It’s been a while – but it’s time for another of Red’s memes.
1.ONE OF YOUR SCARS, HOW DID YOU GET IT?
Right above my right eye. I was two years old and standing in the back seat of the car (this was long before car seats) of a ’59 Buick when Mom slammed on the brakes. I went fliying over the passenger-side seat (this was before seats locked into place) and did a face-plant into the glove box (this was before dashboards were padded). I got a bunch of stitches. The scar’s still there. Twenty years to the day later, I had another head injury – I smacked myself in the forehead with a rifle scope because like a moron I didn’t brace the stock against my shoulder. Six more stitches.
2. WHAT IS ON THE WALLS IN YOUR ROOM?
Pictures of the kids, and some hand-prints and hand-casts they made when they were little.
3. DO YOU KNOW WHAT TIME YOU WERE BORN?
3:18PM. I think there was a snowstorm underway although – this is important – I’m getting this second-hand.
4. WHAT DO YOU WANT MORE THAN ANYTHING RIGHT NOW?
A few of the typical (and not-so-typical) teenage difficulties to just abate..
5. WHAT DO YOU MISS?
Playing music I wrote in a band in front of a crowd in a bar.
6. WHAT IS YOUR MOST PRIZED POSSESSION?
Hard to choose; my guitars, or a little pocketwatch my son bought me at a flea market that says “Dad” on the case.
7. HOW TALL ARE YOU?
Just a hair shy of 6’5.
8. DO YOU GET SCARED IN THE DAY?
Not “Scared”, per se. Just anxious. I’m kinda a worrier.
9. WHAT’S YOUR WORST FEAR?
Outliving my kids.
10. WHAT KIND OF HAIR COLOR DO YOU LIKE ON THE OPPOSITE SEX?
Red – especially the dark auburn/copper kind of thing.
11. WHAT ABOUT EYE COLOR?
Maybe this makes me an insensitive philistine, but I rarely notice eyes until I’ve known someone for a while. Except for my kids.
12. COFFEE OR ENERGY DRINK?
Please. Coffee. “Energy drinks” taste like tutti-frutti battery acid, and they all make me feel ill.
13. FAVORITE PIZZA TOPPING?
Margarita style – tomato, olive oil, basil, onion, oregano, and just a dash of really good mozzarella.
14. IF YOU COULD EAT ANYTHING RIGHT NOW, WHAT WOULD IT BE?
I have a total jones for Bun Heo Nuong – Vietnamese char-grilled porkcops with rice noodles – right about now.
15. FAVORITE COLOR OF ALL TIME?
Green. It makes me relaxed and happy.
16. HAVE YOU EVER EATEN A GOLDFISH?
Nope. I couldn’t bear to do that. I empathize too much.
17. WHAT WAS THE FIRST MEANINGFUL GIFT YOU EVER RECEIVED?
I don’t know that I can pick a first. I know that my parents gave me a watch when I turned 16 that meant a lot to me.
18. DO YOU HAVE A CRUSH?
You could say that.
19. FAVORITE CLOTHING BRAND?
Dude. I’m a straight guy. I’m lucky if I remember store names, much less brands.
20. WHAT KIND OF CAR DO YOU WANT?
I’d go for a Jeep CJ5.
21. WOULD YOU FALL IN LOVE KNOWING THAT THE PERSON IS LEAVING?
I’ve fallen in love under dumber circumstances…
22. HAVE YOU BEEN OUT OF THE USA?
Yes.
23. YOUR WEAKNESSES?
Appeals to sentiment (especially from the kids). The siren song of a hot bright day and an open bike trail. A gorgeous hook. Collarbones.
