So why do some people call me George?
This seems like a suitable abecedarian follow-up to ABC Wednesday, which I did on Tuesday. Here is something from a Thursday Thunks from a few months ago, which I’m actually doing on a Thursday, which is unusual.
“This week is going to be easy… just one question. Ok, well maybe not so easy. Take each letter of the alphabet and describe something in your life… don’t skip any!”
A – Apples. I like them, especially McIntosh and Macoun, which is a cross between the McIntosh and Jersey Black; not as tart as the Mac.
B – Beatles. My wife got for me the Mono box for Christmas; it’s only in the later albums, Revolver and the white album in particular, where I really hear the difference between that and the standard recordings.
C – California: almost certainly the state I have flown to the most. When I visited my parents in North Carolina, I sometimes have gone by car or train. But seeing my sister in San Diego, it’s by air. Also flew to my niece’s graduation from Berkeley a few years back.
D- The Defenders. One of my favorite Marvel Comics (Dr. Strange, Sub-Mariner, the Hulk, and others) and one of my favorite TV shows (E.G. Marshall and a pre-Brady Bunch Robert Reed as father-and-son attorneys).
E – I like eggs poached, fried, scrambled, deviled, boiled, or in an omelet. The salmonella scare hasn’t reached New York state – yet.
F – French. the language I took in high school. By my third year, I was pretty bad, so my skills are rather rudimentary.
G – Green. Last name, also a favorite color.
When I’m giving my name, I say “Green, like the color,” and about 30% of the time, I’ll get the response, “Is that with an E?” which is really confusing, because it actually has two Es. What they mean is whether there is an E at the end. NO, it’s LIKE THE COLOR.
H – Hockey. I actually saw it played once live, in Albany. It was an exhibition between USA and Sweden, i think. It’s a much better sport in person than on TV.
I – Ice cream: strawberry is my favorite. I’ll generally pick vanilla over chocolate.
J – Jigsaw puzzles: I have an amazingly little patience for them.
K – I know way more Kellogg’s cereal commercials than anyone has a right to.
L – My father AND my sister are both named Leslie. This caused ME some difficulty. Since people knew my father had a child named Leslie, they would assume it was me, and folks at church called me Little Les, which irritated me greatly.
M – Mourning. I went to more funerals between September and November 2004, three, than I have in some whole years.
N – Night. I used to be a night person before I started going out with my now-wife; now 10:30 p.m. is really late. Can’t even make it to midnight on New Years Eve anymore.
O – Odetta is the late folk singer who, along with Harry Belafonte, Joan Baez, and Pete Seeger, had a large effect on my father’s music.
P – Paris. If I had a chance to go to one foreign city, it would be Paris.
Q – I usually did well on surprise quizzes in school as a kid, especially in math.
R – Roger. My name. So why do some people call me George? Just a couple of weeks ago, a colleague who’d known me for years asked for George Green. It must be the J sound, the common letters; oh, I don’t know. Also, even my grandfather spelled my name Rodger.
S – I have two sisters, no brothers. I used to wonder what it’d be like if I had had a brother, though not for a long time.
T – I like tea, but I don’t drink coffee. Actually, i don’t drink tea that much either unless it’s cold out.
U – There is this couple from my old church that returned to Mongolia, then came back to the United States. She works for the United Nations, maybe 160 miles away, but I haven’t had a chance to see them again.
V – “Villain” is one of those words I have to think about, lest I spell it incorrectly, as “villian”. “Nuptials” is another, which I want to spell “nuptuals”.
W – When people come up to me on Wednesday morning and tell me, “Well, the week’s half over, we’re over the hump, it’s almost the weekend,” I cringe inside. I’m more receptive on Thursday morning, though I do worry about people wishing their lives away.
X – I believe the first X-rays I ever got, aside from dental, were on my left knee in 1994 when I had torn my meniscus.
Y – I have no particular skills with the yo-yo, or for yodeling.
Z – The only zoos I recall going to were in my hometown of Binghamton (NY), the Bronx (NY), and San Diego (CA).
Someone in my office recently asked me the derivation of my last name. I instinctively knew it was rooted in Great Britain and/or Ireland, but I had not looked it up in a while. 