Okay, I'll play

Oooh, fun. I have a stack of smelly plates waiting for me in the incubator...but Janet's ABC meme is more interesting. Answers below the fold.

Accent: Midwest, so what most people think of when they say "American accent." Did start saying "waaa-ter" and "cawww-fee" a bit too much after waitressing for several years in Connecticut, but have long shaken that.

Booze: Not much of a drinker. Tried to develop a taste for beer but still hate the stuff. On the rare occasions I actually go out, it's usually something with a vodka base.

Chore I Hate: Vacuuming.

Dog or Cat: Have a dog right now, but it's a chihuahua so according to some, it doesn't count toward that species at all.

Essential Electronics: Computer and any kind of radio/CD player/digital music gadget. Music is essential.

Favorite Cologne: I don't think I've owned any perfume since junior high.

Gold or Silver: Meh. I wear some of both.

Hometown: Technically Findlay, Ohio, but I grew up in the country outside of town.

Insomnia: Never.

Job Title: Assistant professor/microbiologist/epidemiologist/lab rat/mom.

Kids: 2, ages 6 and 4.

Living arrangements: Old farmhouse out in the sticks.

Most admirable traits: I don't give up easily.

Not going to cop to: I don't think much can be worse than the country music thing.

Overnight hospital stays: Just for the kiddos.

Phobias: None I can think of.

Quote: I suck at remembering good quotes. --Tara Smith

Religion: Not so much.

Siblings: Sister and brother, both younger.

Time I wake up: Depends on the day. 5-6AM weekdays, 7-9AM weekends (essentially, whenever the dog or the rugrats start a-callin').

Unusual talent or skill: I can juggle. Badly.

Vegetable I love: I'm such a bad vegetable-eater. Anything but corn I have to mix with other stuff to eat.

Worst habit: Procrastination (which should be obvious by the mere fact that I'm filling this out).

X-rays: Hand, wrist, and finger at different times. Midsection from a bout with kidney stones in high school.

Yummy foods I make: Chicken alfredo. Lasagna. Lemon chicken with rice pilaf. Casseroles. Cookies. Pies. I'm a pretty good cook.

Zodiac sign: Pisces.

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Holy cow, you're from findlay?

My family lived in findlay from 1972-76; first through fourth grade for me at Wilson Vance. My father worked at the RCA plant.

It was such a hellhole that we moved out as fast as possible :-)

(My family is Jewish; Findlay is quite a hostile place if you're not WASP. I'll be 40 this year, and I still have vivid memories groups of kids on the playground at that miserable school cornering me and my brother asking us why we killed jesus. We didn't know anything about X-inanity, so we didn't have any idea what they were talking about.)

Me too...me too!!

Accent: Standard Canadian, 'oot' and 'aboot'.

Booze: Very rarely, the occasional glass of wine or liqueur.

Chore I Hate: Anything to do with the lawn.

Dog or Cat: A cat, but he's larger than many dogs.

Essential Electronics: Computer, DVD player.

Favorite Cologne: Hi-Karate!

Gold or Silver: I'll take either, and even settle for Bronze.

Hometown: Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Insomnia: Only when the cat mentioned above walks over me to get to the window.

Job Title: Technical Whiz and Grand Potentate, geology.

Kids: None, despite what that woman from Decatur tells you.

Living arrangements: Split-entry in the burbs.

Most admirable traits: Modesty!

Not going to cop to: I like to sing along with Shania Twain in the car.

Overnight hospital stays: Never overnight. Been to outpatients once when I got a cinder in my eye, and again when a fish-hook impaled my finger.

Phobias: SPIDERS!

Quote: Hurry up boys before all the indians get away! --- Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer.

Religion: Not really. Your typical C&E type.

Siblings: 5 siblings of assorted ages.

Time I wake up: 5 AM when the wife goes to work, otherwise 7-8 AM.

Unusual talent or skill: Can burp at will, and will burp when I can.

Vegetable I love: Wheat!

Worst habit: Procrastination (which should be obvious by the mere fact that I'm also filling this out).

X-rays: Dental X-Rays. Chest when I joined the army for a brief stint.

Yummy foods I make: Assorted Italian pasta dishes. And my Beef Stroganoff is very good if I do say so myself.

Zodiac sign: Aquarius or Capricorn, I'm never sure which. My psychic told me astrology is bunk.

Since we're sharing ...

Accent: Mixed. I grew up on the North Shore of Long Island, so it's mostly New York/New Englandish, but since 1978 I've lived in Wyoming, Chicago and Kentucky. So I can say cawwwfee and y'all in the same sentence!

Booze: Mostly beer, sometimes wine, rarely the harder stuff. I do like the occasional single-malt scotch, though, if anyone here's buying.

Chore I hate: Emptying the litter box, followed by grading papers.

Dog or cat: At the moment, neither. We've had both.

Essential electronics: A PC, a PDA and some kind of musical emission device.

Favorite Cologne: The one in Germany.

Gold or silver: Gold wedding band. That's about it.