24. MET ANYONE FAMOUS?
Many, many of them. It’s from having been a talk show producer 20 years ago, being a disc jockey, hanging around the Minneapolis music scene, and my blogging/talk hosting today. It’s’ turning into quite a list; just free-associating, I’ve met President Bush, Ricky Skaggs, Jean-Pierre Hallet, Janet Jackson, Prince, Jimmy Jam, Terry Lewis, Paul Westerberg, Bob and Tommy Stinson, Chris Mars, Bob Mould/Grant Hart/Greg Norton, Chris Osgood, Ingrid Chavez, Garrison Keillor, Courtney Love, Kat Bjelland, Peter Garrett, Andy Partridge, Timothy Leary, Meier Kahane, Shadoe Stevens, David Pirner, Bruce Springsteen and Patti Scialfa, the surviving members (as of 1986) of Badfinger, Mark Brzezicki, Daryl Strawberry, Mark Farner, Wendy O. Williams, LeeLee Sobieski, Ron Wood, John Prine, John Lott, Jimmy Dean, Debbie Gibson, Emmylou Harris, Curt Sliwa, Kirby Puckett, Kent Hrbek, Jack Buck, Tommy Kramer, Jeff Osborne, Herb Brooks, Herb Carneal, Arne Carlson, and of course (duh) Laura Ingraham, Bill Bennett, Dennis Prager, Michael Medved, Hugh Hewitt, Rusty Humphreys, Ed Schultz, Tim Pawlenty, Jesse Ventura, Norm Coleman, and most of Minnesota’s congressional delegation. If you count phone interviews, you could add Duke Cunningham, Ann Coulter, Bob Costas, Roy Firestone, Rich Lowrey, Michael Ledeen, Mitt Romney, Ken Mehlman, Michelle Malkin, and a slew of authors, bloggers and pundits.
25. FIRST JOB?
Other than a paper route for the Jamestown Sun, it woulda been my gig at KEYJ Radio when I was 16.
26. EVER DONE A PRANK CALL?
Not with a stranger. With friends, many. Not sure, but I’m uncomfortable doing them; I always think people will make out my voice.
27. DO YOU THINK EVERYONE OUT THERE HAS A SOUL MATE?
I do not believe in soulmates. .
28. WHAT WERE YOU DOING BEFORE YOU FILLED THIS OUT?
Waiting for my kids to come home from the rec center.
29. HAVE YOU EVER HAD SURGERY?
Twice; an abdominal thing when I was two, and a badly-broken hand when I was 26.
30. WHAT DO YOU GET COMPLIMENTED ABOUT MOST?
My sense of humor, my skill at my day job, my blog. No, really.
31. WHAT DO YOU WANT FOR YOUR BIRTHDAY?
24 hours where nobody knows where or how to find me.
32. HOW MANY KIDS DO YOU WANT?
Right now? Two fewer than I have.
I’m a kidder. I kid.
No, two is two more than I, or anyone I ever grew up with, figured I’d ever have.
33. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE?
Family legend has it I was named after the Mitchell (South Dakota) Corn Palace.
34. WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST TURN OFF WITH THE OPPOSITE SEX?
Women who can’t hold up their end of a consversation.
35. WHAT IS ONE THING YOU MISS ABOUT GRADE SCHOOL?
The sense that the world was a big puzzle just dying to get solved.
36. WHAT KIND OF SHAMPOO DO YOU USE?
“I cried because I had no shoes, until I saw a man who had no feet”.
37. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING?
My handwriting is inscrutable. People think I’m writing Arabic.
38. ANY BAD HABITS?
So many. Twisting my hair. Chewing my fingernails and toenails. Drumming my fingers (in incredibly complex polyrhythms; my jazz technique is most advanced on the drumming finger). I’m like the Keith Moon or Dave Brubek Gene Krupa of finger-drumming.
39. ARE YOU A JEALOUS PERSON?
Not as a rule. If I’m jealous, something’s very wrong.
40. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON, WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU?
Whatever my many other faults, I’m generally a good friend. Stress and overwork has led me to let some connections lapse that I regret – but I do my best.
41. DO YOU AGREE WITH FRIENDS WIH BENEFITS?
“Agree?” Well, I don’t think it works often; someone almost always gets their heart broken, eventually.
42. HOW DO YOU RELEASE ANGER?
Chopping wood. A couple hours at the range. Playing the electric guitar. Going to Karaoke nght and singing Clash and Pistols songs.
43. WHAT’S YOUR MAIN GOAL IN LIFE?
Drive my enemies before me and hear the lamentation of his women.
No, really – raise kids who aren’t too f***ed up. Hopefully. There’s a ways to go.
44. WHAT WAS YOUR FAVORITE TOY AS A CHILD?
Don’t think I had one. I had a few that I enjoyed. Lincoln Logs rocked.
45. HOW MANY NUMBERS ARE IN YOUR CELL PHONE?
I counted; 87. My cell phone is also pretty much my PDA. Not that it’s like designed for that, like a Blackberry or an IPhone; it’s one of those ultra-cheepo “Marbl” phones from Virgin Mobile. But I keep every number in my life in there.
