fauxklore

I haven’t seen a link for 2026 questions yet. If somebody has one, let me know.

1. What does death teach us about life? That it’s finite and, therefore, we shouldn’t put off doing the things that we think are important to us.

2. When was the last time you cried? I went through a couple of tissues when I watched the movie Song Sung Blue.

3. Would you be a different person today if you had a different childhood? How? Of course I would, but it would depend on what sort of different childhood I had. I think that growing up in a city would have provided a lot of opportunities I didn’t have living in a small town, for example. But there are certainly worse places I could have grown up, e.g. many places in the developing world.

4. Who did you run in to recently that you would like to spend more time with? I ran into one friend at the theatre a few couple of weeks ago and a few other friends at a movie a few days ago. But those are all people I spend time with somewhat regularly.

5. What's one job you would never want to do? Mining. It’s dirty and dangerous.

6. What if you lived your life in reverse (being born old, etc.)? That could be interesting, but I think I’d want to stop somewhere around my teens. I did have a happy childhood, but I don’t think I could deal with losing the ability to do things that require a certain level of maturity.

7. Have you ever swallowed something strange? (a key, pin, marble…) Not that I know of,, though perhaps some cooking experiments over the year might qualify.

8. What was your first favorite TV show? Maybe something like The Addams Family? Or the original version of Jeopardy! with Art Fleming.

9. Describe your first date. Does lunch and walking through Central Park in New York City count? Otherwise, probably a movie. Two specific movies I remember seeing with my high school boyfriend were Cinderella Liberty and Blazing Saddles.

10. What makes a good neighbor? Being quiet. And, particularly, not hanging pictures or assembling furniture with hammer and nails after 11 p.m.

11. What is the best advice you ever received? All jobs have a certain amount of routine. The secret to being satisfied with your job is finding something to do where you don’t mind those routine tasks.

12. What are your biggest distractions, and how can you minimize them? I’ll see something (a piece of mail or the like) out of the corner of my eye and have to look at it right away. If I actually put things away where they belong that wouldn’t happen.

13. How often do you cook at home? Pretty much every day that I’m home.

14. If we had 26 hours in a day, how would you spend those 2 extra hours? I’d like to say that I’d get enough sleep. But, realistically, I’d probably fiddle around on my phone.

15. What are five of your favourite songs right now? 1) Luck Be a Lady Tonight (from Guys and Dolls), 2) Southern Cross (Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young), 3) Johnny Can’t Dance (Wayne Toups and Zydecajun), 4) Give Paris One More Chance (Jonathan Richman), 5) La Oranguta (Pepe and the Bottle Blondes)

16. What ancient and/or extinct language would you like to be fluent in? Does Hebrew count?

17. What is your favourite misheard lyric? I can’t really think of anything offhand.

18. What's something about today that has surprised you? It is not quite 11:30 a.m. and I am almost halfway through my to-do list.

19. How do you uplift your spirits? I put on some lively music and dance around my living room. Or, I suppose, I could lift up a glass of some spirits.

20. What is your definition of luxury? Soaking in a bubble bath, then curling up under a nice thick quilt.

21. What would happen if all vehicles (car, bike, airplane etc) disappeared? How would this change your life? It would make traveling a lot slower. And it would make it very difficult to go overseas.

22. What’s something about your body or health that you’re grateful for? I rarely get headaches.

23. Tell a memory that you have with one of your grandmothers. My father’s mother died long before I was born. My mother’s mother died when I was about 9 years old and all I really remember about her is that she always had a pot of soup on a burner in the back of my grandpa’s jewelry store.

24. What age would you consider the prime of life? Why? I think I was at my peak when I was in my late 30’s through early 40’s. I was done with school, was making good money, and had lots of frequent flyer miles from business travel, so was able to start going to more adventurous destinations.

25. Is there something that you memorized long ago and still remember? Six wives Henry the Eighth wedded / One died, one survived, two divorced, two beheaded.

26. Write down three things you are grateful for. Central heating. Coffee. Storytelling.

27. What is something that you are not looking forward to doing today? My flight to Boston is delayed a half hour already.

28. How do you cope with stress? What strategies do you use? I don’t think I cope well with stress. Mostly I try to distract myself. Or kvetch to my friends.

29. What am I grateful to each of my 5 senses (vision, hearing, touch, smell and taste) for? Vision - seeing a magnificent work of art. Hearing - hearing an evocative piece of music, e.g. Copland’s Appalachian Spring. Touch - petting a cat. Smell - wild honeysuckle. Taste - chocolate

30. What is at each station of the all you can eat buffet of your dreams? I’m actually not a big fan of buffets, since I find they usually have way too much emphasis on quantity over quality. That said, I want really good crusty homemade bread, a salad with sesame ginger dressing, my favorite types of sushi (at least inari and nigiri with tuna), stir fried vegetables with garlic and ginger, gelato for dessert. If it’s winter, a hearty bean and barley soup. If it’s summer, all sorts of fresh berries.

31. What one experience do you think would make your life complete? I really want to see a narwhal in the wild.

Usually I wait until at least the end of the month to do these, but this happens to be convenient for me to do right now, while I try to find all the various scraps of paper listing other things I want to write about.

1. What was your favourite subject in high school? In general, I liked my science classes, particularly chemistry. I also really liked the Great Books class I took one semester senior year.

2. Name three people whose lives have been improved by knowing you, and explain why. Cindy, because I listen to her complaints about work and help her plan travel. Kim, because I’m supportive when she’s depressed and I come up with interesting things for us to do. The Gentleman with Whom I am Conducting the World’s Longest Running Brief Meaningless Fling for somewhat obvious reasons.

3. What profession would you have chosen, if not your current one? Maybe a bookseller.

4. How do you react when you realize you've made a mistake? Mistake? What’s that? Seriously, my first instinct is denial, but then I try to figure out how I can fix things.

5. Describe your favorite sound. Waves crashing against a beach, especially on a stormy day.

6. Imagine you are attending your dream concert—what songs would you want to be played? What does the stage look like? I rarely attend concerts that have more than one performer. I would love to see Jonathan Richman again and I wish he would perform both “Give Paris One More Chance” and “Here Come the Martian Martians,” neither of which I’ve seen him do live. Beyond that, I’ve never seen Luka Bloom live and would like to. And it’s been years since I’ve seen Eric Bogle, but I don’t think he's touring any more.

