Well, I was tagged by Sam Houston over at Book Chase, for one of these Eight Things memes.This is where you simply have to say Eight Things about yourself [if I am understanding the game correctly] and then tag eight other people to do the same.
At first I wasn’t going to participate in this meme because I couldn’t think of anything to say about me… but then, as I jotted down a thing or two I found that it was difficult to stop at just eight, so I came up with sixteen!
Sixteen Things About Me.
1) → I was born in a small prairie town named after a railroad. I mean the town was named after the railroad, not me. I was named after a bright neon sign in that town. True story, I’ll tell you sometime. But the place itself, Canora, Saskatchewan [Canada] got its name from the first two letters of the words Canadian Northern Railroad, which [I guess] ran through it.
In this town I was raised by wolves.
2) → I have never bought a television in my life. I have always had one, but they have always been given to me. Just this last weekend I got a new one, the best one ever. Again, given to me, for free, like.
3) → One of my claims to fame is that I have written a better paradelle than Billy Collins has. And he was the Poet Laureate, so I think this is quite the accomplishment for me. If you are wondering how I know that my paradelle is better, well, you would just have to take my word for it. Mine is better. That’s all there is to it! For more on what a paradelle is, click HERE.
4) → I have always loved reading in general, but I can trace my love for literature to a very precise moment in time. It was my reading of Thomas Hardy’s Tess Of The D’Urbervilles in 1991. Since then, my love for reading has not been satiated. It has taken off and never landed!
5) → The people that I think have written best are Shakespeare and Tolstoy. Of contemporary authors I think I would be most excited by seeing new work from Jose Saramago or Margaret Atwood. To me, these two writers exemplify what authors should be doing, in our time.
6) → I have owned and driven only Oldsmobile products for over 26 years now. Exclusively. What will happen now that there is no longer an Oldsmobile division to General Motors? Perhaps my next vehicle will be an Oldsmohorse!
7) → I have a Bachelor Degree in Theology and was once a Christian minister, a vocation to which I no longer aspire nor even desire…. to aspire. In fact, when I think of it, I perspire!
8) → I would like to be a cat. if I had to be an animal I think a cat would be a pretty good deal. I like how they wake up to yawn, and then go straight back to sleep again. If I couldn’t be a cat, then I would like to be a falcon.
9) → The closest I ever came to being totally dead was when I was operating a gigantic steamroller and the pavement gave way underneath. The machine fell on its side and slid all the way down a rocky embankment, finally landing in a river while I was still white-knuckling the steering wheel. If I had jumped off at any point during its descent I would have been surely crushed to death.
10) → I once had a tusk. No kidding. It would be funny if it weren’t so true. I had a tooth growing, narwhal-like, between my two upper front teeth. I was just a kid. My mom took me to the dentist and he yanked the thing out with some kind of pliers.
11) → I share a birthday with a hot actress. Marisa Tomei was born on December 4th, 1964. I was born, same day, but in ’63.
12) → I have no allergies. However, when I was a kid, the smell of green peppers made me sneeze. For instance, I would walk with my mom down the aisle of a supermarket and start sneezing like crazy around the display of green peppers.
13) → I did not not attend kindergarten or any form of pre-school. I went, reluctantly as all hell, straight into Grade One.
14) → I once sat next to Sheryl Crow for about half an hour and did not at all know it was her until she walked away and I was told who it had been.
15) → June 1st, 2007, will mark the 10th year of my living at my current address.
The Penthouse Apartment©!
16) → I typed all of my mother’s recipes onto index cards long before I could spell one word. I tapped out each letter and number by individually identifying it on a typewriter keyboard. When I was done, the recipe box was filled and there was not one mistake in the lot. My mom proudly tells the story to this day. And I proudly retell it here!
There you go!
Sixteen things about me.
Way more than you ever wanted to know.
I tag no one!
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I've always found your theological/ministerial background interesting -- these days ministers make me nervous (unless I know they are super liberal), but ex-ministers I find fascinating :)
ReplyDeleteCipriano, unless it would make you perspire too much, tell us about how you came to leave the ministry. I'm interested, like Dorothy, and I'm very liberal.
ReplyDeleteGood morning,
ReplyDeleterunning through, trying not to spill my tea (sorry, chip, it's like an illness, I mean a handicap, hope you can bear the smell of it).
So, you are from Saskatchewan, and are NOT named after Alice Munro?
May I gently nudge you to the fact, that Billy Collins was the American Poet Laureate TWICE OVER? (I almost jumped off my hard wooden chair at the Library of Congress, for joy, when I got the news - another year of wonderful personal encounters with that sweet wise man, I was sooo in love with him).
Right now, my cup has runneth empty, and I have a Friday ahead of me, that I wished would never end (too much on my schedule *yikes*).
Will be back (please don't run scared, I will be good, ok?),
Merisi
(from the tiniest of out in the boondocks places, and half a mile off the railroad tracks at that, too)
Quickly, on my way to work here, but [Bonnie] the whole topic of my leaving the ministry, well, I don't think I will go into it on Bookpuddle. Ever.
ReplyDeleteHowever, if you are interested, you may want to check out my other blog, Godpuddle [see link in my blogroll]. If you begin at the earliest postings, you may find it interesting.
Thank you Dorothy and Merisi, for your comments.
-- Cip
I was SO gonna tag you for this! I got tagged and I'm so darn slow at getting things done that everyone's been done!
ReplyDeleteI love that you can trace your love of books to one book. That is fascinating to me.
My near death story is this--I was once hit by a car when crossing the street. A car ran a red light, the road was icy and she slammed into me. I'm afraid I can't say I saw my life flash before me. That might have been cool. She didn't even get a ticket. Lousy cop!! I would only want to be a house cat--not a stray cat--unless of course I could live in Greece or Italy and bask in the sun. Great answers!
ReplyDeleteNicely done, Cip...thanks for playing the game twice as well as the rest of us. :-)
ReplyDeleteBTW, I have that same sneezing reaction every time there's an open jar of picante sauce on the table...those jalepenos have been cut up and cooked and they still make me sneeze.
What a fun list list Cip! I am very glad you survived your near-death experience so you could write about it on your blog. You'd make a great cat except you wouldn't get to drink coffee anymore, however, catnip would probably make a good substitute :)
ReplyDeleteThank you all, for the lovely comments. For reading me.
ReplyDeleteAnd I must confess.... not all of it is true.
I was not raised by wolves.
It was coyotes!