Random Pensées

The Four Things Meme

Michele posted this one and, as I have a dearth of inspiration, I snagged it:

The Meme of Four

Four jobs you’ve had in your life: Assistant Tennis Pro; Slide Projectionist for Art History 101; Bartender; and, oh yeah, Lawyer (current)

Four movies you could watch over and over: They may not really be movies, all of these, but: Danger UXB; The Jeeves/Wooster Series; Auntie Mame; Mr. Blandings Builds his Dream House.

Four places you’ve lived: New York City; New Orleans; Paris; London.

Four TV shows you love to watch: I watch TV very rarely and while there isn’t anything that I loooove to watch, I do regularly watch Antiques Roadshow; Monday Night Football (camera work is excellent); All Yankees Games; What Not to Wear (the Viking Bride loves it and so I watch with her).

Four websites you visit daily: Bloglines (to catch up on all of my friends); Little Green Footballs; Gmail; Westlaw.

Four of your favorite foods: Chili; Black Beans (love them mashed up with more chili peppers than a human can usually stand); Burmese food; and, Lobster Bisque (current craze, will order if see on menu without fail).

Four places you’d rather be: Home with my kids; BEEEAAACH; Antigua Guatelama with the Viking Bride; the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Four albums you can’t live without: Ok, there isn’t any such thing. It changes all the time. That’s just the way it is. That said, at the moment: Noce de Figaro (Mozart); Zydeco; Jimmy Buffet (or as the Boy Child says, Johnny Buffin!); the Talking Heads, the early stuff.

I'm going to add the following category since I'm such a heavy drinker:
Four of your favorite drinks: This was Michele’s and she was all about the tea. Not me, even if I’m going to leave this up: Espresso; White Burgundies (tastes like liquid sunshine); diet grape soda from Polar Bear (so, sue me).

If you're reading this you may consider yourself tagged (if you like).

I am King Edward!

Found this one at Even Me:

King Edward I You scored 61 Wisdom, 77 Tactics, 56 Guts, and 52 Ruthlessness!

Or rather, King Edward the Longshanks if you've seen Braveheart. You, like Edward, are incredibly smart and shrewd, but you win at any costs.... William Wallace died at his hands after a fierce Scottish rebellion against his reign. Despite his reputation though, Longshanks had the best interests of his people at heart. But God help you if you got on his bad side.

My alcohol knowledge

A misspent youth is all I can blame for the following results to the test I found at Lawren's place:

Bacardi 151 Congratulations! You're 144 proof, with specific scores in beer (60) , wine (133), and liquor (121).

All right. No more messing around. Your knowledge of alcohol is so high that you have drinking and getting plastered down to a science. Sure, you could get wasted drinking beer, but who needs all those trips to the bathroom? You head straight for the bar and pick up that which is most efficient.

More meme smack

I have been meme smacked again. I am answering both of them below.

Meme I: Five Things I Miss From My Childhood, from Kathy

Thanks, Kathy, for tagging me with this one. I am a bit of a nostalgia hound and this one was fun.

1. I miss being brown. I miss living before people cared about sun screen. I spent every Summer toasted a golden brown. I gleamed with health. I ran everywhere and all of my clothes had holes in them because I was that kind of a kid. We didn't have car seats for kids. I remember being allowed to stick my head out of the window of my parents' huge Oldsmobile and the wind sucking my breath away.

2. I miss sprinting down the street after the Good Humor truck as it spewed forth its horrible jingle. I would clutch, in my grubby little hand, enough money to buy ice cream sandwiches for my sister and me. My feet were always bare and I remember that the pavement on the street was always hot and I would try to run on the front of our neighbors' lawns so not to burn my feet. I was barefoot a lot. I wear socks and shoes now. I miss the hard little leather feet I had.

3. I miss my dad being young. I miss my grandmother, my maternal grandmother. I don't feel like elaborating. Do I need to?

4. I miss my sister being so gullible that she would hold her breath, on my instructions, as we drove past the local cemetery. I told her that if she breathed, the dead souls could come into your body and haunt you and that the only way to get rid of them was to eat liver. My mother would actually slow down and drive past the cemetery as often as possible because she said it was the only time we were quiet in the car.