7. Where are you from? I grew up in a ridiculously small town on (well, off the south shore of) Long Island.

8. If there was one person who you had the power of giving immortality to, who would it be and why? I have read enough fantasy to believe that immortality is not a gift, since it doesn’t guarantee eternal health. And one would invariably outlive the people one loved the most.

9. What is your favorite game? Why? Well, the game I play most often (with two different groups of friends) is Code Names. But, if I had to choose one game, it would probably be backgammon. I used to play it all the time, both with a couple of different friends and with my mother (who I taught to play).

10. What is your all-time favorite sports team? First is the Red Sox and second is whoever is playing against the Yankees, aka the Source of All Evil in the Universe.

11. What is a smell that you remember from growing up? The smell of the ocean. I also really love the smells of a couple of flowers - honeysuckle (though it can get overwhelming) and lily of the valley.

12. What is the best decision you have ever made in your life? Probably going to MIT. It opened up a lot of doors to me. And the great thing about MIT is that people there tend to be very devoted to whatever they are passionate about, which is not necessarily their studies.

13. What is something you are optimistic about? It’s rather hard to be optimistic given the politics of our times, but I like to think we’ll get past the more ridiculous aspects of the current world situation and regain the rule of law.

14. What would you say is the biggest accomplishment in your life so far? I had a successful career and am in a good financial situation in retirement. That has enabled me to see much of how magnificent our world is.

15. When was the last time you failed at something? I’ve continually failed to achieve total world domination, but I’d settle for having a clean and organized home.

16. Which wild animal would you adopt as a pet and why? I wouldn’t adopt any wild animal as a pet. Wild animals need to be in their proper environments and suburban America wouldn’t cut it as ideal for any of them.

17. When was the last time you tried something new? I think the paper conservation class I went to in Greece in June counts.

18. What is your favorite room in your home and why? Probably my bedroom, which is usually the least chaotic part of my house.

19. If TV and the internet didn’t exist, what would you do with your time? I’d spend a lot of time reading and listening to music and, hopefully, also making music.

20. What are some major inventions that happened during your lifetime? I am old enough that there are lots of things that didn’t exist in my youth. The most obvious is personal computing and, especially, cell phones.

21. What have you done that was "out of character.” I was almost 40 before I ever slept a night in a tent. With is something I discovered that I really enjoy doing.

22. Name four items that can always be found in your refrigerator. The things I always have in my refrigerator are mostly condiments, e.g. mustard, sriracha, and orange marmalade. There’s pretty much always packets of yeast. There’s also probably things like butter, sour cream, and some sort of fruit, often oranges and/or apples.

23. Do you have any fantasies of living in the jungle? Only for brief periods of time. The jungle tends to be hot and humid and have scary insects.

24. What is on your mind right now, and will it affect your sleep? I’m trying to get some travel plans finalized. I doubt that will affect my sleep.

25. What childhood character traits did you have to let go of but wish you didn’t? What can you do to adopt these traits again? I can’t really think of anything. I think I’m a better person than I was as a child.

26. Do you prefer character-driven or plot-driven novels? Why? I definitely prefer plot-driven novels. If nothing happens and it’s just people talking to one another, it’s hard to keep my attention.

27. What is your favorite type of weather and why? I like dry and crisp air, with temperatures in the mid to upper 60’s Fahrenheit and slightly cloudy skies (to avoid glare). That way I’m comfortable and, as long as it’s dry out, my hair won’t be entering the room an hour before the rest of me.

28. How are you going to entertain yourself when you’re retired? If you are retired already, are you spending your time the way you envisioned it? I think I’m spending my retirement more or less the way I thought I would. The first thing I did after I retired was the Smithsonian Certificate Program in World Art History. I try to go to a fair number of educational events. And, of course, I travel a lot, though there are always more places I want to go.

29. What conspiracy theory do you believe is true? I don’t believe any of them are true.

30. Which person would you like to see more often than you do now? The gentleman with whom I am conducting the world’s longest running brief meaningless fling, of course.

31. What qualities do you judge harshly in others, and how might they reflect parts of yourself? The things I look on harshly in other people are definitely traits that I feel bad about myself for. Those include being disorganized and lazy and being judgemental.

1. What do you think your life will be like ten years from now? Hopefully, not a lot different than it is now. Though I am contemplating moving to somewhere without stairs.

2. Where would you travel, if you could go anywhere? I’d love to take a cruise through the entire Northwest Passage.

3. Explain how you chose your career path. I started college intending to major in chemistry but didn’t like organic chemistry my freshman year. I read something about the Boston Arm, which was one of the earliest prosthetic limbs attached to the body’s nervous system and was intrigued. That led me to the mechanical engineering department. One of the two classes I took first semester sophomore year in that major was Intro to Systems Engineering, which really clicked with me. People told me if I liked that, I should take Control Systems and that’s what I ended up doing and going to graduate school for. When I was job hunting, I found that there were a lot of interesting controls problems in the aerospace industry, so most of the jobs I interviewed for were in that area. It worked out well for me.

4. Write about the last time weather scared you. Probably the last time I got caught driving through a severe thunderstorm.

5. What animal do you identify with most closely? Probably bears. I’m chubby and hairy, but still very cute.

6. What kind of jobs have you had in the past? In high school, I got paid for tutoring, primarily for math and science New York State Regents exams. I also was a summer camp counselor the summer after my freshman year of college. I worked desk at my dorm at MIT. I particularly liked doing the mail because I got paid for a full hour for it, but it generally took me less time than that. I also did that during the summers, as well as doing maid work when the dorms were used to house conference attendees. Most of those jobs reminded me that I was in school so I didn’t have to do jobs like that for the rest of my life. On a more occasional basis, I got paid for being a test subject for research projects. I only did one psych experiment that I can remember, but I did a lot of experiments for people who were working on speech processing. Those basically involved reading sentences into a tape recorder. The only requirement was being a native speaker of English and, for some reason, they thought New York qualified. You could only do two hours at a time, but you got enough money to afford to go out to dinner at Joyce Chen’s Monday night vegetarian buffet.

7. What is one skill you wish you had and how would that make your life different? I wish I had a long enough attention span to get my condo organized.

8. Have you ever had an incident because you overslept? I’ve sometimes missed an event I planned to go to because I overslept, but I’ve never had anything happen with real consequences.

