I hate the fine print
I taught my students how to properly fold a letter before placing it into an envelope. An important life skill. At the end of the day, I found a properly…
8 rules for requesting songs at a wedding
My DJ partner, Bengi, and I worked wedding #383 earlier this month. Our first in more than 18 months. The couple had chosen every single song for their wedding, from…
I would like my students to call me “Matt.”
I'm not ready to allow my students to call me by my first name, but only because I'm not sure what administration might think, and I suspect that some of…
My illustrious lip sync career
While listening to Sweet Child O’ Mine in the car yesterday, I found myself reminiscing about a sliver of time in my life when public lip-syncing contests were popular and…
Upending greeting card tradition
I was recently told about a new trend in greeting card giving: Signing the cards with a post-it note. When you find a card to which you are particularly fond,…
Kat Koppett changed my life.
On Monday night I won The Moth's virtual GrandSLAM championship. My seventh championship so far. My first virtual championship. Credit Kat Koppett, who doesn't even realize how she has changed…
Lessons from an afternoon at The Hill-Stead
Elysha and I are looking forward to hosting our first live storytelling show since February 2020 at The Hill-Stead Museum in Farmington, CT on August 18, 2021. The show will…
The Black Spot
I'm reading Treasure Island to my students. One of my favorite books of all time. If you're familiar with the book, you know about the importance of The Black Spot.…
Cascatelli: A brand new pasta shape and a moment of creation
Back in March, I listened to a Planet Money podcast about The Sporkful's Dan Pashman's journey to create a brand new pasta shape. Being someone who celebrates, reveres, and adores…
Turns out I am telepathic.
Stephen King refers to books as telepathy. An author thinks something, writes it down, and then months or years later, that sentence appears in the mind of the reader. Sometimes…