5. I miss or maybe am just nostalgic for a time when we were allowed to be kids, when we weren't over scheduled with dance class and martial arts and gymnastics. When we could have the luxury of wasting time in play, in digging in the backyard looking for dinosaur bones, in feeling like our lives stretched out in front of us like an endless Summer punctuated by trips to the pool and bike rides to get ice cream at the end of the day. I miss that sense of wonder and of the time given to us to develop our imaginations, to realize and believe that anything was possible because we had the time to dream it. Seems like a paradox, but we as children then were better able to take advantage of our time by wasting it than by squeezing it and manipulating it in order to fit in as many different activities as our parents think the Harvard Admissions Office will look favorably upon. I miss being allowed to be a kid. I miss that on behalf of all the kids I see around me. My kids, I think, are going to have that. I hope. *fingers crossed*

The rules:

Remove the #1 item from the following list, bump everyone up one place and add your blog's name in the #5 spot. You need to link to actually link to each of the blogs for the link-whorage aspect of this fiendish meme to kick in.

Villainous Company
Pirate's Cove
Fistful of Fortnights
Cake Eater Chronicles
Random Pensees

Next, select four unsuspecting victims, list and link to them. Get the plank ready.

Nope. I rarely do that. If you'd like to play, jump on in. This one was a lot of fun.

Meme II: The DVD Collection, from Margi

Margi asked me to do this and I always try to do whatever Margi asks.

1. Total number of films I own on DVD/video:
Like Margi, I'm not sure how many we own. Probably somewhere between 30 and 100. I doubt we own more than that, but I have been surprised in the past by little things like this.

2. The last film I bought:
“Danger UXB�, I think. My wife gave it to me as a present. I heart Danger UXB and I recommend it every chance I get. It is about 14 hours long and it chronicles the adventures of the British Army in defusing UneXploded Bombs (UXB, get it?) which fell in London during the Battle of Britain and were in too senstive a location to be allowed to explode.

3. The last film I watched:

Umm, I'm not really sure. I don't get time to watch a lot of movies. We don't really let the kids watch television too much so it would have to be when they are sleeping. If they are napping, I'm doing errand stuff -- cleaning or cooking or napping myself if I can get away with it. If they are sleeping, I'm usually too tired to focus on a movie. Maybe the last one I watched in full was the Lion King in Norwegian. That was interesting.

4. Five films that I watch a lot or that mean a lot to me (in no particular order):

Auntie Mame, with Rosalind Russell

Animal House, which I watched like 30 times in order to prepare for going away to college

Blazing Saddles

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (Zero Mostel)

Saving Private Ryan, which I saw in a theater in Oslo and it was only with the greatest self-control that I stopped myself from standing up at the end and shouting at the whole theater -- "Did you see that? Those boys died for your freedom!" I can't tell you how close I came to doing that. And yes, I cried at the end.

5. Tag 5 people and have them put this in their journal/blog:

Nope. I rarely ever do that. If you'd like to play, jump on in and self select.

40 things meme

Lacking energy and inspiration, I took this meme from Jennifer. Thanks for the boost! By the way, go see her answers. They rock.

1. My uncle once: took me for a ride in the hills of Los Angeles in his Porsche 911. I was maybe 12. It was hot.

2. Never in my life: have I been sorry I met, dated, and married my wife.

3. When I was five: I used to have a Great Dane named Claudius. He was my refuge when I was sad. He was so big, I could lie on top of him and cry.

4. High School was: a long time ago, but I can't seem to let it go. In some ways, it was a better educational experience than anything that followed. It was that good. Really.

5. I will never forget: what I was doing when the first plane hit the World Trade Center. Rest in peace, Mary Joe.

6. I once met: Peter Graves. He lived across the street from my aunt and uncle and I went and knocked on his door. He was pretty nice to me, but then, I was just a little kid. I also once met Danny Glover and his wife in Paris. They were lost and I stopped and gave them directions and some recommendations about where to go, all without ever letting them know I knew who they were. I figured that they were on vacation and the last thing they needed was my telling him how much I admired his work in Lethal Weapon.

7. There's this girl I know who: used to piss us all off as a control freak, but then she had kids and, believe it or not, totally relaxed and became very easy to be around. Odd, huh?