9. How much was Gas the last time you filled up? I think I paid $2.79 a gallon near the Myrtle Beach Airport a couple of weeks ago.

10. What kinds of activities when on at the kitchen table at home when you grew up (eating doesn't count)? I did most of my homework at the kitchen table. I also spent time there drawing and coloring. And we played board games there a lot - everything from Candyland when my brother and I were little to countless games of backgammon with my mother and scrabble with my father later on.

11. What is the biggest risk you have ever taken? Probably going to Berkeley to go to grad school. Moving to California triggered a lot of culture shock.

12. When was the last time you sent or received a card from someone? My brother sent me a birthday card.

13. If money were no object, what would you spend your days doing? I’d fly in business class a lot more.

14. What is one thing in your life that requires immediate attention? I need to go grocery shopping.

15. How do you feel about change and uncertainties? I like change. I like to go to places I haven’t been to before, for example. And I usually like meeting new people.

16. Which foods do you remember eating often as a child? I’ve told this story before but it is worth repeating. My mother once bought 12 cases of bottled borscht, 24 bottles per case, as part of our local public television station’s annual fundraising auction. She gave some of it away, but we did eat borscht for dinner at least once a week for ages. Borscht with sour cream and boiled potatoes is still one of my favorite hot weather dinners. (We usually had a second course of tuna croquettes.) When my mother died (many many years later), my uncle and I found one bottle of borscht in the pantry and we joked that it was the last one from that purchase.

17. What kind of art is your favorite or least favorite? Why? When it comes to painting, I generally prefer modern art to old masters, though there are exceptions. I am often impressed by how a given painter uses color to invoke mood. I also like photorealism, including works by Edward Hopper and Richard Estes. I tend to prefer figurative sculpture to abstract sculpture, however. As for “why,” I suppose some of it is familiarity, but I’d also say there have been works of art I’ve seen that I made me see the world in different ways. Those range from Van Gogh’s “Starry Night” to Duchamp’s “Nude Descending a Staircase” (which captures movement more effectively than any other painting I’ve seen) to Faith Ringgold’s story quilts.

18. What do you think makes a happy family? I think families are happiest when their members respect one another, including accepting their differences.

19. How do you decide if you trust a person or not? Frankly, I find trust to be mostly a matter of instinct. I have been fooled by people who I thought were good people who turned out to be deceitful users, but, for the most part, I trust my judgmement.

20. How many pillows are on your bed? Generally, two or three. I normally like flat, squishy pillows, unless I have a cold.

21. Tell me about an old friend you've lost touch with. I stayed in touch with my best friend from high school for several years, but we lost touch when she got married to a man who I didn’t much care for.

22. Think of a loved one that you have lost. If you could ask this person one question, what would you ask, and what do you think they would say? There are lots of things I’d like to be able to ask my parents and grandparents. My paternal grandmother was killed in the Shoah and I’d love to be able to ask her what my Dad was like as a child.

23. What would you write in a letter you could send back in time to yourself as a teen-ager? Mostly, I’d like to be able to tell younger me not to take myself so seriously. There are lots of specifics, e.g. focusing on health instead of weight, and learning to deal with my curly hair instead of getting it straightened, etc., but the gist of the message I wish I’d learned earlier was that I’m basically okay.

24. How do you think instant riches would affect your friendships and familial relationships? I’d like to think they wouldn’t affect most of my relationships. Except, I know my brother would always be at my heels, begging for money.

25. Can you buy happiness? Money can’t buy happiness, but it can buy things that can distract you from misery.

26. What is a secret about you? If I wrote it here, it wouldn’t be a secret any more now, would it?

27. If you could travel anywhere in the world for a vacation, where would it be and why? Didn’t I answer that already in question 2? Seriously, I’d like to go almost anywhere that: a) I hadn’t already been and b) is not an active war zone.

28. Tell about a story when you got a parking ticket or traffic violation. I got a speeding ticket from a speed camera in D.C. once.

29. Is there a movie that has brought you to tears? Tell about it. There have been several. Let’s go with The Visitor, an exquisite 2007 movie directed by Tom McCarthy about a widowed professor (played perfectly by Richard Jenkins) who finds an illegal immigrant couple living in his apartment. (Note that this is entirely unrelated to the 1979 and 2022 movies by the same name.) This is one of my favorite movies of all time.

30. Name one of the kindest people you have ever met. Why? My friend, Teri, stand out. For example, when we eat out, she gets her leftovers wrapped up and gives them to homeless people.

31. Tell about a time you laughed until you cried. Back in 1998 I was on a trip on the St. Helena mail ship and one night, I was playing Pictionary with a few people. I don’t remember the exact trigger, but it might have had to do with my inability to draw a lamb. At any rate, one of the others said something that started me laughing uncontrollably. I eventually had to go to my cabin to stop.

1. Have you ever made a huge change to your hair - cut or colour? I have dyed my hair various times. The most interesting is probably the time I got magenta cellophane immediately before having new passport photos taken. Australian immigration looked at me a bit strangely a few weeks later.

2. What is one thing that happened today that you really want to remember 10 years from now? I’ve really just spent the day mostly on errandy stuff, e.g. laundry and sorting through receipts, none of which is memorable. The news is full of one Trumpist outrage after another and I’d like to think that will all be over long before 10 years from now. So, frankly, I got nothing.

3. Are you happy with my job, life, and situation? What parts are good? What parts are bad? What a badly phrased question. I’m reasonably happy with my life, but know nothing about yours. The major thing I need to work on is decluttering my living room.

4. Where would you go to relax and why? I’d love to spend a week or so at the Sylvia Beach Hotel in Newport, Oregon. I’d probably choose the Agatha Christie room.

5. What trait did you admire in a relative, friend, classmate, or coworker today? I’m proud of one of my friends for writing honestly about her mental health struggles and what she’s been doing to address them.

6. What is the weather like today? How do you feel about it? I think the weather in June was hot and muggy. But the weather right now is quite pleasant, sunny with a high in the mid-70’s Fahrenheit.

7. What's the most difficult part about being you? I have high standards that I can’t always live up to.

8. Good or bad, what is your hometown best known for? Uh, there were a few couple of famous mafiosi who lived there. And also one former U.S. Senator.

9. Describe an incident at a beauty or barber shop. Does getting a chocolate pedicure at the spa at the Hotel Hershey count? Or, even better, the fish pedicure I once got?

