Favorites

I felt like doing a survey but only wanted to answer questions that I felt like answering. So I made up my own survey. It's all about my favorite stuff.

Favorite Color? Green (bordering on obsession).

Favorite Meal? Breakfast. (Most important meal of the day -- and usually the biggest.)

Favorite Tree? Pine. (Yeah, they're kind of the weeds of the tree world and they're sticky which is inconvenient to tree-huggers like me, and those endless needles are a pain in the ass to rake -- but they stay green all winter long which makes up for everything else.)

Favorite TV Show? "Bones", if you're asking about current television. If you mean all-time favorite TV show, well, back in my pre-VCR party-all-the-time lifestyle, there was one television show that I stayed home to watch no matter what was going on as far as nightlife. That show was "Life Goes On" so I guess it's my all-time favorite. Season One is out of DVD, but I'm a little scared to watch it again because I don't see how it could be as good as I remember it.

Favorite Actress? Well, if you're talking current then I'll go with Reese Witherspoon, who I think is the only actress in her generation anywhere near as good as Claudette Colbert, Bette Davis, Myrna Loy and others from the golden age of movies. (Although, just once I'd like to see Reese play somebody who is not a complete Type A personality.) All time favorite has to be Greta Garbo. Nobody else on film has ever impressed me as much as Garbo. When I first saw her in a movie I thought she was corny and hammy, but after only a couple of minutes it seemed to me that she was the only person in the movie who was really alive and everyone else was just human robots. I still can't take my eyes off her. If you've never seen one of her movies, may I suggest you begin with "Queen Christina"?

Favorite Actor? Current, nobody, although I thought Mark Ruffalo managed to hold his own co-starring with Reese Witherspoon in "Just Like Heaven" which is quite an accomplishment. All-time, well, I'll watch anything with William Powell in it.

Favorite Berry? The raspberry.

Favorite Fish? Salmon.

Favorite Soup? Everybody that knows me knows the answer to this one -- Split Pea, or as my co-workers call it "Baby Poop Soup."

Favorite Book? That's a tough one, I'll have to come back to that. How about instead we do:

Favorite Short story? My favorite short story is "Offloading for Mrs. Schwartz" by George Saunders, which is a sparkling gem, one of the few things in this vail of tears that is absolutely perfect. You can read it for free here. (Warning, I just reread it and I've still got goosebumps and tears in my eyes. It's that good.) My second favorite story is "Jeffty is Five" by Harlan Ellison, and my third favorite is "Isabelle" by George Saunders. My favorite short story writer -- you'll never guess -- is George Saunders.

Favorite Genre? Romantic comedy. Again, no surprise to anybody that knows me.

Favorite Romantic comedy? Maison Ikoku, which is a manga about a hapless college student who falls love with his widowed landlady. People get mad when I tell them this is my favorite RomCom, They want me to pick a movie. When they make a movie as good as this I'll pick it -- but they won't, they can't. Maison Ikkoku went on for fourteen volumes. Hollywood would hack the story to pieces to get in to fit in two hours.

Favorite flavor of Chapstick? Spearmint

Favorite Avatar of Vishnu? Krishna

Favorite era? The 1920's

Favorite Book? Back to that, are we? Well, I agree with Ernest Hemingway who said " All American writing comes from that. ("The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.") There was nothing before. There has been nothing as good since." But I also agree with the part of the quote rarely quoted -- about how the book falls apart at the end. On any given day, my favorite book is "David Copperfield," "The Time Traveler's Wife" or "White Apples." Some days it's "Bel Canto" or "The History of Love." Sometimes it's "Huckleberry Finn" even with the crappy ending.

That's all I can think of for now. Anything you want to know, just ask.