Category: Friday Fives

1. People who eat ice cream in winter, why?

Because it is ice cream! Duh!

2. What’s your opinion on smartwatches? 

I love the idea of them and have owned a few but I am very hard on watches and at least the Samsung Fossiil brands of smart watches are just too dainty for my clumsy self.

3. What’s the most helpful career/workplace advice someone has given you?

Show up to work everyday. It is kind of surprising how many folks look at actually being at work is a challenging expectation.

4. How often do you get angry?

Usually whenI do something impatiently and it doesn’t turn out right or when I clumsily stubb a toe or something. I usually get angry at myself. For other anger triggering circumstances, I am usually just disappointed.

5. Your phone will suddenly be connected to the internet 5 years in the future, and you will have precisely 30 minutes to browse, but you can’t save or screenshot anything. What do you look up first, and how do you use that knowledge once you’re stuck back in the present?

Thirty secconds is pretty quick. Not a lot of time to track a fad or do deep research. I would find out the winners of the last two superbowls then on my return parlay a few bets in Las Vegas to walk away a winner.

1. The Mega Millions is currently worth well over a billion dollars. Let’s reduce this to a manageable, relatable question: What would you do with 8 million dollars?

Invest in a long term index fund and live off the interest. That is enough dough for me to simply retire early and life a modest life.

2. What is your TMI limit?

TMI for me is sounds – especially in the public restroom. I can handle most anything else but the sounds – that is what gives me the ughs.

3. When did you last see the sunrise? Why were you there?

Just over a year ago driving all night to Grand Junction after mom’s fatal hear attack.

4. if you were to restart your favorite hobby, how would you do it?

This is on my mind. Maybe a NewYearr’s resolution – a return to black and white 35 mm photography. I dug out my Nikon F3 the other day and got really nostalgic.

5. If you could go back to 2000 and give yourself advice, but it had to be a one-word cryptic clue, what would you tell yourself?

CDO. (Credit Debt Obligations – the financial tool that broke the world in the home credit melt down in 2007 .

1. What is the easiest way to make you laugh?

A clever, quick turn of phrase

2. Who is a person you met only once that had an impact on your life?

There was this Army Reserve Major visiting our basei n the Army in Germany. I think he was a teacher in civilian life and he had all kinds of life pro tricks. I learned to shave with a razor not my Norelco from him.

3. What is under your bed?

A box of blankets and important file box of papers really should be in a fireproof safe box thingy

4. What’s a story you know about your grandfather?

My mom’s dad worked as a telegrapher for the railroad in the 30s and 40s and was a master at morse code and telegraphy even up into his 70s. (And he played a mean game of gin rummy too.)

5. What do you see out of the window you look out of most?

A parking lot next an elementary school playground.

1. What actor/actress played the best president?

Martin Sheen as Jed Bartlett on the West Wing

2. What actor/actress played the best rock star?

Bette Midler as “The Rose:

3. What actor/actress played your favorite historical figure.?

Walter Matthau as Albert Einsteinin 1994s I.Q

4. What actor played your favorite version of Elvis?

Kurt Russel in “Elvis” a made-for-TV movie

5. What actor/actress played the best famous author?

Character actor Jerry Hardin as Mark Twain in Star Trek: The Next Generation.

1. Which historical figure do you most identify with?

Napoleon. I am a fierce conqueror yet so miss understood.

2. What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?

I am so God Damned clumsy.

3. Which living person do you most despise?

Donald J. Trump

4. Which words or phrases do you most overuse?

“Living the dream!”

5. What fictional place would you like to live?

The magical book world in Jasper Fforde’s “Thursday Next” novels.

1. What is one food that’s basic in terms of ingredients and recipe, but you adore?

Basted eggs and toast. Just a bit of olive oil and butter in a non-stick skillet. Warm to about 3.5 setting on the stove. Let the butter melt but don’t let it burn.
Knock in two eggs and about a tablespoon or less of water then cover to steam/fry the eggs.
They are done when the whites are cooked but the yolks are set but still run.
Serve with toast. The entire meal takes about five minutes.

