Martin McGovern

Martin McGovern

About

The Octogenarian Ski-jumper is a celebration of the achievements of the famous and not-so-famous, arranged according to the age of the person at the time of the achievement. Chapters for those aged 20 to 69 are available here: the full book contains achievements of those ranging from newborns to centenarians. I've been writing nearly all of my professional life; the first piece I ever wrote was a travel article for a company magazine, when I visited in Albania in 1988. I also was the author of Microsoft's initial document on how to apply patches to computers; it made the top ten on their download site. 

The Magic Word

The Magic Word

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<p style="margin:0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height:115%;font-family:'Times New Roman', serif;font-size:12pt;">Elisabeth was rude and selfish and demanding, and therefore had very few friends.<span>  </span>When she sent out invitations to her birthday party, no one accepted.<span>  </span>Her mother warned her that she needed to improve her manners and to try to get along with people.<span>  </span>She told Elisabeth that she needed to use the magic word “Please”.<span>  </span>So when Elisabeth went to school the next day, she thought of her mother’s advice, “What is the magic word?” and she started saying “Please” and also “Thank You”.<span>  </span>She tried to become more thoughtful of others, and discovered that she was a much happier person.<span>  </span>Imagine her pleasure when she returned home to find out that her new friends were all coming to her birthday party!</span><span style="line-height:115%;font-family:Arial, 'sans-serif';font-size:10pt;"></span></p><p></p>

Story Behind The Book

On my wife's forty-fourth birthday, our son had chicken pox and we couldn't go to a party. Uncharacteristically, she was bemoaning this misfortune. &quot;And I'm forty-four&quot; she said. &quot;No-one ever achieved anything aged forty-four&quot;. This chapter is one of the results of that conversation.

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