Re: If you can have dinner with anyone in the world
After I published my Bye, Bye, Bear Blog! post, Khoaly mailed me and invited me to participate in their Bearblog Carnival. I couldn't resist...
If you can have dinner with anyone in the world, who would that be?
When I was younger, I had a few heroes, or role models, or whatever you want to call them. Roger Taylor, best known as Queen's drummer, was one of them. I loved his music, his "leftist" lyrics, and the way he looked.
For a period in the mid-1980s, I even dressed like that. r/blunderyears material, amirite?
Another person I deeply admire is Edward Snowden, who showed the American people what they needed to know, doing so at great personal cost.
It's been a while since I last saw an interview with him, but something that struck me is that, before he speaks, he always takes a second to think about what he wants to say. What he says is free of hyperbole and exudes deep consideration and intelligence.
I remember an interview that Jamie Oliver had with Edward Snowden about how American internet and telephone traffic is rerouted through other countries so it could be intercepted under different legal frameworks. To make the material accessible for a large audience (or to be sensationalist -- who knows?), Oliver used "dick pics" as an example. Snowden seemed reluctant, but participated all the same -- I suspect it was because he considered it important for American citizens to know how their rights are being circumvented.
Both these men have been at the top of my "People I'd like to have dinner with" list for a long time. But in the end, I think I'd rather have dinner with people I've had dinner with before, like that young woman I met in 1999 (and whom I met only twice, since), or my best friend. People whom I rarely get to see, but who somehow have their own strong gravitational pull on my affection.
[EDIT: James Talarico seems very nice and interesting.]
What does your drink say about you?
I don't know, but I hope it has the guts to say it to my face.
Seriously: the first cup of coffee (drip coffee, as I recently learned it's called) of the day is the one I like best. I guess it says I like a slow start, in solitude.
Oh, and I still think fondly of the Midori Sour I once had in a cocktail bar in Amsterdam, 20+ years ago. It tasted like liquid chewing gum. Note to self: don't consider a career switch to advertising.
If you were to be stuck on a deserted island, what book would you bring with you?
Well, that would obviously necessarily but reluctantly have to be the SAS Survival Handbook.
But if I could pick a book I could just enjoy, rather than get good use out of... Well, that would ideally be a big book that I read before and know I'd enjoy reading again. Hmmm... Tough one!
Not a big book, but one I thoroughly enjoyed on the first and so far only read, and that I look forward to reading again, is The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers. Recommended!