This Sunday Stealing is from the Queen of Memes.
1. What do men really want in a woman?
4. What do women really want in a man?
If these are romantic questions – in which case, they are terribly heterocentric -then it depends: safety, security, sex, sanity, support, salvation, sacrifice, sincerity, sociability, silence, simplicity, and sparkle. Sometimes, in various and contradictory combinations.
Most of my friends are female, and it’s been true for most of my life. I’m still friends with some women I’ve gone out with.
2. Should marijuana be legalized?
It largely is, and I’m happy enough about it. The only time I ever purchased it, back when it was still illegal, was for a friend whose uncle was undergoing chemotherapy.
That said, marijuana has seldom been something I’ve enjoyed. It just puts me to sleep.
3. Why did the cow jump over the moon?
To show off.
5. When you are having a really good day, what usually makes it good?
I write a lot while listening to music. Then we see a movie or go to a play.
Actually, I had a good Friday evening at the art opening at the Pine Hills branch of the Albany (NY) Public Library. Several pieces were tied to the theme of redlining. The display is there until May 2023.
I introduced the new library director to a couple of Literary Legends. And I met someone willing to help me enact a scheme I’ve had in mind for several years to address certain rude drivers without keying their cars. (I would never actually DO that, BTW, but I THINK about it.)
Gone south
6. What can make your good day turn into a bad day?
Shockingly rude – racist, sexist, homophobic, and/or just entitled – people.
7. If you could “start from scratch” and turn back the clock for a re-do, what would you re-do?
Nothing. The more I think about this, the more I realize that if I had changed THIS, it would ALSO change THAT, and it would not end up better.
8. Do you make a list when you go grocery shopping?
It depends on whether I’m shopping for myself or someone else. For myself, it’s always the same things – fruit, veggies, cereal, and stuff in the dairy aisle. If my wife says, “Can you pick up X,” that’s fine. But if it’s more than three items, I have to write it down.
There was an episode of the 1990s sitcom Mad About You – I think it’s this one – when Jamie and Paul are talking about items for the Thanksgiving meal they are hosting. Intermittently, Jamie tells Paul to get another item. Paul recites the one, then two, then three items. When she requests a fourth, he says, “I’m writing this down.” So three is the maximum for the fictional Paul Buchman and the real me.
9. Do you buy more groceries when you’re hungry?
Not so much MORE as food that I probably ought not to consume calorically. So I make a point, almost always, NOT to shop hungry.
10. Coupons. Use ’em?
When I was in college, I used to all of the time, organized by category. Not so much in the 21st century, though if the receipt prints out a coupon for something I regularly buy, sure.
11. Have you ever complained to the manager of your grocery store?
Not to my recollection.
Sam Walton
12. Do you like to buy groceries at huge chain stores like Walmart? Or do you shop exclusively at food stores?
My wife goes to the Hannaford, and I go to Market 32/Price Chopper. Except when she was out of commission when I went to the Hannaford because she liked their selections better.
My problem with Walmart, as I noted here, is that it tended to drive other supermarkets, hardware stores, et al., from the market. Some people in the US can ONLY grocery shop at Walmart. That said, when my wife couldn’t get out of the house, members of our family ordered food to be delivered from Walmart. The service was quite adequate.
13. What do you typically have for lunch?
It depends. Eggs or sandwiches or leftovers.
14. If you work outside your home, do you pack your lunch?
When I was working, seldom. I was so distressed by work by the end that I didn’t even want to be in the building at lunchtime.
15. Tell us about your last lunch date and what made it special.
It was at a restaurant that my wife and I had gone to, but she wasn’t up to eating out. So my sister, visiting from California, and I went there in early October. She loved it, not just the food but the ambiance.
