Accept no substitutes

Eight random facts meme

I’ve been tagged by someone who already knows all of my secrets and wants to know more. So’s I’m to reveal eight random facts about me and then tag 8 people who are asked to do the same. Here goes:

  1. My head was completely shaved until I was 13 year old. But I’m making up for that now.
  2. As far as eggplant goes, I’ve had my fill. I experienced complete Tantric overkill one summer in Turkey during which a different eggplant dish was served to me every day for two weeks. I now avoid eggplant dishes.
  3. I have never been in South America.
  4. Every morning I finish the NYTimes Crossword before going to work — except for Fridays.
  5. One of the poems I first published in News and Observer disappeared from their archives but no matter a copy ended up on a website in South Africa.
  6. I failed freshman English the first time through. Two misspelled words and you were out. I was always out. Thank gawd fore cumpoterz.
  7. For a year, I lived in an airy farm house that I heated with wood in the winter. That as a bad idea. But now that same place is the home to Mark Hewitt’s Pottery.
  8. I spent one Spring Break during college working for Manpower and bagging little pine seedlings for Arbor Day. The rest of the crew were alcoholic Viet Nam vets. I got the boss to buy us all rubber gloves on the second day. We all had cracked hands on the first day. As a reward I was allowed to seal the bags instead of sticking my hands in the water. And my friends the vets all offered to buy me drinks.

I tag Danica, Kevin, Bora, Cathy, Anton, Kelly Jo, Jeff, and Bascha.

9 Comments

  1. Michael Harrison

    Here’s a question… do you do the NYT crossword online, print-and-play, or get a dead-tree copy from a newsstand/subscription?

  2. Paul

    This leads to one other bit of trivia. Sally is in the 4th generation of newspaper owning family from Texas. I get up every morning. Start the espresso machine heating. Toddle out to the papers. Make espresso and solve the puzzle on newsprint using a pen.

  3. Michael Czeiszperger

    “As far as eggplant goes, I’ve had my fill. I experienced complete Tantric overkill one summer in Turkey during which a different eggplant dish was served to me every day for two weeks. I now avoid eggplant dishes.”

    But have you tried battered and deep fried japanese eggplant? Its the best eggplant I’ve ever had…

  4. Paul

    yes. every possible and some quite improbable eggplant dishes. fried every ways. dipped in everything. even tossed whole into the fire, charred and then the soft cooked center scooped out and served.

  5. Michael Harrison

    In pen? Well, then. 🙂

  6. Sally

    The question is, did you like eggplant before you went to Turkey? (I think not!)

  7. Paul

    I did love eggplant in ratatouille, in moussaka, in parmesan, in something the Turks called “little shoes” and even in Baba Ghanuj

  8. Sayan

    I recently had eggplant pizza !
    Did you try eggplant during your trip to India last year?
    BTW, here is a tid-bit you will like… the Hindi word for eggplant is ‘baygun’ which roughly translates into ‘the one with no good qualities’ 🙂

  9. Paul

    I once loved eggplant but that was then and this is now. I didn’t avoid eggplant while in India. It may have snuck into something, but I never intentionally ate eggplant whilst there.

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