BS: For fun - Ten obscure facts about you

Subject: RE: BS: For fun - Ten obscure facts about you
From: Socorro
Date: 14 Nov 02 - 10:13 PM

This should provide a chuckle to the British:
1. While visiting in Ireland, I proudly mentioned to my Irish friend & her 2 teenage children, that my Grandmother was related to the Bishop of Ireland (Grandma talked about him all the time, assuring me he was a Very Important Person). In doing so, I hoped my own 12 year old daughter would gain more respect for our family.

Boy, did that backfire!!

My poor friends didn't know how to break it to me what the real state of affairs was: Bishop Eamon Casey was famous, all right, for scandalous sexual behavior which had been prominently featured in the news there, but which hadn't made the news in the U.S.(thankfully for Grandma!).

2. I am related (by marriage) to Harry Connick,Jr. I threw that in to try to redeem my image here, after #1.

Subject: RE: BS: For fun - Ten obscure facts about you
From: Duane D.
Date: 14 Nov 02 - 11:19 PM

A few more about me:
11. I used to teach beginners how to cross-country ski.
12. Green is my favorite color, especially how newly opened leaves look in spring.
13. Spinach is my favorite vegetable.
14. I don't eat any meat, but I'll eat fish and shellfish whenever I can.
15. I have a right hand/left hand peculiarity. I write, draw, paint, solder, use hand tools, eat, play raquet sports, left handed. I bat, bowl, golf, throw, right handed. When eating, if I need to use the knife, I move the fork to my right hand to hold what needs cutting and cut with my left hand, then return to eating with my left hand. When fishing, I cast left handed, then change hands and reel left handed. I play all my instruments right handed, except the Psaltry and Pianolyn I bow left handed. I favor my left hand when throwing a frisbee, but I can throw with either, and have thrown with both hands at the same time.
16. In the early 1990's, I started showing the night sky with my telescope to some new friends. They had trouble remembering my name and started calling me "Starman." One morning I looked in the mirror and a star-like age spot appeared over my left eye. I still have the "star" and the nickname.

Duane.

Subject: RE: BS: For fun - Ten obscure facts about you
From: Mark Clark
Date: 14 Nov 02 - 11:20 PM

Okay, I must be the only one left who hasn't made a contribution to this very entertaining thread so here goes.

1. Onions from my garden once won a blue ribbon at the Iowa State Fair.

2. In the 1st grade c. 1948, my mother received a concerned call from my teacher. Members of the class had been asked what they wanted to be when they were all grown up. My response … “Dead.”

3. Actually was called once to fill in for Bill Monroe's guitar player on a job but missed it because our own band was out working that night.

4. In spite of losing 19 IQ points due, evidently, to sleep apnea, I would still more than qualify for MENSA membership.

5. In spite of a high IQ, I've never graduated from college—although I've attended quite few—and barely made it out of high school, probably due to attention deficiency. I'm currently seeking employment as Dilbert's garbage man.

6. Actually got to meet Norman Thomas following a speech he gave at Chicago's Midland Hotel.

7. Have never purchased any recording by Bob Dylan, but did visit Hibbing, MN, once in 1956.

8. When Frank Wilkinson and Carl Braden were prevented by Drake University from speaking on campus, we got the event moved to my parents’ home. Wilkinson spent the night.

9. Upon hearing the news reports of December 4, 1969, many of my friends thought it reasonable to fear that I'd been killed.

10. I enjoy my peanut butter sandwiches with a lots of pickled jalapeño pepper slices on very dense whole wheat bread.

      - Mark

Subject: RE: BS: For fun - Ten obscure facts about you
From: Bill D
Date: 14 Nov 02 - 11:54 PM

reading this thread, I know more than ever why I hang out with folkies! What an amazing bunch!

so, since others have added round two...

