“I’m dyslexic, so my first real language was drawing,” he said. “Even at the youngest age I can recall, I wasn’t necessarily interested in the essay or the text, I was graphically designing the header. I doodled everything. That was the way I communicated.” — John...
Dyslexic Advantage Travels to England
In a whirlwind trip, Brock met up with Dr. Helen Taylor of the University of Strathclyde and Cambridge University (Dyslexia as an Evolutionary Advantage) to speak at GCHQ (Government Communications Headquarters) - the United Kingdom's Code and Cypher School, Imperial...
ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith: New Book About His Life Including Dyslexia
"From the time I was six, I thought I was stupid. Although I talked well — and a lot — and articulated my thoughts fluidly enough that some folks swore one day I’d become a lawyer or a public speaker, it was all a facade. I couldn’t comprehend what I was reading, a...
Tom Cruise Performs the Greatest Stunt in Cinematic History
This is a mind boggling stunt if you haven't seen it. Tom Cruise of Top Gun and Mission Impossible fame rode his motorcycle off a cliff in Norway - not once, but six times in 1 day...and at the age of 60. ...
The Gift of Families [Premium]
This article was inspired by Steven Spielberg’s movie, The Fabelmans. It is a look back to his childhood inspirations and a nod to his family. As the pandemic worsened, Spielberg said: “As things got worse and worse, I felt that if I was going to leave anything behind, what was the thing that I really need to resolve and unpack about my mom, my dad… This film is, for me, a way of bringing my mom and my dad back.” I haven’t seen the movie yet, but I’ve read and watched interviews of Steven talking about his family. He had an especially close relationship with his mother Leah Adler who he credits with his artistic interests. Her parents were a classical guitarist (dad) and linguist […]
Brilliant Actress Morfydd Clark [Premium]
“When on stage, I have good concentration. When I don’t find something interesting, I can’t concentrate.” — Morfydd Clark Brilliant, beautiful, and brave actress Morfydd Clark is mesmerizing in Rings of Power as the Elven warrior Galadriel. “I wasn’t great in class and suffered from dyslexia and ADHD; still do. As a result I could never sit in class listening quietly, and my attention would inevitably end up wandering after a short while.” — Morfydd Clark Morfydd had long been a fan of Lord of the Rings because her father had read The Hobbit to her and she had listened to Lord of the Rings on audiobooks. She has said that she felt that her bilingual background helped her relate to Galadriel because Galadriel would think […]
Dyslexic Advantages in Electrical Engineering [Premium]
A TALE OF TWO STORIES “At the beginning I can remember looking at blackboards or pages of text having no idea what other kids around me were seeing. For me the pages may have well as been blank for all I could glean from them. However I was lucky as when I started my secondary school my teacher spotted that I was having problems. I was tested for dyslexia and found to have a mild form… By the time I left I had poor grades and was told I would not amount to much…” Same person: “I became interested in geeky stuff when I was less than ten years old. I remember being given a toy wind up clock that you could open the back […]
Rogue Hero: Mastermind of the Special Air Service, David Stirling [Premium]
“The boy Stirling is quite mad, quite, quite mad. However, in a war there is often a place for mad people.” — General Bernard Montgomery A recent documentary on the founding of the British Special Air Service mentioned that the unconventional mastermind was, in fact, dyslexic. David Stirling has a very non-linear and unpredictable start to his adult life. He started at Cambridge, but was thrown out in his first year because of a variety of poor performances and vices including gambling. He tried to make his way as an architect, then artist, then became interested in the possibility of becoming a mountaineer and reservist in the Scots Guards. David was in America working as a cowboy when the World War II began. He […]
Novelist Natasha Solomons
"Books are my refuge, but I had to overcome dyslexia to write the stories I was bursting to tell." — Natasha Solomons Natasha is a lifelong storyteller, but it took a lot of persistence and resilience to get those stories out. As a child, she listened to...
Marlon Brando, Dyslexia, and Method Acting [Premium]
There’s a new book out this year on method acting, and it mentions Marlon Brando, his mercurial temperament, his dyslexia, and his method acting. Apparently he had ambivalent feelings about taking one of the leading roles in A Streetcar Named Desire, and he was told to show up at the playwright’s (Tennessee Williams’) house in order to clinch the deal. After hitchhiking to Provincetown, he found Williams and his friends in the dark, occasionally getting up to go to the bathroom in the woods. Apparently, a fuse had blown and a toilet was broken and neither Williams nor any of his artist friends knew how to fix either. Brando immediately made an impression, fixing both, then reading for the lead character, Stanley Kowalski. Needless to […]
No Small Project: Harvey Fite’s Opus 40
When I heard that what's been called America's Stonehenge, Opus 40, was hand-built by a dyslexic artist, I wasn't really surprised. A lot of dyslexics are grand slam-type creators. Harvey Fite spent half his life creating the Opus 40 Sculpture Park. He hand cut and...
Princess Beatrice: The Gift of Dyslexia
"Even referring to it as a diagnosis, I feel, does a disservice to the brilliance of some of the most fantastic minds that we have... just shifting the narrative a little bit towards something that is positive, something that is impactful, can really help everyone." -...