Matthew Dicks's Blog, page 692

Ultimate business conversion

CHICKEN SHACK features a funeral home turned fried chicken restaurant and was inspired by the conversion of Blackstone Potato Chips to a funeral home in the town in which I grew up. 

I've written about other odd business combinations and conversions, including a movie theatre turned hotel, a laundromat/restaurant/bar, and a publishing house/tutoring center/pirate supply shop and a barber shop/gun shop. 

And now I have a new conversion to add to the list:

An elementary school turned...

Im a hedonist

A week ago I posted a fascinating ten-minute video on how time perspective differs within people.  To further the discussion, Jason Kottke summarized the six different time zones in which people live rather effectively:

Past positive: focus is on the "good old days", past successes, nostalgia, etc. Past negative: focus on regret, failure, all the things that went wrong Present hedonistic: living in the moment for pleasure and avoiding pain, seek novelty and sensation Present...

First instincts usually correct

When I first saw this guy on his bike in the McDonald's drive-thru, I thought, "Look at this guy riding his bike through the drive-thru.  What a dork."

But as I sat there, waiting to move forward, I reconsidered.  "Wait a minute.  Who am I to complain about him riding his bike through the drive-thru?  He's getting more exercise than me and polluting the environment a whole lot less.  Maybe he's not a dork after all.  Maybe he's the smart one."

Then the man was handed a coffee and a bag of...

All-access pass

For the price of one million dollars per year, you can have the home telephone number and 24-7 access to self-help author and motivational speaker Tony Robbins. 

I realize that I am not yet on the level of a Tony Robbins, but I figure that if he can get a million dollars for his number, I should be able to get something for mine.

Right?

So how much would you be willing to have access to me via the phone for one full year?   

Farmers tan

A few of my friends were recently bemoaning their farmer's tan.  Basically, it's the tan that one acquires by wearing a tee-shirt in the sun. Quite common for those of us who play golf and spend time working or playing outdoors.

I attempted to diffuse their concern over this condition by illustrating that it is not a big deal, and that the desire to even out one's tan is a little silly.  Not only this, but a farmer's tan is often the sign of someone who does something productive outdoors...

Tooth fish are tasty

I distrust flowery, ostentatious names, as well as any name that attempts to make something sound more cosmopolitan or international than it actually is.

In this spirit of distrust, I questioned the authenticity of the Chilean sea bass a couple of nights ago at dinner.

"That name sounds like total marketing to me. How can a sea bass even hail from Chili? What if it is caught off the coast of Peru, or Ecuador, or even Argentina? Does that make it an entirely different species of fish?"

...

Martin is not OCD

Every week, I get an email or two from readers who tell me how much they enjoyed SOMETHING MISSING because of the sympathetic and honest portrayal of a character who is suffering from obsessive compulsive disorder. And these same readers frequently asks how I managed to capture the condition so honestly and accurately. 

The question comes up a lot at my book appearances as well, and my standard response goes something like this:

After finishing the book and passing out manuscripts to my...

Super Bowl ads featuring broccoli?

I have always believed that massive amounts of money are wasted on advertising. The highway billboard, the late-night restaurant commercial, and the scented magazine ad have always seemed ridiculous to me. Intelligent people like me are immune to the mundane and transparent trappings of the advertising world.

This is what I have always assumed.

Apparently I was wrong.

Stanford University researchers recently learned that anything made by McDonald's tastes better to preschoolers...

Big geek

My friend, Phil, pointed out that my geek factor was off the charts this morning.

This is the nice Phil.  Not the mean Phil of the T-Rex disparagements and inability to beat me in golf.

And Nice Phil is right.  My geek factor was indeed off the charts today.

When my headphones ceased functioning this morning, I was desperate.  The thought of a twenty minute walk without my staple of listening pleasure was too much to bear, so I went into the winter supply drawer and extracted a pair of...

Congrats on your respiration system

Why do people applaud after a person blows out the birthday candles on their cake?

I can understand why we might rejoice in a six-year old child's ability to blow out the half a dozen candles that adorn his or her cake, but shouldn't this tradition end sometime before we enter adulthood?

Think about the customary birthday cake sequence:

We sing happy birthday to the honoree and then clap.

Then he or she blows out the candles and we clap again.

Why is this necessary?

Last weekend I...