Okay, here goes (though I'll have to explain to my daughter why this is different than the incredibly indescreet surveys that her teenage friends send around regularly and she knows she's not to answer or forward).

1. I eat M&M's by pairing the colors and putting them in my mouth two at a time. If they are mismatched at the end of the pack, I go for matching as close on the color wheel as I can.

2. I survived cancer, and while I am mentioning it here, I rarely ever think about it any more. The residual effect is that I know better how to value my friends and try to enjoy every day with my children and other loved ones.

3. I worked for the Youth Conservation Corps (YCC) in 1971. Since the bill establishing it was put forward by Senator Henry "Scoop" Jackson and Representative Lloyd Meeds, both from Everett, Washington, where I lived, a lot of media attention was paid to our camp of 12 high school students. On the last day the press came to follow us around and interview us. My project for the summer (since I didn't volunteer and got the last thing on the list) was to paint and landscape outhouses. The Seattle Times reporter was expecting innocuous teenaged conversation from all of us (I was 16). He was surprised when first a friend made me take off my hard hat to reveal blonde hair that reached down past my butt, and then he asked me politely what my project had been for the summer. I told him "I'm on the Privy Council," and he was mine for the rest of the day. Couldn't get him out of my hair, as it were. And my pun appeared in the paper.

4. I taught mountaineering for several years in the Puget Sound area, and still have all of my (now antique) climbing gear with me (including snowshoes) in Texas.

5. In 1978 I taught the park rangers at Ellis Island how to rappel. We went atop the Ferry Building at the head of the ferry slip and were rappelling off the back wall (towards Jersey City so the tourists arriving on boats for tours wouldn't see us).

6. As a park ranger I've been up through the torch of the Statue of Liberty twice, and out onto the little balcony around it. Park visitors are only able to climb to the crown.

7. I lived in New York City for three years. I met a lot of people, some were famous, none who would remember me (and many are now dead). Some of them were (in no particular order) Ed Koch; Bella Abzug; James Michener; Oscar Brand; Pete Seeger's wife, Toshi; Walter Mondale's niece (who was making a documentary out at Ellis); Mike Wallace; David Brenner; the newswoman who was the model for "Rosannasanna Danna"; and my personal favorite, Eubie Blake, who was as old as dirt but still performing. I spent a pleasant hour accompanying him (pardon the pun!) in Prospect Park, Brooklyn, where he did a little concert.

8. I've visited all of the U.S. states except Alaska, Hawaii, Maine, Michigan and North Dakota. (It was this or talk about my sex life, and I thought the catalog of states I've missed might be more interesting. . . I was a late bloomer.)

9. My mother's Norwegian family's roots are traced in the footnote of a book (in Norwegian) back to the 14th century. My aunt had a copy of the book.

10. I get up early and cook breakfast for my children every morning before school.

SRS