Thick as a Brick

Writers, good writers that is, see the extraordinary in the ordinary, or more precisely they create the extraordinary from what is not.  Use the brick for example.  What can be made of a brick?  Below, are just a few thoughts.  Add your own in the comments and other suggestions, if you like.

1- A history lesson.  My husband's grandfather, a chemist, invented the red color that we see in the ordinary brick.  What a story.  It could be the true tale of how he used the royalties from this to pay for his medical school or a fictionalized version with plots to steal the formula and profit from it, or maybe it's like the artist that never realizes his due while alive only to achieve fame posthumously.

2- As a murder weapon.  This may be an obvious choice.  The reddish brown color of blood might go unnoticed on a brick for weeks before its startling discovery.

3- As a symbol of construction, both literal and figurative.  Few things speak of stable, conservative construction like a brick house or a brick foundation.

4- Density.  Is someone slow witted?  They are thick as a brick.  Will an idea float?  No, it sinks like a brick.  Is the bread light and fluffy, or is it a brick?

5- To strengthen meaning.  Would a speech delivered from a brick platform carry more "weight" than one delivered from a hastily built plywood stand?  Would a mason's advice to his friend be stronger when delivered during a brick laying session?

6- Sayings.  Any number of sayings utilize bricks, for example: running into a brick wall, building something brick by brick,  or it's just another brick in the wall.  These may be overused and cliche now, but the first person to come up with them was really using his brick.