Matthew Arnold Stern's Blog

Oh, no! Taylor Swift is happily in love and enjoys having sex with her well endowed fiancé! The horror! The horror! Her latest album The Life of a Showgirl got the predictable pearl-clutching. Gasps were especially loud from those offended by her highly suggestive “Wood,” forgetting the music they listened to as kids. (That goes for […]Related posts:More songs to raise your spirits (European edition)The war of artHow to keep Grinches from stealing your joy

When I go to Reseda Charter High School this month for the 70th anniversary, I’ll interview the school’s librarian. (The interview will be in a future issue of my newsletter. You can subscribe here.) One of the things we’ll discuss is media literacy and the importance of identifying bias. When I was at Reseda in […]Related posts:The trouble with journalism todayMy Eat Like a Writer InterviewImam Rauf and what’s wrong with America today

A proud papa moment: My daughter told me that she wants to follow in my footsteps and become a technical writer! She discussed the possibility with her manager at work and asked me for advice on how to get started. The first thing I wanted to do was direct her to the premier organization for […]Related posts:WritersUA 2014 Day 2: An open letter to AmandaThe joys of technical writingSTC day 3: Lessons from Minneapolis

I know about wildfires. They happen in Southern California every year. They are more frequent and are often as destructive as earthquakes. The vegetation on our hillsides and canyons is designed to burn. Chaparral and pine trees do not spread their seeds until the old plants are burned away. The Tongva and Chumash understood this. […]Related posts:Spoons and a lesson about communityOnly empathy can save us nowOceanGate Titan and the limits of empathy

British TikToker Mand included our “weird obsession with high school” among the things that irk her about Americans. As someone who frequently writes about high school in my blog posts and books, I got this one. The reason goes a lot deeper than what’s portrayed in the media about mean girl cheerleaders and brutish jocks […]Related posts:School spirit and yearning for communitySixty things I learned at Reseda High SchoolWhy high school matters

Let’s look at three recent incidents. Are these just isolated incidents or signs of something more? Here’s something to consider: One of a leader’s roles is to form the culture of an organization. While they can set rules and standards, they mainly do it through their example. If they model professional, respectful conduct, the rest […]Related posts:So, who do you like in the World Series?A cautionary tale about youth sportsLook what I found at the 99 Cents Only Store!

When someone I follow on social media professed her love for the USC Trojans, I came to a realization. I don’t like college sports. I did when I went to her school’s arch-rival, UCLA. I took the RTD bus down to the LA Memorial Coliseum where the Bruins played at the time. We did all […]Related posts:No NFL in LAFriday night footballTaylor Swift, Travis Kelce, and high school

If you haven’t read Amiga yet, here’s your chance to win an copy for free! Sign up for the Goodreads giveaway from now through September 30 to win one of 100 eBook copies of Amiga. While you’re at Goodreads, look at what these satisfied readers said about the book. “As Laura explains, in the burgeoning 80’s tech […]Related posts:An Amiga of my ownAmiga is here!Vaporware no more

The Local Author Fair at the Fullerton Central Library was a fun and successful event. I sold books, met some new authors (including a 16-year-old who has published two books), and gave a reading despite an overly sensitive microphone. It also gave me some important lessons—especially the need to (as that 16-year-old would say) touch […]Related posts:Are author events worth the time?400 booksAn interview with Joannes Rhino

It’s easy to feel powerless with everything going on today. “I’m just one person,” we cry. “What can I possibly do?” So, let me tell you about our high school production of Dames at Sea. I talked about this musical before, but there was one performance that I’ll always remember. Let’s set the scene: In […]Related posts:Dames at Sea: The heartbreak behind campLessons from Musicals: OvertureGetting into character for first-person narratives