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Posted March 31, 2009 On Discovery. Many of my friends at Hasbro have a distinct, edgy, self-deprecating sense of humor. I love it. But it wasn't until I visited there one time and encountered a barmaid at my hotel with the very same sense of humor. At that moment it occurred to me that this is a regional characteristic, a Rhode Island, or maybe just a Pawtucket, sense of humor. Who knew that a sense of humor, like an accent, could be regional? Maybe I discovered something. An accent is easy to document and categorize regionally, but I'm not sure how one would document and categorize a regional sense of humor. A question for sociologists, or ethno-humorologists, or whatever. I love the process of discovery. I am eternally hopeful that we will make discoveries in the process of our work. Whatever form it takes, wherever it occurs. To observe something, to create something, or perhaps to come to a realization that you feel no one else has ever observed or thought is a rare moment. I have such moments on occasion in the work we do, as well as in life. And, every so often I will hear someone else share a moment of discovery of their own. My friend Bill Breeze, from Hillsborough, North Carolina was prodigiously strong. As another strong friend of his put it, Bill and he were from a time “when men was men.” His friend once picked up a 1200lb section of railroad rail by himself, which normally takes ten men. He was even on the Tonight Show, Bill told me so. Bill was often used as a piece of heavy equipment when he was a young farm worker. He was by far the strongest man I ever knew, and when he died I was honored to speak at his funeral and share a few stories. There I met his cousin, also incredibly strong by nature, who once picked up the rear end of a pickup truck out of a ditch and set it back on the road. Now, these rural farmers never worked out or trained, as is so common today. They came about their strength by nature and hard work. While meeting this cousin of Bill's, my good friend David, Bill’s son, leaned in close and whispered in my ear, “He got six fingers on each hand, and six toes.”
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