7 Things

My sister tagged me in this 7 Things game, where you're supposed to list seven things that most people may not know about you. I'm trying to build a blog habit here, so why not? Here are my seven, prepare to be shocked. Your life will never be the same, once you know these things about me.

1. I don't like to be touched, kissed, or really even looked at underneath my chin. I'm likely to involuntarily squeal loudly in the ear of the person trying to touch me there. Be warned.
2. Sarah Palin brings out the worst in me, more so than anyone else I know. I have a slowly simmering rage whenever I think about her. I recognize that many people will not understand this because she is inspiring to them (including a number of people I love and respect), but not me. Now let's all get along and move to the much less controversial item #3. 
3. I have an active presence online on a few key film and Oscar blogs and websites, where I'm very much part of the virtual community. On most days, I check them as often as I can, often hourly. Through that film community, last year I became one of about 20 selected "lay Oscar prognosticators" (i.e., not paid film critics or Hollywood folk) to be "Sultans of Bling" on one of the larger film sites (competing with the more well-established pros on "Gurus of Gold"). The Sultans were mentioned in the New York Times', LA Times' and Variety film sites. It's no big deal, and we collectively didn't prognosticate that well, but something a little different about me, I suppose. 
4. I was an English major, but I failed Shakespeare. It was a depression/not-going-to-class thing. I really do love the old bard and regret that's on my transcript, though I took the class again and did much better. 
5. Even though I have little or no experience with them, I am inordinately fascinated by ships, boats and especially submarines and nonfiction accounts about adventures on them. Similarly, I am also super-excited about accounts of adventures in snowy and icy conditions (Everest, Antarctica, etc.). If you combine the two, to say tell a true account of a submarine that gets lost in the Arctic sea ice never to be heard from again, I'm golden. Don't know why I love that stuff, but I do.
6. I married a direct descendant of Geoffrey Chaucer. He's Ben's 19th great-grandfather. Which is pretty darn cool. 
7. My favorite all-time movie food is chocolate-covered almonds and cherry coke. I'm also a big fan of the pickles. 

I'm supposed to tag seven other people, but since I don't know who will read this, and I feel a little rebellious about following the rules here, we'll just say that if you're reading this and you have a hankering, consider yourself tagged. You can blog your 7 things or just e-mail them to me.