11. I have eaten more Peanut butter than ANY of you ...for over 60 years (missed VERY few days!)...with jelly, jam, honey...and!... I just remembered this...I used to eat it with Log Cabin syrup!...no mayo, no mustard, no banana.(I also love Bordens Eagle Brand Sweetened Condensed Milk on bread...or right out of the can!.)
12. I can vibrate my eyeballs rapidly back & forth.
13. I have been naked on a mountain top above Juneau, Alaska. (have a picture to prove it!)
14. I am (well, used to be) a world class fork-lift operator, having driven them in warehouses, and outdoors in all sorts of weather, moving an AMAZING variety of things!)
15. I once parallel parked a VW bus in a space 2 inches shorter than the bus....without damaging anything. (Yes it was between two cars)
16. When I was a senior in high school, our class trip was to Wash DC and N. York City, and I won the race UP the insides of both the Washington Monument AND the Statue of Liberty....*pant, pant*
17.
18.
19.
20......I haven't mentioned, nor will I, some of the most 'quaint' things.

Subject: RE: BS: For fun - Ten obscure facts about you
From: Jim Krause
Date: 15 Nov 02 - 12:25 AM

1. Despite the German spelling of my last name, I am not of German descent, but Dutch/Flemish
   
2. I'm learning to play the fife at age 49
   
3. I'm thinking about taking up drums because I like fife and drum corps music
   
4. I am the only person in my immediate family to have completed four years of college and graduated despite the following:
   
5. "I have had cataracts removed from both eyes." (Me too, artbrooks.)
   
6. I once jammed with Mac Benford at the Walnut Valley Bluegrass Festival. You Highwoods Stringband fans will remember him.
   
7. I have never met a famous person.
   
8. Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada is the only non-American city I have ever been to.
   
9. I really like jazz from the 1920s. Jelly Roll Morton and James P. Johnson are two of my favorite pianists.
   
10. I used to play ragtime piano at work while I was a janitor at Kansas University.
    

Whew! I did it.
Jim

Subject: RE: BS: For fun - Ten obscure facts about you
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 15 Nov 02 - 01:07 AM

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

Subject: RE: BS: For fun - Ten obscure facts about you
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 15 Nov 02 - 01:07 AM

Well, I'm not sure if it's kosher to be talkin' about others, but here's an obscure fact about Harvey....He was once a neighbour to Ozzie Osbourne!! (oh, and I love yakkin' with him too!)

OK, Just a COUPLE more about me (I promise)

I delivered the morning paper to famous figure skater Toller Cranston's family.

My Dad died when I was 18 and I think the biggest worry he ever had in his life was whether I'd actually be OK, and be able to survive, and be able to make a living at anything! He once said "You can't make a living singing folk songs"! Naturally he was right ha ha!!!!

My favourite food in the world is Lobster!!

****************************************************************

Now since she won't do it herself, I'm taking it upon myself to put in a few obscure facts about DUCKBOOTS.

#1. She has a superb vocabulary, and CONSTANTLY spells words for me when I'm on Mudcat.

#2. She HATES sports.....I love sports.

#3. She can eat anything but smoked salmon.

#4. She's adopted, and we had a real adventure finding her birth mother. She now has quite an extended family.

#5. She is possibly one of the shyest human beings I've ever met.

#6. She packed up and left Glasgow Scotland when she was 19. She came to Canada 'cause it was easier to get into than the States and closer than Australia.

#7. She hardly ever cooks ('cause I do ninety percent of it) but is a great chef.....and actually follows recipes. I of course am an improviser and couldn't repeat a meal to save my life!

#8. On one of our first dates, I wanted her to go with me to a fundraiser for Striking British Coal Miners. She said "My family FROZE during that bloody strike!!" At that point I knew we might have some political differences.

#9. She has no ideology. Makes up her mind independantly on every issue. I'm like that too now. Formerly pretty left on every issue, but not now.

#10. Absolutely non-stop reader.

***************************************************************

Subject: RE: BS: For fun - Ten obscure facts about you
From: open mike
Date: 15 Nov 02 - 04:47 AM

Whew I read thru them all and now I guess it's my turn..
but first a question--
-aren't all VW engines air cooled??

-malt vinegar--it's the best on fries. I discovered it at
H.Salt , Esq. fish & chips which was right across the street
from my high school. I insist that my local cafe offer it.

I am an only child, a vegetarian and will be 50 on my next birthday.

I also worked with the Y.C.C. mostly we cleared thistles (taller
than we were) out of a park and built paths, and gabions (rocks
inside of wire cages) to prevent erosion and create water crossings.
This was in 1972 in Lincoln, NE

My ancestors were Swedish (not rutabagas or turnips or whatever)
Danish, German and I am still trying to find out about the grandfather who ran away when the kids were little.

