Matthew Dicks's Blog, page 678

Question about womanly matters

How do you pronounce the word menstruation?

Sometimes I hear it pronounced men-stray-tion.

Other times I hear it pronounced men-strew-ay-tion.

And neither pronunciation seems more prevalent than the other.  It's neck-and-neck.  One big, annoying tie.

And it's not like asking if it's pronounced Feb-rue-airy or Feb-you-airy, because menstruation is not just the name of a month. 

It's menstruation. 

I realize that it shouldn't be hard to ask about the pronunciation of a word, because...

Daily Candy and The Wall Street Journal!

This has been a good day. 

UNEXPECTEDLY, MILO hit bookstore shelves yesterday, and today it was reviewed by Daily Candy and reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. 

Daily Candy, an enormously popular website that everyone seemed to know about prior to the review with the exception of me, ran their review on their front page and made it the subject of their Daily Candy email blast, which goes to seemingly half the people I know (unbeknownst to me).

Daily Candy said:

"We all know if you...

UNEXPECTEDLY, MILO book tour begins!

Last night friends and family and loyal readers and complete strangers gathered at the Barnes and Noble in Blue Back Square for the first appearance of my book tour.  An estimated seventy-five people showed up to listen to me speak and read, and many were kind enough to purchase my book in bushels.

A few comments from the evening's festivities:

1.  There were definitely not enough seats, and not nearly enough room for the crowd.  At one point I felt bad for sitting after seeing so many...

Situation

Elysha and I overuse the word situation.

We overused this word independently before we met, and now with constant reinforcement, everything is a situation.

This dinner is a serious dining situation.

If we don't hurry, we will find ourselves in a serious travel situation.

That woman's choice of boots is quite a situation.

As to be expected, the way that we speak often bleeds into our student's lexicon, until they end up sounding like us to one degree or other.

Years ago I was working...

My favorite gift

Mark Oppenheimer writes an interesting article about the possible end of the book as a romantic gift with the advent of the e-book. 

"So what will you do, Kindle generation, when you cannot tell which of the quiet boys holding the e-reader on the subway is engrossed by the latest, predictable legal thriller, and which one by a cheery, long-forgotten Laurie Colwin novel? If by some chance you do end up with the right one, what do you buy him a month later, when it is time for that first...

Infecting the Internet

I've been writing some guest posts for various blogs recently, and two went up yesterday if you're interested in clicking over and checking them out. 

On the Water Street Books blog, I'm writing a three-part series on the realities of a book tour.  The first post describes certain aspects of my book tour from the previous year.  Posts in the coming two weeks will deal with some particularly amusing and slightly horrifying experiences from last year's tour.  The people, the places, and the...

Thanks a lot, Glenn

Have you noticed that since Drew Barrymore's jackass boyfriend, Glenn, denied her the window seat on the airplane in The Wedding Singer that men around the world can no longer request the window seat from their wives and girlfriends without appearing like a selfish jerk themselves?

A little consistency, please?

A few years ago, I was introduced to the fabulousness of this.

The only problem with this device is that no one can agree on a name. The list of names that I have personally heard used for this device includes:

Flash drive
Jump drive
Memory stick
Memory key
USB drive
Pocket drive
Pen drive
Thumb drive

I don't care what name we decide upon (though thumb drive, pen drive and memory stick strike me as especially stupid), but can we just all agree on one?

Benefits of children

For years, I have been waiting for the opportunity to use the truckload of outstanding tricks and pranks that I have accumulated over the years on a child of my own.  Now  that I have a daughter who is beginning to be able to communicate, that day in finally drawing near. 

Here's one of my favorites:

On Christmas morning, the little devil will come running down the stairs to the Christmas tree, and amongst the many presents littering the floor will be an enormous box, wrapped with an...

Resolution update: July 2010

In an effort to achieve my yearly goals, I post my monthly progress here.

This month I will begin crossing out those goals that I have already accomplished.  It will make me feel better, I think.

Below are my sixteen New Year's resolutions and my progress thus far.

1.  Lose seventeen more pounds, bringing my weight down to 185 pounds, which was my high school pole vaulting weight.

Somehow I've managed to gain four pounds this month, the likely result of days spent visiting friends and...