1) How many jobs have you had in your life?
Too many to remember. Or one, depending upon how we define it.
2) Cilantro: delicious or disgusting?
Got to be some middle ground on this one. I don't turn my nose up at cilantro ... but I don't go out of my way to get it, either.
3) Do you like to drive?
I love to drive and am probably not alone in believing I would love it a lot more if we could just do something about all the traffic. Like many aspects of this wonderful life -- and with a wink and a nod to Jean Paul Sartre -- it would be a lot better if it just wasn't for ... you know ... y'all.
4) Have you ever been surprised by liking something you were sure you wouldn't like?
Oh ... sure. Lots of things. But I'll say canteloupe, because that's the first one I remember. We had these neighbors where I grew up -- an older couple with no children of their own -- who liked to have kids around sometimes. As a boy I would often take supper with them. This would often happen on Sundays and the trade-off for getting a better dinner than I was likely to get at home (including dessert, which simply did not exist at our house), was that I had to be pleasant company while they watched The Lawrence Welk Show afterward. In any case, Mr. Yarnell drove a truck for the Lowell Fruit Company and he always had fresh fruit of varying kinds in the house. This one particular day I came upon Mr. Yarnell in his wife's kitchen slicing canteloupe (although I had no idea what it was at the time). He asked me if I would like some and I told him that I didn't care for ... that. Of course, he asked the obvious question: Had I ever tried it before? I hadn't, and said so, and immediately saw -- too late -- the trap I had fallen into. So I tried it, and it so happened that Mr. Yarnell -- as you might expect -- knew a thing or two about fruit. It was a good melon and just at peak ripeness and ... well ... it was delicious. I've been eating it ever since.
5) Do you have a favorite chair? Describe it.
Not so much anymore, but I did have one, once. It was a well-cushioned swivel-rocker upholstered in deep forest-green twill. It was a very comfortable chair and we kept it by the window where the best light was during the day. It was a reading chair. The funny thing is that I didn't get to sit in my favorite chair very often, because it was also my wife's favorite chair. Now I think of it, maybe it was my favorite chair because it was her favorite chair. I would catch myself sometimes watching her sitting in it, reading. She would have one leg curled up in her lap and her other foot on the floor, twitching back and forth. This would cause the chair to swivel in a very small arc ... just a few degrees in each direction. I would watch her and wonder if she was even aware she was doing it, while she was so engrossed in whatever world she was visiting in her book ... and I would marvel at how it seemed to me that she could be sitting right there, and yet be so far away, all at the same time. That was a good chair.
6) Is there a book that's changed your mind on any subject?
I'll cite Terry Jones's Barbarians, not because it changed my mind on the specific subject (the demise of the Roman Empire), but because it's the best example of a book that showed me -- in an entertaining way -- that "history" is a matter of perspective. This, in turn, taught me to take a more analytical approach to ... well ... everything. You want to be careful simply casting a jaundiced eye on all you see. That can backfire on you. But a little healthy skepticism can be ... ummm ... healthy.
7) Musical theater: love or loathe?
Again, I wouldn't say "loathe." I prefer a traditional drama, but I can sit through a musical if it's not too obnoxious. That said, if anybody ever decides to revive Cop Rock, I'm gonna be right there in the front row. "Let's Be Careful Out There!!!"
8) Who do you think has most influenced your choices as an adult (for good or bad)?
Undoubtedly the woman in that green chair. Even now, all these years later, it occurs to me that the most important things I know, we learned together.
9) Is there a commercial jingle that gets stuck in your head?
Kars-4-kids. If you don't know, it's a "charity" that accepts donations of vehicles and property for tax-write-offs. I hear it occasionally throughout the year on the Clearchannel radio station I listen to most often. This time of year, tax season, it becomes so ubiquitous -- playing at virtually every station break -- that it occurs to me that a "charity" that already has enough money to advertise to the extent that it becomes annoying probably doesn't need any extra help from me ... or you. A cynical approach, to be sure, but "charities" with giant overhead just rub me the wrong way. It's all part and parcel of my least favorite thing in all the wide world: Organizations (and individuals) misrepresenting what they are.
10) Do you have a favorite animal? What and why?
I'm tempted to say elephant here, because as we all know, the elephant never forgets. Not ever. And that is very important. But it's bears. All different kinds of bears, but especially grizzly bears. I have this friend of Cree heritage who talks often about walking the Bear Path in her culture. The bear has little to fear from the natural world, and so has a freedom of spirit. In other words, he does whatever he wants. But there's an unpredictability about the bear. He's a giant in the forest who forages in seeming peace among the berries and the bees (although I think the salmon might disagree), but there is an inherent ferocity too ... if you provoke him in specific ways. More than any other animal -- to me -- the bear represents an incredible force that you need not fear ... unless, of course, you come into its domain and try to take something from it. I can get down with that. And plus besides ... bears get to sleep all winter, and -- really -- what's better than that?