grin and bare it
A blog by Matthew Dicks
The latest
Some recent writing-related news that I thought I’d share: _______________________ We sold the Korean rights to MEMOIRS OF AN IMAGINARY FRIEND this week, bringing the total number of languages that the book will be published…
Read MoreWe never got to the war part of the Civil War
The problem with American History class was that never got to the good stuff. Take the Civil War. I recall with blinding acuity the days and weeks that we spent studying the causes of the…
Read MoreThe dead writing about the dead
The New York Times had their Elizabeth Taylor obituary ready for so long that the writer of the piece, Mel Gussow, has been dead for six years.
Read MoreI’m not a Past Commander, but I’ve got some pin-worthy material of my own
While judging an American Legion Oratorical Contest, I noticed a Legionnaire with a large, gold pin on his arm that read Past Commander. A pin denoting a previous station in life. I like this idea…
Read MorePost traumatic growth: Making bad guys more lovable and appreciated
Martin Seligman, director of the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania, was speaking about post-traumatic growth on a recent edition of the Harvard Business Review Post-traumatic growth refers to positive psychological change experienced…
Read MoreHow to properly eat a Cadbury Crème Egg
There is one and only one correct way to eat a Cadbury Crème Egg. Allow me to explain. In case you have been living under a rock for your entire life, the Cadbury Crème Egg…
Read MoreOur little devil
Please take note of the distinct change in my daughter between the two sets of photographs. Here is Clara, innocently eating some ice cream. Seconds later, here is Clara, clearly plotting the conquest of…
Read MoreBut can I sing the N-word?
I am not a person who would ever use the N-word. While I don’t support the revision of Huckleberry Finn that excludes the N-word, it is not a word that I would typically use in…
Read MoreAll intents and purposes. And intensive purposes.
Until I was about twenty years old, I thought that the phrase “all intents and purposes” was “all intensive purposes.” And while I heard people say the phrase quite often, I never used it myself,…
Read MoreI get irradiated by my wife every night.
I stared at this radiation dose chart for hours. Well, maybe not that long. But too long. I have a full and complete understanding of the amount of radiation I am exposed to on a…
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