I think in general these list blog memes are only interesting if the writer takes the questions as jumping off points and writes at least a short paragraph about them. I mean, 48 yes or nos? or even a short phrase? Why bother. Except that some have to be short. All answers valid for when I wrote them, but I did it over the course of ten days, so when it says “last time” or “now” it’s lots of different last times and nows.
1. First name? Dean
2. Were you named after anyone? My mother’s father, who died a little before I was born. Ashkenzai (Eastern European) Jewish tradition is to name children after a recently-deceased family member. Jewish people usually have a Hebrew name as well as the name they use most of the time. The Hebrew name will normally be the same as that of the person they’re named after, and the everyday name will most often start with the same letter. My grandpa Dean came from Hungary, where his name was Deszo, or maybe Dezso (either way, that final “o” should have a diacritical mark like an umlaut made of two acute accents over it). That’s the Hungarian version of the Latin name Desiderius, which is the male version of the French name Desiree. So my name should have been Desiree, if it were a boy’s name.
3. When did you last cry? Hearing a song Garrison Keeler made up for an audience member, an 80-something woman who was going back to her hometown to care for a relative, that’s what she does, take care of people. It was just so moving that she was getting that recognition on a nationwide show, and that Keeler can do that for his audience. Are you going to make me cry again describing it?
4. Do you like your handwriting? I have since the middle of college, when I learned to do italic handwriting. I couldn’t read my own writing before that. A high-school friend who turned into a girlfriend over summer vacations from college got me a book about italic handwriting from the Reed College (where she was at school) bookstore, and a pen.
5. What is your favorite lunchmeat? I like liverwurst, probably because I only get it rarely. Also hot pastromi, even more rarely. On rye. With mustard.
6. If you were another person, would you be friends with you? hmm, probably
7. Do you have a journal? Just this blog
8. Do you still have your tonsils? Not since I was a toddler
9. Would you bungee jump? No, thanks
10. What is your favorite cereal? I eat cheerios most of the time but I like some of Trader Joe’s cereals with nuts and dried fruit better. Hot cereal, that non-rolled Irish oatmeal – Mc Cann’s, of Odlum & Sallins, is it?
11. Do you untie your shoes when you take them off? Yes. When I put them on I tie them too tight to come off without untying.
12. Do you think you’re strong? My mother told me to eat my vegetables so I would grow up to be big and strong. When I was in high school I realized I wasn’t going to be big, but I could still be strong. So, yes, for my size.
13. What is your favorite ice cream flavor? Would you believe cucumber? I didn’t think so. Buttrick’s mocha chip is my favorite. Or now, Brigham’s mocha almond. At the end of my freshman year in college I bicycled across Massachusetts, at least from Williamstown to Lexington, in two days. For the last 20 miles the thought of a mocha almond cone at Buttrick’s (now long gone, part of Minuteman National Historical Park) was what kept me going. But worth mentioning just because it sounds so bizarre is J.P.Licks’ cucumber ice cream. It’s amazingly refreshing on a hot humid summer day.
14. Shoe size? And exactly why do you want to know?
15. Red or pink? Red. No wimpy colors.
16. What is your least favorite thing about yourself? that I’m barely able to contain my temper. I almost always do contain it, but just barely.
17. Who do you miss the most? My Uncle Bob, who died almost 30 years ago. He was really witty as well as generous, always fun to be around.
18. What color pants, shirt and shoes are you wearing? Black jeans (more often it would be blue jeans) blue shirt, that’s a blue and white Hawaiian print printed on the wrong side of the shirt, and tan running shoes.
19. Do you want everyone to send this back to you? Well, I’d like them to leave their blog address in the comments if they do this. Sure.
20. Last thing you ate? A couple of pieces of candy we got for Halloween. But if you ask in ten minutes, it’ll have been 1/8 of a pineapple.
21. What are you listening to right now? no music going on at the moment
22. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? so long since I looked at a box of crayons…
23. Favorite smell? Baking bread
24. Who was the last person you talked to on the phone? Arlene, to say I was on my way home so she’d know to start cooking
25. The first thing you notice about people you are attracted to? The smile. I mostly go by the smile. More than once there’s been a woman I’ve worked with for months or years that I don’t think is remarkably attractive, maybe even out-and-out plain, and then one day I see her smile a real smile with her whole face, I don’t mean the pasted-on kind of smile when you pull up the corners of your mouth and think that’s a smile, but an all over relaxed happy smile — and I think, I’ve never seen anyone more beautiful.
