Writings by Diane

The following is the Tall Tale speech I delivered and won at the Area level Toastsmasters International competition . Enjoy!! Jerome McCormick is an inventor who lives in a town a stone’s throw from Bliss ID. His latest invention is a powerful laser that will write messages on the moon. He will market it to companies that want to advertise on a global scale. When this invention was in prototype mode, he asked his friend, Billy Gleam, to help him test it. Billy promptly wrote, “Will you marry me, Denise?” on the surface of the moon. Denise, his girlfriend of, was so taken by this grand gesture that she immediately said yes.  After they married, this message is still on the moon, so each full moon, Billy shuts down the one main street to reenact his proposal to Denise. Jerome wishes he could be this grand with the love of his life, Elizabeth Sooner.  What’s not to love about Elizabeth? She is the kindest, gentlest person in the town. Even the animal kingdom knew this. Wh...

For a few years now, I have heard the Country Western song by Craig Morgan “International Harvester.” Being from the city (Santa Monica CA and Las Vegas NV)  I had no idea what an International Harvester was. In fact it took a few listening of the song to figure that it was about farm equipment.  The gist of it is it’s about a farmer who is unapologetic for slowing down traffic. To quote the singer: “cussing at me won’t save you no time, Hoss!”  Some of the lyrics sounded like foreign words to me (County 4-H, combine driver??) Later on, when I would hear the first notes of the song on the radio, I would switch to another channel, I couldn't relate to it at all. That is until I moved to the rural community of Middleton ID. There is an abundance of farm equipment on the spring time highways that you share the road. Crop sprayers, threshers and tractors abound during the morning commute. It was somewhat unsettling to me since I was only used to seeing cars, tr...