Isn't that my line??
I have become a great admirer of Margaret's conversational style. It seems designed to make her companions feel acknowledged, listened to. At the same time, she gets a whole lot of information with just a few key questions, and the tone! It's perfect. You might walk away thinking, "Wait a second, did she just say no??" but, at the time, it seemed that everything was so agreeable.
Let's see...
Birds fly outside the dining room window, carrying twigs to a little nest on our roof where they will train their young to poop on our children. (I had a wee bit of enchilada sauce on my shirt yesterday and Margaret pointed to it and said, "Birdie." "Birdie?" "Birdie poop," she explained.)
"Look Margaret! It's a bird!"
"A birdie?"
"Yes, and it has a stick!"
"A stick?"
"I think it's building a nest."
"A nest."
"Shall we go look?"
"Yesh."
Or this:
"Margaret, can you help me clean up?"
"Clean up?"
"Yes, Margaret, can you help me clean up?"
"Me?"
"Yes, Margaret, can you help me clean up??"
"Noooo."
Anyway, I am pretty sure that Margaret has secretly enrolled in some kind of middle management training seminar. But when?? Where?? The only class that I endorsed was Artsydoodles, which as described in the county's parks and rec catalog, seemed to have little to do with the art of evasion. Where are my framed tissue-paper collages that she can rip off the walls in a fit of artistic dissatisfaction?? (Oh yes, she did, and I'm going to keep it and put it back up there with a little title/artist card that says, "The Artist's Naughty Period.")
"Margaret, will you come to staff meetings with me?"
"Margaret??"
Let's see...
Birds fly outside the dining room window, carrying twigs to a little nest on our roof where they will train their young to poop on our children. (I had a wee bit of enchilada sauce on my shirt yesterday and Margaret pointed to it and said, "Birdie." "Birdie?" "Birdie poop," she explained.)
"Look Margaret! It's a bird!"
"A birdie?"
"Yes, and it has a stick!"
"A stick?"
"I think it's building a nest."
"A nest."
"Shall we go look?"
"Yesh."
Or this:
"Margaret, can you help me clean up?"
"Clean up?"
"Yes, Margaret, can you help me clean up?"
"Me?"
"Yes, Margaret, can you help me clean up??"
"Noooo."
Anyway, I am pretty sure that Margaret has secretly enrolled in some kind of middle management training seminar. But when?? Where?? The only class that I endorsed was Artsydoodles, which as described in the county's parks and rec catalog, seemed to have little to do with the art of evasion. Where are my framed tissue-paper collages that she can rip off the walls in a fit of artistic dissatisfaction?? (Oh yes, she did, and I'm going to keep it and put it back up there with a little title/artist card that says, "The Artist's Naughty Period.")
"Margaret, will you come to staff meetings with me?"
"Margaret??"
posted by Mary Ellen at
10:33 AM
3 Comments:
I call this the "Charlie Rose technique". He asks a simple question and gets a relatively simple response. He then repeats back one of his subject's phrases to sound like a question, which then elicits a much more complex response. He then has many minutes of listening in which to pull out another tasty nugget to feed back to his subject. A brilliant way to pull an hour long interview out of virtually nothing.
Kids must be taught this when en utero because holy cow, Lauren's good at that too!
That explains the email announcement I got for a book signing at Barnes&Noble with Margaret and her new book, "Getting to No: How to Be Perfectly Agreeable About Not Doing What You're Not Inclined to Do."
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home