26. Do you like the person you stole this from? Yes, that would be Theresa, Knitty knitting technique instructor extraordinaire.
27. Favorite drink? In summer, Pilsener Urquell. Non-alcoholic, in summer, a 50-50 mix of schweppes quinine water and orange juice. Winter, cocoa made from cocoa powder.
28. Favorite sport? I was a wrestler in college, haven’t participated in any competitive sports since an after-work softball game 12 or 15 years ago. Spectator sports, to watch in person, ice hockey. But it’s useless on TV and good only as a sleep aid on radio.
29. Eye color? brown
30. Hat size? 7 3/4?
31. Do you wear contacts? Never tried. Drugstore reading glasses.
32. Favorite food? My mother used to make a dish we called Chicken With Herbs. Can’t think of anything I like better.
33. Scary movies or happy endings? Happy endings
34. (Theresa says, “Number 34 has been missing from all the ones I’ve seen”. One blog I saw had for 34 “If you could live anywhere, where would it be?” That takes more thought. Maybe Bern, Switzerland. I loved Yerevan, Armenia, except that it was entirely too hot, so it’s out. I like the arcaded streets in downtown old Bern, and never knowing what language I’m speaking. It helps that it was independence day there both times I was there. The Swiss are better with watches than calendars; they celebrate the 4th of July on the 8th of August.
35. Summer or winter? Or spring or fall.
36. Hugs or kisses? I’ll have to go with hugs. I’m an old married guy and haven’t kissed anyone except my wife since 1976. Truth. I do feel that hugs are allowed.
37. Favorite dessert? I make a lime chiffon pie that can’t be beat.
38. Who is most likely to respond? don’t know
39. Least likely to respond? don’t know that either
40. What books are you reading? I’m a third of the way through The Half-Blood Prince. Usually books, plural, is right, because I have a bad tendency not to finish books I start. At the moment I think singular is right, unless you want to count things I started a year ago and never finished.
41. What’s on your mouse pad? Optical mouse here, a Keith Haring mousepad at work
42. What did you watch last night on TV? well, my brother-in-law had the golf channel on, and this old house, but I wasn’t paying all that much attention
43. Favorite sounds? Loons calling on a northern New England lake
44. Rolling Stones or Beatles? Beatles all the way.
45. The furthest you’ve been from home? The furthest in miles would be the Hakone checkpoint in Japan. If you haven’t ever heard of it, it has the kind of cultural significance that the Mason-Dixon Line, the Maginot Line, and Cumberland Gap have all in one. It was a defensible point on the one road from western to eastern Japan. The Tokyo area, Kanto, and Osaka area, Kansei, are called “east of the barrier” and “west of the barrier” because of it. Bill Kretowitz and I took the bullet train one or two stops from Tokyo to Odawara, where one of the salesmen from our company drove us around sightseeing for the day. I think Hakone was about the furthest we got. BUT, what I always think of as the furthest was the church in Haghartzin, Armenia, in terms of both feeling the most different from home and being, among the places I’ve been, the hardest to get to and the least likely that I’ll run into someone else who has been there. Except for my daughter, who was with me and arranged the excursion. She’s been to Thailand, but she agrees with me that Haghartzin was the furthest from home she’s ever been. To get there required a plane to London, a plane from London to Yerevan (one stop, in Tiblisi, Republic of Georgia), a hired Volga car from Yerevan to Lake Sevan, and a hired worn-out Zhigouli car that needed expert coaxing by its driver to get us from Lake Sevan over a mountain road to Haghartzin and back. Story at this link on my old journal. Getting to Hakone only took a nonstop flight from New York to Tokyo, a high-tech train ride, and a comfortable car ride.
46. What is your special talent? Well, juggling and riding the unicycle. But those are less talent than practice.
47. Where were you born? Women’s Hospital, Manhattan
48. Who sent this to you? I saw it on Theresa’s blog, http://spellingtuesday.com.
Explain the word “meme” please.