46. WERE YOU A FAN OF BARNEY AS A LITTLE KID?
I was a fan of Barney when I was 29. When Bun was a baby, her mom worked days and I worked nights and stayed home with the baby. “Barney” was two half-hours a day where I could relax, go to the bathroom, make a sandwich, whatever; Bun was always completely rapt. I used to roll my eyes at my hYpStr friends who ragged on Barney; you bobbleheads have no idea.
47. MASHED POTATOES OR MACARONI AND CHEESE?
Potatoes by a nose. With lots of garlic. (For that matter, I put garlic in my Mac and Cheez, too).
48. DO YOU HAVE ALL YOUR FINGERS AND TOES?
Close call, but…yes.
49. DO YOU HAVE A COMPUTER IN YOUR ROOM?
Nope. Gotta draw the line somewhere.
50. PLANS FOR TONIGHT?
Good question!
51. WHAT’S THE FASTEST YOU’VE EVER GONE IN A CAR?
135-140 or so. The fastest I’ve ever driven was maybe 110.
52. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO?
I have ITunes on Shuffle. Right now – “Sign O The Times”, Prince.
53. LAST THING YOU DRANK?
I had a beer or two at Flash‘s garage the other night.
54. REPUBLICAN OR DEMOCRAT?
Center-right libertarian-conservative first and foremost. That makes me a Republican, although I’ve left the party in the past. My litmus tests are defense, taxes, government intervention, constitutional originalism, civil liberties and spending. I summed up what I believe pretty well over here.
55. DO YOU HAVE A LOW SELF ESTEEM OR A HIGH SELF ESTEEM?
Somewhere in the middle.
I have a decent sense of myself. But like a lot of people from the rural midwest, I grew up with a bit of an inferiority complex; “knowing your place” is such a big part of rural Scandinavian culture. I never subscribed to it, so I went out into the world with a huuuge chip on my shoulder about it. It’s faded a lot since I was in my twenties – getting sorta established with ones’ life and having, frankly, bigger things to worry about will do that – but there’s still a little bit of it in there still. Being from the rural great plains and going to an obscure little college to some people translates to “dumb rube”. And that impression – real or imagined – motivated me with an intensity that scares me today, looking back. I have never lost a competition that mattered – for a job, a contract, a promotion, whatever – to an Ivy Leaguer, to a New Yorker, to a person with the “right credentials”, to anyone who has ever discounted or underestimated me because of my background, my “credentials”, my alma mater or gender or anything else. Whatever I lack in “credentials” or innate intelligence, I make up for in hard work, selective callousness (I’m usually a pretty warm person, but not when this pathology is in play) and, frankly, that kind of monomania that comes from letting the chip on your shoulder turn into that sort of deep-down simmering rage that warms your tummy on cold days, and sustains you when you really need food or sleep.
But I’m better now.
56. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING?
Right now, a how-to book on ocean sailing boats.
Way too long to reply in comments. I love memes, however
I’m waiting for the accusatory Peevish comment about Iraq.
I was wondering what the over/under would be for that, Kermit.
Kermit, Badda, get a life. I wonder what the over/under for the number of pointless comments from the both of you is annually? 1000? 10,000? Let’s be sure about one thing, it’s FAR higher than my tally.
Mitch, I spent most of my formative years around sailboats, in case you have some dreams about taking a sea cruise :).. two points/pieces of wisdom gained by others:
1. Full Keel boat
2. Never go alone
Sailing around the world in a boat has enormous appeal for people – and lots have done it (if lots =100’s not 1000’s), the two biggest lessons have been, make sure you have a tough boat – i.e. full keel – and bring a friend, a. you get lonely. b. if you have trouble, you have someone to help (call for help).
Hope you get to do whatever it is you wish to do – pb
I love it when Peev tells other people to get a life. It’s like a Cleveland Steamer of irony.
1. Full Keel boat
2. Never go alone
Growing up as I did in North Dakota, of course, the salt water was in my veins. 🙂
I have read a lot about the subject, though, over the years, and do take the odd turn on a Snark or a Sunfish. The full keel lesson is loud and clear, and I doubt I’d even sail across Minnetonka alone anytime soon.