2. What’s a hobby and/or habit you started during the pandemic(Ongoing or not)?

Bread baking. I have gotten good at artisan no knead bread, sourdough, beer bread, English muffin bread and biscuits.

3. What’s a childhood memory that still makes you laugh to this day?

One year at Christmas when I was probably four years old all of us (sisters and cousins ) got these flashlights that projected a clown’s face and we played lights out hide and seek in the grand parents house all day.

4. Not counting Die Hard, what is a Christmas movie that wasn’t released/marketed as a Christmas movie.

The Thin Man from 1934. Classic. Myrna Loy steals every scene.

5. if you could’ve stayed at one age for the rest of your life, which would it be?

Thirty-four. That was the best version of me.

1. What is your favorite occupation?

I liked my little job at the newspaper in Craig and mostly the people I worked with. The publisher was a bit nuts and the small town politics were bothersome but writing up feature stories of the folks in and around the town was fun.

2. What is your current state of mind?

How. How the fuck did we actually re-elect that godless mad man again. I am currently searching all over Amazon for a chaos safety kit to use when the metaphorical shit hits the fan.

3. What is your most marked characteristic?

My quick wit.

4. When and where were you happiest?

In my 30s, freshly relocated to Denver and among old friends amid new beginnings. Broke as could be and happy.

5. What is your greatest extravagance?

I still pay for cable. It is so convenient to have all that stuff you want to watch in one place. I still have some streaming apps on the Roku but I still watch a lot of cable and network stuff.

Questions via Vanity Fair’s The Proust Questionnaire

1. What film franchise had the best sequel?

The Godfather. Godfather II is an almost perfect film.

2. And conversely, the worst?

Arthur II. The original Arthus is a funny film and holds up after all these years. The seque? unwatchable.

3. What recording artist had an even better second album after their debut?

That is tough as there are so many artists/albums. i am going to go with
The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan – a masterpiece of the time “Blowin in the Wind,” “Girl From The North Country.” The list goes on and on.

4. What was the earliest cassette song you remember listening to on a Walkman?

Queen “Crazy Little Thing Called Love.” I remember buying the Walkman and the cassette at the Craig KMart.

5. What’s a great song featuring the saxophone?

Gerry Raferty – Bakerstreet.

Gut punch week.
I need to surround my self in all the comforts

1. what is your “comfort movie” when you need a lift?

Finding Forester. I guess as an English major in college it resonates and what is wrong with Sean Connery and F. Murray Abraham.

2. What is your go to comfort food?

Mac and Cheese – the home made kind not that crap from a box at the store – and better yet my sister’s homemade mac and cheese. The secret ingredient is cream cheese.

3. What is your go to comfort watch on the telly?

British crime dramas. I can get sucked into to some old BBC crime detective binges in a heartbeat.

4. What is your best way to clear the head and calm the nerves?

Talk a long walk or in more conducive weather a bike trek.

5. What fictional characters would you surround yourself with whan you find your self stressed and depressed.

Well, none of the Avengers for sure that just seems too stressful. Maybe just hanging out a the coffee shop with the cast of Friends – but being careful around Ross because he really is a terrible person.

1. In conference call bingo, where you check off business words that will inevitably show up on the call, what word/term do you despise the most?

Synchronizing synergies (I actually heard this week, but I don’t even know what it means)

2. In journalism/political speaking, what is a term/word people get wrong all the time?

The role and powers of the US Vice President. The constitution does not provide detailed roles and responsibilities for this person, so they kind of roll their own.

3. What’s an emerging technology that will probably make the world a worse place to live in once it’s perfected?

Encrypted data chain tech like that behind BitCurrency is probably the best option. So many people really want it to work, but it is nebulous and prone to fraud and scams. I’ve read a few books and dozens of articles on the tech, and it scares me.

4. What is something you detested as a child but like now as an adult?

Asparagus. To be fair, growing up in the sixties and seventies, most vegetables were overcooked, canned, or frozen and flavorless. But while traveling in France, I ordered an asparagus omelet at a truck stop diner (or the French version therein), and it was so delightful and yummy that it changed my entire world order.

5. How would you spend $50,000 in 1 hour?

Buy a car. Go to the car leasing agent and tell him, “Hi, here is $50,000. Get me something nice.”