Rory, over at Earthly Comforts, has posed a number of intriguing questions this morning. Let’s see if I can come up with some equally intriguing answers.
What is the best advice you have ever been given, and who gave it?
I don’t remember who gave it to me, but it was “don’t sweat the small stuff.”
What word would you choose to use if you were asked to describe yourself with it?
Pragmatic.
Do you like to eat mushrooms and what is your favorite culinary dish? If you are not a fan what is it about them you can’t stand?
I love mushrooms and I think that there is little in the way of culinary dishes, other than desserts, that mushrooms don’t enhance.
Do you have an accent? What is it, and where is it from?
I have a generic American accent. No one can guess where I’m from based upon hearing the way I speak.
How many hours a day do you read and do you think that too much reading might be harmful to your health? If so how and if not, why not?
Between the newspaper, magazines, my online newsfeeds, and blog posts, probably around 4-5 hours a day. I don’t know what “reading too much” means, but I can’t imagine how reading a lot might be harmful.
Have any books or films influenced you in any way and how you live your life? In what way? Did they inspire you to take action and change your lifestyle habits?
I have read many books and seen many movies, but I’m not sure any of them have directly affected how I live my life or have caused me to dramatically change my lifestyle.
How aware are you of your surroundings daily?
Do you notice things others miss out?
Are you detail-oriented?
I try to be cognizant of what is going on around me, but my wife often says that I’m oblivious. As far as being detail-oriented, I am, but I also try to see the big picture.
What is your favorite thing about planet earth?
It’s my home.
Have you ever accidentally upset someone you wish you hadn’t because of their strange reaction, and what did you do and how did they react?
Yes. I once said something to someone who worked for me. It was during a performance review and she was less than a stellar performer. She got so upset she started to hyperventilate. I tried to calm her down and to give her some tips on how to get up to speed. She quit two weeks later.
Do you have any regular behaviors or quirks you would like to lose? What are they, and why don’t you want them anymore?
No. I’m perfect just the way I am. 😏
Are you naturally serious or can see the light-hearted to almost everything?
The latter. Although what is going on in American politics is testing my ability to stay light-hearted.
Who do you think is the world’s worst real life boogeyman, and why, or if you wish, who was the worst boogeyman on the movie screen?
That’s a hard one because there are so many these days. Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin to name two.
What’s the strangest phone call you have ever had?
It was in the mid 90s at about 1:30 in the morning when I got a call from the local police in the town where we lived at the time telling me that my 16-year-old daughter and her best friend were at the police station after being picked up for violating the town curfew for kids under 18. Apparently my daughter had snuck out of the house and rode her bike to her friend’s house to have a “night ride.”
Which country in your opinion has the worst politics and what makes them different to your own country?
I don’t live in another country, so I can’t really answer the question other than to say the politics in my country (the U.S.) is the worst I’ve ever experienced. Even worse than during the Vietnam war era, and that was pretty bad.
This, That, and the Other 
Well answered Fandango
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He certainly makes a good effort……..
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👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼
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Do I get an E for effort?
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you get an A for Autstanding……..
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COMMENTS OVER COFFEE
“If you are not a fan”. But you are a fan. A capital one. Aren’t you?………
I have a generic Orstralian accent. G’day……
“don’t sweat the small stuff.” But oh so easy to……
So easy to accidentally upset someone when blogging. You have to me careful……
“can see the light-hearted to almost everything”.. So that’s why I like you……..
“Which country in your opinion has the worst politics?. This is interesting. There is a push here to make us a republic. US is cited as bad example. Why on earth would we want to go down this track? Others say it’s just depends on the way it’s managed, citing some well-managed republics. I’m not into politics so don’t really have any informed opinion. I will say though if a system is working pretty well why change it? I’m happy with royal heads on my banknotes………
Enjoyed the coffee Fan. Yum………
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Thanks, Don.
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I do enjoy chatting with you over coffee. Even though I’m on the other side of the planet. Ain’t technology grand?……..
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Coffee 24 hrs a day?
