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Tales by Tom


This podcast showcases the audio stories of Tom Cagley Sr.

Oct 11, 2009

Welcome to Tales by Tom -

This collection is a group of 24 stories under the title of Nobody Likes a Proofreader and Other Lessons I Have Learned During and After a Life in Retail.

This epsode includes stories # 15 and #16.

Story # 15: News from Tokyo about the Irish in me.  All kinds of unexpected things happen when you travel. Ask my son --- he knows, but in this story I meet a very attractive lady as we are flying from Tokyo to San Francisco. After a martini, the conversation turns to ancestry, and this lady hands me--- puts it right in my outstretched hands --- the key to a mystery that has plagued me for 40 years. Her husband works for dadada and that used to be called dadada and that’s who my long-lost and long-dead Irish relative worked for in the late ‘40s and early ‘50s. Why was she there and why was I there just then? Who knows but it’s a good story.

Story # 16: We have all filled out resumes over the years. Did any of them work? None did for me --- until I found out the secret: You have to define yourself in terms of what the prospective employer wants to hear. It’s the only way they’ll listen (and retain) to a word you say. Sound complicated? It isn’t. Just tell them what you can do for them --- not a half dozen meaningful things, but two or three (at the max) that you know they need and you can provide and have before. Yes, they’ll want examples. Less is more here ---and the bigger the better. . You know the famous line that Cuba Gooding’s character told Jerry Maguire in the movie of the same name. Well, show it to them.


Please feel free to contact me at talesbytom@gmail.com or at the listener call in line at 206 339 5456.


John Manion
fourteen and a half years ago

#15- driving toward Galway from Athlone, I passed an Irish grocery store that showed: John Mannion, Prop.. I stopped and entered the store. A lovely freckle faced red headed young lady behind the meat case asked if she could help. I said that I was John Manion from the States, and wondered if he father might be related to me.
She flipped her curls, and simply said: I doubt it. Search ended.

Resume: i\'m the world record holder for number mailed.