10. What musical instrument(s) do you play or wish you could play? I took several years of piano lessons off and on. I also did two years of viola in elementary school. I’ve fooled around with various other instruments, ranging from the accordion to the tin whistle to the bowed psaltery over the years. But (to steal a joke from my Dad) my best instrument is the stereo system. I wish I could play the didgeridoo, but I've never been able to make sense of circular breathing.

11. Tell about one of your first away-from-home experiences. I went to three different summer camps. Two of them were relatively normal. The one that I went to for two summers in a row is the source of some of my best stories, since it was run by a socialist zionist organization and we had events like Capitalist Day.

12. What makes you feel safe? I guess I feel safest in familiar environments, but that includes places like home (duh!) and comfortable hotels and many major cities. Frankly, I rarely feel unsafe.

13. Have you ever been to a surprise party? Was it for you or someone else? Was it a good surprise? I don’t remember anyone ever throwing a surprise party for me, but I did go to a few surprise parties for other people when I was a teenager. The best one was for two people whose birthdays were close in time. (Their birthdays may have been the same day, but I don’t remember.) At any rate, the host told Marc it was a surprise party for Vicki and told Vicki it was a surprise party for Marc and gave them arrival times about 15 minutes apart.

14. What does abundance mean to you? Abundance is just a step beyond enough. There is a step beyond abundance that is really too much, e.g. the quantities of books and of yarn in my house.

15. Name 3 friends that shaped your childhood. My best friend for several years was Kathy, who lived down the street from me and who I spent part of nearly every day with. We spent our time listening to music, playing hopscotch, hanging out in our secret place (a clearing in the middle of an empty lot, which later became a shopping center), and memorizing things like “Jabberwocky.” I was also very close to Norman, who I shared a crayon box with in elementary school. I remember being the only girl at his birthday party one year in elementary school. And, hmm, Carol was one of the two other girls in my Hebrew school class and was the first peer who told me what getting a period was like. Her exact comment was “it’s literally a pain in the ass.”

16. If you suddenly had an extra room in your house, what would you do with it? I’d like it to be an art and music room, with a piano and shelves for my yarn stash.


17. What needs to be true for you to feel empowered to speak up in a group? I really don’t have any hesitation in speaking up in a group.

18. Describe your ideal book club. My long-standing book club works for me because: 1) we read a wide variety of books, 2) everybody actually reads the book, and 3) we talk about the book instead of just general chitchat,

19. What’s your favourite animated movie? I have a long-standing fondness for Fantasia, which I think was one of the first movies I ever saw. But I also have a soft spot in my heart for The Aristocats.

20. What’s the biggest life decision you’ve ever made? How did it affect you? Choosing to go to MIT opened up a lot of opportunities for me. I made that decision because I knew so many people who had decided to change their majors from what they originally planned and I was reasonably sure anything I chose to do would be in the math / science realm. (I’ve often joked that my brother holds the Michigan State record for changing majors.) This worked well since I had originally planned to major in chemistry and ended up in mechanical engineering. And, while I found Dartmouth very attractive, I felt that I wanted to live in a city, rather than a rural area.

21. What is your favourite vegetable? There are many vegetables I like, but I think I’ll opt for carrots, due to their versatility. I particularly like roasted carrots with a tahini glaze. But I also use carrots in stir fries and make carrot-ginger soup.

22. Which disease known to humankind do you hate the most? Explain why. I’ve lost too many people I cared about to various forms of cancer.

23. What would be your ideal birthday present, and why? I am much more about experiences than about things, so I’d suggest theatre or concert tickets.

24. This morning, when you got out of bed, you ….. Before bed tonight, you will…. These are pretty much the same every day. When I get out of bed, I do my various daily puzzles, starting with the New York Times crossword. Before I go to bed, I read for at least half an hour.

25. Who would you most like to be like if you could change your personality? Maybe Mallory Lewis, the daughter of Shari Lewis. She puppets Lamb Chop, so has a fun sassy alter ego.

26. What are some colors you see the most in your every day life? I’ve been using blue bed linens lately, so that should be right up there. I tend to wear a lot of black and red, so those should also be on the list. And my furniture is mostly wood, so you can throw in brown, which is a color I rarely wear.

27. What is your most prized possession? I have a necklace that my great-grandmother allegedly bought in Shanghai. I am skeptical of that story, but it’s still a necklace I like a lot.

28. What animals frighten you and why? Having grown up on Long Island, sharks are at the top of my scary list, followed by polar bears. I also tend to be leery of certain breeds of large dogs, though I’m fine with others. I suspect that dates back to a neighbor who was attacked as a child and had an ear bitten off.

29. What kind of fairytale creature would you be? I think I am well-suited to be either a fairy godmother or the wise woman who lives at the edge of the forest.

30. What is an exciting or crazy trip you have taken? Before my 40th birthday, I took a leave of absence from work and spent 6 months traveling on overland trucks through Africa, followed by taking the Saint Helena mail ship from Cape Town to the U.K.

1. Do you have any piercings? When did you get them? I have no piercings. Nor do I have any interest in getting any.

2. What is the longest you've had a "borrowed" item but not been able to return it? Why not? No idea. I may have kept some item of jewelry I borrowed from my mother until after her death.

3. Consider some of the parents others had growing up. What type of person would you be if you had those situations? I think my parents were, in general, less strict than many of the other adults in our neighborhood. I think if I’d had some of our neighbors as parents, I wouldn’t have been able to go into the city alone as a teenager, for example. And I suspect I wouldn’t have been able to read some of the books that my parents had out openly on their shelves.

4. What about a goal makes you most likely to procrastinate? I’m most likely to procrastinate on things I’m not sure I can actually accomplish. There’s a thin line between fear of failure and fear or success.

5. What tempted me today? I don’t know what tempted you. But I was tempted to go back to sleep.

6. If you could learn any new language, which one would you choose and why? I’ve started doing Korean on Duolingo, with the aim of being able to read local signs in Hangul. Korean syntax is very confusing to me.

7. What’s one place that you would like to visit but never will? Why will you never go there? I wouldn’t say never, but I think it’s unlikely that I will ever make it to North Korea.

8. If you could be a color what would it be? Why? I am rather partial to teal.

9. Describe a babysitting experience you have had. I didn’t babysit frequently. There was one boy on our block who pretty much every girl babysat for once. Exactly once, because he was a total brat.

