Matthew Dicks's Blog, page 722

Leadership begins with the Lord. And castration.

Article 6, section 8 of the North Carolina state constitution states: "The following persons shall be disqualified for office: First, any person who shall deny the being of Almighty God."

This law, deemed unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, might still prevent Cecil Bothwell from being seated as a City Council member in Ashville, North Carolina. 

Bothwell is an atheist.   

In looking for North Carolinian politicians who were guilty of crimes more heinous than the denial of the...

The kindness of strangers

It's always nice to discover that someone is saying something nice about your book.  Especially when it's a bookseller. 

From Shannon McKenna Schmidt on Shelf Awareness:

"At Saturday's event, Joe Drabyak will be recommending books from various publishers and titles from Random House imprints both on the Grid O' Gifts--John Grisham's Ford County: Stories--and off, like Something Missing by Matthew Dicks. The debut mystery about an endearing thief who steals only items that will go...

Pen names

Nathan Bransford recently , recommending that unless the reasons are compelling, there is no reason to make use of a pseudonym. 

While I tend to agree, I can't help but think that Mark Twain is so much better than Samuel Clemens.  And so apropos.

And Lemony Snicket is much more fun than Daniel Handler. If you've ever listened to Daniel Handler speak, you know that he's much more of a Lemony Snicket than a Daniel Handler anyway. 

But in general, it would seem to me...

People-pleasers

This morning, as I was getting dressed, I turned on the television. The channel was tuned to HBO, which was airing a movie that I later identified as Bride Wars.

Based upon the scene that I watched, I will not be watching this film anytime soon. But I did catch a piece of dialogue, a phrase really, that I liked a lot. In the midst of a verbal confrontation between two characters, one woman accused the other of "people-pleasing" her way through life.

I love this line, despite the paucity of...

Like one great big pinball machine

I liked this advice a lot (via Jason Kottke):

Career advice from Charlie Hoehn:

"Therein lies the best career advice I could possibly dispense: just DO things. Chase after the things that interest you and make you happy. Stop acting like you have a set path, because you don't. No one does. You shouldn't be trying to check off the boxes of life; they aren't real and they were created by other people, not you. There is no explicit path I'm following, and I'm not walking in anyone else's...

Saving the best

My wife and I own a TiVo.  There are two television shows that we do not delete in the event that we want to watch them again and again (which we have been known to do):

One More with Feeling, the musical episode from the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Niagara, the episode from the television series The Office in which Jim and Pam are married. 

They are two of the best episodes of television ever produced.

Milo in Germany

In keeping with tradition of selling foreign rights only to former enemies of the United States, the first foreign rights for UNEXPECTEDLY, MILO sold last week to German publisher Blanvalet.

This is the same publisher that bought the rights to SOMETHING MISSING, which is apparently doing quite well in Germany.  I've been told that Martin's meticulous nature appeals to the German psyche. 

If you know anyone who is studying German, or even better, if you are in charge of a German studies...

How Many of Me?

HowManyOfMe.com will tell you how many people in the United States share your name.  Among other things, it will also tell you the name of the most famous person with your last name.

In my case, there are 17 other people in the country who share my name, and the most famous person with my last name is Norman Dicks, Democratic Congressman from Washington.

I admit it.  I was secretly hoping that it would be me.  I've never met anyone outside my family with my last name, and though I see...

White, fluffy drama

Vicious winter storm blasts the Midwest

Parts of the Midwest are being ravaged by an December blizzard while the Northeast looks at a wintry mess.

Vicious?  Blasts?  Ravaged?

I know it's The Weather Channel, so they can get quite excited over a snowstorm of almost any size, but does this headline and article summary from their homepage strike you as a little dramatic?   

Not to mention the incorrect use of the word an before the word December.

Goodness