8. Once, at a bar: what do you mean, once? Ok, how about my friend almost got beat up by the bartender when he asked said bartender what his background was that facilitated his writing a book on Irish mythology. The bartender took exception. Tips may have been lower than usual that night.

9. By noon, I'm usually: wondering where the day went.

10. Last night: I came up to go to bed and found that the Girl Child was still awake. She came in to keep us company while we brushed our teeth and then she got into my bed with her two stuffed animals. I joined her and we cuddled. It was delicious.

11. If I only had: taken that stupid Chinese language course pass/fail Freshman year, I would have graduated Summa from college. Grrr.

12. Next time I go to church: it will most likely be for a funeral.

13. Terry Shiavo: should be left in peace and not used as a poster woman for anything.

14. What worries me most: is the very real possibility that I may fail to equip my kids with everything they need to get the most out of this great big life. And that the people I love won't know it always, which could be why I'm relentless and obtuse in making the point. [This was Jenn's answer and I have left it pretty much the way she put it -- how can you improve on perfection?]

15. When I turn my head left, I see: File cabinets overflowing with papers and files, representing years or work and tens of thousands of dollars worth of time.

16. When I turn my head right, I see: a wall with some old French legal prints and a print of a clipper ship under full sail. I like maritime art.

17. You know I'm lying when: beats me. Ask my wife. She always seems to know and she won't tell me how.

18. What I miss most about the eighties: the music. And my youth. Lacrosse. That big old Oldsmobile I drove. My buddy, Jeff and the people he and I used to be.

19. If I was a character in Shakespeare, I'd be: wearing a cod-piece and waving a bodkin.

20. By this time next year: I will have hopefully settled into a new house, new community, new life, and be totally and utterly consumed by a piece of litigation so large that it makes everything else I've ever done look like a rounding error.

21. A better name for me would be: something that shortens better.

22. I have a hard time understanding: ketchup on a hot dog (or catsup, for that matter). Also, why people reflexively blame America for everything that is wrong in the world. May be related to the ketchup thing.

23. If I ever go back to school, I'll: take a Ph.D in something I really want to know more about -- like Classical Studies, or Architectural History, or Economics, or Renaissance Studies.

24. You know I like you if: I give you shit. In a nice way. Not in that this is an invitation to step outside kind of way.

25. If I ever won an award, the first person I'd thank would be: my grandfather. Unless my wife was right there. Then I would have to thank her. I love my grandfather like nobody's business, but I have to go home with my wife.

26. Darwin, Mozart, Slim Pickens & Geraldine Ferraro: Marlin Perkins, Schubert, Johnny Cash & Maggie Thatcher.

27. Take my advice, never: if you want me to get so pissed off after I take the time to give it to you that I will write you off completely as not worth the time. I am only partially kidding.

28. My ideal breakfast is: brunch. I love brunch. And bloody mary's. Seriously, everything about a yummy brunch -- the eggs benedict, the roasted beasts, the salmon, the shrimp, the dessert tables, the sausage. Love brunch.

29. A song I love, but do not have is: nothing really comes to mind, actually.

30. If you visit my hometown, I suggest: brunch. There really isn't much to do in my hometown *cue Paul Simon -- my hometown. . . * but there is a hotel that does a nice brunch. See #28 above.

31. Tulips, character flaws, microchips & track stars: Honeysuckle, idiosyncracies, chocolate chips & shooting stars.

32. Why won't people: drive better?

33. If you spend the night at my house: you will stay up too late chatting and drinking wine and will fall asleep in our guest room, amidst many, many books.

34. I'd stop my wedding for: a Menthos.

35. The world could do without: cruelty to children. It lacerates my heart.

36. I'd rather lick the belly of a cockroach than: Really? There's an answer to this?

37. My favorite blonde is: my wife, followed by my children.

38. Paper clips are more useful than: most other Norwegian inventions. Did you know that? Yup, a Norwegian invented the darn thing.

39. If I do anything well, it's: listen.

40. And by the way: did you really read everything or did you just skip to the end?

Meme rash

I have been tagged by a couple of memes (is my nose bleeding?).

Eric got me on the this one:

List five things that people in your circle of friends or peer group are wild about, but you can't really understand the fuss over.

Ok, since I like Eric and I sort of think this one is interesting, I'll give it a shot.

First: Reality Television.