10. Have you actively changed your habits and behaviors to help the environment? What kinds of things do you do? The most obvious thing here is that I’ve gotten quite good about bringing my own bags when I go grocery shopping.

11. Who is a friend you haven't seen for a long time but would like to see. I just mentioned to another friend recently that it’s been ages since I’ve seen Frances.

12. What is your favorite month? Why? September, because that’s when my birthday is. And the weather is usually nice in most places.

13. What would happen if animals could talk? What are some of the questions you would like to ask animals? It depends on what kind of animal we’re considering. Cats are intelligent, but I doubt they’d converse about much other than food. I think that bears might have deep thoughts. The most tedious animals to talk with would obviously be elephants.

14. What does self-care mean to you? What are you fav ways to practice self care? How are these activities fulfilling to you? How can you prioritize self care more? Self-care means finding ways to find soothing and satisfaction without depending on other people for those. Reading and listening to music are high up on my self-care activities.

15. Do you have any food intolerances or allergies? I’m lactose intolerance, but not severely and, with the help of lact-aid, can handle reasonable amounts of gelato.

16. What in life gets you really excited? Traveling and crafts projects.

17. How would things change if you were okay disappointing others? I generally don’t really worry about disappointing other people. However, I try to avoid disappointing myself.

18. Whenever you order from a certain restaurant, do you have a specific thing you order each time? Do you always order something new? It’s somewhere in between. There’s a Thai restaurant I go to somewhat regularly and I tend to get the same appetizer all the time, but order different entrees.

19. What age would you consider the prime of life? Why? I have particularly good memories of my early 40’s.

20. Something new you’d like to try? I’ve seen a couple of interesting crochet stitches I’d like to try, e.g. cat stitch.

21. Milk chocolate or dark chocolate? Dark chocolate is my usual preference.

22. Have you ever played ice hockey? Do you know how to ice skate? I have no interest in playing ice hockey. Having had to play field hockey in elementary school was bad enough. I went ice skating a few times in elementary school, but I was never any good at it.

23. How did you meet your first boyfriend or girlfriend? It depends on how you define “first boyfriend.” The first boy who kissed me was someone I met at summer camp. But the person I consider my first real boyfriend, a categorization based largely on our level of sexual experimentation, I met as a teenager (10th grade if I recall correctly) at the Saturday science program I went to at Columbia University.

24. If you could build a car customized just for you, what would it contain? I am really boring when it comes to cars. I do admit that I like the idea of heated seats in the winter.

25. What was the first thing that you did when you got your driver's license? Rent a car on a trip to Los Angeles.

26. What is your strongest memory, as a child, of your parents and what were you all doing at the time? There are a lot of things I could choose, but I think the most interesting one was the family music nights we used to have. We’d all gather around Dad’s reel-to-reel tape recorder and sing and play instruments. Both my brother and I played the piano and I was the designated accompanist for my grandfather when he sang Yiddish songs. My mother was learning to play folk guitar from a program on PBS and we all sang along with her. Dad used to say that we had a very musical family and what he played was the hi-fi. Sadly, those old tapes were lost to eternity many years ago.

27. What music makes you want to get up and dance? Ther’s lots of music that falls into this category, but no single song encapsulates it as much as “Johnie Can’t Dance” by Wayne Toups and Zydecajun. Other possibilities include “L’Oranguta” by Pepe and the Bottle Blondes, “”Desi Girl” (from the Bollywood movie “Dostana,”), "La Bamba" by Richie Valens, and “I Was Dancing in the Lesbian Bar” by Jonathan Richman. Oh, and let’s not forget “Rock Lobster” by the B-52’s.

28. How has your upbringing, education, and environment affected your beliefs about money and wealth? I always understood that what is important is how you use your money to support what is most important to you. For example, my father sat down with me to help me make a budget when I started college.

29. What gives you confidence and why? It’s hard to say this without sounding arrogant, but I love getting positive feedback. There’s nothing quite like being told I’m really good at something.

30. Tell about a cultural clash/experience you have had with a culture other than your own. There are a lot of these since I’m part of a minority culture. One recent example that comes to mind is that I had a discussion with somebody who was complaining about not having been invited to a wedding rehearsal, which is something completely alien to me because it isn’t something Jewish people do.

1. Do you prefer more "yellow" coloured lightbulbs (like incandescent) or the "daylight" whiter light of new LED type bulbs? I like whiter lights, in general.

2. Do you subscribe to any magazines or newspapers? I get a few magazines via subscriptions that are tied to memberships. For example, my annual donation to MIT gets me Technology Review every month.

3. What is the earliest photograph of yourself that you have that you remember when it was taken? I have a photo of me at the piano that was taken at a birthday party when I was probably about 5 or 6 years old.

4. How do you feel about using humans in medical research? I think it’s great as long as the people involved have enough information to understand the risks they are taking.

5. If you won a million dollars but had to give it all away, who would you give it to and why? I would give it to various charities, focusing on education.

6. Who is the person that you feel has altered the course of your morals and values, and how did they effect you? Definitely my father. He prioritized building community and treating people fairly.

7. If you could tell your boss what you really want to do in your job, what would it be? I’m retired, so this is not relevant. But when I was working, I was often able to set my own priorities and work on interesting projects.

8. What are things that you wish people knew about you without your having to tell them? I wish people would just magically know when I am too tired to be around them. I love my friends, but some of them can spend a really long time complaining about things and, basically, taking advantage of my being a good listener.

9. If you had to move across the country what belongings would you get rid of? This is tough. I’ve moved across the country, but it was for work and I had a moving service, so I didn’t have any real incentive to get rid of things. I suppose the first priority would be to get rid of all the accumulated memorabilia, e.g. theatre programs dating back to elementary school.

10. Who do you trust the least and why? My brother, because he has a long history of financial irresponsibility.

11. Do any of your friends or relatives have strange occupations? I have lots of friends who are performers, artists, scientists, engineers, etc. But the strangest occupation among my various circles is probably creating puzzles.

12. Do you have pets? Tell a story about one of them. I travel too much to be able to have pets. We did have a cat when I was growing up, because my mother was a soft touch. Later on, she cared for every stray cat in the neighborhood and one even moved in. This was not a great idea because she was allergic to it, but so it goes.