I feel a kinship with the Sami people from near the Arctic Circle
some call them lapplanders but this is not their preferred name.

My first born child (yes i'm female) was born at home, well she was
a home birth but not at our home, we had gone to a friends' house for thanksgiving. All I said was: "I just can't seem to get comfortable." Lucky me. Not too painful, but just about bled to death....
the next kid was born in a hospital, but with several friends and neighbors in attendance as well as her dad...and sister...

I belong to the dung beetle clan-a group of friends who camp together at music festivals and also like to go to hot springs.

I can wiggle my ears.

and roll and turn over my tongue.

My second toes are longer that the "big" ones

I think I am borderline Attention Deficit Disorder, I start things
but don't often follow thru on the finishing-I have followed thru with
reading this list to the finish though...let's see I think that is at
least ten....

I havenot broken any bones, but have had stitches-- I think it took 60--from when a drunk driver ran into me on my bike.

oh, and my guitar is named Martina, and my mandolin (mandolute) I
usually refer to as a womandolin or womandolute. My bodhran has a
decal of a guy with his red beard twing around like a celtic knot-
I call him my red haired boy....or little beggar man...

I have a composting toilet as well, and also solar panels on the roof

and get my water from a mountain stream which flows down from wild mountain

I live with 8 land partners on 50 wooded acres in the Sierra foothills
and am a volunteer fire fighter...and an E. M.T.
now i'm sure i'm way over ten and way past my bed time good nite all.

Subject: RE: BS: For fun - Ten obscure facts about you
From: Deckman
Date: 15 Nov 02 - 06:22 AM

GOOD GRIEF MAGGIE (SRS), that sure was tame! Having known you since you were a kritter, I could probably post things more enlightening about you than you did! CHEERS, Bob(deckman)nelson

Subject: RE: BS: For fun - Ten obscure facts about you
From: Willie-O
Date: 15 Nov 02 - 08:20 AM

1. When I was eight I was stranded on an island offshore from PEI with my family. We were rescued by the Coast Guard. Nothing in my life has really topped this.

2. I have met two Canadian prime ministers: Pierre Trudeau and Joe Clark. I advised Mr Clark, who was then Minister of External Affairs, not to let the Reagan administration push him around. About what? I forget. Chance encounter in the hallway of the East Block.

3. I made Peter Gzowski cry, on national radio.

4. I absolutely hate making phone calls, especially follow-up calls. This is why I don't make a living in music.

5. I often don't make a very good or accurate first impression.

6. I meet a lot of people who were born within a day or two of my birthday (August 22), in other words 9 months after Christmas. Go figure.

7. I am a world-class procrastinator.

8. I believe I was the first person in Canada to be a professional hammered dulcimer player--OK, a busker--in the modern era.

9. I don't play hammered dulcimer anymore because

1. I got tired of tuning it
2. mine needed restringing which I didn't want to do because puncturing your fingertips is painful,
3. if word gets out that you play it, it's all people will ask you to do.

10. Having tried playing a lot of different instruments, I believe that the mandolin is the great compromise, which fits into the most varied situations. 8 strings is my limit.

11. I tend to write pieces that are longer than the assignment specifies.

Willie-O

Subject: RE: BS: For fun - Ten obscure facts about you
From: artbrooks
Date: 15 Nov 02 - 09:16 AM

Addendum:

11. I HATE peanut butter, no matter WHAT you put with it!

Subject: RE: BS: For fun - Ten obscure facts about you
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 15 Nov 02 - 10:39 AM

Hey open mike!

I'm glad to hear of someone else who admits to having a composting toilet! Curmudgeon and I live in an owner-built post-and-beam kit house on 33 acres of trees and rocks. We have above-mentioned composting toilet and heat with wood. No solar panels, unfortunately, but the house is situated on a south slope so we get some passive solar benefit of the sun despite surrounding woods.

Linn

Subject: RE: BS: For fun - Ten obscure facts about you
From: Alice
Date: 15 Nov 02 - 12:00 PM

5. In my #5 fact I forgot to include in the list of climbed pyramids, Cholula (twice) as well as going through the tunnel of older pyramids inside Cholula. I painted a painting of the Spanish church that was built on the top of Cholula.

