Saturday Q&A

1. If you were a writer, what kinds of books would you write? - As far as non-fiction goes, I think I'd write histories. Give me a time and a place and I'm interested in it, both in and of itself and also for how it fits into the overall scheme of things. As for fiction, I don't think I could manage much more than light comedy a la P.G. Wodehouse or John Mortimer. My personality is such that I just can't sustain the deeper passions long enough to churn out anything more weighty.

2. Do you expect to ever be famous in your lifetime? If yes, what do you expect to be famous for? - Nope, not me.

3. Say something liberal. Small-l liberal: Be excellent to each other. Large-L Liberal: Civil unions are a humane and equitable idea.

4. Say something conservative. Small-c conservative: Quoting P.J. O'Rourke, politics is the business of gaining status and power without merit. Large-C Conservative: Social Security is a dying system from which I will never see a single dime. Give us private savings accounts any time.

5. What did you dream about last night? I had an insane dream about tagging along with some smart-ass kid who was doing a home-made documentary about corruption inside the World Trade Center. A girlfriends was involved as well.

6. What have you read this week? Include everything: magazines, emails, blogs, books, etc. E-mails and blogs are a given. Also on-line news sources. I read the Wall Street Journal On Dead Tree editorial page and the WaPo front section every day. I also skimmed through the latest issues of Down East, Washingtonian and Town & Country magazines. My current metro reading is Evelyn Waugh's Officers and Gentlemen and my evening book is Winston Churchill's The Gathering Storm.

7. Tell me about your worst date ever. My twenty fifth birthday when I was a second year law student. It was a blind date. There was nothing at all wrong with the girl. But we had absolutely nothing in common, no basis whatsoever from which to even communicate with one another. By the end of dinner, we were pretty much just staring at each other. We went on to a party afterward and, by mutual consent, ditched each other.

The punch line is that I was so browned off by this date that when the same friends who had set it up brought over another girl for me the next night, I was so completely indifferent that I was extremely relaxed and unselfconscious when she arrived. And it's just as well, because when the door opened, in walked the Missus. And the rest, as they say, is history.

8. Name three of your bad habits and three of your good habits.

Bad Habits: I never answer the phone at home. I speed all the time. I don't recycle.

Good Habits: I am very neat and clean. I am punctual to the point of obsessiveness. I read to my children every evening.

9. Tell me something you're very proud of. I have three of the most beautiful and intelligent daughters on the planet. And I am married to a woman deserving of sainthood.

10. Give me a piece of wisdom that I should pass on to Parker Grace (who is now twelve weeks old). Just wait - some day you'll have kids of your own and then you'll understand.

Yips! to Sheila who got it from the Right Thinking Girl.