Reality television is not reality. I have seen very little of it and what I have seen is execrable. I don't really need that much crap in my life.

Second: Competitive Admission Pre-School

Ok, while maybe I do understand it, sort of, that there are a limited number of slots at good pre-schools in New York City (read: Manhattan) and every parent is convinced that his or her child will not get into Dalton if they don't go to Ms. Frobishers' Finishing School for the Pre-School Years, it's the hysteria part of this that I don't get. Schlepping your poor kid from interview to interview and test to test. For what? A pre-school where you get the chance to spend $12,000 a year for nose picking and finger painting? Please.

Third: College Savings.

Much of my peer group is consumed with the idea of college savings. We are more concerned at this point with retirement savings. As my wife points out to me, the kids can, if they have to, borrow money to go to college. No one will ever lend us money to retire. That said, we are putting money away for the kids, we're just not consumed with it.

Fourth: Golf.

I'm sure it's very nice and all, but have you ever been part of a golf conversation without wanting someone to come along and either shoot the people talking about golf or shoot you and you don't care anymore which it is?

Fifth: Crackberrys

Why do you want to be reachable from work all the time? Why is constant availability a virtue for most people? Why sit there and peck away, looking so terribly important, when all you're doing is exchanging bullshit with a friend? I don't get it. I don't have one and I don't want one.

END OF MEME ONE

START OF MEME TWO

Tinklebelle tagged me with a book meme:

1. Total number of books I’ve owned

No idea. I can say that when we bought our last house, I had an additional 80 linear feet of shelf space put in and I've outgrown it in three years. We are voracious readers in my house.

2. The last book I bought.

I'm not 100% sure. There were two books. Right now, I'm not supposed to be buying any more books in light of the impending move. But the two I bought were:

Alexander Hamilton: A Life, by Willard Sterne Randall (currently a bargain selection on Amazon, I note); and,

Freakonomics : A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything,
by Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner.

3. The last book I read.

I am almost finished with Rubicon : The Last Years of the Roman Republic,
by Tom Holland. I would have finished it sooner, but I keep falling asleep on the train at night!

4. 5 Books that mean a lot to you.

Gee, I am not really sure. Some books have meant more to me at other times than now, for instance.

How about, and only as a partial list:

*Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child, by Marc Weissbluth (a must read for any new parent)

*Kim, by Rudyard Kipling (inspired a life long fascination with the whole region)

*The Three Musketeers, Dumas (love historical fiction)

*The Norton Anthology of Poetry (enough said)

*Breakout: The Chosin Reservoir Campaign, Korea 1950, by Martin Russ (the heroism of these brave men during a war we often forget about will take your breath away).

I think this list could go on and on, but I have to get some work done today.

5. Tag 5 people and request they fill this out on their journal.

Nope.

END OF MEME TWO

If you want to identify yourself and play along with either of these two memes, that would be great, but I'm not inclined to tag anyone else with any memes. Not really my thing. But thanks for asking me to play!

Last interview concluded: Angie's answers are up!

With Angie's answers up, this now concludes the interview game for my blog.

Thanks for playing, Angie!

This was actually a lot of fun and I might seriously think about doing it again some time, assuming interest on the part of prospective interviewees!

John's Interview Answers are up!

John has posted his answers and they are, uniformly, excellent and interesting. I highly recommend you go forth and read them. John's description of his perfect performance was exceptional. Thanks, John, for your thoughtful answers!

Helen's Answers are up!

Helen has posted her answers and they are, as expected, really great. Go forth and read them! Thanks for playing, Helen!

Sixth Interview: John

John is someone I like very much and so, when he came in late on the responses, I told him that I'd be happy to make an exception for him and throw some questions his way.

So, I will ask John five questions below and he will respond on his blog, let me know, and I will link to his answers. Actually, though, I'm posing six questions in case he doesn't want to answer any one question. So, John, you can pick and choose or answer them all. I leave it up to you, entirely.

Anyway, here are the questions and a link to the rules, which John has to include on his page:

1. You are on the desert island. What three books would you have to have and what would you want to be able to drink while reading them?

2. What’s your opinion on the designated hitter? Ruined baseball or extended the careers of some great players?

3. What is the most iconic song to come out of the 1980's?

4. What did you want to be when you were growing up? Did you become it? Are you ok with not becoming it? If you did become it, has it been all you hoped?