15. I have been coloring my hair since I was in my 20's and currently have no idea what my natural color is (how much grey?) although it matches the color I had when I was a child. In 1984 I colored it a deep burgundy wine purple. It looked almost black except where the light hit it would reflect a wine color. The color made people in my western rural town turn their heads and drop their jaws when I walked into a room.

Subject: RE: BS: For fun - Ten obscure facts about you
From: GUEST,bbc at work
Date: 15 Nov 02 - 12:04 PM

I must be really boring! I can only think of one obscure fact about myself & I ain't tellin' unless you ask me in person! :)

best,

bbc

Subject: RE: BS: For fun - Ten obscure facts about you
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 15 Nov 02 - 12:30 PM

Deckman, the heading is "obscure," and to Mudcatters, these things about me might actually be obscure. "Risqué" wasn't a qualifier, and what old friends who knew me when I had pigtails and braces remember doesn't necessarily count! What was missing for you, perhaps, was my father's way of telling it. I would say

"I lived in the crewhouse on the ranger station compound, with a room to myself and a semi-private bathroom and a door that locked from the inside"

and my father said

"my daughter lived with 27 men."

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: For fun - Ten obscure facts about you
From: greg stephens
Date: 15 Nov 02 - 01:55 PM

I dont eat peanut butter, and as far as I know Ive never tried it, now I think about it. So how do I know I dont like it? Strange.....

Subject: RE: BS: For fun - Ten obscure facts about you
From: Mrrzy
Date: 15 Nov 02 - 02:48 PM

1) I have a split uvula.
2) My most famous paternal relative is the Mayflower Madam.
3) My most famous maternal relative heard the dog bark in the OJ Simpson case.
4) My parents' address once translated as Condom Street.
5) I am a child of pure lust, the result of an afternoon quickie.
6) I also still buy stuffed animals for myself, and sleep with them.
7) I developed acrophobia practically overnight - went to college without it, came home for $mas freshman year and boom, there it was.
8) I was raised without any religion at all.
9) I had a grandfather who said "thee" in real life.
10) I enjoy speaking in public, apparently the most common phobia.

Subject: RE: BS: For fun - Ten obscure facts about you
From: Deckman
Date: 15 Nov 02 - 02:49 PM

Maggie ... I think your Dad said it better! Bob

Subject: RE: BS: For fun - Ten obscure facts about you
From: boab d
Date: 15 Nov 02 - 02:55 PM

Mrizy how did you manage to split your uvula. As thats quite hard to comprehend

Subject: RE: BS: For fun - Ten obscure facts about you
From: mike the knife
Date: 15 Nov 02 - 02:56 PM

1: I hosted a radio program in a foreign language (Jazz Radio Berlin, 1995)
2: I have a supernumerary nipple.
3: Chaka Khan ate my chicken wings.
4: I am a radical moderate.
5: I passionately believe that the word for "palindrome" should be a palindrome.
6: Years ago, my harmonica was named "The Instrument of Torture" & was often stolen by friends who, when I demanded its immediate release, demanded elaborately worded, probably legally binding, written documents promising that I would never ever play harmonica in their presence, for any reason, ever again.
7: I gave up playing rugby at age 37 due to a bunged up neck.
8: I almost married a wonderful woman who plays the Lute.
9: Fries/chips w/ mayo? Absolutely! Only Bleu Cheese salad dressing is better.
10: I think I might have a crush on JenEllen.

Subject: RE: BS: For fun - Ten obscure facts about you
From: Amos
Date: 15 Nov 02 - 03:02 PM

Awright you -- get in line!! LOL See Rick's comments regarding the launching of ships upthread!! You and about half the sentient males in cyberspace... : >))


A

Subject: RE: BS: For fun - Ten obscure facts about you
From: Deda
Date: 15 Nov 02 - 03:18 PM

11. I once had a banana omelet, in a little flat in London. It was actually pretty good.
12. My husband is very handsome, and he's WONDERFUL to me. (He's also a very good jazz pianist but doesn't like to be the center of attention.) We've been married for 6 1/2 fabulous years -- and Amos performed the ceremony!

