Immediately after I completed my presentation to about 50 students at Middletown High School in Connecticut Tuesday, someone I was working alongside offered, “Tough crowd. It’s hard to get through to teenagers,” and that may sometimes be. But when my wife asked how it went (she called special, in the middle of day; ain’t she sweet?), I said I just didn’t know.

But now I do, thanks to scans of student-feedback forms sent to me by the organizer, and it’s better than my evenhanded skepticism would have surmised. 

On the advice of fellow speaker Patrick O'Malley, I have begun collecting audience members' reactions on video.

I'm fairly sure that this listener, whom I met when I spoke to the Brookline, Mass., Rotary Club last week used the word "brilliant" in relation to me in the prelude to her question afterward, but I didn't get that on film. Even so, when she came up afterward to say hello (and purchase a couple of books), she offered these comments. (It's only half a minute.)