Interview meme: partial answer
Oct. 13th, 2005 08:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
winterbadgerEDIT: Finished the first two questions
Here are the rules:
1 -- Leave a comment, saying you want to be interviewed.
2 -- I will respond; I'll ask you five questions.
3 -- You'll update your journal with my five questions, and your five answers.
4 -- You'll include this explanation.
5 -- You'll ask other people five questions when they want to be interviewed.
Brooke's questions for me:
1. Your final meal. Describe.
2. 5 books, desert island. Give me the titles and why.
3. Where are/were you happiest?
4. Speculate on the candidates for 2008.
5. When is the next trip to Scotland?
I don't have time to finish this now; I'll do so later.
1. OK, here goes. Aperitif: a pint of Boddington's, cool but not cold. Starter: haggis with oatcakes. Entree: porterhouse steak, medium, cooked in red wine with mushrooms, accompanied by a jacket potato with butter, a small dish of asparagus, and a half-bottle of merlot. Dessert: fresh berries in zabaglione. A glass of Talisker to round out the meal.
2. I'm in a misery, because no one has (or could, probably) issued a one-volume compendium of Dorothy Dunnett's historical novels. Even just one per series would do me. Absent that, the first two books I'd pick would be the first of each of those series: The Game of Kings and Niccolo Rising, because then I can remember (as best I can) what comes after them. The Riverside Shakespeare, because that way I *can* get a whole pile of good stuff between one set of covers, and being on the desert island will give me time to read all the bits that I've never seen, plus I can remember all the really good performances of the ones I have. One Dorothy Sayers? Hmmm. Gaudy Night, I think, though I'm tempted to say Murder Must Advertise; GN has the love story with HV *and* it's all about Oxford. I'm very fond of MMA (it certainly made me think of working in advertising), but there's only a very brief allusion to Harriet, and that would never do. Have His Carcase is good, but it has all the boring cypher stuff. What's that? four? Either The Hobbit or The Horse and His Boy, then. The Hobbit is Tolkien in small--a personal tale, rather than grand drama. And HHB has adventure, a little understated romance (of the teenage "we're rivals, we're rivals, we're rivals...hey, she's pretty" kind), and, well, it's fun. But it has to have the Pauline Baynes illustrations. Nonfiction... it's ephemeral and complex. I'd like books on Plantagent-Tudor-Stewart history, but I'd need a whole shelf, not just one or two.
3. I started to describe *when* I was the happiest, and then stopped and thought about the question. Where? I think of the places I've lived... probably Williams College comes first. I had good friends close around me, a beautiful place to live, "work" was reading and writing papers (well, I guess that hasn't changed :-), and free food and lodging. Then it's a tossup between the house C and I lived in in Brookline (cozy, and our first real place together), our apartment on Commonwealth Avenue in Alexandria (the trees rife with birds, our young kittens), and this house (man, so many memories here...) Our place in Falls Church I loved mostly for the beautiful garden Chris made there. Of the two bedsits I've lived in, Chris's has to come first, because it had her in it (not even London balances living with your sweetheart). My parents' house...my memory of my childhood is fading fast.
4. Republicans: I'm not really sure; I haven't been following what I'm sure is already a well-developed battle. I think despite his regrettable toadying to the conserative elements of the Republican Party, John McCain will again fail to get the nod. It's probably going to be someone like Senate Majority Leader Frist, or someone else from the Senate, like George Allen, Elizabeth Dole, or Lamamr Alexander. Governors are actually always a safer bet than congresspeople, but I don't know the filed there at all. Obviously the most electable would be the one who can't run, unless the Constitution were changed (as, IMO, it should be--ridiculously ). Besides, he's having some trouble holding onto his current seat. Californa is a great launching post, but only if it's behind you. Mitt Romney? Jeb Bush? Would the GOP dare to be so obviously patrician?
Democrats: A lot of people would like it to be Obama, but I think he's got the sense to know that he needs a bit more seasoning. A lot of people would also like it to be Sen. Clinton; I think that would be a mistake, unless she can demonstrate an ability to bring people together in ways that she hasn't yet. Bill Richardson, maybe? Ed Rendell? Jennifer Granholm?
The thing I'm most afraid of is that we'll get two "grey men": people who wear the right suits, say the right things to get their party's endorsement, but have no vision, no imagination, and no ability to unite the country).
5. Sometime next year, hopefully. I want to visit my Sassenach friends, too, though, so I'm either going to have to be very careful with money (and leave) or Scotland will have to wait until 2007. And that would never do.*
* All of which assumes I'm not actually moving to the UK next year.
Here are the rules:
1 -- Leave a comment, saying you want to be interviewed.
2 -- I will respond; I'll ask you five questions.
