For contest #380, we find ourselves at the intersection of elites and terrorism. Plus, possums!

Chris Bodenner

Jun 23, 2023

(For the View From Your Window contest, the results below exceed the content limit for Substack’s email service, so to ensure that you see the full results, click the headline above.)

First up, our UWS super-sleuth raised in NYC:

Oy, Wednesday again! I just got back from a short vaca in Denver (sorry, no suitable views from our downtown hotel), and I totally lost track of the weekly deadline. So I’m throwing my hat in the ring with Chicago. (Though it could be Detroit. Dear god, don’t let it be Denver!)

To make up for the fact that this is my second week of no halfway-decent guess (and to erase the embarrassment of mistaking Seattle for Tallinn), I’ll add to last week’s comments on the Pike Place Market. While working in a consulting firm in the early 2000s, I regularly ran workshops on training tools and techniques. One of the topics in the workshop was how to tell a story — a critical skill for anyone trying to keep a room of adults focused on learning for days at a time.

We used the book FISH! — about the Pike Place Market fishmongers — as part of exercise in storytelling. We had participants read the book, then tell a very short personal story that illustrated one of the four principles of the FISH! philosophy: 1) play; 2) make their day; 3) be present in the moment; and 4) choose your attitude.

I normally LOATHE this kind of corporate motivational schtick, but corny as the book was, the exercise worked beautifully. Participants had an easy time coming up with their own narratives, the emotional content was high, and participants gave each other feedback on how to polish their stories. It was very satisfying to see folks who initially declared “I can’t tell a story” morph into people telling a story right then and there. We certainly got our money’s worth out of that little book!

Looking forward to the answer to this week’s inscrutable view — and all the surrounding stories. VFYW sleuths/storytellers don’t need no stinkin’ workshop!

Maybe the SF super-sleuth could use some motivational fish:

After reading last week’s responses for Seattle, I see that my VFYW approach reflects my work style: I like to figure out the big picture, and then leave the details (e.g., the exact window) to others …

From the super-sleuth in Augusta, GA:

READ MORE