you need a little help with?
• What are the MARKETS where you can best find success?

You might find that you have a combination of ideas and you may be able to create a System that can set you up for success.

Go get ’em!

The post Systems Over Goals; And New Year’s Resolutions appeared first on Area 224 Ltd..

This post originally appeared on Dave’s Substack in March 2024. It has been lightly edited and updated.

If you’ve been anywhere around business or business books or hustle culture or anything related to GSD (“Getting Stuff Done”) at work, you’ve heard of the Pareto Principle.

The 80/20 Rule.

80 percent of [THING] will come from 20 percent of [GROUP]. Simple, really: if you sell something, 80 percent of sales will come from 20 percent of your customers. If you take a category — like, for instance, music — you’ll find that 20 percent of the artists produce 80 percent of the songs that actually get listened to.

For a while, this was canon in business and you couldn’t go into a work meeting without trying to use that to sound smart. “Boss, why don’t we fire 80 percent of our clients so we can just sell to the 20 percent that we spend all our time with?”

This ignores…well…EVERYTHING about whatever business you’re in, but points scored for simplification!

Introducing Price’s Law

THE ECONOMY is in weird shape; Note that your job might be at risk if you aren’t deemed to be productive. However you slice that at work — look busy! be at your desk! — at some point you’re gonna start looking around and asking the question: Am I Getting Stuff Done?

Price’s Law is “stupid simple:”

The square root of the number of people in any enterprise will produce 50% of the results.

The credit goes to Derek J. de Solla Price for coming up with this scientific analysis.

Let’s apply this to your (hypothetical) team at work and figure out what that means for you:

If it’s a small team, it of course makes sense: in a team of 4, the square root of 4 — which is 2 — will do half the work. (I was told there would be no math.)

But in a bigger team Price’s law starts to have…bigger impact.

Raising Your Hand At Work

In a (hypothetical) team of 50, let’s call the square root 7. 7 People are getting stuff done, the other 43 are working at roughly 50% capacity. In a sales-driven organization, that doesn’t bode well for the other 43.

Now start to look around: are you one of the 7?

Probably pretty easy to answer that question in a lot of organizations. You have a little success on a project and then you have another project assigned to you. You open the door to sell something to a company and all of a sudden that company asks you to help them solve a different problem. You write a piece for the company blog and it clicks and then management realizes you should do more blog writing.

You are pretty obviously one of the 7.

Making Sure Your Department Is Productive, Too

Your job as “one of the 7” is pretty important when management starts to look to…well, how do we say this…cut the dead weight. These are sometimes the “get me the low performers” discussions, but they, too, are sometimes the “which departments can we do without?” discussions.

Yeah, that’s right. If marketing isn’t producing, marketing can easily be cut. Well, let me edit that: If marketing isn’t seen to be producing, marketing can easily be cut.

Your goal, then, as one of the 7 is to make sure that your department works on — and ONLY on — high-impact projects. If 20 of the other 43 are assigned to the Penske File and all they’re doing is moving the contents to an accordion-style file folder, that’s a low-impact project. If the other 23 are working on monthly TPS reports that don’t go anywhere, that’s a low-impact project.

Your Book of Business

It’s an insurance industry thing: the Book of Business. Or your portfolio. You should have a sense at all times of what that means for your personal situation: what are the clients you’re bringing in and/or responsible for? What are the projects that you are working on and how are they tied to the business and its bottom line?

What is your department doing on those days when they’re not planning or navel-gazing or working on Penske Files and TPS reports?

Your Book of Business should actually be yours. You should be able to discern where you have the most impact, and, if they show you the door, you should be able to say “hey, I was one of the 7 and here’s how.”

Or you should be able to say “here’s what the other 43 were working on, it added no value, I helped with the things over here that did add value, and I’m indispensable.”

You can thank Mr. Price.

The post What Is ‘Price’s Law’? appeared first on Area 224 Ltd..

We’re talking music on the blog today. Give this Gen-Xer a chance to get nostalgic for a bit, please.

There is no question in my mind that David Letterman was loads better than his competition at getting the best musical guests on his show. No question. Most of this was because of Paul Shaffer, the music director, bandleader, and man with his finger on the pulse of the musical zeitgeist.

In honor of Boxing Day, I thought I’d share some of my favorite musical guest moments from the show’s 23-year history.

This post has nothing to do with Boxing Day. But I’m posting some videos anyway.

Pearl Jam, “Hail, Hail” (1996)

Dave chose to do a show “Sponsor Free.” Though, if memory serves, there were still sponsored segments somewhere within the show, while it didn’t break for commercial. How they sold that to the affiliates? I don’t know.

