Literary Tag

This post isn’t about 10 ideas…just one.  A game of tag that happily introduces the participants to some wonderful passages in literature.  I was tagged by Facing South, and tasked with the following job:

1. Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages).
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.

5. Tag five people. 

The nearest book is A Man Without A Country by the late Kurt Vonnegut—his last book, in which (thankfully) he broke his promise to never write another book.

I’ve substituted page 122 for page 123, because 123 contains only an illustration.

“We’re really awful animals.  I mean, that dumb Barbra Streisand song, ‘People who need people are the luckiest people in the world’—she’s talking about cannibals.  Lots to eat.”

I now tag 2 of my favorite work buddies and several KAD friends.  Please post on your FB pages!

10 historical sites I’d like to see.

Despite some European and a little Asian travel, most of what I’ve seen has been in major cities, involving art and culture, wining and dining, and museums.  I’ve actually been to very few major historical sites, outside of Stonehenge and all the major sites in Rome.  Yet these experiences are nearly always impactful and memorable.  So I have a long list that I’d like to work through over the course of my life.

1. The Egyptian Pyramids
2. Pompeii
3. Angkor Wat
4. The Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor (China)
5. Tikal (Guatamala)
6. Teotihuacán (Mexico)
7. The Forbidden City (China)
8. The Old City of Jerusalem
9. Petra (Jordan)
10. Machu Picchu

10 hobbies I’d like to have

Do people still have hobbies?  Is web-surfing considered a hobby?  Is texting on your cellphone a hobby?  Or are hobbies an anachronism from simpler times?  You’d think we’d have plenty of time to have a hobby these days—you know, with all of our time-saving technologies…I think I’d love to have a hobby.  So here are 10 ideas, all sure to make my life more interesting, relaxed, and fun:

1. Cooking by Culture (a different culture every year)
2. Poetry – appreciating and writing
3. Chinese calligraphy
4. Snowshoeing
5. Metalworking
6. Astrophotography
7. Scotch whiskey collecting
8. Bart Starr sports memorabilia
9. Yoga (is that a hobby?)
10. Linguistics (survival level)

10 subjects about which I’d like to be conversant.

At least 15 minutes of good, solid cocktail party conversation.  After which, my conversation partner moves on, thinking, “Wow, what a unique, informed, clever, well-rounded, cool guy.”  Kind of a Walter-Mitty-Goes-Socializing fantasy…

1. The dating habits of “Deal or No Deal” spokesmodels.
2. The making of “Kill Bill” volumes 1 & 2
3. Which literary fiction translations are the most cool
4. Gene-splicing
5. Islam
6. Dennis Kucinich and why nerds make good Presidents
7. Tom Tancredo and what happened in his childhood to make him a raving lunatic who wants to be President
8. The life and times of Andy Warhol
9. Game theory
10. The 1906 Chicago Cubs

10 art museum rooms

10 mind-calming, heart-filling rooms worth spending a whole afternoon by yourself in (yes, I know, bad grammar…and on my first post, no less). As in all future posts, there is no pretense here of “comprehensiveness” or “best ever” or even objectivity.  Just 10 art museum rooms that I’ve spent time in, and found myself slightly changed (at least) when leaving.

1. Rothko (Room 3) at the Tate Modern, London
2. Sculpture Garden at the Musée Rodin, Paris
3. Contemporary American rooms with Edward Hopper at the Art Institute of Chicago
4. Cézanne room at the Musée d’Orsay, Paris
5. Sackler Gallery for Assyrian Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY
6. Paul Klee room at Museum of Modern Art, NY
7. Puget court in the Richelieu Wing Ground Floor, Louvre, Paris
8. New art room featuring Anti-Mass by Cornelia Parker at the De Young Museum, San Francisco
9. Pre-Columbian rooms at the Denver Art Museum
10. Sistine Chapel at the Vatican

Do you have 10 rooms?  Or additions to this list?