Archive for August 2014
What is the best way to invest one dollar?
Melissa Batchelor Warnke of The Morning News asks: Say you had a buck in your hand: What would be the best way to invest it? The piece features answers by two dozen people—a JP Morgan associate, a sex worker, a pastor, a living statue, a marine, and many more. There are some great answers. My…
Read MoreMy book club once featured skinny dipping. This book club has a big time college football player for a member. I think they win.
I’m not a big college football fan. I don’t have an allegiance to any college football team. But wide receiver Malcolm Mitchell may have turned me into a Georgia Bulldogs fan with his recent foray into, of all things, a book club. It’s a great story. I can’t wait to show this video my students…
Read MoreStuff I don’t know: Flowers
It will not come as a surprise to many that I don’t know a lot of things. But in addition to not knowing many things, there are also many things that I don’t know that everyone else seems to know, making me feel especially ignorant. Rather than concealing my ignorance, I’ve decided to keep a…
Read MoreHappy boy
Running back and forth between Mommy and Daddy while waiting for our table was enough for our son. He needed nothing more. How lucky we are.
Read MorePlants are smarter than we ever imagined. Eating them is no less cruel than eating a cow. And cows taste better.
I have always secretly hoped that someday we would discover that plants are just as sentient as animals, and as a result, the aggressively judgmental, overly proselytizing ethical vegans of the world would be forced to come to terms with the fact that when it comes to food, they are no less murderous than the…
Read MoreShe’s worried about her husband’s diapers. She should be more worried about her child’s early morning routine.
Slate’s Dear Prudence answers a question from a reader whose husband is a lifelong bed wetter who wears a diaper and rubber pants to bed each night. The reader is worried about the possibility of her children discovering their father’s secret and wants to know if they should be proactive and tell the kids before…
Read MoreWorking hard for the money: 2014 update
A few years ago, I posted a list of all the jobs I have held in my life in chronological order. It was an interesting exercise that I highly recommend. Things have changed since I first posted the list, so here is my updated list: 1. Farm laborer, Blackstone, MA: When I was 12-years old,…
Read More“Where do you get your ideas?” is an understandable but impossible-to-answer question for authors. But “Nuns at Scout camp” will be one of my answers someday.
I’m often asked where I get my ideas for books, which is an understandable but impossible question to answer. There is no well of ideas. There is no secret formula. There is no one answer to that question, as much as fledgling writers seem to want there to be. Simply put, I hear something. I…
Read MoreI won a Moth StorySLAM, and that wasn’t the best part of the night. Seriously.
I won a Moth StorySLAM at The Oberon Theater in Cambridge on Tuesday night. I managed to win from first position, which isn’t easy. I’ve won 13 Moth StorySLAMs in the last three years, but I’ve never won after having to go first. Few storytellers do. I was excited. Thrilled, even, But winning was not…
Read MoreThis is not the look a father wants to see on his little girl’s face.
My daughter’s new haircut is lovely, but she’s only five years-old. She hasn’t even started kindergarten yet. Where did she learn this perfect blend of annoyance and disinterest?
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