Archive for April 2022

Baby names are more unique than ever before. In 2020 the percentage of babies who got a top-10 most popular name was down to 7 percent. Compare that to the 28 percent of babies who got a name in the top 10 in 1950, or the 32 percent in 1880. In 1955, half of American…

My first guess in today’s Wordle was the equivalent of being born as a white, straight American man with no physical disabilities or mental illness. Lots and lots and lots of unearned privilege. Failing to solve the puzzle was still possible, but doing so would’ve required some serious buffoonery on my part. Wordle 294 3/6…

I know people whose employers allow them to wear jeans on specific days if they make a donation to a charitable organization. These employers, I think, are quite dumb. If we look at the issue of jeans objectively, reasonably, and absent the stupidity of conformity or tradition, you’d have to ask: What exactly makes my…

I had a home invasion dream last night. Two men and a woman broke into my home, which wasn’t really my home but some large, well appointed apartment purporting to be my home. I called the police but could not get them to respond. So I called my friend, Shep. Shep is my longtime friend,…

Advice I’ve been giving parents of young children: Purchase your children’s domain names ASAP. When my kids were born, I purchased claradicks.com and charliedicks.com. I’ve also purchased elyshadicks.com and the many variations of my own name. I’ve also been known to purchase the domain names of friends and the children of friends as gifts. When…

When speaking to my class as a whole, I offer refer to them as “friends.” My former colleague, Donna Gosk, suggested it as a replacement to “boys and girls” long ago. Recently (and occasionally over the years) I have been told by various people that my students aren’t my friends. I never argue the point,…

I’ve often argued that Elysha is a nonconformist of the highest order. And it’s true. There are lots of evidence of this fact, but the ultimate proof is me. She married me. No one could have ever predicted it. Case in point: Our first real date took place on Sunday, March 31, 2003, so when…

I was in New Haven last night, performing onstage for the first time in a long time. As part of the International of Arts & Ideas, I competed in a story slam alongside six other storytellers, most of whom I knew well. When my friend finished telling her story, I offered her a couple notes…

Exposure to leaded gasoline lowered the IQ of about half the population of the United States, a new study estimates. The peer-reviewed study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, focuses on people born before 1996 — the year the U.S. banned gas containing lead. Overall, the researchers found childhood lead…

This video is 15 minutes long, which can be an eternity on the internet, but it’s well worth your time. It’s a fascinating look at how the polarization of the country relative to the pandemic took place and the devastating impact on American lives. I have one million things to say every day, so to…