Having been tagged by Hoosier Army Mom and Revere Rides Again, here are my eight random thoughts:1. I am an only child. My mother was 36 when I was born, my father nearly 41. I was a sickly baby and a bull-headed child. I'm not sickly anymore, but people tell me that I am still bull-headed, a veritable "dog with a bone" once I get an idea.
2. When in school, I had two major fears: writing and public speaking, the latter to the point of having to be given tranquilizers the night before and day of a scheduled speech. I got over my phobia of getting my ideas down onto paper in fifth grade when I wrote my first research paper, "Themes in the Tragedies of Shakespeare"; my fear of public speaking disappeared without explanation around the time I turned 40.
3. I have one significant phobia today: a terror of centipedes. Merely the sight of a centipede is enough to elicit a bloodcurdling scream and flight on my part. Unfortunately, this old house frequently allowed centipedes to enter via the bathtub drain until we had the bathroom remodeled a few years ago.
4. When sightseeing, I always check ahead of time so as to learn if there are any nearby cemeteries. The first time my best friend and I visited California, we spent days on end touring cemeteries on our own. Probably the out-of-town cemetery I have most frequently visited is Oakgrove Cemetery — the burial site of Lizzie Borden and her parents.
5. Through my cousin's Administration of Justice instructor in 2000, I got special permission to visit the local medical examiner's office to view and attend a morning of autopies. Most visitors that day were squeamish. I wasn't. I didn't balk even at watching the infant's dissection, but I did leave a bit ill following the autopsy on the reeking burn victim, whom I identified as a woman even before the medical examiner did. I based my conclusion on the x-rays, which revealed a woman's jewelry etched into the deceased's bones by the searing fire.
6. Mr. AOW and I started dating in January of 1972 and married in June of 1972. In all fairness, however, I have to admit that we did know each other for one semester in high school. We couldn't stand the sight of each other back then! He was a poor student and Peck's Bad Boy; I was the opposite.
7. Before 9/11, I worked the newpaper's daily crossword puzzle, read epic novels, and had an absolute abhorrence to watching the news. In other words, I didn't pay much attention to politics, especially world affairs. Now that I'm a counterjihadist, I spend most of my spare time reading nonfiction about politics and Islam as well as the news on the web — and blogging.
8. I'm obsessive-compulsive about following the rules of grammar mechanics. On many occasions, I've taken out my red pen to correct errors on menus. I do occasionally break the ruls of grammar, but I know full well that I am breaking them.
This meme requires that I tag three more bloggers, but I typically don't tag others. However, I'd love to see Beamish's, Mustang's, and The Merry Widow's responses to this meme!
10 comments:
You must have a field day with that red pen of yours whenever. I have taken grammar, learned all the rules, and promptly forgotten them.
;-)
Pathetic.
It is very interesting to hear that you were absolutely not interested in news pre-9/11. Neither was I. Neither was BabbaZee. Neither were many counter-Jihad bloggers. If I remember correctly, Pamela was not interested in news and politics either. And, that is particularly interesting, because she's very good at understanding the scope of the dynamics of the everyday political world. Most of that stuff eludes me, cuz I am simply not interested in the game-playing.
As a guy who studied Philosophy, I am primarily interested in the ethical and "intellectual" issues of our time.
So, I guess the reason you're so pissed off at the Jihadis is because they totally butcher their grammar when they are threatening us, right?
;-)
I was the same way before 9/11 and now I never read fiction. I've corrected my professors' grammar before, but only when they make egregious mistakes, like explicitly telling us things like "the plural of 'media' is mediar.'"
Autopsies don't scare you but centipedes do? Hi-larious.
Can I just tag someone or do I have to be tagged first? I want to know about Shiva.
Jdamn,
You must be tagged by someone who has been tagged.
So, I officially tag you.
Please send me your contribution and I'll put it up here.
I agree. I want to here about Shiva too. Dude has lived one strange life from what little I know.
By the way, where the hell is Shiva lately?
