Archive for November 2019
Speak Up Storytelling #73: Storytelling Forensics (“Wet and Naked”)
On episode #73 of the Speak Up Storytelling podcast, I analyze my own story “Naked and Wet” in an episode Elysha Dicks and I call Storytelling Forensics. LINKS Purchase Storyworthy: Engage, Teach, Persuade, and Change Your Life Through the Power of Storytelling: https://amzn.to/2KGmNz6 Purchase Twenty-one Truths About Love: https://amzn.to/2Fh5j9L Homework for Life: https://bit.ly/2f9ZPne Matthew Dicks’s…
Read MoreStorytelling Forensics: “Naked and Wet”
On episode #73 of the Speak Up Storytelling podcast, Matthew Dicks analyzes his own story, “Naked and Wet,” in an episode we call Storytelling Forensics. STORYTELLING SHOWS 2019-2020 November 23: Twenty-one Truths About Love book release, CT Historical Society, Hartford, CT December 14: “Crafty” at CT Historical Society, Hartford, CT January 11: “Still Life: Stories of Stopping and Slowing…
Read MoreMakemake
Clara, age 10, is spending the first hour of her morning – beginning around 6:00 AM – researching the celestial bodies that were named after Hawaiian Gods after finding a dwarf planet named Makemake in a book on astronomy and strongly suspecting that the name has Hawaiian origins. Clara’s been into Hawaiian history – particularly…
Read MoreSometimes the old-school methods are still best.
Dolly Parton is very wrong.
I’m listening to Dolly Parton’s America, a podcast by Jad Abumrad, the creator of Radiolab. Jad’s father, a physician, became friends with Dolly Parton after treating her, and this afforded Jad unusual access to the star. I had no intention of listening to the podcast when it was introduced, but loving the work of Abumrad,…
Read MoreMy postage stamp mia culpa
Yesterday I shared a series of text messages between my wife and me that did not go well. While standing in the post office, I watched a woman spend five minutes examining all of the possible postage stamps, hemming and hawing, before choosing the one that she liked. As I watched this happen, I sent…
Read MoreWorst moment ever for an author
Elysha and I stepped into a bookstore a couple years ago, looking to spend a little time browsing before heading home. As we entered, I noticed an author standing in the cafe to the right, speaking to a small audience of readers. He stopped speaking for a moment as I passed through the doorway, and…
Read MoreThese two posts make readers the most angry
I’ve been writing a blog post every day without missing a day for nearly 15 years, and almost 11 years on this platform. That’s 4,696 days worth of blog posts, More than 4,696 actual posts, since there was many days, especially in the past, when I would more than once on a single day. That’s…
Read MoreThings I do #14: I constantly assume it’s nuclear war
When my cell service momentarily disappears in an area where service is reliable, I stare at my phone and the absence of those four tiny bars and think, “Oh no. They’ve finally done it. Someone launched the missiles.” And then, for a fraction of a second, I really do believe that nuclear war has begun.…
Read MoreStranding small children on desert islands
My very good friend, a fellow educator, sent me this quote yesterday, saying that when he read it, he thought of me and my teaching style: If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people to collect wood, and don’t assign them tasks and work. But rather teach them to long for the…
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