It’s like a Cleveland Steamer of irony.
Or the Mount Rushmore of unintended self-reference.
The Jupiter of hubris. 😉
My daughter bought me a book titled “50 Places to Sail to Before you Die”.
I better get started soon.
My plan is incremental. Medicine Lake, Lake Minnetonka, Lake Superior, Pacific Northwest.
BTW
You met Ron Wood? Cool….
Of course, he probably couldn’t make out a single word he said. 😉
2. Wedding pictures of my kids and an oil painting we bought in Dublin, Ireland. And a clock-every room needs the “life” of a clock.
3. 3:36 p.m. I only know that because my son was born on the same date, same day at 3:24 p.m. 22 years later….
4. To be able to afford the gas to go camping in Colorado this summer.
5. High mountain air after it rains (sounds corny, but you oughta smell it!).
6. My dad’s “miner’s brass”. A miner would take it off a board when you went undergorund and hang it up when you came out at the end of your shift so they would know that everyone was out and accounted for.
9. Going off the road into water and being trapped. Aaargh.
24. Mick Maloney? Pretty famous in Irish circles!
34. Big honkin’ jocks.
43. Same as Mitch…only I am pretty much there and now it’s the grandkids to worry about! My kids are 33 and 31 and I am blessed at how well they turned out considering what idiots their dad and I have been at times…
47. Stouffer’s frozen Mac ‘n Cheese is pretty darn good, but my mashed potatoes made with cream and butter (and garlic!) are REALLY good.
51. I’ve driven 120 mph in my ’65 Ford Galaxie. And not with my optimal skills developed or faculties quite what they should have been. Oy…the thought…
53. Red wine right now…3 Buck Chuck Shiraz from “the Cities”.
54. Conservative. Party seems to have left me.
56/ World Without End…sequel to Pillars of the Earth (which is great!) by Ken Follett. Don’t read the sequel. Asinine.
Jesus Badda .. is it possible for you to let ONE comment go without being an ass about it?
I made a genuinely meant, genuinely friendly comment to Mitch – talk about needing to take oneself less seriously – get a life, relax, all that, if applicable to me as a one-step piece of advice – and occassionally it’s true, you (and your peers) need the full 12 step treatment.
Mitch, there are some interesting tales from the FastNet race off England in 1981 as I recall. That race was a catastrophe, and a firm convincer that ocean sailing is not for the faint of heart. I’d love to sail to Hawaii – in a large boat, crewed by good sailors :).
Oh, and btw, all ribbing aside, if you choose, I used to instruct sailing while in college.. for Naval ROTC in Iowa – so it’s no great shakes on my part – you rent the boat, I’ll teach you whatever it is that either know – or more importantly remember.
First and easiest lesson btw, the harder the wind blows, the flatter you want your sail to be (other than a spinnaker, but you aren’t use one of those on a Sunfish anyway). Catamarans are fun too.. and not so very hard – you might tip over, but it’s not the end of the world. (try a small Hobiecat (sic as always)).
I can’t help myself!! My sincerest apologies to anyone bored and offended by my inane need to TALK ABOUT MYSELF TO ANYONE WHO WILL LISTEN!
1) two nasty scars on my shoulders from the doctor cutting me open to put my shoulders and upper arms back together again after a motorcycle crash in 99
2) Nothing. They need to be painted. Someday.
3) 5:59pm
4) Financial ease of mind
5) free time
6) Don’t have one. I like my motorcycle and computer and xbox360, but they aren’t “prized”
7) 6’2″
8) Only around bees, wasps and hornets. I turn into a running screaming flailing nancyboy
9) See above
10) Long. Color? Natural bright red like Annie. I have never met an unattractive red-head
11) who cares?
12) coffee with french vanillla creamer
13) Meat, mushrooms, onions
14) Teppanyaki
15) Purple. I have no idea why.
16) No
17) Can’t recall MEANINGFUL. Stuff I’ve wanted a lot but nothing meaningful
18) If you can have a crush after 10 years of marriage, sure
19) Comfy (and fleece in the winter)
20) Something that handles better and accelerates much better than our current cars
21) How about already long distance? BTDT. Leaving? No.
22) Canada
23) Procrastination
24) I’ve met a few TV Weathermen (Ken Barlow and Don Moldenhauer locally) around the country in a previous job. I went to school with someone who became famous in tragedy: Gordon Aamoth, usually #1 on the list of people killed in the WTC on 9/11. I met Carmen (contemporary Christian singer) after a concert in Duluth in 89 or thereabouts.
