The Interview

Here are "the rules":
* Leave me a comment saying “interview me”. The first five commenters will be the participants.
* I will respond by asking you five questions.
* You will update your blog/site with the answers to the questions.
* You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
* When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions. (Write your own questions or borrow some.)

The questions I was asked:
1. If you had to choose an animal form what would it be? Why?

I think I'd like to be a big whale of some kind. They really get to see the world. And I'd like to know what their language is like, and what's it's like to "see" the world by sound. They don't have to work too hard to eat: Just strain a mouthful of seawater and swallow. So it seems a very serene life. I think they're wise.

2. What is your earliest memory?

I have rather accurate memories of many incidents very early in my life. One is from when I was perhaps 18 months old. I remember staying at someone's house, and they were doing construction on the upstairs. Mom and Dad didn't have a good place for me to sleep, so I remember being shown that I could get behind these wall studs in the upstairs in this space between where the roof sloped to the floor and where the wall would be. I remember the adults being very encouraging of me, and thinking the 18 month old equivalent of "they're setting me up for something". The plan was to get me to sleep there, thinking I'd not be able to get out and cause trouble. This was true. I couldn't figure out how to get out, and required adult help in and out. I remember waking up and thinking, "well, I'm gonna have to cry if I want to get out of here".

3. Where do you go for really good food and what do you get?

I like my own cooking, generally. I can make for myself exactly what I want, so restaurants aren't a necessary part of the process. And I like such a broad variety of things, that I don't have any single "go-to" dish or restaurant. That said, my favorite dish is some kind of slow cooked meat (often beef stew) with my spent grain bread and a pint of my stout. Hearty earthy peasant food. My favorite restaurant is John Harvard's Brew Pub in Harvard Square in Cambridge, MA. Best beer & food in Boston for your dollar. Gourmet pub fare, good beer.

4. You have the opportunity to interview the Pope, what question do you ask first?

Where does your faith come from? In other words, by what senses or experiences have you come to have your belief in and understanding of God?

5. What book do your read over and over again and what takes you back to it?

I really don't read books twice. There are very few that I've read more than once, and that's largely because of academic requirements. There are many that I recommend. "Startide Rising" by David Brin is one of the most imaginative pieces of science fiction I've ever read. I think Guns, Germs and Steel is worthwhile. I think 1984 should be required reading of all citizens of any democratic government. I think I read Kant's "Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals" 3 times for 3 different courses as an undergraduate. It's an important piece, but I wouldn't have read it 3 times by choice. But that's the piece I think I've read most.