Subject: RE: BS: For fun - Ten obscure facts about you
From: black walnut
Date: 15 Nov 02 - 03:24 PM

1. collect rocks.

2. used to have a pet dachsund who chewed rocks.

3. have one pet rabbit with only 2 legs that work, and another pet rabbit with only 1 eye, the other surgically removed, and a pet cat who will sit on your lap but bites if you pet her.

4. used to play clarinet and tuba, but not at the same time.

5. used to knit, until I got hung up on the second sleeve of a very gorgeous llama wool Celtic spiral sweater.

6. talked with Bruce Cockburn for about half an hour at a party about 20 years ago, and when I met him recently in a downtown sporting goods store, he said he remembered me!

7. my husband used to take guitar lessons from Rick Fielding.

8. my daughter takes guitar lessons from Eve Goldberg.

9. newly converted to vegetarianism, but darned if I'm not going to eat some turkey this Christmas!

10. my music partner friend is Bram's little brother....Bram, of Sharon Lois and Bram.

~b.w.

Subject: RE: BS: For fun - Ten obscure facts about you
From: mike the knife
Date: 15 Nov 02 - 03:36 PM

Quote: Awright you -- get in line!! LOL See Rick's comments regarding the launching of ships upthread!! You and about half the sentient males in cyberspace... : >))

Aw shucks... I never get to have any fun...

Another one: A former girlfriend's father flew on an airplane, sitting next to Ernest Hemingway on two seperate occaisions.

Subject: RE: BS: For fun - Ten obscure facts about you
From: Amos
Date: 15 Nov 02 - 04:08 PM

Well, Mike, it's certainly not for me to say -- sorry -- I was just chortling at a familiar sentiment ! Give it yer best shot, buddy!   (Ya got a palindrome for MOPP equipment? :>) )

A

Subject: RE: BS: For fun - Ten obscure facts about you
From: JenEllen
Date: 15 Nov 02 - 04:13 PM

mike the knife, loved your list (3&5? thank you)

Re: Rick's comments? He was being VERY kind. It's not so much the 'thousand ships' as it is a few poor saps that have found themselves in paddle-less canoes crossing that trecherous bit of water known as "Shit Creek". Which leads us to:

#11: I seem to have been placed under what is commonly known as a 'voodoo curse'. Every single man I have ever been seriously involved with has had some tragic episode shortly after declaring his love. No deaths (yet) but maiming is a certainty. No kidding. We're talking electrocutions, poisonous spiders, fireballs, etc. It used to worry me, until Alex and Amos helped me finish the song I wrote about it.... *g*

So, crushes are welcome, provided you sign the waiver first.
~JE

Subject: RE: BS: For fun - Ten obscure facts about you
From: Mrrzy
Date: 15 Nov 02 - 04:14 PM

Boab - I was born that way!

Subject: RE: BS: For fun - Ten obscure facts about you
From: irishajo
Date: 15 Nov 02 - 04:21 PM

I confess it took me a bit to figure out what 'uvula' referred to. I was reading it as something else entirely!

Subject: RE: BS: For fun - Ten obscure facts about you
From: mike the knife
Date: 15 Nov 02 - 05:05 PM

In re: Curse.
JE, egad, mine's just a crush, so it's probably just a stubbed toe or something for me, right?
Details on the Chaka Khan Chicken Wing Story soon...

Subject: RE: BS: For fun - Ten obscure facts about you
From: GUEST,Fred Miller
Date: 15 Nov 02 - 05:25 PM

I also thought someone was saying they had a split vulva. Plus the nipple thing. But #8--though my parents were both very religious, I have to tell people I was raised as a science experiment.

I have a delusion that I'm pretty funny, and a fear of entropy.

Subject: RE: BS: For fun - Ten obscure facts about you
From: Little Hawk
Date: 15 Nov 02 - 05:41 PM

I've been trying to avoid this one...gotta hoard those obscure facts for an emergency, but I guess I can spare a few of them:

1. My best friend for about 5 or 6 years was a rubber alligator named "Albert".

2. I have a hat once worn by Bob Dylan. He left it in a Toronto folk club, and the owner gave it to me a few years back. It's still got Bob's scalp oils on it! Yowsa! :-) It's not for sale.

