Twenty Statements. Plus One.

Over at Of Course, I Could Be Wrong, MadPriest has been letting slip a little more information about himself. I thought I would do likewise.*

Things you should know about me:

I like okra. Even boiled.

I think the Rolling Stones are vastly overrated.

Andrew Lloyd Weber, likewise.

I memorized "The Walrus and The Carpenter" when I was twelve. I can still remember most of it.

I read mostly nonfiction. Of the fiction I do read, I read mysteries, with a preference for those with historical settings. I do not read science fiction, except for Connie Willis.

I have a thing for men with Southern accents.

I was once on Jeopardy! opposite Ken Jennings. I lost. I don't watch Jeopardy! anymore.

I bake the best damn brownies you've ever tasted. No, they don't have hashish in them.

I sing. Incessantly. Whenever I am not in public. My car is not considered "public," nor is my house. My kids have to put up with a great deal.

I like show tunes. I like to sing show tunes. I mostly like to sing showtunes sung by male characters, even though I am a soprano.

I can't stop watching crime procedurals such as Law & Order and CSI, even though I think they warp the public's perceptions of the criminal justice system in often dangerous ways.

I think Hugh Laurie is the sexiest man on television, and Eric Clapton the sexiest man in rock 'n' roll. Even if he is sixty.

When I was very young, I wanted to grow up to be a linebacker for da' Bears. I was heartbroken when I discovered that this was not in fact a viable career path for me.

I can keep a baseball scorecard, more or less.

I love almost all sports that do not involve motorized vehicles. Notable exceptions are soccer and ice hockey. And even then I can be induced to watch them under the right circumstances.

I used to live in Atlanta. Since that time, I refuse to live any place that is more than ninety minutes from the ocean.

I was born in New Orleans. This explains my tendency towards melodrama. It's in the water.

I have been to a dozen countries on four continents. Fourteen if you count Gibraltar** and Austria, both of which we drove through mainly to say we drove through them.

I have driven in Paris. And Madrid. And Amsterdam. And on the backroads of Normandy, the German autobahn, and the roads from the Costa de la Luz to the hill country north of Seville.

When I first registered to vote as an eighteen-year-old, I registered Republican so I could vote against all the incumbent Republican school board members. Politics is local. I changed to Democratic in 1980 and have never looked back.

I make no pretensions to sophistication, although I do tend towards cynicism.

Anything else you want to know? You can now email me through my profile.



*He was being serious. I of course am being silly.

**ETA: Sarah H. has refreshed my memory about Gilbraltar, since she was one of the intrepid party wandering around Southern Spain that evening. Yes, we did get out of the car in Gilbraltar, twice. Once was to stand around in the dark at a place with signs indicating that it was the end of Europe, but since it was completely dark, it was pretty darn hard to tell. It was cold, it was windy, it was unremarkable. The second time, which I had completely forgotten, was to eat dinner at McDonald's. In any case, we were there primarily to say we had been there, since it was after dark and since we didn't have enough time to spend to actually look at much of Gilbraltar. (I do remember some lovely houses, though.) Still doesn't count in my book.