Sunday, June 26, 2005

I’m A Meme Killer

Oooh, I’m “it”.  I volunteered to be meme’d by Canadian Expat, so I guess I should follow through, huh?  And by the way, Expat, do you have a first name?  It’s hard to talk about you behind your back in our house by calling you “Canadian Expat Chick”.

1. Number of books I own:

We own zillions of books.  Fiction, pet care, cookbooks, how-to books, chick lit, humor, computer, medicine, children’s, weird stuff we hide (heh)...you name the genre, we’ve probably got a book that fits.

2. Last book I bought:

My Friend Leonard by James Frey Okay, I actually bought it a couple of months ago, after I read A Million Little Pieces, but it didn’t get delivered until yesterday.  I started reading it last night.  There’s something about his writing, as unconventional as it is, that makes me want to keep reading.  I guess it’s like reading a really raw blog.

3. Last book I read:

You Shall Know Our Velocity by Dave Eggers - I was completely and totally underwhelmed.  A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius is much better.

4. Five books that mean a lot to me:

1.  Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin - I read this when I was a kid.  I think it was the first time I’d even thought about racism.  I grew up in the San Fernando Valley and at the time, it was pretty much all white.  In my elementary school, I remember two black kids - Jo-Nathan (not until I just wrote that out did I realize it was a weird spelling of Jonathan.  Maybe it was spelled Joe-Nathan.  That would make sense.) and Damon, my big elementary school crush.  He promised to “love [me] forever, if that was okay with [me].” Aw, he was such a sweet boy.  I hope he grew up to be a nice adult.  Anyway, Black Like Me was eye-opening to me.  As far as I knew, both Damon and Joe-Nathan were treated fine in school, but I’m guessing things might have been different from their point of view.

2.  Harriet the Spy by Lousie Fitzhugh - loved, loved, loved this book.  I read it so much that the edges of the pages got frayed. 

3.  Replay by Ken Grimwood - what a great fantasy book.  Read it!  I promise you’ll love it.  If you don’t, I’ll give you five bucks.  (This offer valid to only my few readers whose names or country of origin I know)

4.  The Childcraft books from World Book Encyclopedia - They were full of fascinating tidbits like how the hot dog bun was invented (some guy sold hot dogs from a stand and he had to give gloves to people so they could hold the hot, uh, dog, while they ate.  People often walked off with the gloves, so he talked to his brother the baker.  They thought of making bread “gloves”, so no one would steal his gloves anymore...or something like that.  It’s been close to thirty years since I’ve looked at one of those books) and how hamburgers were named.  Hey Dad, if you’re reading, do you know what happened to those books in the move?

5.  Hmmm, I can’t think of a fifth book at the moment.

5. Tag five more:

And this, this is where I become the meme killer.  I don’t know if I have anyone to tag.  Volunteers, feel free to step up.

Next entry: Idiot of the Day - Mr. Jaws with Paws Enforcing Laws Previous entry: The Latest in Flippy's Delicious Food Finds

1. >> (some guy sold hot dogs from a stand and he had to give gloves to people so they could hold the hot, uh, dog, while they ate <<

   Listen, you American, you—it’s a WIENER.  A hotdog is a WIENER + A BUN = A HOTDOG.  Without a bun it’s just a goddamned WIENER.  Sheesh

   Mudpuppy  on  06/27  at  04:04 AM

2. Do you think your AdSense ads will become porn because I wrote “wiener”?  What if I write JUMBO ALL-BEEF WIENER?  Funny, the word “frankfurter” doesn’t sound dirty at all—why is that?

   Mudpuppy  on  06/27  at  04:11 AM

3. Listen, missy, they’re dogs...and they’re hot, which is why the people needed *gloves*.
   So there!

    on  06/27  at  05:32 AM

4. I have a feeling that you are going to be receiving some interesting Google hits as a result of all of this wiener talk!  LMAO

   I quite like the nickname “Canadian Expat Chick”.  It is much better than “That Immigrant Girl” which I have been called around these parts.  You can imagine the fun that I have talking to my husband about “Flippy” and “Mudpuppy”.  Sitting here, I find it somewhat funny that he knows all about your neighbour’s ugly garage and its evil feather picking powers or about poor Frank’s toe surgery without ever having read either of your blogs!

   PS.  It is good to know that there are other people in this world who are as crazy about their fur and feather kids as we are! 

   Expat  on  06/27  at  05:44 PM

5. So far, no weird Google hits, not unless you count the continuous ones for “Tricia Kean”, one
   of our local newscasters.  I rank so highly for her name that I sometimes wonder if she’s seen
   my blog entry and is horrified.  Or maybe amused.  Who knows.

   It’s a shame that anyone knows about our neighbor’s ugly garage.  It just shouldn’t be there, and
   that’s all there is to it.

   So, “Canadian Expat Chick” it is.  Hmm, maybe we can shorten it to Expat Chick.

    on  06/29  at  09:31 PM

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