5. Describe the best performance you’ve ever given and tell me why it was the best. Was it the crowd? The technical aspects? What made it great?

6. Describe your perfect, self-indulgent, guilty escape from work/family day. Even if it is just a fantasy.

John, it was only with the greatest restraint that I refrained from asking you: where is the oddest place you’ve ever had sex (and I don’t mean on/in your body by place)?

Fifth Interview: Helen

Helen is our fifth, but not final, interview. I must say that I'm both delighted that she stepped forward and feeling a little constrained by interviewing someone for whom I have such affection and admiration. Plus, I'd really hate to piss Angus off with my questions. I like Angus. One of these days, soon, I have to write a bit about dinner with the two of them!

So, I will ask Helen five questions below and she will respond on her blog, let me know, and I will link to her answers. Actually, though, I'm posing six questions in case she doesn't want to answer any one question. So, Helen, you can pick and choose or answer them all. I leave it up to you, entirely.

Anyway, here are the questions and a link to the rules, which Helen has to include on her page:

1. You live in London and have lived in Sweden. Has living abroad changed your understanding of your own native country? Do you sometimes feel as if you are the designated American representative on all issues?

2. You are on death row and it is time to pick your last meal. What is it and what would you drink with it. Assume no limits.

3. You’ve won the lottery and are going back to school to do a doctorate. In what field and why?

4. If you could go back in time and apologize to someone, who would it be and why?

5. Do you think that men who prefer woman who shave their pubic hair are threatened by real women?

6. Why do you blog? What do you get out of it?

Helen, I had several other questions I wanted to pose, too! So, if you don't like these, let me know. Although the others might be worse! For instance, which cartoon character do you identify more with, Tom or Jerry?

Hannah's answers are up!

Hannah has posted her answers to the interview questions and they were full and detailed. Some very cool explanations of things like the Dutch educational system. Go check 'em out!

Fourth Interview: Angie

Say hello to Angie, our fourth interview.

I will ask her five questions below and she will respond on her blog, let me know, and I will link to her answers. Actually, though, I'm posing six questions in case she doesn't want to answer any one question. So, Angie, you can pick and choose or answer them all. I leave it up to you, entirely.

Anyway, here are the questions and a link to the rules, which Angie has to include on her page:

1. If you could pick one world affliction to end, which would it be and why? What bad effect on the world at large do you think your choice might have?

2. What is your biggest disappointment to date? How have you rebounded from it, assuming you have?

3. How is it to work in a traditionally male dominated profession? Do you find it different from other jobs you have held?

4. What is your favorite room in your house and why? How is it furnished?

5. What was the most unexpectedly great class you’ve ever taken?

6. Why do you blog? What do you get out of it?

Dee's Answers are up!

Wow, Dee, that was really fast! Thanks for playing. If you'd like to go see Dee's answers, and I'm sure you do, go check 'em out here!

Third Interview: Dee

Dee is the newest person under the lens today.

I will ask her five questions below and she will respond on her blog, let me know, and I will link to her answers. Actually, though, I'm posing six questions in case she doesn't want to answer any one question. So, Dee, you can pick and choose or answer them all. I leave it up to you, entirely.

Anyway, here are the questions and a link to the rules, which Dee has to include on her page:

1. What is the one food you cannot abide and why? If there isn’t one, what is the oddest thing you’ve ever eaten?

2. What is the single most impulsive thing you’ve ever done? How did it turn out for you?

3. What piece of art moves you more than anything, and why?

4. How did you come to find yourself living a submissive lifestyle? Was the transition very difficult? Do your children know?

5. If you could pack up in live in any other city in the world, which one and why?

6. Why do you blog? What do you get out of it?

Tune in later for Dee's answers!

Second Interview: Hannah

Hannah is our second interview and I think ought to be very interesting, considering she lives in the Netherlands but hails from New York. Some herring with attitude, it strikes me.

I will ask her five questions below and she will respond on her blog, let me know, and I will link to her answers. Actually, though, I'm posing six questions in case she doesn't want to answer any one question. So, Hannah, you can pick and choose or answer them all. I leave it up to you, entirely.