I have been tagged by Pasto because I wanted to subject Shiva to the Filthy Blog Cootie Meme Bug Thing, so I guess I get what I deserve. My random 8 things are:
1) My last name means nothing. It's an Ellis Island name whose folk etymology is something to the effect of: "We're called this so people know that we're not that Jewish, so please treat us more nicely than the Germans and the Spanish before them." We know we're originally from Spain because we're Sepphardic, not Askenazi. It's actually very American for that reason. My family might be the only Jews from Kentucky but the biggest hospital in Louisville is Jewish Hospital so I get the sense that we might not be. I don't have any roots in Kentucky anymore, though. We're all in Indiana and on the East Coast, except for my sister.
2) I broke my back when I was sixteen. My friend drove us into a ditch and I fractured it 4 places. They were all hairline fractures so it wasn't that bad. When it happened I thought I was just going to take it easy for the rest of the weekend. I was out of my brace a couple of weeks early, too. I still have back problems but I probably would have gotten hurt worse being even stupider had that not happened to me. All sixteen years-olds should break their backs. I honestly recommend it. This fact surprises people when they find out about it because I waited tables forever and I was known for schlepping seemingly impossibly heavy stuff on a tray, comparable to my size, and I'm pretty physically active. I am the human barometer now.
3) I had experimental eye surgery when I was 2. I couldn't make both of my eyes face straight forward at the same time. YOu would never know I was googly-eyed to look at my baby photos, though, because my dad is a fantastic photographer and they took a ton of pictures amounting to way more than the 12 albums of baby pics my mother put together just of me. I'm the oldest child, obviously. The surgery was a success but I have no depth perception. I didn't know about my lack of depth perception until my mom told me when I was 12. It doesn't affect my life at all except that I can't wear contacts that actually work but I don't care because I look better in glasses. I look all hazy without them. If I'm not focusing one of them will wander off and freak people out. I also have my own idiosyncratic way of shooting hoops which amounts to bad form but I'm not bad, really.
4) I won a bunch of spelling bees. I never really tried, either. Just something I was always good at. I won at least second place in every one I entered except when I was in 1st grade, when I came in 3rd, but I beat the 2nd grader.
(cont.)...
5) I'm an awesome cook but I'm a terrible baker. Cooking is art but baking is a science. I am no scientist. I make good chocolate cookies, though, every holiday season, so I ended up getting stuck with that 2-day-long chore. I learned to cook from watching my stepmom, my grandma, my dad, the Food Network, and from working in restaurants forever. My Italian mother could burn water. She was no help in that department. It's a good thing I have a gift for cooking because I loooove to eat. I'm a very tiny, scrawny, small-boned chick, but I eat like a linebacker. I amaze everyone with the massive quantities I can put away, including myself at times. We all thought I would outgrow that, but no, and I'm fast approaching middle age. I like really good and really bad food, and little in-between. By 'good' I mean both in terms of quality and nutritional value. Food should be top-knotch or fried, basically.
6) I've been a vegetarian since I was 12. I just decided I couldn't eat animals anymore, so I stopped. It wasn't something I put a lot of thought into, just something I knew it was time for. It pissed off my parents but then my little sister became a vegetarian too. I never really liked meat anyway. I have terrible memories of being forced to eat steak and pork chops as a kid. Makes me sick just thinking about it. I missed hot dogs for a few weeks, but after that I stopped thinking of meat as food. That was how I got into cooking: being on my own culinarily. No regrets.
7) I love crazy weather. We have every kind of insane, extreme weather in Indiana and I love all of it except heat waves. I like terrible storms that shake the house and make the sky turn 10 different colors in 20 minutes. I rode my bike while it was hailing 6 weeks ago. It was actually sunny when I left for class ten minutes prior. That's the kind of weather we have in Indiana. I'll ride my bike in anything but ice, and that one day last winter when they closed the university for the first time in 20 years because there was so much snow and it was so cold that salt did nothing for the streets. School was open the day before but I was not about to get on a bus in that weather and riding my bike proved impossible. I tried. I used to drive around the neighborhood very close to the sidewalk to get the snow to dissipate faster so I could rollerblade. I've been known to rollerblade while snow is coming down. My town flooded last summer, too. That was a great storm. I ain't afraid of a little weather. Bring it, Mother Nature.