3. I invented a small type of catapult for pelting little plastic battleship models with spitwads (so as to register a visible hit, but not damage the model in the process...very neat).

4. I once won my high school's foul shooting contest (and I wasn't on the basketball team). Ha! Showed them damn jocks a thing or two.

5. I wrote the only anti-American essay on Vietnam in my entire college class, astounding the professor, who had never heard such opinions expressed before. He eventually gave me an "A", after checking out my references...which spoke well for him, I must say.

6. I got beaten up exactly once...by my other best friend. He was only 5 or 6 but he was built like an ox. There was no point even resisting. He felt pretty bad about it afterward... It didn't turn out to be as bad as I had expected.

7. The first time I went out with a girl, I was so nervous that I couldn't raise the cup of coffee to my lips...I was too shaky. I don't think she noticed. She may have been nervous too.

8. I know who the Rolling Thunder Revue tour was named after. Bet you don't!

9. I wrote a neat song about the Titanic about 10 years before that famous movie came out...it beats hell out of "My Heart Will Go On" or whatever it's called.

10> I once sent a bug on a deep-sea diving expedition in a carefully-constructed submersible, with a resurfacing mechanism. I had such confidence in the system I had devised that I did not attach a safety line, just in case something might malfunction. My cousin and I waited for half an hour. The submersible never came up. The bug met his doom at the bottom of Malpeque Bay, and it's all my fault. That's where hubris'll get you.

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: For fun - Ten obscure facts about you
From: Gloredhel
Date: 15 Nov 02 - 06:20 PM

1. The houseplant I have now is the only one I've ever managed to keep alive for more than 6 weeks.
2. I will be 18 next month, but have still never been kissed.
3. When I was 10, I got my one and only organ lesson.
4. I have written 8 short pieces for the piano.
5. A mean kid in school used to call me "ogre" because I didn't swing my arms when I walked (too much Irish stepdancing...)
6. I never attended any of the games my high school's sports teams participated in.
7. The two things that cause the most fear in me are being late and saying the wrong thing.
8. I actively avoid stepping on cracks in the sidewalk. If I accidentally step on a crack with one foot, I must then step on one with the other foot. (Yes, I am borderline obsessive-compulsive).
9. A friend has written 15 sonnets and nearly 40 limericks about me.
10. I have dreamt about becoming a nun.

Subject: RE: BS: For fun - Ten obscure facts about you
From: JenEllen
Date: 15 Nov 02 - 06:30 PM

Late Additions:

I have to admit I paused at the uvula thing too (thinking: Jeez, Mrrz, how personal do you have to get?).

I am eagerly awaiting the chicken wing story, and only partly because I just like saying 'Chaka Khan'.

I have a vision of MTK putting the grandkids to bed years from now and having them say "Grandpa, tell us a story" and it's all about his black toenail and how he once fell victim to a voodoo curse (you can't say you weren't warned).

I admire grace and agility in people, but jugglers scare the ever-living crap out of me.

Subject: RE: BS: For fun - Ten obscure facts about you
From: boab d
Date: 15 Nov 02 - 06:55 PM

UVULA - the wee punch bag at the back of your throat just incase anyone thinks that were being a little too rude

Subject: RE: BS: For fun - Ten obscure facts about you
From: GUEST,Neil Comer
Date: 15 Nov 02 - 07:06 PM

1. I am the editor of the oldest existing Irish Language Magazine in the world- An tUltach
2. I were perscription sunglasses whilst I am typing
3. I have an obsession with Ordnance Survey Maps
4. I do 110 situps per day
5. My favourite TV programme is Buffy the Vampire Slayer (not because of Sarah Michelle Gellar, but because of the story line)
6. I am completing a PhD in Languages
7. American Pie is my favourite film
8. I am married to the captain of Derry County Camogie Team
9. My favourite food is mixed pickles
10. My favourite band is Meat Loaf

Subject: RE: BS: For fun - Ten obscure facts about you
From: Stephen L. Rich
Date: 15 Nov 02 - 07:11 PM

Amos -- Cheeseless pizza???? How does that work? I'm having a bit of difficulty even imagining such a thing.

