Matthew Dicks's Blog, page 707

Most popular at the the moment

One of the websites that I like best is the New York Times Most Popular page, where you can get links to the most emailed and most blogged stories from the Times, ranked in order.  I often find these lists quite telling in terms of defining the average reader of the Times as well as the mood of the country. 

Today's top three emailed stories: 

1.  Well: Women Who Drink Gain Less Weight

I can get drunk AND lost weight?  Has heaven come crashing down to Earth?

Also, health stories...

Mystery fruit

My wife and I finally found a grocery app for the iPhone that works: Grocery IQ. 

With this brilliant bit of code, we can update a grocery list on one phone and have that item appear on the list of the other phone.  Why it took so long to create such an app is beyond me, but I am pleased that it has finally arrived. 

The app also allows me to scan barcodes in order to add items to the list.  Last week I finished the last of the oatmeal that I eat for lunch.  Still in my classroom, I...

The View

fail to understand how The View, which airs in the late morning when so many people are working, and which possesses such a narrowly-defined audience demographic of stay-at-home moms, ages 18-49 (72% of its audience at last check), manages to possess such a prominent position in this country's zeitgeist.

To put this in perspective, The View shares the same demographic as those who watch General Hospital.  Think about it.

Please don't get me wrong. I have no issue with The View.  I can't. ...

The Friendship Application

Behold the long awaited Friendship Application.

There have been instances in the past year when people have been on the verge of becoming genuine friends.  This is all well and good, but what if the guy is a Jets fan or she lives an hour from my home?

Thus the Friendship Application.

If I feel that someone in my life is on the verge of becoming my friend (all current friends are grandfathered in), I will send an email that reads:

Dear _____________,

Over the past couple weeks, I've...

Bartering herself into a new career? Maybe.

Get this:

My wife stopped by a new consignment store in town and found a child-sized cashmere sweater that she loved. 

The problem:

Even on consignment, the sweater was fifty dollars, more than she was willing to pay for an item of clothing that our daughter would outgrow in less than a year.

But she loved the sweater.

So a day later, she returned to the consignment shop with her laptop in hand and offered to barter her design and Photoshop skills in exchange for the sweater, and the...

The demise of the book tour and the rise of its replacement

The Los Angeles Times published a piece on how book tours have transformed over the years, and especially now in this economy. 

Author Carolyn Kellogg writes:

"As the business of publishing changes, book tours increasingly look like bad risks. 'In 99.9% of cases," says Peter Miller, director of publicity at Bloomsbury USA, "you can't justify the costs through regular book sales.

Book tours used to be about local media. "You would go to these places to get reviews, interviews, TV and...

Quitting

A couple days ago, I ran into a couple who I married at the gym. Though normally my role in a wedding is reserved to the disc jockey, I am also an ordained minister (as odd as that may seem for a non-believer) and am therefore legally capable of marrying couples in thirty-six states, including my own.  I've married about half a dozen couples in my lifetime and feel honored to have done so. 

In terms of this couple's ceremony, I did a fine job. At their rehearsal the previous day, I managed...

Nothings impossible if your religion is based upon a miracles

I'm always amused when a God-fearing Christian woman informs me that she cannot get pregnant, as one did yesterday. Whether the woman is one hundred years old, celibate, or has undergone tubal ligation, the belief in the tenants of Christianity assumes the belief in miracles, and specifically in the belief that virginity does not preclude pregnancy.

After all, the entire religion is founded upon the principle that a virgin can become pregnant. It seems to me that a Christian woman should be...

Two kinds of teachers

I have a theory on teachers:

People become teachers because they loved school and were exceptionally well behaved as children or were disappointed by school and behaved poorly.

Those who liked school become teachers of the more traditional variety.  They attempt to re-create their blissful childhood experience for their students.

Those that were disappointed by school and behaved poorly end up as non-traditional teachers, doing everything they can to create an entirely different...

Kudos for SOMETHING MISSING

Eight months after its release and it's still nice to read a good review of SOMETHING MISSING by someone who is encouraging fellow readers to give it a whirl.