25) Groundskeeper for my mom’s boss and his 3 small businesses from age 11-17. To this day I still detest mowing grass.
26) to both known and unknown when I was in Jr high.
27) I’ve had a few in the past.
28) wasting time on the computer
29) see #9
30) sense of humor (not from everyone, but usually it’s women who do *WOO*). When I die all I want my tombstone to say is “He was a Nice Guy who made people laugh”
31) free time
32) Happy with 2, getting snipped if #3 comes along.
33) Since I am a Jr, it’d have to be my Dad.
34) no personality
35) No responsibility
36) Melaleuca clarifying
37) My best writing was between my freshman year of college when I decided to start writing in all caps with larger letters to indicate capitalization, up until my accident. Lost a lot of coordination, write slower and less neatly, but still better than before college.
38) Spitting (but at least I make sure I spit where it is unobtrusive, like in the middle of a parking spot where a car will cover it or into a flower garden instead of on the sidewalk), I’m sure there are others but nothing comes to mind
39) Only for material things, but it doesn’t consume me.
40) Depends on who the other person is. I have friends who’ve been with me for 28 years, and I have friends who aren’t friends anymore.
41) Never had that opportunity present itself. The moral part of me says “no, save it for marriage”, the male part of me says “what the hell? no harm, no foul”
42) Go away and be by myself. I’m a very low key person
43) Mitch’s is good.
44) Hot Wheels cars
45) 41. But about 6-7 of those are restaurants we frequent
46) Barney is the anti-christ. Our kids have never been allowed to partake in that evil fruit. That’s what Disney, Noggin, and Nick Jr are for.
47) Same as Mitch
48) Yes
49) Bedroom? Not right now, altho I wouldn’t be adverse to a laptop at the appropriate times
50) Work, eat, maybe GTA4 if I don’t fall asleep
51) 128 driving (92 Nissan Sentra SE-R), Somewhere north of 150 as a passenger ( mildly modified 1986 Mustang whose speedo stopped at 150)
52) “Truly Scrumptious” from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (6yo daughter practicing for dance recital)
53) sips of wine from wifey’s glass last night
54) conservative by nature, Republican by association
55) I have not had self-esteem problems since 10th grade.
56) Don’t read very many books anymore. About the only ones that I MAKE time for are whenever Vince Flynn releases a new paperback. All of my reading now is internet or magazines.
Mitch, that should be Keith Moon and Joe Morello – not – Keith Moon and Dave Brubeck
Doh. That’s right – I mixed up Brubeck with another guy. Not Morello, but another great jazz drummer.
I’m gonna rack my brain for that one.
GENE KRUPA!
Peev,
“Lighten up, Francis”… the comment I made was in regards to Mitch meeting Ron Wood.
Not everything is about you.
Re: Wood:
I met him at a Bob Yates show remote back in 1988 or ’89, at Huberts, across from the ‘dome. He churned through six Black Russians over the course of the hour, and was working on #7 when the interview ended.
Of course, with Woodie you can never tell if it’s the booze or his natural diction. But I got to meet him for a bit after the interview; got him to talk a bit about the recording of Rod Stewart’s “Every Picture Tells A Story”, one of my favorite records. Interesting guy.
Did I mention he drinks a bit?
I actually bought the Ron Wood solo album “Gimme Some Neck”.
His vocals make Dylan sound like Justin Timberlake.
“”53. LAST THING YOU DRANK?
I had a beer or two at Flash’s garage the other night.””
Shame on you *laughing*
Oh yeah, Lincoln Logs did in fact ROCK!
Flash
“Did I mention he drinks a bit?”
I suspect his “verbal clarity” is half from the booze and half natural…
[Yogi mode]
…and half goshing, just to keep the reputation.
[/Yogi mode]
I actually bought the Ron Wood solo album “Gimme Some Neck”.
I won a cassette copy of his first one, I’ve Got My Own Album to Do, in a dart game at the Stutsman County Fair in 1984.
No idea what happened to it.
Lincoln Logs are STILL the effing shit. My boy loves them… and we goof around with them (and Tinker Toys) a bit.
I can’t wait until he starts getting into the good Legos.