25 Random Things

[Originally posted @ Facebook]

Rules: Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it's because I want to know more about you.

(To do this, go to “NOTES” under tabs on your "PROFILE" page (you may have to add the tab by clicking on the + sign), click on "Compose New Message" and paste these instructions in the body of the note, type your 25 random things, tag 25 people (in the right hand corner of the app) then click publish.)

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I was tagged by SulaAnne Kosacky. (Hi, Sula!)

1. Five adjacent names in my MP3 library when "sorted by artist": George Carlin, George Clinton, George Harrison, George Jones, George Michael. That would be an interesting way to spend a couple of hours.

2. I make legendary oatmeal. (Use regular old Quaker oatmeal, although you will not be sorry if you make this with expensive steel-cut whatever, either. Just before removing from pot: add small amt of honey or maple syrup - your choice - to cooked oatmeal, and whip in a raw egg with a whisk; the hot oatmeal cooks the egg quickly and it imparts a silky sort of texture. Top with bananas and raisins if you like - I like that but there's no need; this oatmeal is heavenly unadorned and right from the ladle. The acclaim will be deafening. Trust me on this.)

3. I always overcook fish.

4. I smoke five cigarettes a workday. At this point, the addiction is *clearly* psychological. I go for days on end without smoking. I always smoke at work.

5. Earliest pop-culture memory: my babysitter crying because The Beatles were breaking up (would've been 1970, I think)

6. I will drive long distances and endure considerable hardship for good barbecue.

7. I would like to learn more about wine but am blessed with friends who know lots and the results of letting them order for the table are almost always good.

8. My Shelf of Shame is getting out of control. I am working on reading all the books I bought and haven't read yet before I buy any more books.

9. The first thing I do when I move to a new place is get a library card.

10. The second thing is figure out where I can buy okra.

11. My mother (librarian and Southern cook) is to blame for both #9 and #10.

11. Somewhere, my dear departed father is laughing his ass off because I am now doing for a living what he did for the last ten years of his career, and I never quite believed his stories about how batshit crazy a thing it is to do for a living.

12. I owned not one, but *two*, Apple Newtons.

13. My favorite cheap meal to cook at home: pinto beans, dirty rice, and cornbread.

14. I took a run at teaching myself to cook Indian food (out of a cookbook, a very good one actually) and let it drop a few years back. Goal for 2009: find cooking classes.

15. At some near future point I want to take flying lessons.

16. Playlist for a longish flight (as a passenger!) - a lot of early jazz and hillbilly music interspersed with bad 80s pop tunes.

(Reading back over the list so far... No, I am not attempting to write a bad parody of "Stuff White People Like." It is what it is.)

17. My PC history: 70's hobbyist (dad was an IBM lifer, tried to interest me in building projects involving soldering irons), Apple II at school, TRS-80, IBM PC, original Macintosh, forced over to Windows by work, now (from 2006-present) back to Macintosh.

18. I passed up chances to travel, as a younger person, that I am still kicking myself over. I have tried not to miss a chance to travel since and am trying to make up for lost time as I slide down the banister of life into middle age.

19. Won't keep house without a cat or dog and I prefer at least one of each. My wife and I have one of each in a 400 sq ft NYC apartment, along with the two of us. We're all very close. :-)

20. Guilty pleasures: kung fu movies, Popeye's fried chicken, Billy Joel records.

21. The Billy Joel thing, I had concealed successfully from my wife until just now.

22. Usually I wrote "notes" on Facebook by importing blog posts. This is the first Facebook note that's going in the other direction (cut-and-pasted into the blog.)

23. Dr. Bronner's Peppermint Soap (liquid) - A big bottle is always sitting on the edge of my tub or hanging from my shower caddy, ever since I first bought some at the original Wellspring Grocery up the street from NCSSM.

24. As a recent North Carolina transplant to New York City, had never been more amazed than the day I saw the Krispy Kreme sign (complete with glowing red neon HOT DONUTS NOW) at their first Manhattan outpost. Major. Cognitive. Dissonance.

25. I'm surprised at how hard it is to come up with 25 random things.