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Any time’s a good time………yum
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As far as I know, I’ve never lived in an area that had a curfew for anyone. Even during 2020, in the place where I live now, people went right ahead and took walks (because we were smart enough to know the outdoors was a good place to be and that continuing to exercise made sense). That’s different from a curfew at night, but I really don’t think there was a night curfew anywhere at any time in my life.
That would be a strange phone call. My strangest phone call was, similarly, about one of my children; thirteen or fourteen years old. He had gone missing from an event he attended. I think he was just bored, or something. After we found where he was, a friend/co-worker of my husband (who had adopted kids and was hyper-vigilant to prove his good parenting) said our son should be taken to get checked out at a hospital. I wasn’t there when this decision was made, but my husband took him to a hospital. To some extent, this was performative parenting. I don’t know what they would be looking for, but they transferred him to a superior place. I was the one with him actually at the hospital, stayed over night sleeping in a chair.
Mushrooms are good. I like chicken Marsala.
I also like chicken piccata. Additionally, I like many things.
I think the best advice anyone gave me was given to me by me. The advice, which I began saying out loud once in a while for a period of time, was that I’m only one person.
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I mean that I think it was appearances motivating taking him to the hospital. Once at the hospital, someone should be there with the child.
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The curfew was only for kids under 18 and started at midnight
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Yeah, I mean, it makes sense. I just don’t know that it existed where I ever was at any time. If such a thing was tied in with the public service television announcement — when I was a kid and not when my kids were kids — as to the hour being eleven o’clock along with a question about knowing where your kids are, that wasn’t clear. It seemed to me it was simply suggesting to parents that they be alert and aware. I know my mom was way strict about being home; don’t remember for sure if it was nine, ten, or eleven o’clock. But the other kids were allowed to continue hanging out peacefully (as peacefully as we already had been) down the block beyond the time I was allowed. Still, I never even heard the word “curfew” in any real context (other than individual parents for their own children) when I had children. Maybe my experience is because I was always in a suburb?
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I’ve decided to keep reminding myself (like a mantra) of this aspect of our lives. It’s, by all accounts, because of my dad that my mom was open at all to my being out after dinner in the summer. Mom, apparently, decided this differing away from her upbringing was reasonable. She says she (and her twin sister) always had to be not only home but in bed early. And it breaks my heart that anyone has to be in bed before dark in the summer — while other kids are outside, playing, and you hear them out there.
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I have another couple questions for you:
What was the most strange to you, that your daughter snuck out, that she went to see that particular friend, or that a “night ride” was the goal?
Do you like mushrooms only cooked? Or also raw in, like, salad?
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That she snuck out.
I prefer my mushrooms cooked or sautéed, but I will eat them raw in salads.
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It would be a bit (to a lot) scary for one’s little girl to sneak out at night. I was in a different boat, as a parent.
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https://books.google.com/books?id=DaXquEKhQ3kC&printsec=copyright#v=onepage&q&f=false
I’m reading this book, now, because Wikipedia said it’s a thorough critique of a book I read in the nineties. I like the idea of a conversation in such things rather than being a devotee of an ordinary man (and my center is knowing my internal dialogue and my observation skills are just as valid). I’m sharing the link because I additionally want to share a quotation — it’s from 1993 and relevant today:
I am a member of a fairly small group of Americans who believe that some ideas are true, and others false.
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Some cracking answers in this batch Fandango.
Not sweating the small stuff is great advice, although there is a time in our lives when the small stuff always seems to be so frustrating! When we are younger we don’t seem to care about much – and yet perhaps that should have read when ‘WE’ were younger the small stuff didn’t matter which l don’t think applies to children these days.
Hahaha l can imagine your mind at 1.30 in the morning, thinking ‘What the uck is this guy on about? My daughter’s tucked up in bed asleep!!”
Mm, oh the stresses of parenthood 🙂
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Lol at your daughter sneaking out in the middle of the night! ❤
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Too much reading harmful, never. Well, ok. When you read in poor lighting it can strain your eyes I suppose. Good answers.
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