Dangerous, Dirty, and Unfun

Regular readers of Dangerous, Dirty, and Unfun know that I’m secretly a professional writing and editing guy. Interested in some of the stuff I’ve written recently? Here’s a profile of UFC fighter Kenny Florian; a story about late-night student programming at BC; and three short bits about student research projects at the Lynch School of Education.

And if you want to read something that wasn’t written by me but is still really good, here’s an exploration of the Jane Jacobs Collection, housed at Boston College’s Burns Library. You’ll recall that Jane Jacobs was the writer of The Death and Life of Great American Cities, one of the seminal texts in the fields of urban planning and public policy. Jacobs was notoriously suspicious of the academy in general, but still saw fit to leave her papers at Boston College. It’s a great story!

Regular readers of Dangerous, Dirty, and Unfun know that their favorite blogger occasionally moonlights as a professional writing guy. Because I know you folks are always jonesing for more content, here are some selections written by yours truly from the latest issue of Boston College Magazine. This story is about the George Plimpton–esque afternoon I spent making fundraising calls to BC alumni. If you know me, you know how hard a time I have even asking for like, extra oyster crackers at a restaurant, so you can imagine how much I was pulling my collar in those three hours.

And here’s a story about Boston College’s last football game at Notre Dame for the foreseeable future, and a general overview of the rivalry between the last two Catholic schools playing big time college football. Despite the loss, it was a pretty heartwarming experience. I wound up talking to at least half a dozen pairs of fathers and sons, all of them just thrilled to be on that train from Chicago to South Bend, because they knew they might never get another chance.

And if you happen to be interested in my whole BCM oeuvre, you can find it here.