Stephen Lee

Subject: RE: BS: For fun - Ten obscure facts about you
From: Little Hawk
Date: 15 Nov 02 - 07:13 PM

Gloredhel - That's an interesting character sketch. You sound like a Winona Ryder movie heroine. (I mean that in a complimentary fashion. I like her movies.) Don't worry about the kissing thing...I had never been kissed at 18 either.

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: For fun - Ten obscure facts about you
From: Amos
Date: 15 Nov 02 - 07:26 PM

Steve:

Well, the ability to imagine the unthinkable is one of my strong suits, including cheeseless pizza, and fish-sticks made out of sirloin!! :>) A cheeseless pizza is about the equivalent of a hoagie on toasted French, I guess.


A

Subject: RE: BS: For fun - Ten obscure facts about you
From: RangerSteve
Date: 15 Nov 02 - 07:40 PM

There's a music hall in Waretown, NJ where I perform a lot. Senator Bill Bradley was in the audience one night. He's so tall that he had to sit in an aisle seat with his feet in the aisle. I almost stepped on his feet as I was leaving. A few years later, while I was directing traffic, I held things up so Bill could cross the street. I said "good evening", and he ignored me. I should have stepped on his feet when I had the chance. I've been told that Bill can be pretty rude.

Slightly ob/com behavior: if I brush up against something cold with one arm, I have to brush up against something cold with the other one, or I feel out of balance. Or I can rub the cold spot until it's warm, but I have to do one or the other.

Subject: RE: BS: For fun - Ten obscure facts about you
From: Deckman
Date: 15 Nov 02 - 10:35 PM

Do you phokes realize just how weird his thread is? Bob

Subject: RE: BS: For fun - Ten obscure facts about you
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 15 Nov 02 - 10:52 PM

#37. I was given a BB gun (Red Ryder, Daisy air rifle) when I was about 11 years old. That day (in the basement with the door closed) I shot holes in every model plane I'd built. Hung 'em all up with string and blasted them out of the air. My mother took the air rifle away that night and I never saw it again.

#38. I couldn't climb the ropes in school, and finished last everytime in running around the track. Three miles away from school (in the town of beaconsfield Quebec) I was the best baseball player in Little league. Fast enough to steal bases, and strong enough to hit tons of home runs, and blow fastballs past other twelve year olds. Nobody at school ever knew this, and nobody on the ball team ever knew how scared and weak I was at school. Totally weird, and I still can't figure it out.

Hey there Bbc, I'll bet a billion bucks your obscure TRUE facts would be extremely interesting, but you're simply too much of an adult to get into this silly game we're playing, ha ha!

Cheers

Rick

Subject: RE: BS: For fun - Ten obscure facts about you
From: Alice
Date: 16 Nov 02 - 12:51 AM

Neil, you must have awesome abs.

Subject: RE: BS: For fun - Ten obscure facts about you
From: katlaughing
Date: 16 Nov 02 - 01:33 AM

This IS fun and interesting!

I won the top music scholarship in junior high when I was concert mistress of the orchestra. It was to any summer music camp I wanted to attend. I went, had a blast meeting kids from all over the world, and didn't do much with the music because they used us to perform atonal, minimalist crap written by one of the professors.

While there I was sure I would burn in hell because I went to the local Episcopal church and took communion which I wasn't "authorised" to do, never having been confirmed by the bishop in Colorado. I really thought I'd be struck down for being an imposter!

I used to do all of my own mechanic work, well... within reason, changed a couple of carbs, put in two new starters, and a few other things. I can still usually tell what is wrong with a car by listening to it.

I used to spend my days driving all over hell and back, going out to remote drilling rigs in Wyoming to demonstrate how well two-way radio telephones worked (pre-cellphone days) in the hopes the powers that be would buy an expensive system from me. I never thought twice about doing this, even in the winter. Now, there is no way I'd do such a thing! I was either stupid or hungry!*bg*

Alice, I had been dying my hair since my early twenties, too, but finally let it go natural in '93 when meds and colouring damaged it too much. I'd love it if it hadn't faded; it's nowhere near as red as it was when I was a kid, but it's a lot healthier, so I sit in the sun when I want to see the red that is left.:-)

Subject: RE: BS: For fun - Ten obscure facts about you
From: GUEST,Fred Miller
Date: 16 Nov 02 - 09:19 AM

I can imagine a cheeseless pizza. But I have trouble imagining a non-split vulva.