Bloc Party, “Banquet” (2004)

Something about the way this one gets rolling. I’m a big fan of drums — so, too, was Dave; see below — and Matt Tong is on fire at the start of this song.

Phoenix, “1901” (2009)

French band Phoenix has been rather successful in the Indie and Alternative space during its career — they pretty much held a concert at the Closing Ceremony for the Paris Olympics — and they made their US network television debut in 2009 on the show.

Come for the all-time-banger. Stay for the mic drop.

Mark Ronson + The Business Intl., “Bang Bang Bang” (2010)

Any musical project that involves Q-Tip gets my attention.

The National, “Afraid of Everyone” (2010)

I gotta admit, this might be my all-time favorite Letterman performance. Maybe it’s the song itself — chilling, haunting; stunning baritone from Matt Berninger — maybe it’s Dave’s reaction at the end.

The fact that this song served as my eldest’s introduction to The National makes me happy.

Special shout out to “The Audio Perv,” who had a knack for uploading these recording in as high quality as you’d find anywhere…long before the shows themselves understood the power of YouTube.

Neil Peart, “Drum Solo” (2011)

Only Dave could have “Drum Solo Week” and pull it off.

And only Neil Peart could perform the finale of Drum Solo Week. (RIP Neil.)

Future Islands, “Seasons (Waiting For You)” (2014)

And then there’s a performance that the show’s team thought was one of its most memorable.

Most of the viewers were likely left with a big dose of… What. Was. That?

If this served as your introduction to Future Islands, you were darn fortunate. Lead singer Samuel Herring knows what he’s doing in front of an audience.

Folks, thanks for helping me keep my content streak going. This is DAY 26. It’s been a December to Remember.

Be sure to check out my Substack and sign up for The Saturday List while you’re here; that’s where I’ll see ya tomorrow.

The post The Best Musical Performances from The Late Show with David Letterman appeared first on Area 224 Ltd..

It’s Christmas 2025.

In Bethlehem, the birthplace of Christ, things are returning to normal this year. The past two Christmases, there were no traditional processions, no celebrations of Christmas; the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023 made that impossible.

War continued. Christians, who are in the minority even in Bethlehem itself, would celebrate Christmas quietly.

Bethlehem has nearly 30,000 residents, and nearly all of them rely on tourism, especially this time of year. It’s impossible to have measurable tourism income during a war.

At long last, there’s a cease fire in Gaza; the war, hopefully, is coming to an end.

A Christmas Truce

Christmas 1914 was the last time there was a significant war that had a Christmas Truce. World War I — “The Great War,” until another, larger, greater war forced it to adopt a Roman numeral — went on pause for a day. Imagine that: soldiers put differences aside for a day, shared pleasantries, even played soccer together. It sounds unbelievable.

As the Imperial War Museum tells us in this video, it…happened throughout the Western Front.

It seems differences could be put aside, even if it’s only for a day.

‘Unto Us A Child Is Born’

Interestingly, the popular scripture verse is from the Old Testament, from Isaiah Chapter 9, verse 6:

“For unto us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”

Call it foreshadowing, or prophecy.

In Bethlehem, 2000-plus years ago, the Christ Child arrived in a manger. Shepherds watched over Mother and Child; wise men came from the East with gifts.

In 1914, in Europe, war paused, ever so briefly, with hopes for peace.

Today, in Bethlehem, and throughout the world, may the birth of Christ bring you hope, and may it bring us all peace.

God Bless.

The post The Christmas Message appeared first on Area 224 Ltd..

Growing up in Northern Indiana, our Christmas Eve tradition was rather simple. We rotated each year between Grandma’s, Aunt Dorothy’s, and our house. Roll in at around 3 or so and have food and drink and make merry and all that. It was a great tradition that, in retrospect, we were blessed to have; with families getting smaller and people having kids later in life — often after they’ve moved away from where they grew up — for many, those days may already be gone.

Aunt Dorothy and Uncle Dick had six kids; because of an 11-year age gap between Dad and Dorothy, my youngest cousin had several years on my brothers and me. But there were six of them, and they were the only cousins in town in the 70s. (We had other cousins on Dad’s side in Florida; and, on Mom’s side, some out of town and some that would arrive in the early 80s.)

Six kids, plus the three of us, plus aunts and uncles, plus Grandma. 14 by my count, though there may have been a cousin’s girlfriend or boyfriend in the mix somewhere.