Anyway, here are the questions and a link to the rules, which Hannah has to include on her page:

1. How many magazines do you subscribe to? Which one is your favorite and why? Which one is your guilty pleasure?

2. How old were you when you moved to the Netherlands and what was the process of cultural adjustment like for you? The biggest shock?

3. If you went skydiving, would you jump or would they have to push you and why?

4. Why do you blog? What do you get out of it?

5. What is the biggest risk you've ever taken and how did it turn out?

6. What piece of literature has had the greatest impact on your life and why? Should I read it, too?

Indigo's Interview Answers

Indigo has answered her interview questions and I highly recommend going to read them. At a minimum, you will learn something really cool about traditional Indian dance.

Thanks, Indigo!

Tune in tomorrow for the next subject.

First Interview: Indigo

Indigo boldly stepped up to the plate for the first interview. I will ask her five questions below and she will respond on her blog, let me know, and I will link to her answers. Actually, though, I'm posing six questions in case she doesn't want to answer any one question. So, Indigo, you can pick and choose or answer them all. I leave it up to you, entirely.

The Questions:

1. What was the biggest surprise to you about coming to NY? What do you miss most about Hawaii?

2. You are a dancer in a particular field I am only a tiny bit aware of and that’s only because of you. Can you explain the field and what you derive from it?

3. Have your politics changed since Sept. 11? If so, how?

4. Has the internet brought people closer together or made it easier to maintain isolation?

5. Why do you blog? What do you get out of it?

6. What bad habit do you have that you wish you didn't?

Interviews

So, this should be fun. Our interviewees have been (self)selected and include, in the order they responded:

1. Indigo

2. Hannah

3. Dee

4. Angie

5. Helen

and because he asked so nicely to be included

6. John.

These people represent a really interesting cross section and I think it will be great fun to interview them. Stay tuned as I invent some questions for their amusement.

The rules are that you answer the questions on your site, include the rules as I did in my link, and I will link to your responses here on my blog.

My Interview

Kathy, at Cake Eater Chronicles, has kindly consented to interview me and even more kindly did not impose any time limits on my answers. So, a day later than I would have liked, I herewith reply below the jump. Here are the questions:

1. You're a corporate litigator. The lawyers I used to work with would occasionally become tired of cleaning up other people's messes---and would whine about it. If you could, what would you say to a particularly idiotic client if you didn't have to fear the loss of their billable hours?

2. You live and work in the NYC metropolitan area. For those of us who have never been, explain the pros and cons of living and working in that city.

3. If you could become a cat burglar, and were able to access (albeit illegally) any musuem in the world, knowing that a. what you're choosing to steal is for your personal pleasure and b. you wouldn't be caught, what piece of art would you choose to steal and why?

4. You're an anonymous blogger. Why did you choose to blog anonymously? Do you feel it gives you more leeway to write certain things than if you attached your name to your work? Do you ever feel the compulsion to fib to your readers, knowing full well that they'd have no idea if you were telling the truth or not?

5. Name your all-time favorite book. Why do you love it so?

By the way, this is part of a meme (a concept I find fascinating, like the way a bad virus takes over the body) and here are the rules:

Leave me a comment saying “interview me�. The first five commenters will be the participants. I will respond by asking you five questions. You will update your blog/site with the answers to the questions. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions. (Write your own questions or borrow some.)

If you're interested in my answers to Kathy's excellent questions, read on in extended entry below:

1. You're a corporate litigator. The lawyers I used to work with would occasionally become tired of cleaning up other people's messes---and would whine about it. If you could, what would you say to a particularly idiotic client if you didn't have to fear the loss of their billable hours?

Well, I have to say that no one likes to clean up all the time. Sometimes, it is downright annoying. And, in fact, I have come very close to saying: "You are a cheap asshole who tried to do this deal yourself and now you are solely responsible for the mess you've made and are screaming for me to get you out of. Stop being so damn cheap and call me before you sign something, not after." In other words, don't be penny wise and pound foolish, something I actually have told clients before.

2. You live and work in the NYC metropolitan area. For those of us who have never been, explain the pros and cons of living and working in that city.

The pros and the cons are sometimes the same. It is an energetic, always fast moving, hard working, exciting place to work and live. These factors each cut both ways. Sometimes, you really just want to hang a "gone fishin'" sign on your door, turn off the world and take a break. This can be hard to do in NY and impossible to do when you have children.

