Archive for March 2012
Gratitude journal: The perfect game
Tonight I am grateful for poker. It is a perfect game. It creates an environment in which a group of players attempt to extract money from one another by utilizing intelligence, observation, intimidation, daring, creativity, histrionics, experience, bravery and coercion. Yet the game is played in a social setting amongst people who genuinely like one…
Read MoreInsightful and hilarious confirmation that my publisher and I are a perfect match
In a recent meeting with the sales, publicity and marketing team of my publisher, St. Martin’s Press, I was asked about the decision to publish in the UK under the name Matthew Green. I explained that my British publisher, Little Brown UK, felt that my last name might serve as a hindrance to book sales…
Read MoreBun Head’s lesson to a bad boy and future teacher.
I recently told a story onstage as part of a joint venture between The Story Collider and the New York Academy of Sciences. It’s a story about my high school biology teacher, Mrs. Murphy, and her John Wayne style of classroom management. This was also the story I told on the night when my brother returned…
Read MoreGratitude journal: I didn’t marry that woman.
Tonight I am grateful that my wife is not the woman who was sitting behind me during last night’s Second City performance, failing to hear about a third of the punch lines and then asking her husband what they were after the fact. I wanted to turn around and say: When you ask him to…
Read MoreThe evolving sadness of my mother’s death
St. Patrick’s Day would have been my mother’s 62nd birthday. She passed away in 2007. Losing a mother is never easy. Losing one so early in life is especially hard. I have found that the loss of a parent never gets easier regardless of how much time passes. I’ve also discovered that the ways in…
Read MoreGratitude journal: My big little writers
Tonight I am grateful for my class of earnest, committed and genuinely talented writers. As part of their reward for completing two weeks of standardized testing, my class enjoyed a full day of Writer’s Workshop today. Nothing but writing, conferencing and the sharing of their work. In total, the class spent about two full hours…
Read MoreRadio New Zealand interview
I did an interview with Radio New Zealand this evening. I think it went pretty well. You can listen to it by clicking on the link below. The most impressive part of the entire interview was my ability to keep my daughter occupied during the fifteen minutes that I was on the phone. My…
Read MoreHeartbreakingly amusing
It’s not easy to record a video that makes your wife sad but also makes her want to watch it again and again. These two videos accomplish this goal.
Read MoreNew York girl
I love this photo of my daughter. Taken by her grandfather aboard a NYC bus two weeks ago, I love how she looks like such a little girl and such a big girl at the same time.
Read MoreGratitude journal: A lost cow finds its way home
Tonight I am grateful for the reappearance of Baby Cow. Baby Cow is one of my daughter’s favorite little people toys, and she has been missing for almost two days. Clara doesn’t get terribly upset when a toy goes missing, but she speaks of its disappearance constantly and continually enlists us in the search for…
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