Oh I love this question and idea! No, though we have taken multiple food tours and “demonstrations” of how to make local things.

What local(ish) tourist attraction would you willingly take an out of town visitor to?

Lake Tahoe, without a question. I can’t visit that place too many times.

How many pairs of shoes do you own?

I own 7 Paris including boots (1), water shoes (1), dress shoes (2), gym shoes (1), and casual shoes (2).


I want to answer Dan's question too - I've taken a cooking class in Paris and one in Oaxaca. Both were awesome.


Have you ever been to Africa?

No, but I'd love to go.

It's such a big continent that it's hard to choose where I'd go. Egypt, for sure, and perhaps Sudan for some of the lesser known Egyptian-era ruins. (I don't know how feasible it is for Americans to travel there, but I'm dreaming here.)

I have a friend who had a fabulous time in Morocco.

I'm interested in the large cities, like Lagos.

I don't know how accessible Olduvai Gorget is, but that would be amazing.

I'm not sure about safaris, because I worry that they're bad for the animals or the indigenous people, but if I could be sure that wasn't true, wouldn't that be awesome?

And the random question -
What was your most memorable trip?

Mine was probably 2 weeks in India.

It included being at a 3 day wedding in Mumbai in which we were the only westerners, and they put us on stage for the ceremony itself since I was the groom’s boss.

Maybe 1500 people at the wedding.


What was the first car you owned?

1955 Willys pickup. $50. It ran but just barely. Rear fenders were gone but someone had welded 1/2 washtubs to the bed and they worked fine.

I was never able to get it to pass smog and sold it for what I paid for it.

What is your earliest memory?

Walking under my family's kitchen table, as I was approaching it thinking "I'm too tall for this, my head's going to hit". Then thinking "but I walk under this all the time".


Well I must have had a growth spurt, because I hit my head and started crying.

My mother later said I must have been about 2 for the height to work out.


What book have you re-read the most? (children books read nightly to a toddler for a year don't count)

Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut.

What’s the weirdest thing you’ve eaten?

Crickets. Sliced, on a salad. Oaxaca.


When was the last Father's Day you celebrated in the presence of your father? I don't mean he was still alive and you called him, but were actually with him?

2010 - He died in July that year.

He had been declining mentally, but still got out with his dog for walks in the woods. He seemed to live vicariously through her chasing things around.

He came back from a walk, sat in his chair and slumped over. Lingered for a few days in the hospital while family came into to town. Never woke up during that time.

What's your favorite vacation memory (or most vivid) during childhood?

I was on a beach on the Gulf of Mexico with my father. I was probably 7.
On the drive down I asked him what a huge building was. He said it was where the sugar cane was processed. Minutes later a Goodyear sign could be seen on the building.
Later near Mobile, we passed fields where small plants were emerging. I asked what that was. He said it was where they grow vegetables. Minutes later a large sign announced that it was a flower growing operation.
By this time I was learning that Dad did not know everything and that he would always have an answer of some sort.
When walking along the beach we came upon a small boat of about 14 feet that was upside down. A large section of the bottom of the boat was covered with a heavy duty steel screen. The sand of the beach was visible through the screen.
I had to ask, "What is that for?". He quickly answered, "That is to let the water out?"

When did you first realize that the world was not completely benevolent?

When I tried to pick up a bumble bee that was lying in the dust of a road. I thought it was dead, but then it stung me.

Describe a beautiful thing you've seen.

Big Al

When I was in high school marching band, we were having practice late in the day. It had rained right before we went outside, and there were still dark thunderclouds in the east, nearly black. The sun was setting in the west (where it always does) and the clouds were also dark, but patchy.

The dark clouds made the sunset particularly glorious with a dozen different brilliant oranges and crimsons contrasting with those purple-black clouds.

Right then, the most intensely colored rainbow I've ever seen appeared opposite the sun (where it always does) and surrounded by those dark clouds.

We were standing at attention, but everybody kept sneaking a peek left and right at the sky. Our band director said, "Everybody fall out and look at the rainbow."

This happened forty-five years ago and my sister mentioned it to me last month.

Next question:
What's a memory from your early life that has stuck with you enough that, even now, you return to it?

I was a baby in my crib. The crib was in my grandparents' living room.

I remember my mother, aunt, uncle, and grandparents looking at me. I can't remember their faces but I remember the presence of each of them.

The way they were looking at me made me feel like they were angels.

Do you have a first memory?

I too remember something that happened when I was still a baby in a crib.

I was lying there, musing over various observations and it occurred to me that one of my favorite (and automatic) activities was frowned upon - sucking my thumb.

(I was just about to indulge, when I realized the big ones wouldn't like it and became aware that I was at a decision point - to suck or not to suck? It was up to me alone.

So I didn't, and thereafter never returned to it.

Trivial on the surface, but Descartes might have perceived that moment as one of enlightenment, awareness of my thinking, autonomous self - separate from all others.

(I'm sorry to say a later psychoanalyst opined it was a sign of precocious hyper-rationalism and suppression of instinctual pleasures. Well, Fooey on him! I could as well have identified Freud's pipe with his infantile pacifier - however, much he might later claim it was "just a pipe". No such, thing, Siggy!)

Interesting question, Daniel. Off the cuff, I'd say your memory signals an emotionally healthy start in life - one reflecting a sense of security (crucial) and faith in a benevolent universe. It should stand you in good stead, right along - Lucky!

For someone else...

When did you become aware that life is finite, ends in death - and not just for that bird in the backyard, a grandparent but by extrapolating, WE OURSELVES!

(Bonus points if you remember how you handled it, either "just" internally or interacting with significant others.)