January 28th, 2005

Answers

All right, you’ve had a little over a day, so here are the answers:

1. I have had a short story published

Nope. I did get a poem published once, but that was because Dave and I paid a bunch of money to one of those shady “World of Poetry” “contests” to do so, so I don’t think it really counts.

2. My three least favorite things to see or hear in a movie are vomiting, whispering, and typing

So very true. I can’t stand to see someone vomit on screen, and the sounds of whispering and typing in movies drives me crazy. I barely made it through You’ve Got Mail.

3. I have a scar on my knee from running into barbed wire 17 years ago

Also true. I was playing “Capture the Flag” and was being chased by a big guy and thought it would be good to slip between two small trees where he couldn’t fit. It was a sound theory, but resulted in deep gashes courtesy of the rusty barbed wire strung between them.

4. I know all the words to “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Currently false, but was true at one time. I still remember bits of it, including my favorite stanza:

He holds him with his skinny hand

“There was a ship,” quoth he.

“Hold off! Unhand me, graybeard loon!”

Eftsoons his hand dropped he.

5. I hate practical jokes – receiving OR giving

Boy, do I ever. Any time I have played even a small, seemingly-harmless one, it has backfired and gotten ugly. When they have been played on me, it has hurt me deeply in ways it would be difficult to explain. Practical jokes do a lot of damage to a person who has trouble trusting the human race anyway – if I have finally decided to trust and get joked, well, it’s bad.

6. I lettered in four sports in high school

Completely true! Football, wrestling, basketball, and baseball. I knew this one would trip people up, and it should be mentioned that I lettered in basketball for keeping stats. It’s still a letter, though!

7. I am missing a toe on my left foot

Nope. Everyone guessed this.

8. My favorite comic book hero is Spider-Man

He’s a close second, but Batman has him beat in my particular worldview. Superman comes in third. What can I say? I’m a traditionalist.

9. I have owned 10 cats

At the time this said “8 cats” no one had chosen it. It was an unintentional lie, so I just edited it. I had forgotten the two italicized ones from this list: Sparky, Dusty, Jasper, Shadow, Marie, Hero, Dala, Pika, Ringo, and Nutmeg. To be fair, they weren’t around long.

10. I saw Michael Jordan play basketball in person

I sure as heck did, along with Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman, in United Center, even! It was pretty darn cool.

So the official lies were 1, 4, 7, and 8. How’d you do?

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