13. How are you like one of your brothers or sisters? My brother and I have a certain physical resemblance, but I like to think we have pretty much nothing else in common.

14. Has anyone ever influenced your manners for the better? Who? Uh, my parents tried.

15. If you could change your name, what would you change it to? I could use my Hebrew name, Malka Khaya.

16. What is your greatest extravagance? Definitely travel.

17. How do you have the most fun—alone, with a large group, with a few friends—and why? It really depends on my mood. I am good at enjoying myself regardless of who I’m with.

18. What is something that you used to struggle with that now feels easier? I’m less sentimental than I used to be and I’ve stopped saving things like greeting cards forever. I’m still working on being able to get rid of other memorabilia.

19. How do you maintain a healthy work-life balance? Being retired takes the work side out of the picture in theory, but I do a lot of other things that probably count as work.

20. What does retirement mean to you? I get to take naps.

21. What meal did you hate as a kid and you haven’t eaten since you’ve grown up? I think the meal I dreaded the most when I was a child was stuffed cabbage. P’tcha (jellied calves foot) would have been worse, but my mother didn’t try to make me eat that.

22. Write about something you have that money cannot buy and how it adds value to your life? My sense of humor. Being able to see the funny aspects of a situation always helps me to cope with stress.

23. What is one word that just gets under your skin every time you hear it, and why? It’s two word but I bristle at “artificial intelligence,” which is rarely intelligent at all.

24. Do you believe there is life on other planets or other galaxies? I am in the minority on this, but I am skeptical.

25. What song or album do you have a visceral response to? This is a particularly tough question. I think I’ll go with Copleand’s Appalachian Spring which just feels so pleasantly evocative to me.

26. What are some of the changes that have occurred in your life recently? How are you feeling about those changes? How are you reacting to those changes? I’ve definitely been feeling the effects of age and I’m not happy about that.

27. Are you lonely? Or when have you been lonely? I’ve been lonely, but, in general, I’m pretty satisfied with my own company and I sometimes need time alone to recharge my batteries.

28. What is the most enjoyable part of your daily routine? There are few things in life I love more than leisurely sipping a cup of good coffee while doing my daily word puzzles.

Books:

I’ve been doing National Just Read More Novels Month in January for several years now. So there’s a heavy dose of novels for the 1st quarter of the year, during which I read 10 books.

1. Jasper Fforde, The Constant Rabbit. Fforde is one of my favorite writers because of the sheer wildness of his imagination. The premise of this novel is that there was an anthropomorphic event that turned some rabbits (and some other animals) into being human-sized. There’s a lot of political parody involved, including an anti-rabbit party and attempts to segregate the rabbits in their own community. There are lots of fun details, including several references to the movie The Court Jester, as well as a bi-weekly event called “Speed Librarianship” which compresses two weeks of library work into six minutes. This was a very enjoyable read, even if I did find myself singing the Allen Sherman song “You’re Getting to Be a Rabbit With Me” for the next couple of weeks.
   
   
2. David Lagercrantz, The Girl in the Spider’s Web. Lagercrantz wrote three sequels to Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Series, featuring Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomqvist. This was the first of those three, and had to do with Russian cybercrime, as well as attempts on the life of an autistic boy who Salander tries to protect. It is very violent, but the violence is not gratuitous and makes sense in context. I thought Lagercrantz did an excellent job of following Larsson’s style and I found this to be a real page-turner. Highly recommended.
   
   
3. Evelyn Waugh, Brideshead Revisited I first read Waugh in the late 1970’s when Vile Bodies was on the reading list for a class I took titled Evil and Decadence in Literature. I went on to read several other books by him and mostly enjoyed them. This is one of his best-known books, since it was turned into a TV miniseries and, sad to say, I found it extremely disappointing. My problem with it is that nothing really happens except lots of drunkenness and adultery. Even Aloysius (Sebastian Flyte's teddy bear, who is, frankly, the most likable character) vanished after maybe a third of the book. Don’t waste your time.
   
   
4. David Lagercrantz, The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye. Lisbeth Salander encounters another woman in prison, who is being terrorized by a gang. That story is tied into experiments with twins, including Lisbeth and her fraternal twin sister. Again, there is a lot of suspense and violence (including the murder of Lisbeth’s former guardian) but, if you can handle that, it’s another page turner.
   
   
5. Bram Stoker, The Lair of the White Worm. Stoker is, of course, best known as the author of Dracula, which I consider an excellent treatise on feminism, largely because Mina Harker is such a strong character. This book, alas, was more predictable horror novel fare. A young man comes from Australia to meet his family and gets entangled in odd goings-on in a neighboring house. There’s a woman pursuing the wealthy next door neighbor, but is she really a large white snake? And why does every mongoose he buys meet a horrible death? Horror alone is just not sufficient for me.
   
   
6. David Lagercrantz, The Girl Who Lived Twice. This is the conclusion of Lagercrantz’s contributions to the Millennium series and is just as good as his other two novels in the series. There’s a mysterious death in Stockholm, which turns out to be tied to an Everest expedition. There’s some fascinating info about Sherpa DNA and a horrifying attempt to kill Mikael Blomqvist. I found this both thoroughly absorbing and completely frightening. Well done!
   
   
7. Marilynne Robinson, Home. I read this for my book club. I’d really liked Robinson’s 1980-ish book Housekeeping and the movie based on it. She went back to writing novels around 2005 and won a Pulitzer Prize for Gilead. This novel was a sequel to that and involves the attempt of the bad son of the Boughton family to return home after an absence of 20 years. Not a lot actually happens as he attempts to reconcile with his dying father and spinster sister, but I did think it was interesting and well-written.
   
   
8. David Gibbons, A History of the World in Twelve Shipwrecks. This was for my travel book club and provides an interesting approach to history. Gibbons is a maritime archaeologist and uses shipwrecks as an avenue into discussing what was going on in the world at the time that a given ship was destroyed. Unfortunately, his writing tends to be too technical for the general audience. And the lack of maps makes it hard to tie the different event together. But I did learn a fair amount, so I’m glad I persisted through it.
   
   
9. Piers Paul Read, Alive. This was another travel book club selection. I think I had read a Readers’ Digest Condensed Books version of this ages ago. And I’ve been to the museum in Montevideo, Uruguay which has to do with the plane wreck that killed several members of the Uruguayan rugby team in 1972. The author did a good job of capturing the stories of the people who died and the survivors, who had to resort to eating the bodies of some of the victims to keep themselves alive. It’s an absorbing and well-written book and made for good discussion.
   