Hometown: Roslyn, NY, but I grew up in Huntington, NY (My high school is in Cold Spring Harbor, BTW. I went to school with Hershey's son.)

Insomnia: Only if I drink cawwwfee aftuh 8 pm

Job title: Physics teacher/technology coordinator/summer school director

Kids: Son, 16, daughter, 20, two stepsons, aged 31 and 26.

Living arrangements: Downtown apartment adjacent to workplace.

Most admirable traits: Patience and optimism

Not going to cop to: Sigh. Country-western music

Phobias: None that I know of.

Quote: The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself. -- FDR, 1941

Religion: Quaker

Siblings: None -- I'm an only child.

Time I wake up: 7 am most weekdays, 8 or 9 am most weekends

Unusual talent or skill: I can whistle in tune, and do a mean impression of a chimpanzee.

Vegetable I love: green peas

Worst habit: Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday -- archy the cockroach, 1927

X-rays: Dentals only

Yummy foods I make: Choc chip cookies, pancakes, chili, curries

Zodiac sign: Eww. I teach astronomy. My astrological sign is ostensibly Aquarius, but because of precession, it's really Capricorn.

"...epidemiologist/lab rat..."

Umm, that juxtaposition is a little alarming... Also, my cat would lick your dog... 's ears. ;-)

By David Harmon (not verified) on 29 Apr 2006 #permalink

OK, me too. Since I love Tara's blog and am likely to comment now and again.

(BTW, this asks for my TypeKey identity, but TypeKey says you haven't signed up for it. Strange!)

Accent: Educated northeastern American.

Booze: Good beer (which excludes all major US brewers) and the occasional single malt.

Chore I Hate: Dusting/Vaccuuming

Dog or Cat: Currently neither, but have had several cats, mainly Siamese.

Essential Electronics: Macintosh computer.

Favorite Cologne: Bay rum.

Gold or Silver: Silver

Hometown: Born in Pittsburgh, PA, grew up in rural eastern PA and urban North Jersey.

Insomnia: Seldom, easily curable with a glass of red wine.

Job Title: Retired medical librarian and database designer/analyst, dad, incipient grandfather.

Kids: One brilliant daughter, age 30.

Living arrangements: Old farmhouse in northeast NY, fighting encroaching suburbia.

Most admirable traits: A good listener.

Not going to cop to: I'm not religious, but I love singing gospel harmony.

Overnight hospital stays: None. Numerous out-patient experiences.

Phobias: None that come to mind.

Quote: "I'm old enough to know better, too old to care." -- song lyric by Brian Bedford of Artisan

Religion: Brought up liberal protestant, don't see much sense in any religion now.

Siblings: 1 brother, 4 1/2 years younger, who looks and acts older than I do.

Time I wake up: 6 1/2 hours after I go to bed, whenever that may be.

Unusual talent or skill: Flavor imagination -- I can quite accurately imagine what a new combination of ingredients will taste like, and invent new recipes all the time.

Vegetable I love: Onions of all kinds, asparagus.

Worst habit: Procrastination (which should be obvious by the mere fact that I too am filling this out).

X-rays: Dental, chest, elbow, wrist, finger, toes.

Yummy foods I make: Famous for my soups and stews. My chili, which contains no tomato, won the "people's choice" award in a cookoff.

Zodiac sign: Scorpio

My family lived in findlay from 1972-76; first through fourth grade for me at Wilson Vance. My father worked at the RCA plant.

It was such a hellhole that we moved out as fast as possible :-)

A friend of mine currently teaches 4th grade at Wilson Vance. And the RCA plant is actually the one I describe working at in this post (when it was Harris; not sure if it went directly from RCA-->Harris or if there were other owners in the interim).

Obviously I can't speak of how Findlay was in '72-'76, but it's definitely more diverse nowadays. Definitely still WASP-dominated, but diversity is increasing.

(BTW, this asks for my TypeKey identity, but TypeKey says you haven't signed up for it. Strange!)

Thanks--I'll check that out. Should be signed up...

Funny how several of you mention country music too. :)

Harris was part of a multi-step mess. First it was RCA; then GE bought RCA and gutted it. The remnants were mostly sold to Harris; and then fairly recently, most of what remained of the old RCA operations in NJ and Ohio was spun off into an operation called Intersil. Not sure, but I think the Harris plan in Findlay is now Intersil.

Back when I lived in Findlay, my family was the *only* Jewish family in town. (Although everyone insisted that there was another one - they knew them because they went to their church. Apparently, they had a Jewish grandparent, so to the Findlay-ites of the time, that made them Jewish.) There were *no* black people in town; one family with adopted Korean kids moved there the same time we did, and left within a year. It was by far the most homogeneous place I've ever been.

Just an amusing example of what it was like. This is absolutely true - to this day, I don't know whether the person in the story was being stupid but honest, or maliciously playing dumb: the first time my mother had her hair cut in Findlay, the woman who did it told her, after she was done "They did a great job removing your horns, I can barely see the scars."