Questions from the Question Authority part II

[barondave]

Continuing from the previous set of questions (which is still open if you should want to answer):

Let's pretend you're a guest on Shockwave Radio. Many of you reading this have been interviewed by me, and many more have listened. Even if you have never been on the show, or you're just dropping by, or you stumbled upon this post by accident, I want to know a few things about you. I don't care if we've never met in person. Feel free to post these questions in your LiveJournal, so I (or anyone else) may answer. Some of the questions may have multiple answers or you might simply change your mind, so you (or me) may respond differently if this gets passed around.

This interview will be structured as a question and a follow-up. All questions have the implied disclaimer "where applicable".

11. What's your favorite thing said with a British accent?
11a. French accent?

12. How did you come to be on LiveJournal?
12a. Have you made unexpected connections here?

13. Which would you rather be, a Hero or a Sidekick?
13a. What would your Superpower be?

14. What piece of music had the greatest emotional impact on you when you first heard it?
14a. Did you develop a taste for your favorite band/singer/group/composer as a kid, in High School, in College or at some other time?

15. Are you the same religion as your parents?
15a. Why or why not?

16. Did you have a pet growing up?
16a. Do you have a pet or pets now?

17. Who's your favorite artist/group to see in live concert?
17a. Why?

18. Brag about something you don't normally brag about.
18a. Congratulate someone who usually doesn't get their proper props.

19. Toilet paper: hanging forward or hanging from the back?
19a. Butter: In the fridge or left out?

20. What's your favorite smell?
20a. What do you associate that smell with?

Comments

[asimovberlioz.livejournal.com]

11. Leave the gun. Take the scones.
11a. Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi, you're my only hope.
Really, I have no idea. This requires more thought than I have time for on my "lunch" hour.

12. I thought it was a dating site.
12a. I've re-met lots of old friends. And, had some dates with new ones.

13. I'm already hackmeister's sidekick.
13a. When I'm in the presence of hackmeister, I seem to have a useful answer for any question of fact he asks me about arts and culture. I can't explain it, but it is a sort of super power.

14. I'm not alone in this, but Beethoven's 5th Symphony. The 1939 studio recording by Arturo Toscanini and the NBC Symphony, on an album (proper use of the term!) of 78s that my parents had and which I glommed. (I think I still have them, in fact, somewhere in a box in the second bedroom.)
14a. I listened to lots of different kinds of music growing up, and it was when I was in high school that I realized that classical music speaks to me while rock'n'roll rarely does. That's just the way it is.

15. Yes, we're Reform Jewish.
15a. Because it seems eminently sensible. If I ever were to convert to one of the Christian denominations, it would be Episcopalan. But the Archbishop of Canterbury need not hold his breath, 'cause I don't think it's gonna happen.

16. Yes, a calico cat named Specky. The family also had a variety of dogs, including a schnauzer and a puli, but I never considered those to be my pets.
16a. No; not practical, and not allowed in my apartment. When I moved out of Allan Rothstein's house after his death, I made sure his cat Ginger (an adorable fluffy orance-cream colored cat) went to a good home first.

17. Could be the late Mstislav Rostropovich, whom I saw in Edinburgh (!) in 1990. Or among current performers, I suppose the Los Angeles Philharmonic. I could include others I've seen only once, such as three-fourths of the old Borodin Quartet with Laszlo Varga filling in for the indisposed cellist, or Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau whom I once saw in recital, or violinist Kyung-Wha Chung, siiiiiiigh.
17a. Do I need a reason?

18. I think I used to have a really good singing voice, and there is a fair amount of it left.
18a. Some publisher should really give hackmeister an open-ended contract, because apart from being my buddy, he's a damn good writer.

19. Forward.
19a. In its proper receptacle in the refrigerator door. This may be the only thing about my kitchen that is orderly.
I'm surprised you didn't see fit to ask the eternal question - Peanut butter: creamy or chunky?

20. Honeysuckle.
20a. Bath salts from when I was a happy young child, before the melancolia set in.

[barondave.livejournal.com]

Hmm... sounds like you should get hackmeister to answer these questions...

I may get to the all important PB question later. I'm still working on a two parter for Ginger or Mary Ann?

Okay, let me ask 10 and 10a slightly differently (and perhaps also requiring too much cognition for a lunch break, but this is not a timed exercise): What's your favorite thing that you can only hear Arturo Toscanini say?

[asimovberlioz.livejournal.com]

Exasperated during a rehearsal, he once told his orchestra, "After I die, I shall return to earth as a gatekeeper of a bordello, and I won't let any of you enter!"

[barondave.livejournal.com]

Oooh, quite a threat. I bet he did it, too.

[asimovberlioz.livejournal.com]

As for the other verities, I'll dispatch a few right now:

Romantic interludes:

Betty or Veronica: Veronica, and not because of her money.

Wilma or Betty: Betty.

Ginger or Mary Ann: Mary Ann, hands down. And occasionally face down.

Competition:

Superman or Spider-man in a fight: Superman.

Superman or The Flash in a race: Superman.

Godzilla or Gamera in a fight: Godzilla. (Flying isn't everything.)

Miscellaneous:

Pluto is a dog, but Goofy is a "Dawg," which is an anthropomorphic dog with some humanoid characteristics.

Favorite Mad artist: Frank Kelly Freas.

Favorite science fiction artist: Frank Kelly Freas.

The best and wisest man that I have ever known: Isaac Asimov.

[barondave.livejournal.com]

I was trying to work up a question along the lines of:

Ginger or Mary Ann? Alt: John Paul George or Ringo?
If neither of these questions means anything to you, then:
Who's your favorite Backstreet Boy? Alt: Brittany or Paris?

But failed. It's easy to ask questions. It's harder to ask good questions...