five-questions memery numero cinco (appropriately)
Questions from twistedchick, who makes grokking politics look like reading Cricket. I don't know how she does it.
1. If you could change one thing in history (before the present time) by changing one lifetime (born earlier, later, had flu, whatever) what would it be?
Dodgy question for me to try to answer, given that I seriously know just barely enough about history to be extremely dangerous: it's far easier for me to dream of the wonders that epochal changes like the one you ask for speculation on here than to immediately think through how those wonders might be - or be achieved by - profound tragedies. (An example: say I wish for and am granted an end to hunger everywhere. Hurrah!...except that one efficient way to do that would be to kill off enough of the world's population that the still-available food supplies would feed the few survivors. Yeah.)
My actual answer to this question is considerably simpler than the caveatish waffling that goes before: I would take out Hitler at some key point before even his initial rise to power (possibly at birth, possibly later) and make the Holocaust never have happened. Imagine the consequences of that. (You might need coffee first. Or possibly whiskey.)
2. Would you describe the ideal tv show for you?
Sure: a science-lab/police-procedural hybrid with a good-sized streak of romantic-comedy tension, written by someone who's aiming their dialogue (if not always their ideas) at viewers with brains larger than a grape and acted by a group of people who are attractive, intelligent, vibrant, and good at their jobs but who are neither distractingly famous nor boringly pretty. Oh - and it needs to go on for at least ten seasons and to be wonderful 90% of that time. And everybody needs to get together in the end, because the Q, she is very very big on happy endings and she Does Not Like Her TV Shows To Vanish, Dammit.
What's cool is that, for my money, a show that satisfies all but the last two requirements outlined above (and could conceivably hit those as well, eventually) is already being aired.
3. What actor would play you in a movie about your life?
Hah. Good one. And surprisingly easy: Camryn Manheim, now (I think) on Ghost Whisperer (I don't watch it, as I'm allergic to Jennifer "Love Me!" Hewitt) and most famously of The Practice. Although she'd have to shrink three inches and become a lot less cool to properly fill the role.
4. Where do you want to travel that you haven't been yet?
Scotland. Wales. Ireland (which I've actually been to, but I went with La Famiglia Della Q the last time my parents were semi-capable of serious travel, and while bits of the trip were lovely the thing as a whole badly needs a do-over). Russia. Brazil. Hawaii. Oregon. Prince Edward Island (my father took my mother there for their honeymoon - possibly the most romantic thing either of them ever did). The Northwest Territories (of course). Japan. Give me 30 seconds more and I'll think of others.
5. Where would you like to live that you haven't lived yet?
London. San Francisco. Graz. Vermont. Maine. Northern California. Portland, OR. The Twin Cities.
*yawns*
I love mornings. (Yes, I know. But I'm redeemable in other ways, I promise.) I wish I could figure out a way to express that love more efficiently than getting up later than I want to but earlier than work requires me to. As a both/and, that kind of sucks.
1. If you could change one thing in history (before the present time) by changing one lifetime (born earlier, later, had flu, whatever) what would it be?
Dodgy question for me to try to answer, given that I seriously know just barely enough about history to be extremely dangerous: it's far easier for me to dream of the wonders that epochal changes like the one you ask for speculation on here than to immediately think through how those wonders might be - or be achieved by - profound tragedies. (An example: say I wish for and am granted an end to hunger everywhere. Hurrah!...except that one efficient way to do that would be to kill off enough of the world's population that the still-available food supplies would feed the few survivors. Yeah.)
My actual answer to this question is considerably simpler than the caveatish waffling that goes before: I would take out Hitler at some key point before even his initial rise to power (possibly at birth, possibly later) and make the Holocaust never have happened. Imagine the consequences of that. (You might need coffee first. Or possibly whiskey.)
2. Would you describe the ideal tv show for you?
Sure: a science-lab/police-procedural hybrid with a good-sized streak of romantic-comedy tension, written by someone who's aiming their dialogue (if not always their ideas) at viewers with brains larger than a grape and acted by a group of people who are attractive, intelligent, vibrant, and good at their jobs but who are neither distractingly famous nor boringly pretty. Oh - and it needs to go on for at least ten seasons and to be wonderful 90% of that time. And everybody needs to get together in the end, because the Q, she is very very big on happy endings and she Does Not Like Her TV Shows To Vanish, Dammit.
What's cool is that, for my money, a show that satisfies all but the last two requirements outlined above (and could conceivably hit those as well, eventually) is already being aired.
3. What actor would play you in a movie about your life?
Hah. Good one. And surprisingly easy: Camryn Manheim, now (I think) on Ghost Whisperer (I don't watch it, as I'm allergic to Jennifer "Love Me!" Hewitt) and most famously of The Practice. Although she'd have to shrink three inches and become a lot less cool to properly fill the role.
4. Where do you want to travel that you haven't been yet?
Scotland. Wales. Ireland (which I've actually been to, but I went with La Famiglia Della Q the last time my parents were semi-capable of serious travel, and while bits of the trip were lovely the thing as a whole badly needs a do-over). Russia. Brazil. Hawaii. Oregon. Prince Edward Island (my father took my mother there for their honeymoon - possibly the most romantic thing either of them ever did). The Northwest Territories (of course). Japan. Give me 30 seconds more and I'll think of others.
5. Where would you like to live that you haven't lived yet?
London. San Francisco. Graz. Vermont. Maine. Northern California. Portland, OR. The Twin Cities.
*yawns*
I love mornings. (Yes, I know. But I'm redeemable in other ways, I promise.) I wish I could figure out a way to express that love more efficiently than getting up later than I want to but earlier than work requires me to. As a both/and, that kind of sucks.