   
10. Marilyn Wallace (editor), Sisters in Crime. This 1989 collection of short stories by several women was, frankly, disappointing. A few of the authors (especially Marcia Muller) were successful, but a lot of the stories left me wanting something more fully developed than the space limits allowed for.
    
    

Movies: I only saw one movie during this quarter, which I saw on an airplane.

1. Between the Temples: I’d thought of seeing this movie in a theatre and, frankly, I’m glad I didn’t because I hated it. The premise is that a cantor at a synagogue is suffering from a vocal block related to the death of his wife. He gets involved in a relationship with his elementary school music teacher who signs up to be an adult bat mitzvah student, despite not actually being Jewish. Some people apparently found Jason Schwartzman and Carol Kane quirky and fun, but I found the characters they played cringy and completely off-putting.
   

Goals:

Since I really just wrote out my goals for 2025, the only one I can comment on is reading and I only made it about halfway where I should have to meet my reading goal. But I did also make a dent in clearing out household clutter. Goodbye to an Art League class catalogue from, um,2014! Goodbye to expired supermarket coupons dating as far back as 2011! (To be fair, that was buried under something else in my den, otherwise known as the Black Hole of Vienna.) Isn’t living room archaeology fun?

I'm back to the oh so slow catch-up.

1. How Often Do You Leave Your ‘Comfort Zone’? I like to try to get out of my comfort zone, but I probably don’t stretch too far as often as I’d like to.

2. With Whom Would You Share Your Passwords? How About Your Debit Card and PIN? I don’t share passwords or PIN numbers with anyone.

3. What Would You Do if You Won the Lottery? My usual rule of thumb for windfalls is to divide them between charity, savings, and some sort of splurge, usually travel related.

4. When in Your Life Have You Been a Leader? I’ve coordinated planning and organized volunteers for several events - mostly storytelling related, but also involving work projects before I retired. I’m also the chief entertainment organizer for a group of my friends.

5. How Should You Handle the End of a Friendship? It depends on what caused the friendship to end. A lot of friendships end naturally because you no longer are involved in the same activities, in which case I don’t really need to do anything. If there was a serious falling out because of bad behavior (either yours or the friend's),it’s often worth assessing whether or not the situation is salvageable.

6. What’s the Best Advice You’ve Gotten? When I was in college, someone I knew who was a couple of years ahead of me told me I should study whatever I was interested in because there was no point studying something I didn’t like to prepare for a career doing something I didn’t like. Another friend around the same time told me that he always bought season tickets for things like the symphony because it helped him make sure things that he wanted to do got the highest priorities.

7. What Is Your All-Time Favorite Piece of Clothing? I bought a wonderful hand-painted long sleeve t-shirt from a project near Cape Town, which provided work training for women from rural areas. I wore it frequently for about 15 years and was deeply disappointed when it finally wore out.

8. What Small Things Have You Seen and Taken Note Of Today? Does trying to clean out old e-mail count?

9. How Should Parents Discipline Their Kids? My parents relied mostly on the “we’d be so disappointed in you” line to try to keep me from doing something they didn’t want me to.

10. How Do You Get Your Nature Fix? I walk in parks near where I live.

11. When Should You Compromise? I’m willing to compromise on things that are not particularly important to me, e.g. deciding what restaurant to go out to.

12. How Important Is Keeping a Clean House? I think it should be important, but I am very clearly not at all good at actually doing it.

13. Does Stress Affect Your Ability to Make Good Decisions? Stress definitely gets in the way of my getting things done. I think I can still make good decisions, but it really helps if I can talk those decisions over with other people.

14. What’s the Best Gift You’ve Ever Given or Received? I once bought a friend a small pillow made from a West African fabric. I saw it at a crafts fair and it immediately jumped out at me as something he would like. (And he was, indeed, enthusiastic about it.)

15. What Annoys You? It annoys me when somebody calls me and says they have a quick question and then goes on to talk for over an hour.

16. If the World Was Ending, What Would You Want to Do? Say goodbye to various people.

17. What Role Does Procrastination Play in Your Life? I am very good at procrastinating on doing things that end up taking surprisingly little time once I just buckle down and do them. Exhibit A: how long it took me to write this journal entry.

18. Have You Ever Changed Your Mind About a Hot-Button Issue? I’ve definitely changed my mind about things like whether or not I like a particular performer or how I feel about some type of food. I’m less likely to change my mind about political issues, though it can happen when I learn more about the impact of an issue on people’s lives.

19. What Are the Best Things You’ve Watched, Read, Heard or Played This Year? Assuming this actually refers to 2024, I saw a lot of really enjoyable theatre. I’ll write up my year in review real soon with details.

20. Was There a Toy You Wanted as a Child but Never Got? I really wanted a chemistry set, and my aunt bought me a “make your own perfume kit” as what she thought was a more suitable feminine alternative. However, I did get to play with my brother’s chemistry set.

21. Have You Ever Given, or Received, a Perfect Gift? I’m not sure how this differs from question 14.

22. When Is the Last Time You Did Something Nice for a Stranger? I often give directions to strangers, e.g. helping someone understand what metro stop they should get off the train at.

23. Do You Ever Eavesdrop? Before I retired, I had an office across the hall from someone who was much higher up the chain than I was and who tended to talk loudly with his door open. I couldn’t really avoid overhearing him. But I’ll admit I often got useful info from his conversations.

24. What Things Did You Create When You Were a Child? I made things like doll clothes (including drawing and cutting out clothes for Betsy McCall paper dolls, as well as sewing Barbie clothes). I also taught myself to crochet and made granny square afghans and shrink vests and so on.

25. What Are the Best Things in Life and Are They Free? Music, theatre, art, and storytelling are high up on my list. Some of them are free, but I have no objection to paying to support people who create things.

26. How Stoic Are You? I think I’m relatively stoic, largely because I have a higher pain threshold than is probably good for me.

27. As A Child/Teen - Where Did You Think You Would Live When You Were an Adult? Having grown up in a town with a population of under 5000 on a good day, I knew I wanted to live in a city. Boston was love at first sight for me. (And I’d still happily move back there if it weren’t so bloody expensive.)

