There are over 200 authors who each wrote an original essay of 400 words…the book will be available in the fall on Amazon. The proceeds of the book are donated to Variety, the Children’s Charity. Kudos to all the authors for joining in the effort and to Drew and Gavin for spearheading, editing, cajoling and organizing the effort.

In addition to spreading some link love to all my fellow authors, I ‘immortalized’ them all with an Age of Conversation Authors-Only Wordle (below). I hope they don’t spend too much time searching for their name.

Adrian Ho, Aki Spicer, Alex Henault, Amy Jussel, Andrew Odom, Andy Nulman, Andy Sernovitz, Andy Whitlock, Angela Maiers, Ann Handley, Anna Farmery, Armando Alves, Arun Rajagopal, Asi Sharabi, Becky Carroll, Becky McCray, Bernie Scheffler, Bill Gammell, Bob LeDrew, Brad Shorr, Brandon Murphy, Branislav Peric, Brent Dixon, Brett Macfarlane, Brian Reich, C.C. Chapman, Cam Beck, Casper Willer, Cathleen Rittereiser, Cathryn Hrudicka, Cedric Giorgi, Charles Sipe, Chris Kieff, Chris Cree, Chris Wilson, Christina Kerley (CK), C.B. Whittemore, Chris Brown, Connie Bensen, Connie Reece, Corentin Monot, Craig Wilson, Daniel Honigman, Dan Schawbel, Dan Sitter, Daria Radota Rasmussen, Darren Herman, Dave Davison, David Armano, David Berkowitz, David Koopmans, David Meerman Scott, David Petherick, David Reich, David Weinfeld, David Zinger, Deanna Gernert, Deborah Brown, Dennis Price, Derrick Kwa, Dino Demopoulos, Doug Haslam, Doug Meacham, Doug Mitchell, Douglas Hanna, Douglas Karr, Drew McLellan, Duane Brown, Dustin Jacobsen, Dylan Viner, Ed Brenegar, Ed Cotton, Efrain Mendicuti, Ellen Weber, Eric Peterson, Eric Nehrlich, Ernie Mosteller, Faris Yakob, Fernanda Romano, Francis Anderson, Gareth Kay, Gary Cohen, Gaurav Mishra, Gavin Heaton, Geert Desager, George Jenkins, G.L. Hoffman, Gianandrea Facchini, Gordon Whitehead, Greg Verdino, Gretel Going & Kathryn Fleming, Hillel Cooperman, Hugh Weber, J. Erik Potter, James Gordon-Macintosh, Jamey Shiels, Jasmin Tragas, Jason Oke, Jay Ehret, Jeanne Dininni, Jeff De Cagna, Jeff Gwynne & Todd Cabral, Jeff Noble, Jeff Wallace, Jennifer Warwick, Jenny Meade, Jeremy Fuksa, Jeremy Heilpern, Jeroen Verkroost, Jessica Hagy, Joanna Young, Joe Pulizzi, John Herrington, John Moore, John Rosen, John Todor, Jon Burg, Jon Swanson, Jonathan Trenn, Jordan Behan, Julie Fleischer, Justin Foster, Karl Turley, Kate Trgovac, Katie Chatfield, Katie Konrath, Kenny Lauer, Keri Willenborg, Kevin Jessop, Kristin Gorski, Lewis Green, Lois Kelly, Lori Magno, Louise Manning, Luc Debaisieux, Mario Vellandi, Mark Blair, Mark Earls, Mark Goren, Mark Hancock, Mark Lewis, Mark McGuinness, Matt Dickman, Matt J. McDonald, Matt Moore, Michael Karnjanaprakorn, Michelle Lamar, Mike Arauz, Mike McAllen, Mike Sansone, Mitch Joel, Neil Perkin, Nettie Hartsock, Nick Rice, Oleksandr Skorokhod, Ozgur Alaz, Paul Chaney, Paul Hebert, Paul Isakson, Paul McEnany, Paul Tedesco, Paul Williams, Pet Campbell, Pete Deutschman, Peter Corbett, Phil Gerbyshak, Phil Lewis, Phil Soden, Piet Wulleman, Rachel Steiner, Sreeraj Menon, Reginald Adkins, Richard Huntington, Rishi Desai, Robert Hruzek, Roberta Rosenberg, Robyn McMaster, Roger von Oech, Rohit Bhargava, Ron Shevlin, Ryan Barrett, Ryan Karpeles, Ryan Rasmussen, Sam Huleatt, Sandy Renshaw, Scott Goodson, Scott Monty, Scott Townsend, Scott White, Sean Howard, Sean Scott, Seni Thomas, Seth Gaffney, Shama Hyder, Sheila Scarborough, Sheryl Steadman, Simon Payn, Sonia Simone, Spike Jones, Stanley Johnson, Stephen Collins, Stephen Landau, Stephen Smith, Steve Bannister, Steve Hardy, Steve Portigal, Steve Roesler, Steven Verbruggen, Steve Woodruff, Sue Edworthy, Susan Bird, Susan Gunelius, Susan Heywood, Tammy Lenski, Terrell Meek, Thomas Clifford, Thomas Knoll, Tim Brunelle, Tim Connor, Tim Jackson, Tim Mannveille, Tim Tyler, Timothy Johnson, Tinu Abayomi-Paul, Toby Bloomberg, Todd Andrlik, Troy Rutter, Troy Worman, Uwe Hook, Valeria Maltoni, Vandana Ahuja, Vanessa DiMauro, Veronique Rabuteau, Wayne Buckhanan, William Azaroff, Yves Van Landeghem

