Sorry, SS, I just haven't had time to review and post this til now! (I desperately need to find a different job before I lose whatever stitch of sanity I have left.) But I think this quiz is pretty much the same as previous years.

One overall suggestion is that I really like getting things from my Secret Santa's abode -- your music or that of your friends, local travel brochures, maps, rocks or shells, food -- even crumpled local newspapers used as packing material. (One of my prized possessions is Divine's obituary in Spanish that was in a crumpled newspaper protecting something I had mailordered.)

1. what is your age range?
Let's see, I've been just about every age up to and including 58, but I'm doing research on ages I haven't yet attained.

2. gender?
Goddess, fer-pete's-sake

3. Do you have a favorite color?
Blue, green, blue green, purple, bluish purple, magenta. I avoid orange except in things I eat.

4. favorite authors/ type of book?
Uh, I need books like cats need wings, but books on early gravestones or gravestone carvers from your area would be a welcome addition to the library.

5. what books have you really been wanting?
I usually acquire them unless I can't afford them, which would also put them out of the range of my Secret Santa.

6. what type of music do you like?
Everything from Louis Killen to Louis Prima, shanties and occupational songs to Richard Strauss, Flanders & Swann or kazoo music (but I think I own most kazoo music recorded on LP). But what I want, should you decide to favor me with a CD, is your music or that of your friends or somebody local to you that you think I should hear. (Or kazoo music on CD!)

7. what cds have you really been wanting?
I'm still looking for a CD (if it exists) of the 1970s recording (double LP -- which I have) of "Canto General" by Mikis Theodorakis, with the French National Chorus and Maria Farandouri. NOT the German recording which seems to be the only CD available.

8. What movies (vhs is in the price range) have you been wanting?
Uh, Curmudgeon and I probably have the largest private collection in New Hampshire, USA.

9. what is your t-shirt size?
H for homungus (I like 'em roomy). I'm goddess-shaped, so 3X at least. I don't have (alas) a Mudcat T-shirt or sweatshirt.

10. do you collect anything? if so, what?
Maps, hippocampuses, rubber squid, rubberstamps and printing paraphernalia, skulls and interesting bones, rocks, shells, green men, mermaids. . . I think I collect collections.

11. what are some of your other hobbies?
Gravestone rubbing and research on gravestone carvers, learning how to cut slate, gardening, making bead jewelry, rubberstamp art, needlepoint.

12. do you prefer gold-tone or silver-tone jewelry?
Silver

13. please include anything else you feel is important that would help your secret santa know what you would like.
Oh, I'm a sucker for fancy scented bath stuff. If you can find a squid (not octopus) rubberstamp for my collection, you're a better man than I.

Remember that "negative hints" such as allergies might also be helpful.
I'm allergic to penicillin and blue mussels -- and carnations, not that I think this will really help my SS (Aw, no blue mussels!). And I really don't care for the color orange unless it's edible or a flower up against a blue or purple backdrop.

Linn