I can’t tell you the order of things — did we go from Grandma’s to Aunt Dorothy’s to our house then begin the rota again? — but I can tell you that the 1978 edition was at our house, because I have vivid memories of a placekicker named Mike Michel for the Philadelphia Eagles missing a field goal attempt and the Eagles losing to the Atlanta Falcons in the NFL playoffs. (I felt bad for the guy; and this is before I grew up and learned about how Philadelphia treats its sports figures when they make a mistake. I have since learned that he was also the punter and was ill-suited for the placekicking job, but when one of the Mike-Mayer brothers gets hurt, you do what you have to.)

I digress.

This Christmas Eve tradition started during my Santa-believing days, so the festivities served as the precursor to the whole coming-down-the-chimney routine; the festivities — and the rota — continued until Grandma passed away in 1985, so we had a decent run.

Our House

Hosting on home turf was, at the time, sorta special. I would spend all day anticipating everyone’s arrival. Once they got to our house, we could eat — mostly some sort of heavy appetizer, if I recall correctly, but there wasn’t really a main course — and there would be inevitable card games that would not involve the kids. Wiezen? Sure, kid, when you’re older. (Once we figured out Euchre, though, all bets were off.)

Aunt Dorothy’s House

Aunt Dorothy’s house was fun because it was packed with activity that can only come with middle- and high-schoolers; add the fact that five of the six were boys — boys who had an annual tradition of fashioning some sort of super-bike out of multiple bicycles, thus necessitating a ladder to get on the seat and it has to be seen to be believed — and my brothers and I were usually in awe.

Grandma Was the Glue

Christmas Eve at Grandma’s, though, was the most memorable.

I can still tell you the layout of her house, inch-by-inch. There was always the “davenport” that we’d sit on — never a couch, always a davenport — and there was that hexagonal side table, the one my younger brother could fit inside of. (He put himself there, we did not roll him into a ball and put him there.)

There was the recliner — Grandpa’s chair, the one he loved, the one he died in months before I was born — and it could lean so far back the Craftmatic people were jealous.

There were the encyclopedias — the ones I asked for when Grandma passed away — with letters and newspaper clippings tucked inside. (I still have them.) There was that music box thing that had the string you pulled and it played a song that I can’t name…but if I heard it, I’d know it.

There was also that mystery factor: did my Dad actually LIVE HERE? Yes, when he was a kid. Wait, he slept in THAT room? It was pretty small. And so on; questions that are sensible when you’re 8, and then you kinda understand how things work, not worth discussing.

Grandma’s Tree

BUT, really, the standout was the tree. Grandma’s Tree. Bold, italics, all caps.

A small, ceramic tree, but worthy of its stature.

It would be the centerpiece of the living room. It would plug in and light up and we would put what few gifts there were under that tree; Grandma liked to give out envelopes of cold, hard cash — WE LOVED THAT — and the only other gifts exchanged were between my parents and Grandma, my Aunt and Uncle and Grandma, and anyone with a godparent in the family (thus excluding my older brother, whose godparents were Dad’s buddy from growing up and his wife).

So the tree served its purpose. And it was glorious.

Turns Out…

I’m pretty good with details, but wasn’t 100% on this one: Mom had taken a ceramics class and learned how to make things like…miniature Christmas trees. So she made this particular tree as a gift for Grandma — whose December 2nd birthday kicked off our birthday month — and that meant she wouldn’t have to worry about putting together a large plastic one like ours.

And where is it today?

Mom’s house. Serving as the centerpiece.

Flash Forward A Few Years

When my own kids were growing up, our Christmas Eve traditions were different and much more random; the Methodists didn’t hold services on Christmas Day, so Christmas Eve it was. Younger kids would enjoy the live animals at the earlier service; when the kids got older and we were in town, we’d hit the later service.

Now, things are even more random just about everywhere: Gen Xers like us might have a kid or two home, a kid or two in college, and have to juggle multiple things. A kid or two may work Christmas Eve — nothing wrong with time-and-a-half — and last-minute shopping has given rise to stores staying open later than we remember. (Or is it the other way around?)

My Hope for Christmas Eve 2025

Grandma’s house also had another staple: a little curio thingy that looked like a book that was permanently opened to a page that read:

“Make new friends, Keep the old. One is silver, The other gold.”

As we build new traditions, move from job to job, town to town; or as we find ourselves looking around and wondering where the traditions went, and how to build new ones…

May you find Grandma’s Tree. Or something like it, something that you can hold onto and that can bring you joy.

God Bless.

The post On Christmas Eve appeared first on Area 224 Ltd..