Maybe this was for real and Bill Singer is just a nasty stick in the mud.

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And that will be true whether I'm the life of the party or a stick in the mud.

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But at least it has now become as much a point of honour in Salzburg to show that one is not a stick-in-the-mud, as it used to be a mark of prestige to get hold of a first-night ticket at all.

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He has also said that he must have been sort of a stick-in-the-mud when my mother wanted more excitement in her life.

NEWYORKER: Gravel

He lives with his wife and baby daughter in a mud shack so small that, if he were not so short, his feet would stick out of the door when he lay down to sleep.

ECONOMIST: No title