Other pros to actually living in NYC, though, include: Chinese food delivered to your door in under seven minutes (no exaggeration); something cool and cultural happening every single evening; having within a two block radius of our old apartment on the Upper East Side a plethora of different kinds of ethnic food (Turkish, Chinese, Burmese, Thai, Japanese, Italian, Greek, Pizza, Persian, and more Turkish); having your value systems being challanged on an almost daily basis by close proximity to other languages and other ways of doing things (keeps you from being complacent); and the sheer beauty of the architecture.

Pros to working in NYC: the feeling that you are running with the thouroughbreds; the knowledge that NYC attracts some of the best and brightest and most ambitious people in the world.

Cons include: the thought that at some point your city may be a target, again, for mass terrorism; the price of housing (extraordinary); the way wealth can distort people's values and how you raise children when you don't have a hedge fund and you don't want your kids to think it is normal for everyone else to have one.

3. If you could become a cat burglar, and were able to access (albeit illegally) any musuem in the world, knowing that a. what you're choosing to steal is for your personal pleasure and b. you wouldn't be caught, what piece of art would you choose to steal and why?

First, what makes you think that I am not hiding the Scream in my closet already, having written about it enough?

Second, piece of art? The broadness of this question almost made my head explode. I have so many favorites that I don't know how to choose. Seriously. I was thinking about this one for awhile because I enjoyed thinking about it, kicking various museums around in my head, the Frick, the Wallace, the Met, the Gulbenkian, etc. And then it hit me, I would probably want to redistribute some of the cultural wealth in the Toledo (Ohio) Museum of Art and re-hang, in my own home, "The Architect's Dream".

This is one I would take because I had a poster of it in college. I used to love looking at it, thinking about how the architect could lie there and contemplate all the broad strokes of history and borrow or be inspired by whatever he saw. It was a painting made at the height of historical ecclecticism when architects were building almost exclusively from historical memory. And besides, it is full of great detail.

If it was sculpture, probably the Gates of Hell by Rodin. Or maybe something by Vigeland from Frogner Park in Oslo.

4. You're an anonymous blogger. Why did you choose to blog anonymously? Do you feel it gives you more leeway to write certain things than if you attached your name to your work? Do you ever feel the compulsion to fib to your readers, knowing full well that they'd have no idea if you were telling the truth or not?

I chose to blog anonymously because I had no idea what I was going to be writing about. Actually, I still have no real clear idea what the hell my blog is. But I knew that I might be talking about work or family and I did not want to breach the privacy of my clients or my family. So I knew that if I was going to do this, I had to do it behind a screen. It totally gives me more leeway. In fact, if my name was attached to this I would never, ever mention a single thing that was happening in my professional life. As it is, I rarely do more than allude to my professional life.

Fib? Nope. Never. Why bother? The truth is often odd enough. Besides, at some point, I will give my children a copy of this whole blog and if I have fibbed, I have distorted their past. I have no desire whatsoever to do that. In part, my blog is an extended love letter to my children. No fibbing required. Actually, anonymity is a way to give myself greater freedom to tell the truth. I have no fear that, say, my mother in law will happen upon my blog and read my unfiltered thoughts. No, there is too much watching my tongue in the real world. Here, I don't have to do that.

5. Name your all-time favorite book. Why do you love it so?

All time favorite book? I have to choose just one? That's cruel, Kathy. Well, how about I choose two and if you don't like the answer you can just yell at me.

One would be Kim, by Kipling. It may be the only book that as soon as I finish, I have to pick it back up and begin reading all over again. It is exotic, an adventure story, filled with great travels, conflicting religions, clashes of culture, hints of the Great Game between Russia and England, love, friendship, food, and happiness. All it lacks, I realize now, is sex. It is, barring that omission, a complete thing in and of itself and I have loved it since I was a child.

Another would be the Three Musketeers, by Dumas. Another cracking good adventure tale, set among the politics and conflict between France and England. Has great sword fights, wonderful dialogue, and love and friendship. And the langauge is beautiful, especially in the French. And I get a kick out of the depictions of the country nobility come to Paris since I knew people like that when I lived in France.

Here endeth my answers.

Thank you, Kathy, for taking the time to come up with such good questions. I enjoyed the experience very much.