28. What Role Will Robots Play in Our Future? I can see some utility to robots that assist people with chores, but it would have to be for specific applications.

29. If You Had Siblings - Did Your Parents Treat You Differently? If Not, Did You Wish You Had Siblings? I think my parents did treat my brother and me somewhat differently, but we were different enough people that it made sense for the most part.

30. Do You Look Forward to New Year’s Eve? I generally pay very little attention to New Year’s Eve, mostly because I feel no need to spend time with drunk people. Typically, I end up playing board games with friends.

31. Do You Make New Year’s Resolutions? I do set goals.

I am back to trying to get things done, so have the rest of my answers to prompts from last October.


1 OCT: World Vegetarian Day: What’s your favorite vegetarian meal? A hearty vegetable soup with homemade bread.

2 OCT: Audiophile Day: If you listen to audiobooks, who is/are your favorite narrator(s)? No idea. I don’t listen to audiobooks very often. Once in a while I listen to plays, but those don’t generally have a single narrator.

3 OCT: Techies Day: Are you a techie? I’m somewhat of a techie.

4 OCT: World Smile Day: Do you like your smile? How many different smiles do you have? I don’t really like my smile. There’s a long story of childhood trauma associated with this. The short version is that I had extra teeth in my upper jaw, which kept one of my front baby teeth from falling out and I had to have surgery to remove the extra teeth and then have the front tooth pulled into place. But it never really ended up straight.

5 OCT: Frugal Fun Day: What’s the best fun thing to do that’s free? Listening to music.

6 OCT: Mad Hatter Day: What’s your favorite Alice in Wonderland character? I’ll go with the white Rabbit.

7 OCT: Forgiveness Day: Who (including yourself) do you need to forgive most and why? I need to stop beating myself up for being lazy.

8 OCT: International Face your Fears Day: What fear do you need to face most? I’m somewhat afraid of confronting people who I’m angry with.

9 OCT: World Post Card Day: When’s the last time you sent or received a postcard? I’ve sent postcards advertising events to several friends within the past month or so. I need to do more this month.

10 OCT: Cake Decorating Day: What’s the prettiest or most interesting cake you’ve ever seen (or made)? I have no skill at cake decorating. I’ve admired some cakes I’ve seen, e.g. one shaped like a book.

11 OCT: World Egg Day: If you found a bird egg on the ground, what would you do? Probably just leave it there, since I have no idea what else to do.

12 OCT: International Migratory Bird Day: If you had to fly south for the winter, where would you go? Probably Uruguay. Although there are also some cool birds in South Africa.

13 OCT: Silly Sayings: What’s a common saying or axiom or proverb that you just don’t believe? What doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger.

14 OCT: Indigenous Peoples’ Day: What book or film or series about or created by indigenous peoples do you enjoy? Greenlandic people count as indigenous, right? I really liked Smilla’s Sense of Snow by Peter Hoeg.

15 OCT: Global Handwashing Day: How many times a day do you wash your hands? A lot. At least a dozen.

16 OCT: Dictionary Day: When’s the last time you looked up the definition of a word? I look up the definition of something at least weekly.

17 OCT: Pasta Day: What’s your favorite pasta shape and/or favorite way to eat pasta? I am partial to rotelli.

18 OCT: International Necktie Day: Do you know how to tie a Windsor knot? Yes.

19 OCT: International Gin and Tonic Day: What two things do you always associate together? Gin and tonic is a perfect answer to that. But if you want to cite me for lack of originality, strawberries and sour cream.

20 OCT: Croc Day: Do you own a pair of Crocs? I think I own two pairs of crocs.

21 OCT: Reptile Awareness Day: When’s the last time you saw a live snake? What was your reaction? I see snakes from time to time on the paths in our local park, but not often. So probably at least a year ago.

22 OCT: INTERNATIONAL CAPS LOCK DAY: How often do you write/text in all caps? What emotion does it signify usually? I rarely write anything in all caps and, when I do, it’s usually by accident.

23 OCT: TV Talk Show Host Day: Who’s your favorite TV talk show host? I don’t generally watch talk shows. Do you count John Oliver? If not, I’d probably have to go back to Dick Cavett.

24 OCT: United Nations Day: If you had to represent your country at the United Nations, what would you include in your first speech/address? An apology to the rest of the world.

25 OCT: Global Champagne Day: Champagne. Yay or nay? It’s okay but I won’t go out of my way for it. I’m more likely to drink prosecco.

26 OCT: Howl at the Moon Night: Do you like werewolves? Well, I do like hairy guys.

27 OCT: Visit a Cemetery: When’s the last time you visited a cemetery? I’ve been known to visit historic cemeteries when traveling. I actually semi-visit a couple rather regularly, since there are a couple of family cemeteries I pass by on my regular walking routes. In fact, there is a tiny one in the corner of a nearby shopping center.

28 OCT: Saint Jude’s Day: What do you consider a lost cause? Getting my den (a.k.a. the Black Hole of Vienna) organized.

29 OCT: Hermit Day: Does the hermit lifestyle appeal to you, why or why not? There re definitely days when I want to be left alone.

30 OCT: Candy Corn Day: Candy Corn. Yay or nay? I like it but only once a year.

31 OCT: Halloween: What’s your favorite Halloween tradition? Telling scary stories.

(via maju who gave me the letter W.

If you want to play, ask me for a letter.

Something I hate: Watermelon. I have had some that was okay, but usually it’s just too bland and spitting out seeds disgusts me.

Something I love: Warmth. There is nothing better than a roaring fireplace on a cold day.

Somewhere I have been: Wales.

Somewhere I would like to go: Wallis and Futuna (which is a fairly obscure French territory in the South Pacific. Since 2003, it has been a French overseas collectivity and I have to admit I’m not really sure exactly what that status means.)

Someone I know: If I may be permitted to use the past tense, Wanna Zinsmaster died just about 4 years ago, at the age of 96. She was a great storyteller and she offered up her home for workshops and classes. I am sorry she never finished her story about her Navy service during World War II.

Best Movie: Win Win was the first movie that came to mind. It was a 2011 comedy about a struggling lawyer who volunteers as a high school wrestling coach. The main thing to know is that it was written and directed by Tom McCarthy, which automatically makes it worth watching as far as I’m concerned. Runner-up: What We Do in the Shadows, because I have boundless love for both vampire movies and Taiko Waititi.