As a kid I invented a rubber-band launcher that fired as many as 70 bands singly, rapidly, or all at once.

Subject: RE: BS: For fun - Ten obscure facts about you
From: Amos
Date: 16 Nov 02 - 09:46 AM

When 13, I invented a catapault that would throw a pound of snowballs about 30 yards out of old farm-machine parts found in the barn. It was powered by an old doubled screen-door spring, and never worked properly!

The first time I ever did "it" it was in a locked-up summer house that belonged to someone else who was away, to which we gained access by climbing a pine tree and climbing in through a second story window.

Amazing what young lovebirds will put up with in their quest for a little privacy! :>)

That same lass and I drove a motor-scooter from San Francisco to Los Angeles just to visit a friend at Pomona. ANother of those things I don't think I would do again today!

A

Subject: RE: BS: For fun - Ten obscure facts about you
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 16 Nov 02 - 09:52 AM

More addenda:

20) I took accordian lessons when I was 5. (Stopped because every time I got the box out to practice, my mother would grab it and play.) Took clarinet lessons in gradeschool and junior high. Played in the school concert and marching bands. Played clarinet despite wanting to play horn or flute because my Dad wanted me to -- during WWII, he played clarinet and sax with a dance band (Frankie Dessel and His Melodeons) in north-central Wisconsin. (And I used to have to fight him for my clarinet to practice, too!

21) I own a $2-at-a-yardsale (15 or so years ago) very forgiving 8 foot tall and growing flowering maple. It sits in the south window of the bathroom and is a water hog -- if it doesn't get a drink every morning, it tries to take over the shower. It would be a lot taller than 8 feet if I didn't hack it back (and foist off the rooted cuttings on friends) every coupla months.

Another Condiment Comment (besides "Practice safe snacks -- always use a condiment"):

The other tasty way to eat french fries is mayo with a dash of Tabasco or your favorite hot sauce.

Linn

Subject: RE: BS: For fun - Ten obscure facts about you
From: harpgirl
Date: 16 Nov 02 - 09:56 AM

...group therapy is now over! Send your twenty five dollars to Max!

Subject: RE: BS: For fun - Ten obscure facts about you
From: Catherine Jayne
Date: 16 Nov 02 - 12:01 PM

*I can't stand peanut butter...but I like Jam sandwiches!!!

*I hardly ever went to any sports lessons at school (problems with knees)

*Mum doesn't like the idea of me being a Pagan.

*I would very much like a 5 string fiddle.....just need to save up the £1500 for one!!!

Subject: RE: BS: For fun - Ten obscure facts about you
From: Don Firth
Date: 16 Nov 02 - 02:00 PM

14. One evening while sitting in the Blue Moon Tavern drinking beer with Jerry Pournelle, we figured out the speed of light in furlongs per fortnight. Starting with 299,792,458 meters per second, we came up with

1,802,617,499,785.2541.

(One trillion, eight hundred and two billion, six hundred and seventeen million, four hundred and ninety-nine thousand, seven hundred and eighty-five point two five four one). Actually, we figured it out to twenty decimal places, but decided that was probably the practical limit of required precision. Besides, our vision was getting a bit fuzzy by then. And Jerry's wife, Roberta, came in and looked at us funny.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: For fun - Ten obscure facts about you
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 16 Nov 02 - 03:11 PM

You people keep reminding me of more dumb shit interesting stuff.....

16. Like Rick, I sucked at in-school sports. I could go home and play baseball or football in a vacant lot and do just as well as any of the other kids in the neighborhood. But in a school setting I couldn't play worth shit. I guess it was a sort of stage-fright due to knowing other kids were watching (which is sort of odd considering that I don't get the least bit nervous performing music in front of large audiences). In high school I avoided the issue by being on the track and cross-country teams. I really didn't like running all that much, and was not really all that fast a runner, but it gave me the option of just running during gym class instead of having to play ball. Also, athletes got automatic "A"s in gym class and I had been getting "C"s before.

17. The only time I ever got straight "A"s in all twelve years of public school was in the very last six-week grading period of my senior year. As that final report card was mailed out instead of given out in class, I received exactly no public recognition for the feat.

Bruce