Meet Steve Roesler, an organizational training expert and management theorist-coach who lives near Philadelphia.

Steve reads my blog and I read his. I found wordle.net today and as I working playing with it, I decided to run a few blogs through it…you know, for giggles. I cut and pasted some of these articles, then posted the ‘artwork’ which included one of Steve’s past blogs.

A couple of emails later, I say something about how back in the day, some comment about rock stars and Herman of Herman’s Hermits.

So, then Steve writes me this email:

Man, if we start down this path, we’re dogmeat for at least the weekend.

Ah, what the heck…

We have now entered the domain of Secret Steve, longtime performer, radio personality (my mother said I had one), and studio backup guy.

I grew up in the Philly area in the ’50s/’60s when all of the music was coming out of there thanks to Bandstand, on which I danced. I will deny that vigorously (unless it unearths one Carmella DeStefano, but that’s a whole other story.) GL, I actually earned a living and supported a family as a musician/singer for a number of years (while still doing management/PR stuff). It was a fascinating life but not one for a family guy. I recall seeing Peter Noone when the Hermits were just starting out and he was about 16 years old, bringing the act for free to the Steel Pier in Atlantic City.

A few years ago a producer decided he wanted to do a documentary on the streetcorner groups that started out in Philly. We ended up getting together again for the occasion wearing, naturally, suits that almost glowed in the dark (mandatory). I think we ended up with 4 cuts on a CD titled, aptly, Philadelphia Street Scene. It would be available at a retail outlet near you if there were still any retail outlets near anybody. At last count, I think we needed 987,000 more in sales to go gold. I will include a cut so that you can bask in what we in “Yo, Adrienne” land consider to be classical music. The one thing that served us well was our years in the business. I have the rights to the production and am literally thinking about “packaging” it online for download, including seeing what I can do with iTunes and other such services.

Well, that was way more than you wanted to hear after a simple Herman’s Hermits comment. I listen to all kinds of music and get the various musical genres. What I don’t get is having to close my eyes when the act comes on.

Here’s a little something from the Dukes of DooWopp. We are all unbelievably handsome.

18-false-alarm

Since I am on a roll, I ask Steve if he minded if I blogged about this, me thinking how cool it was to meet someone like this. Well, turns out, Steve’s brother coached Football at UPENN, when my son was playing there. But I had just finished the post when this email came in. Sorry, Steve, but this was just too funny.

Sure, man. Have fun. Perhaps one would want to 86 the reference to Carmella. As best I can tell, her husband is out on parole but still unhappy about the conviction.

It really is wonderful being a faux adult.

A wordle is a word game. Jonathan Feinberg, an IBM researcher, combined both of these into Wordle.net, a time killer that will take any group of words and create a cloud for you. Cool.

So, what I did, in like 15 minutes, was go to several bloggers who I read every day, and “wordled” them. The bloggers are Seth Godin, Dr. Ellen Weber, Robyn McMaster, Jacob Share, Steve Roesler, Jason Alba, Drew McLellan, and Dan Schawbel.

Hat Tip: Paul Epps.

The resulting artwork follows, try to match them up.