8) I'm a huge Neil Diamond fan. I was raised on that stuff. I've seen in concert him 5 times, 4 of them with my mom. He's still great and he still looks amazing. He still has pretty much the same band as he had when I first saw him 23 years ago. I prefer Linda Press to Babs on "You Don't Bring Me Flowers." She's less nasal and her voice sounds better with Neil's. She still looks amazing, too. My mom is fanantical and has files of concert fliers and videos of Neil but I know that she's never listened to '12 Songs,'which I bought her a few years ago. My favorite songs of his are 'I've Got the Feeling,' which requires a big band and sounds terrible when I play it on my guitar and sing along, 'Girl, You'll be a Woman Soon,' 'Shilo,' and 'Delirious Love,' the Brian Wilson version.
Not that I'm a nerd or anything.
I hereby tag Shiva, Creeping Sharia, and Barenakedislam.
I am sitting here because I woke up too late to make my 97 mile commute to work. Time has a way of catching up to you when sleep comes in 90 minute segments.
My broken extremities are few. A broken little toe caused me much anguish many years ago. A trek up a very steep hill followed by an examination at ER, resulted in a short lecture about bones to small to cast....walk away from the hospital.
Jdamn raises some very good points about proper English. At times it appears that English is the second language in much of the former Midwest now appropriately referred to as the Latino melting pot of South and Central America.
Twitter what ?
Waterboarding is easier for some than ascending from the deep sans regulator, tanks, weights and so on when qualifying for Scuba certification.
Fear of drowning, then talk, really.
Musical tastes vary. My personal favorites include youtube segments of Jeff Beck, Hendrix, Alison Krause and many, many more....endless streaming music..
Carolina is really on my mind these days. My travel plans include a trip to Columbia, South Carolina very soon...
Family and friends will be visiting the Fighting French Horns of the United States Army..figure it out.
The Islamic Center in my town is located a block away from a strip club. The Center always appears to be empty, the Strip Club not. Hmmm ?.
My last name has been defined as that of a Firthman, ferryman etc. On the otherhand, Stravinsky's Saxon Grandfather has the same last name as me. My roots are German, Prussian, Sour Cream and chive dishes and Red Cabbage turn me on.
The best German food outside of Germany can still be found in Milwaukee...
For a really good time, buy a motorcycle and ride with authority someplace rural.
Feeling really guilty about missing work, I must tell you that the IBA does fill the void, not to mention the access to so many other voices...
Infidel Bloggers love barbecued pork, ribs, pulled pork, baked beans, cole slaw, sweet corn and Beer.
If I ever hit all the numbers of Powerball I will charter a very large cargo jet and drop ribs of every barbecue description over the entire Middle East.
If Rock Music shattered the Berlin Wall then perhaps Barbecued Pork can expedite Islamosfascists on their journey to Paradise...
Just a thought.
All for now,,,keep the site cooking. We in the midwest are hungry for more other than prime time news of the New World Disorder.
Disconsolate and simmering.
af in Wisconsin.
Anonymous -- "Infidel Bloggers love barbecued pork, ribs, pulled pork, baked beans, cole slaw, sweet corn and Beer."
True that. Pasto and I will be right over, perhaps grabbing Sir P on the way (if he's not busy grabbing someone else. . .)
What are your coordinates my dear Infidel? And should we bring anything other than our appetites? You know, utensils, more beer, plates, ammo, fuzzy handcuffs?
Glad you're a fan. IBA is a great way to use a home from work day.
Come to think of it, Nooners are a great way to spend a home from work day.
Music turned up very loud, too.
And beer of course. Washed down with Wild Turkey.
And, you know, the whole pig meat thing you got goin' there.
And the fuzzy cuffs.
Course, that may fit in with the Nooner. . .
Pastorius,
It is very interesting to hear that you were absolutely not interested in news pre-9/11. Neither was I. Neither was BabbaZee. Neither were many counter-Jihad bloggers.So many who were awakened that day have now fallen back asleep.
A few of us didn't. And that few are among the most vocal.
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