it's not only the scenery you miss by going too fast—you also miss the sense of where you are going and why

1 If you were to have your friends, in private, attribute a single quality to you, what would you want it to be? 

     I'd like them to think me good at observation. That I notice the things that other people don't, but that they wish people could see.

 

2 If you could have a secret camera in any one room in the world, what room would you put it in? 

    a corporate boardroom, while a finance committee is discussing stock prices. It wouldn't exactly be insider trading, right?

    Kidding, SEC: 

I didn't really mean it, wouldn't do it, and only made a joke. 

Really!

 

3 If you could make a film from any book never produced as a film, what book would you pick? 

    besides those I've mentioned already—The Path Between the Seas (1977) could be an awesome epic, heartbreaking and inspiring and visually awesome.

 

4 If you could have a voodoo doll that functioned for one person you know, who would that person be, and what would you use it for? 

    anyone who's said or implied that headaches are "all in your head" would get a sharp jab behind the right eye

 

5 If you could have been a jury member in any court case in history, which trial would you choose? 

     The People of the State of California v. Orenthal James Simpson

    There are few cases that have grasped the public attention and imagination like that one did, and I wish that there'd been someone present who understood the law and gave a damn about it. The result of that trial was completely insane. 

    Wouldn't it be nice if some sort of reanalysis could be required when a criminal trial and a civil trial regarding the same legal acts have such disparate results?

 

6 If you could discover that something you thought was true was actually false, what would you wish it to be? 

    that my family member with a serious illness was misdiagnosed and is going to recover, fully and fast

 

7 If you could have been told one thing that you weren't told when you were a teenager, what would you like to have heard? 

    slow the fuck down. You don't need to do it all at once, and slower can be better.

 

[from If...Questions for the Game of Life; the title quotation is from Eddie Cantor]