3 -- You'll update your journal with my five questions, and your five answers.
4 -- You'll include this explanation.
5 -- You'll ask other people five questions when they want to be interviewed.
Brooke's questions for me:
1. Your final meal. Describe.
2. 5 books, desert island. Give me the titles and why.
3. Where are/were you happiest?
4. Speculate on the candidates for 2008.
5. When is the next trip to Scotland?
I don't have time to finish this now; I'll do so later.
1. OK, here goes. Aperitif: a pint of Boddington's, cool but not cold. Starter: haggis with oatcakes. Entree: porterhouse steak, medium, cooked in red wine with mushrooms, accompanied by a jacket potato with butter, a small dish of asparagus, and a half-bottle of merlot. Dessert: fresh berries in zabaglione. A glass of Talisker to round out the meal.
2. I'm in a misery, because no one has (or could, probably) issued a one-volume compendium of Dorothy Dunnett's historical novels. Even just one per series would do me. Absent that, the first two books I'd pick would be the first of each of those series: The Game of Kings and Niccolo Rising, because then I can remember (as best I can) what comes after them. The Riverside Shakespeare, because that way I *can* get a whole pile of good stuff between one set of covers, and being on the desert island will give me time to read all the bits that I've never seen, plus I can remember all the really good performances of the ones I have. One Dorothy Sayers? Hmmm. Gaudy Night, I think, though I'm tempted to say Murder Must Advertise; GN has the love story with HV *and* it's all about Oxford. I'm very fond of MMA (it certainly made me think of working in advertising), but there's only a very brief allusion to Harriet, and that would never do. Have His Carcase is good, but it has all the boring cypher stuff. What's that? four? Either The Hobbit or The Horse and His Boy, then. The Hobbit is Tolkien in small--a personal tale, rather than grand drama. And HHB has adventure, a little understated romance (of the teenage "we're rivals, we're rivals, we're rivals...hey, she's pretty" kind), and, well, it's fun. But it has to have the Pauline Baynes illustrations. Nonfiction... it's ephemeral and complex. I'd like books on Plantagent-Tudor-Stewart history, but I'd need a whole shelf, not just one or two.
3. I started to describe *when* I was the happiest, and then stopped and thought about the question. Where? I think of the places I've lived... probably Williams College comes first. I had good friends close around me, a beautiful place to live, "work" was reading and writing papers (well, I guess that hasn't changed :-), and free food and lodging. Then it's a tossup between the house C and I lived in in Brookline (cozy, and our first real place together), our apartment on Commonwealth Avenue in Alexandria (the trees rife with birds, our young kittens), and this house (man, so many memories here...) Our place in Falls Church I loved mostly for the beautiful garden Chris made there. Of the two bedsits I've lived in, Chris's has to come first, because it had her in it (not even London balances living with your sweetheart). My parents' house...my memory of my childhood is fading fast.
4. Republicans: I'm not really sure; I haven't been following what I'm sure is already a well-developed battle. I think despite his regrettable toadying to the conserative elements of the Republican Party, John McCain will again fail to get the nod. It's probably going to be someone like Senate Majority Leader Frist, or someone else from the Senate, like George Allen, Elizabeth Dole, or Lamamr Alexander. Governors are actually always a safer bet than congresspeople, but I don't know the filed there at all. Obviously the most electable would be the one who can't run, unless the Constitution were changed (as, IMO, it should be--ridiculously ). Besides, he's having some trouble holding onto his current seat. Californa is a great launching post, but only if it's behind you. Mitt Romney? Jeb Bush? Would the GOP dare to be so obviously patrician?
Democrats: A lot of people would like it to be Obama, but I think he's got the sense to know that he needs a bit more seasoning. A lot of people would also like it to be Sen. Clinton; I think that would be a mistake, unless she can demonstrate an ability to bring people together in ways that she hasn't yet. Bill Richardson, maybe? Ed Rendell? Jennifer Granholm?
The thing I'm most afraid of is that we'll get two "grey men": people who wear the right suits, say the right things to get their party's endorsement, but have no vision, no imagination, and no ability to unite the country).
5. Sometime next year, hopefully. I want to visit my Sassenach friends, too, though, so I'm either going to have to be very careful with money (and leave) or Scotland will have to wait until 2007. And that would never do.*
* All of which assumes I'm not actually moving to the UK next year.
no subject
Date: 2005-10-18 12:43 pm (UTC)1. What one place that you haven't been to yet would you most like to go?
2. What food that you haven't eaten would you most like to try?
3. What do you think happens to people when they die?
4. What instruments, if any, can you play now? (I should know this, but I've forgotten)
5. Thuddy or stingy? (ditto :-)