The Liebster Blog Award

Proving yet again that even a blind squirrel finds a nut every once in a while (even if it is dropped upon his head), I happily report that this blog has been nominated for The Liebster Blog Award.

What exactly is the Liebster? It's for the little guys, blogs with fewer than 200 followers. And it comes with baggage. You have to answer 11 questions of your nominator's choosing. Then you have to come up with your own list of 11 questions and "pay them forward" to your Liebster nominees.

I was nominated by So So Poems who asked the following questions.

Star Wars or Star Trek?

I was never a huge fan of Wagon Train, least of all when Seth Adams was shagging every squaw they encountered along the way.  So when you make a show unintentionally campy (unlike the Batman TV series which exhibits camp in its best light) and give the squaws green skin and foil miniskirts I'm still not impressed. I say this having watched A LOT of Star Trek in my day. So I'll say Star Wars. Actually, if they were all on TV at the same time and I had my clicker I'd watch Space 1999 or UFO. (And don't even bother pointing out the inconveniently inconsistent fact that the girls in UFO had purple hair and foil miniskirts.)

Do you always finish a book, regardless of whether you like it or not?

Mostly, but not always. Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species got put down prematurely.  There are just so many chapters on pigeon breeding that I can handle. (Cross a 1970s pr0n soundtrack with Woody the Woodpecker's call.) There was a book by Edward Tufte's mother on sentence structure as art (egads) that just lost me and an audiobook destroyed by Patrick Macnee's sheer incompetence as a voice actor.

Top Five Books of All Time (or of the moment)?

1. The Sound and The Fury by William Faulkner (IMO, the best English language novel ever written)
2. A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr. (great post-apocalyptic tale)
3. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens (as relevant today as ever)
4. If on a winters night a traveler by Italo Calvino (fun in a writerly way)
5. The Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy (thus began for me decades of pleasure in the espionage, military, techno-thriller genre)

What 3 celebrities, artists, musicians, writers, etc. would you nominate to run a country?

NONE. I want artists to paint, writers to write, celebrities to celebrate. Are you thinking like maybe Bono as president of the USofA? Ain't happenin'. We really need to find leaders who can lead. 

OK, so maybe what I really really want is to put Posh Spice in charge of the UK and run for cover. Better yet, maybe we can turn national leadership into reality TV. Oh wait - it already is.

What is your writing atmosphere? Complete silence, noise, secluded?

Like the moon, my writing has no atmosphere and only one sixth the gravity of normal writing. Fortunately for my writing, no one can hear you yawn. Like the moon, I am pockmarked and made of (or at least smell like) cheese. Men have walked on me (although I swear I paid the extra $20 for the geisha). What was the question again?

What teacher has had the most impact–negative or positive–on you?

• My high school English teacher senior year, Mrs. Betty Gretar, nurtured my appreciation for literature. 
• My college professor, Dr. John LaGraff, showed me the difference between facts, knowledge, and wisdom.

What animal do you look like?

A cross between a skink, the left side of a mandrill, and a chupacabra. With a heart two sizes too small.

Would you rather be supernatural or a superhero?

Superhero. And my super power would be the ability to withdraw my hair into my head at will. See - I'm doing it now! (This is the only question I had to think long and hard about.)

What is the worst television show you love to watch?

Certainly nothing involving Honey Boo Boo Child, I'll tell you that. Probably Say Yes to the Dress. (I have great fashion sense.) P.S. The purple tie was a big hit.

What authors, dead or alive, would you love to have a drink with?

Bill and Bill (Faulkner and Shakespeare). Are you picking up the tab? Cuz if so, I'll bring along Hemingway for grins.

AND NOW MY LIEBSTER NOMINATIONS

• One of These Things is Not Like The Other
• It's Just the Booze Dancing
• Life Upfront
• Wajobu
• Food and Fort Worth, Texas
• The Alemonger

And the insights I wish them to reveal

1. What are your three favorite movies and what about each got them on this list?
2. Of the visual arts, are you more a fan of painting, photography, or sculpture? Why? If you have a favorite artist, list their name.
3. If you had to give up one sense (sight, smell, hearing, taste - let's keep touch) which would it be and why?
4. Purple, 42, or the Roman Legion? (Don't think about it - just answer.)
5. You win an expense-paid 3-week vacation to an isolated retreat up in the mountains on the shore of a pristine lake. What books do you take and why?
6. Shampoo and conditioner? Or shampoo and conditioner in one? (If you use more than 2 hair care products, leave your answer blank.)
7. Why do you blog? (I reserve the right to start using your answer if it's better than my own.)
8. What non-human, non-plant living creature would you rid the world of? And why?
9. Sunrise or sunset?
10. Music. How frequently do you listen? To whom? And via what media? List 3 musicians you're listening to right now.
11. This quiz goes to eleven. Is the internet really making us stupid?