Article Archives: Words with Woods

The Skinny on Swimming

March 2, 2017 | by CJ Woods III

On June 17th, 1994, television viewers in this country were glued to their sets, watching a slow-motion drama: In Los Angeles, California, OJ Simpson, in the back seat of his friend’s white Bronco, was slow-rolling his way into history. On that same night, in a bar in the South Beach … Read More

The Beautiful Music of the Other

February 23, 2017 | by CJ Woods III

In the Cathedral of Learning on the campus of the University of Pittsburgh, a young boy skulks among the closed stacks of the library. The boy’s mother works for a woman who has some influence at the university, and that woman has seen to it that the young boy was … Read More

Linda

February 16, 2017 | by CJ Woods III

A bank commercial shows a young couple growing up together, going from grade school to college and into the bank for financial advice. I often have emotional responses to the feel-good stories of advertisers, and in the commercial, a young girl comes down the steps of her home to a … Read More

Spontaneous Expressions

February 9, 2017 | by CJ Woods III

One of my nieces — who is actually, the daughter of one of my best friends — had a childhood habit: She would often break into a frenetic dance of joy, freely flinging her internal happiness outward toward whatever audience was before her. I have written previously of her spontaneous … Read More

Twit

February 2, 2017 | by CJ Woods III

“You twit.” This is not about what you think; this is what a woman said to me when I was a new art director at L.S. Ayres. I had been absorbed into the advertising department by the corporate consolidation of my old position with Stewart’s Department Store with the Ayres’ … Read More