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Alice B. Toklas and Gertrude Stein with their poodle

Just when you thought the holidays couldn’t get any weirder, along comes Take Your Dog to Work Day.

This holiday was first celebrated in 1999 to promote pet adoption from local shelters and humane societies. Employers are encouraged to open their offices to four-legged friends on this one special day.

But these authors? They celebrated Take Your Dog to Work Day every day.

Ann Patchett makes her home in her hometown of Nashville with her husband and their dog, Rose. A self-proclaimed late-in-life dog owner, Patchett equates her relationship with the mutt to falling in love.

“I could hardly sleep at night for watching her sleep. She was small and white; maybe a cross between a Jack Russell and a Chihuahua, without the deep neuroses of either breed. If shedding was an Olympic sport, she would have brought home the gold. I was besotted.”

Image via Jaunted

With summer in full swing, it’s time for another seasonal Worst-Case Wednesday. Again, I’ve delved into the Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook: Life for some strategies. I’ve taken a random sampling of summer scenarios (apologies for the abundant alliteration) to handle common summer conundrums.

BEA 2012. We came. We saw. We gave out tons of totebags.

This year's BEA was a particularly special one, as we were (and still are!) celebrating our ten year anniversary. We dished out special totebags and posters over the course of the convention, had our Prize Patrol scour the expo floor for fans, and chatted with industry folk and media about our special plans this year.

Our PubDate party with DC Entertainment, Graywolf Press, Other Press, Pegasus Books, Seven Stories, and Steerforth Press was an absolute blast, Ben H. Winters' signing of The Last Policeman went incredibly well (we went through over 100 ARCs in under a half hour!), and Jason had a great time appearing on the BEA Middle-Grade Buzz panel. Thanks to everyone who came out to any (or all!) of these things.

Read on for some of our individual highlights.

In honor of National Candy Month, we’re posting some of our favorite recipes from The Field Guide to Candy by Anita Chu!

First up… Tuxedo Strawberries. Cute and delicious. Nom!

In honor of Father’s Day, I have chosen a few of my favorite pop-culture dads. They don’t always make fatherhood look easy, but they usually have the best intentions.

In many ways, these guys could’ve helped write Stuff Every Dad Should Know… and could also be readers who learn a little something from the book.

It’s Worst-Case Wednesday again, so prepare for more useful advice, just in case. Last week, we covered weddings in anticipation of all the ceremonies that will be taking place this month. This week, it’s time to approach the other end of the romantic spectrum, with an excerpt from The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Guide: Dating and Sex.

Dates can be just as terrifying as weddings, maybe more so, as they happen to us far more often. From minor disasters, like a wine stain, to more serious dilemmas, like a terrible kisser, dating is dangerous. So, we’ll start out with the worst-case scenario for any date.