I didn””t see the nail poking out, until after the board hit the ceiling and the business end burrowed itself into my forehead.  There is something cool about opening the door and your wife seeing blood running down your face.  (not to worry, it looked a lot worse than it really was). 

A few years ago I was speaking to 600 Amish businessmen.  It was lunch and 6 of us were surrounding a table, eating the box lunches and talking.  I pulled out the cellophane wrapped Snicker Doodle cookie and commented on it being labeled “Homemade Snicker Doodle”.    I pointed out that a cookie that had one half of the label covered with ingredients and was machine wrapped could not be “Homemade.”

We then started to laugh, because one of the ingredients was titanium dioxide.  That stuck out to me, because the week before I had nicked myself shaving and went to the drug store to get a styptic pencil to stanch the bleeding.  The main ingredient in the styptic pencil. . . . Titanium Dioxide.

So, I often pull that cookie out of my visual aids box when I am speaking and tell the Amish Cookie story with the caveat of, “if anyone here gets a gaping head would, we will just mash some snicker doodle into your head and . . . save your life.”

In every audience I share this story, and the laughter is always predictable and loud.

But I found myself today asking if I really wanted to cram mashed up cookie into my head.

I guess that would be ok . . . if there is milk to go along with it.