without the aid of prejudice and custom, I should not be able to find my way across the room

June 8: chorography

One of my former coworkers, whom a mutual friend cannot look in the eye because she's made so nervous by his direct gaze, actually managed to put his geography degree to good use when he was hired by a firm doing local chorography work.

June 9: whilom

One of the keys to contentment seems to be striking a balance between honoring your whilom selves and encouraging your future ones.

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1. Growing up, who was the easier mark: Mom or Dad?
   neither one is particularly easy. Dad is softer on some practical things, and Mom is negotiable over time. It's all in how you play it.
2. What is the stupidest pet that you ever saw?
   a pygmy hedgehog
3. Tell us about a band whose every CD is a "must have."
   I love music. There is literally not a day that I can recall when I haven't listened to music in some way or another. My taste is all over the map; though I listen mostly to rock, I will go for something that sounds good in nearly any genre.
   I make all this disclaimer before saying that I cannot think of any band whose entire backlist is really "must have." REM is a consistent favorite, but they have a couple of CDs that are real dogs. Staind has an almost infinite ability to entertain and engage me, but I thought Tormented was not nearly as good as the rest of their stuff. Alkaline Trio is probably my favorite band, at this point, and although there is something on each of their CDs that I absolutely adore, Good Mourning, Agony & Irony and This Addiction are big standouts by comparison to a couple of the others. (The same could be said about nearly anyone, including the Beatles or Simon & Garfunkel or Toby Keith or Rihanna....)
4. Where you surprised when Jim Parsons came out?
   no, and neither did I particularly care. He's a gifted actor, and I enjoy watching him do what he does professionally. His particular taste in the people with whom he spends his personal life has NOTHING to do with me. In other words: if he's happy, I'm happy with that.
5. Have you ever shoplifted?
   yes, and it's been explicated here a zillion times so we needn't go through it again. Velcro, radar detector, blah blah blah.
6. We currently have a person who plays both this meme and Saturday 9 who signs in to Mr. Linky every week. Yet, if you click on that link, you are told that only "members" can read the blog. Why do you think that person even bothers to sign in or for that matter, do the meme? (Don't misunderstand, we have no rules and we aren't angry. But it is damn peculiar, no?)
   this seems like such a strange reaction to me, given that this meme is made up of questions taken from other memes. The whole idea is "stealing", so what the fuck difference does it make if someone does it after signing in, does it without signing in, does parts of it, doesn't do it at all, or just steals the questions for their own stealing meme? It seems patently absurd to even pretend to feelings about it.
   (But really, if you must know, I think that Mr. Linky's choice to "sign in" is his attempt to give credit, so that you can count off one more "yes" on your "how many people answered my clever questions" quota sheet for the week.)
7. Have you ever driven a Ferrari?
   no
8. What do you call those little plastic things on the ends of shoelaces?
   I really don't
9. Have you ever walked more than a mile?
   yes
10. Do you believe in magic?
    only in the loosest definition
11. Have you ever been arrested?
    cross your fingers--not yet
12. Have you ever skinny dipped?
    yes. As with the "shoplifted" question, above (what is this, "first meme ever" week?), it's been covered before. Feel free to search.
13. Explain what you think about hippies.
    "one of my best friends is a hippie"
14. New York or California?
    I've got a dear friend in New York, who often texts or emails when my train's running off the track, which seems awfully necessary for keeping things running properly.
    I've got someone in California who has a remarkable ability to sense when I'm not myself, when I need something, and to do, be, say, or give, exactly what I need to snap me back into place.
    So, no. I will not choose.
15. Have you ever been dumped?
    uh, yeah. Once again, the search function may be helpful to you.
16. What are you wearing right now?
    black capri leggings and a purple Lark Toys t-shirt. I'm finally cooled down after a ridiculous workout and I really need a shower.
17. John Edwards had a mistrial. How do you think he conducted himself after the verdict?
    no clue. I didn't keep up on it at all.
18. Did you watch the series finale of House?
    I did not. After watching the first six seasons of that show obsessively on DVD, I realized that I so hated the characters that I couldn't stand to see one more second. No more. I've never experienced any group of people who treat themselves and each other so terribly and had it called "entertainment" since watching a terrifying prison film that gave me nightmares for six months. Now I'm just disgusted with myself for having watched as much as I did.
19. You may need to go back a long way if you are old like Harriet. Who was the last person who asked you out? (Or that asked you out. Same dumb question either way.)
    I suppose that's Rowdy.
    I did receive some hard-core flirting from a guy at the liquor department at the grocery store on Friday. Three times, he managed to make his way into conversation with me. Since it happens so rarely, I wasn't terribly adept at volleying the ball back to him, but I think I did all right. He wasn't my type (at all) but it was still a nice enough experience.
    [The correct way to phrase it, by the way, is "who" - person who, thing that. It's not so difficult, really, to remember. Grammar, in fact, isn't so impossible when you give it a fighting chance.]
20. Do you have any collections?
    indeed: shot glasses, tiny boxes, quirky magnets, expensive jewelry, chopstick rests...

[from the usual source, who got it here; the title quotation is by William Hazlitt, from Sketches and Essays]